Morel recipes, silks, and dancing!

With our 38 morels, Tess and I were able to make two whole dinner recipes!

On night #1, we tackled some morel cream sauce on fettucine.

The taste was great, but the sauce was almost soup. Whether it was a recipe issue or a not-enough-time-to-simmer issue, it just wasn't exactly what we hoped. So we stuck it in the fridge overnight, and since Tess had the following day off, she doctored it up by pouring off a little sauce and thickening the rest with flour, and brought it to Michael and me for lunch in the middle of the day! What a freaking champ!

The next day, we busted out the frozen puff pastry (I would love to try making puff pastry someday, and I have several recipes, but it's gonna be a project, and I really don't have the counter space here for extensive rolling), blanched some asparagus and sauteed it up in butter with the remaining morels and a bit of garlic, squished it into the pastries, topped it off with a bit of parmesan, stuck it back in the oven for a couple minutes, and voila!

Tess has a couple pics, but hasn't sent them to me yet. I'll post them when she does!

I can't even tell you how incredible it was. The earthy morels with the creamy, tender asparagus and buttery, flaky pastry melted into heaven in my mouth.

Let's just say it was a good time.

On Wednesday, we all trouped over to the rec center to take Renee's silks class! Renee is our Monday Belle and has lived in Skagway for nine years, although she still travels to do shows elsewhere sometimes. Before Skagway, she worked several seasons for Tokyo Disney, which is where she learned silks (also called ribbons or aerial tissue). For rec center members, her classes are only $15 for drop-ins or $100 for a ten-class card. We thought we'd give one class a try before deciding to buy a ten-class card, although we were pretty sure already that we would totally love it.

We were super right! Renee starts the class with partnered stretching and Thai massage, followed by strength training for arms, shoulders, and core, finally followed by actual ribbon work. We learned the basic hand lock, an “egg” hang (lock your hands in the ribbons and then pull your knees to your chest!), how to tip over upside down in the egg position and then extend our feet straight up (and then do crunch-type exercises that way by lowering and raising our feet along the ribbons!), how to climb the ribbon, and how to do a basic foot lock! It was so cool I can't even handle it. Ten-class card, here we go!

And then Thursday was dance night at the Gold Rush Brewery! Our new friend Gregory, who is the manager there, is teaching a weekly blues dancing class. Meridith has a bum foot right now, and Steph was feeling like a night in, but Tess and I went out – and had a great time. The class was easy but not too terribly slow, since people were picking stuff up well, and then the actual dancing was awesome. By the last hour or so, Tess, Gregory, Gregory's friend Brian, and I were the only ones left, so we got to partner up with each other pretty continuously and have some pretty rockin' dances. Yay, dance night!

Since then I've pretty much just been working! I've knocked down seven days out of thirteen in a row, and I'm still going strong! We went out to the BrewCo tonight just to hang around, have dinner/drinks/fooseball, enjoy each other's company. What was cool was that it was a bunch of our Skagway friends, not all of whom even knew each other. Greg and Brian were there, plus the '98 show crowd, including Allison/Jon/Tegan, plus some friends of Jon and Tegan, plus Mike from the Brewery, plus some friends Tess made on her day off today, including a guy Steph and I had met at Bonanza a week ago. Cool to see all at once how many people we know and like here!

And now off to bed for me! It's Sunday night, and I'll post this in the morning, I hope – or tomorrow late night, if there are too many cruise ships in already in the morning (highly likely).

In which I turn out to have had a way more eventful week than I thought I had!

I keep thinking it's going to be ok to post only twice a week or so, because who needs to post every day, and then we do tons of things and I'm suddenly way behind! So this is another biggish post – get ready ;)

On Thursday, I taught piano lessons! I agreed to teach half hour lessons to the three kids in one family. I'm pretty excited about it. These first lessons, they didn't have books yet and I was just meeting the kids and getting know where there piano skills were and what they were interested in, so each lesson was only twenty minutes, and I was in and out in an hour. I'm eager to get into lessons, to get to know the kids better, to exercise some pedagogical skills, and to be a little more in touch with the year-round Skagway locals. The other gals in the cast are getting their fingers on the local pulse at least a bit by trying out different churches every Sunday. Since I'm not interested in church, I'm hoping that teaching lessons will do that for me a little bit! There are apparently other families hoping for lessons, since the local piano teacher is out of town for the summer, so in the next couple days I'll post on the Skagway Swap facebook group to let people know that I have some limited availability to teach.

