A different approach to music making

A couple days ago, Melissa and I attended a master class given by Parmela Attariwala on improvisation. This technique is usually only in the realm of popular music, especially jazz, but also blues, rock, and similar genres. However, this class focussed on improvisation in art music. It was fascinating! An entirely new way to approach performance. The main exercises that we did were mostly about completely ignoring the sound you're making and concentrating instead on the sounds your fellow performers are making. A pretty foreign concept to those of us who view sheet music and virtuosity as mother's milk. Aside from that, the improvisation is completely free. We had people playing their various instruments, people vocalizing, some took their instrument apart and played on individual parts, one even used his chair as an instrument! It was all about simply making a sound that reacts to what you hear. An area of music making that I really hope to explore in more depth later on!

-Eric

Chicken Stew with Tomato Sauce

Melissa's dad gave me a gorgeous cookbook for Christmas, the "Bible of authentic Greek cooking". It is an incredible thing; I'm really obsessed with Greece, its culture, its history, its language, and especially its food. I've tried a few recipes from it so far, the first, a sort of really heavy pancake, didn't work out very well, but the second, a braised pork dish, was delectable (I'll probably share it with you soon). This one too was a fantastic dish, although I did modify it pretty liberally. It didn't actually end up turning out as a stew; all the liquid evaporated leaving just intensely flavoured chicken. Still fantastic!

Chicken Stew with Tomato Sauce

Adapted from Vefa's Kitchen

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 to 2 lbs chicken, cut into pieces

1 small onion (I used a shallot)

500g fresh tomatoes, pureed; or 400g canned tomatoes, pureed

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

salt and pepper

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 cup red wine

1 1/2 cups orzo

3 cups chicken stock

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the chicken and cook over medium heat, turning frequently for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned all over. Remove and set aside.

Add the onion to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until softened.

Return the chicken to the pan, pour in the tomato puree, add the vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper and oregano to taste. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the wine and simmer for another 20 minutes, or until the sauce has reached the desired consistency (mine was pretty much gone).

Meanwhile, add the orzo, stock, and butter to a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in parmesan cheese.

Serve the chicken with the orzo.

Absence

We're back from our long absence! We've been living in the Pit of Despair for the last few weeks:

You see, it has been opera time here at the University of Western Ontario for the past few weeks, and both of us were playing in the pit orchestra for Mozart's Don Giovanni.

It was, above all, an exhausting experience, hence the complete lack of energy for anything else (eg A Tree and Its Leaves). But now it's all over

(the last performance was yesterday) and we're allowed to get back to our more or less regular lives.

light

Various photos taken by Eric and I

His/Her Pillows

I am in love with the "his/her" pillow trend right now. They're adorable accents for any room and who says those throw pillows can only stay on your bed! I would definitely curl up on my couch with a good book and that rug hooked beard. Cozy!

(click photos to shop!)

Cotton Commercial

Why can't all commercials be this amazing? Great music, adorable girl, fantastic clothing, beautiful!

Historical Woodwinds

This is Eric and I in 20 years.

I'm completely in love with the website The Selby and was extremely happy when I came across the page about Joel Robinson and Leslie Ross, historical woodwind makers. The photos are beautiful and I'm especially fond of the video of their organ bicycle (Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima on wheels anyone?)! See the photos here

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies there is. We've made them several times since discovering the recipe last summer, and enjoyed them every time! We found and adapted it from Smitten Kitchen.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325F (165C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

3. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.

4. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

5. Bake cookies for 15 to 17 minutes or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes.

6. Sprinkle a dash of salt over each cookie, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely, or serve warm for an extra special treat.

7. See how long they last!

The sprinkling of salt may seem a little odd, but these cookies have a lot of sugar in them, and we found that the salt added a beautiful little zing. We also tried once to substitute a banana for the eggs, and found it quite scrumptious too. Enjoy!

-Eric

Winter

The Secret World of Haute Couture

Last night we watched the BBC documentary about Haute Couture and the secret society of people who can purchase items. It was very interesting, even Eric was glued to the TV-- but don't tell him I said that! Here it is on you tube, it was the only video I could find online and unfortunately it is recorded by someone while they watch it on tv, ha! However, it's better than nothing.