After I got back from teaching and the gals got back from dinner at Starfire, we headed out to meet up with our friends Chris, Adam, and Gabby – the ones we met at the lodge in Dyea. They'd invited us up to the RV Park where they're staying for forshpayz and wine at the picnic table outside their (rented) RV. The seven of us hung out for a while and chatted at first, munching on leftover popcorn Steph and I had grabbed from the theatre and fresh-toasted bruschetta the Oregon gang had whipped up. It was great to start getting to know them a little better! They're a bit nerdy, which I really appreciate.

After not too long, other people stopped by. Mike, the brewery owner and the Oregon gang's boss; Gregory, the manager and dance teacher at the brewery (he used to play violin in pits, and then for some years he made violins, and then he found that too lonely, quit, and has since done other work plus also in the last four years gotten way into social dancing, particularly blues); and a few other people who live in the RV park, including a mom (Jess?) and her kid Logan. We hung around for a couple hours, eating and drinking and frisbeeing and talking, until it started to get cold and buggy, and which point Mike invited us all over to his place for a campfire. So we spent the rest of the night around a crackly fire, chatting and listening to music and, well, just being in Alaska! Finally it was (mostly) dark (around midnight) and we headed home for the night.

On Friday, we were supposed to have three shows, but because one of the two cruise ships scheduled to port in town that day canceled and the other had fewer than a thousand passengers, we sold no tickets to the first two shows and therefore did not perform them. Of course, we had to be in full makeup and costume until five minutes before each show was scheduled to start, just in case we got a sudden influx and could go on! Apparently this used to happen much more frequently both early and late in the season; this year the theatre has been doing extremely well. Allison and Jon were thrilled that we had lasted this long without a cancellation.

Anyway, instead of doing those first two shows, the gals and I rested a bit at home; got ice cream at the Kone Kompany (I really do hate arbitrary Ks, by the way), where I said hi to McKenna (whose name is not Michaela) and John; and I spent my usual hour or so on my bench in the sun. (Well, there are two benches, really: The bench on the post office side of the street is my morning bench, and the bench on the Bites side of the street is my afternoon bench. I appear to be becoming a town fixture.)

The evening show was the town show. Locals can see the show for free at any time, but the town show is the specific night dedicated to them, when everyone comes. And I mean the place was packed. Every seat was full, all extra folding chairs were full, and what little standing room space exists at the gills was full. It was great! I must have been pretty excited at the top, because as soon as I started my little intro rag I realized I was top-speed-ing it! But I made it through at said top speed with no bumps, and the show got underway safe and sound. There is really nothing like performing for a completely full house of somewhat intoxicated people determined to have a great time. And everyone was super sweet on the way out, including McKenna, who gave me a hug! I think that means we're friends :p

Plus, Niles and Skipper had brought up a whole tray of homemade pastries/cake in honor of the town show, so that was great too! And Jon bought us all a drink and some snacks afterward at the Aerie – the Eagles' Lodge, which is in the same building as the theatre. I felt like I was in on something quite mysterious and fraternal, although it was really just a room with some people and a bar.

On Saturday we did two shows, got tacos at the once-every-second-Saturday craft mart (so. good. and so desperately needed. Tacoooooooos), chilled out at home for a bit, and then needed to get out of the house. Plus Sunday was our day off, so we could properly go out! We hit up the Station – the only of the three bars in town none of us had been to yet – for a quiet drink, and then moved on to Bonanza. Bonanza started out as a pretty quiet drink also, but it was dance night, so before too long it was pretty crazy in there. The gals and I had some fun dancing, seeing old (by which I mean new-ish) friends (Greg, who is always, awesomely, corralling people to dance; Mike; the redhead who works at the jewelry store next door) and meeting new ones (Trevor, who is from Phoenix and in town for the summer, and his friend Kale, who is from Oklahoma and in Juneau for the summer). Tess and I met one woman in the bathroom, when she started talking to us from the other stall about how her sister had just called her to let her know that she's seven months pregnant and got married last week! Once we burned out a little on Bonanza – I would have been happy to keep dancing, but it was just so loud – we headed to a house party down the street that we'd been invited to the day before by Nick and Jess, whom we'd met on the street! Jess is a portrait artist, although he spends most of his day working on the Fast Ferry, and actually he'd taken a photo of the cast after the town show so he can draw us! The party was pretty calm by the time we got there, but we stayed long enough to determine that Nick and Jess are pretty normal, chill guys, and that their house is awesome, so hopefully we'll hang out with them again!

On our way home, we saw a few very pale streaks in the sky – first glimpse of the Northern Lights! We're hoping to catch them for real in September, when it gets darker again.

It was almost two by the time we got home – by far the latest I'd stayed up since I left New York! We all crashed, and had a slow Sunday morning. But by the middle of the day, Tess and I were antsy, so we went morel hunting. It took us several tries to get to our actual destination, since I had been there with Michael but wasn't totally sure where it was (it turned out to be slightly outside of town; hence the confusion), but once we got there and really got hunting, we hit the jackpot!

Thirty-eight morels!!!!!

It was super awesome to find some for the first time and also awesome to get some quality time with Tess and with the Alaskan outdoors. Now we gotta look up some recipes!

And now I'd better go to bed – three shows tomorrow, and the start of a thirteen day, thirty-nine show work week! See y'all on the flip side :p

In which s'mores are delicious and foraging is unsuccessful

The last few days have been packed with awesome!

On Friday morning, Meridith got a call from Bill, who was down at the helipad, that there were seals out. So we walked down to the canal and lo and behold! Seals! Playing out in the water! Adorbs.

On Friday evening, we went to Trivia Night at the Red Onion, which used to be a brothel and still gives brothel tours. The place ended up pretty packed by the time trivia started! Michaela and Lenny were there and joined our team. We scored pretty squarely in the middle – no real literary or nerdy questions for me! – but had a few drinks and a lot of fun.

Saturday was locals-get-to-do-tourist-things day (we got a flier about it). Sugar Mama's was selling cupcakes for a dollar – Tess picked up a red velvet one with cream cheese frosting to share – and after the show but before rehearsal we stopped by Glacial Smoothie for one dollar cookies. They were out of cookies, since it was almost closing time, but we grabbed coffee/smoothies to give us a little boost for rehearsal, and we also discovered an adjacent little boutique with cute clothes and nice shower gel and stuff. There's no other store like that in Skagway! The gal running the place – I forget her name, because I didn't note it down! – says that that's exactly why she started it.

And after rehearsal, we went to the corner outside of the Red Onion, where the flier had informed us we could catch the shuttle up to Dyea for s'mores and a campfire. Sure enough, the shuttle came around – but we were the only people who boarded! Oh well, we thought. We can have fun with just us :) The shuttle driver is named Floyd, and was pretty friendly. The drive to Dyea is beautiful and takes you past Smuggler's Cove, one of the places I want to take the short hike to. When we got to the ChilkootTrail Outpost, there actually were a few other people there, and as we trailed in, Cathy, the owner seemed just thrilled to see us. “I've never gotten so many people!” she said. She debriefed us on the history of Dyea, which was a booming gold rush town before Skagway was, since it's near the entrance to the Chilkoot Trail, which was the only way through the mountains before the railway was built. She showed us around the lodge, which is just beautiful, and even let us take a look at her super gorgeous, open living space. She also fed us to-die-for smoked salmon on crackers, and taught us the best way to make a s'more (you put the whole s'more between the prongs of a two-pronged utensil, and slowly turn it over the coals).

The other people at the lodge were also here for their first summer, and had actually just arrived that day! Their names are Chris, Adam, and Gabby; they're in their mid-twenties; they're originally from upstate New York but lived in Salem most recently; they've left Salem theoretically permanently but don't know what they plan to do after this summer; and they work at the Gold Dredge Brewery just outside of town. Also there was Gregory, whom I didn't get to know quite as well, but who also looks to be in the vicinity of my age and who is a dance instructor who'll be teaching social dance at the Brewery every Thursday. I can't wait to go! Anyway, we all hit it off pretty well, and I got Gabby's number so our two groups can meet up to hang out. Yay new friends!