Happy New Years

We hope that everyone had a wonderful new years! Do you have any resolutions this year? I have my old standards of eating healthier but I'm also pushing myself to start up my etsy store. Eric says his resolution is to have none. He thinks he's witty.

- Melissa

Truffles

This Christmas we were trying to think of a nice gift to send to my sister (who lives halfway across the country). What we came up with was a collection of baked goods, since Melissa and I love cooking and baking. So we made some Chocolate Crinkles, a whole bunch of Whoopie Pies, and, our crowning achievement, a batch of Chocolate Truffles. They all turned out brilliantly and were well received by both of our families, including my sister. Thankfully, there was plenty of leftover goodness for us! The truffle recipe came from Jamie Oliver, and the only adaptation we made was presentation: we rolled them in crushed walnuts, chocolate sprinkles, and melted chocolate, along with the recommended cocoa powder. Icing sugar, unfortunately, didn't work so well, since the truffles were so wet they dissolved it all. These were absolutely delicious, and beautiful, and I'm very glad I followed the advice to use extra-dark (at least 70% cocoa) chocolate; it's a fantastic flavour.

Chocolate Truffles

• 1 1/4 cup double cream

• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter

• finely grated zest from 1 clementine

• 300g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces

• a pinch sea salt

• a splash of brandy

• a handful of crushed nuts: walnuts, hazelnuts, etc.

• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, to serve

• 3 tablespoons chocolate sprinkles, to serve

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate

• 1 tablespoon butter

Put the cream in a pan over a medium heat and let it heat up. You don’t want it boiling, just hot. As soon as tiny bubbles start to appear add the knob of butter and the clementine zest. Once the butter has melted pour this hot mixture over the chocolate pieces whisking as you go so the chocolate melts nice and slowly. If the mixture splits slightly, don’t worry, you can bring it right by adding a splash of boiling water.

Add a pinch of salt to the mixture. Stir in a splash of brandy.

Once completely melted and smooth, pour your melted chocolate mixture into a dish. Pop this in the fridge for about 2 hours to set.

Melt the semisweet chocolate with the butter in a stainless steel bowl over boiling water, or in the microwave. Get some little saucers or bowls and put the nuts in one, your cocoa powder in another, chocolate sprinkles in a third, and the melted chocolate in the fourth. Use teaspoons dipped in boiling water to scoop the chocolate. Roll the spooned truffles in any of the garnishes, or whatever you feel like. Pop them back in the fridge to let the melted chocolate solidify. Then get them all back out and enjoy the decadence!

-Eric

Quiet Sun

I've recently come across some music that I had never heard of before. As I'm a die hard Pink Floyd fan, I'm always on the lookout for similar sounds: experimental, psychedelic, avant-garde rock music. All of this and more is found in the band Quiet Sun and their only album Mainstream. I found Quiet Sun in a sort of roundabout manner. I'm a bassoonist, and as such, I was one day looking around on the web for new and interesting information regarding the bassoon and bassoonists, and ran across the name Lindsay Cooper. I found that she played bassoon and other reeds for the British psychedelic rock band Henry Cow. Further delving brought me to a list of several of Henry Cow's fellow bands from the "Canterbury Scene", one of which was Quiet Sun. Since I thoroughly enjoyed the snippets of their music and the reviews and descriptions of their sound, I decided to order Mainstream a few weeks ago. I just now got the chance to listen to it in depth, and found that it completely lives up to my expectations. It is a wonderful mix of jazz, psychedelic, art rock, ambient, minimalism, and experimental music. This is my first delve into Canterbury Scene music, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. It certainly is a good find for Floyd lovers such as myself, and is also reminiscent of King Crimson and The Nice. Quiet Sun consists of Charles Hayward, Dave Jarrett, Phil Manzanera, and Bill MacCormick. Also participating on Mainstream are Ian MacCormick and Brian Eno, whose style is clearly heard. To sum up, I very much enjoyed Mainstream for its simply beautiful, if sometimes rather strange-sounding, music, and it will stand many, many more listenings.

-Eric

Christmas 2009