Once we'd toured the lodge, we walked down the hill a bit to where Michael and friends of his were gathered around a campfire. With the supplies Cathy had leant us, we tried the new s'mores technique – and whoa if that wasn't the best s'more I've ever eaten in my life. I caught mine on fire about eighty million times, but it turned out perfect anyway, with toasty graham and gooey crunchy marshmallow and chocolate that actually melted. Yum! Now I want one of those tools!

Floyd drove us back down to Skagway, stopping for us to get out at a viewpoint on the way, and dropped us off at home. We changed out of our smoky clothing and went out for a quick dinner at the BrewCo, which was offering appetizers half-off. We turned in for the evening, shared out Tess's red velvet cupcake, and passed out!

Sunday was our day off. It was the first rainy day since I've been here, and it was actually pretty nice to have an excuse for a day in. My day in didn't last too long, though, since around noon – while the other gals were at church – Michael came home and asked if I wanted to go hunting for morels! We took off and drove to a trail off the road to Dyea, where we scoured the woods for mushrooms. We met with no success – Michael had said it might be a day too early, but he wanted to get the jump on it just in case – but traversing the loam and enjoying the woods was pretty great all by itself. (Although, infuriatingly, we found out later that Tegan had found forty in almost the same places. Apparently she is just about the queen of foraging.) It drizzled pleasantly the whole time, and we ended up down at Smuggler's Cove – not the same route by which I would hike to it from town – which is just breathtaking. On our way back up the hill, we saw a couple of red-headed sapsuckers, which are fun to see because their heads are so brilliant! On the drive home, we stopped at the organic market, which was fun to explore (vanilla beans! hickory smoked salt! spices!), and then drove past the dock, where we saw arctic terns. Talk about a lovely bird. They're snowy white, with elegant forked tales. As Michael puts it, they'll just break your heart.

Michael, by the way, has lived in Mexico with a girlfriend; owned an antique shop on Telegraph Avenue; owned a Mexican restaurant in Baltimore; hung out with jazz musicians in New Orleans; lived in New York City (not necessarily all in that order); lived on a boat off the coast of Miami, where he had a job with a fancy name I can't remember, involving analyzing core samples from the ocean; and has now retired to Skagway, where he spends his winters listening to Great Courses and his summers playing for the show and foraging in the woods. He is just about the coolest person ever.

On Sunday night, Douglas the British librarian/tour guide/radio DJ had us all (Jon and Tegan, Allison, the five of us over Bites, and his own two roommates) over for dinner, which was lovely! Roast chicken, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and totally killer potatoes. Plus I brought brownies, which were a hit. Plus the company was delightful. We had a lot of fun.

In which I catch y'all up on many Alaskan adventures

I have so much to catch up on! Watch out folks, this might be a long one.

First off, here's a picture of all the gals at Yakutania Point; it was on Steph's phone so I couldn't post it earlier!

Stephanie, Meridith, me, and Tess

Anyway, back to the story, on Saturday morning, we went to the Skagway Community Sale, which happens at the beginning and end of every summer season. Everyone brings their stuff to the rec center the night before, and the rec center sells it off – almost everything for a dollar – to raise money for programming. Meridith took a picture of the line outside, and I wish I had done the same, because it was ridic! Lined up for the 10 am opening were probably more people than I had seen yet in all my week in Skagway added together. And when we went in, it was pretty havoc! A little stressful, actually. Although there was plenty of stuff to go around! The clothes were like mountains along the tables! The shoes took up a whole wall! There were tables of books and tables of junky kitchen stuff!

Tegan – Jon's wife – had come with us, and because she's a better shopper than I am, she helped me find a couple clothing items: A warm, windbreaker-y jacket; a little black hoodie with birds and “love Alaska” on it; a cream, wide-knit top; a beat-up olive tank top dotted with holes (on purpose). I would never have found most of this stuff on my own – or I would have fled, intimidated by the volume and the havoc! – so it was nice that Tegan was keeping an eye out for me. I also picked up some extra clothes hangers, three books, a pair of heeled boots, and, best of all, a cheap but working electric hand mixer. I desperately miss my Cuisinart hand mixer, but this will for sure do the trick while I'm here!

Anyway, we had a couple shows, and then the afternoon off, and Sunday off as well. So Saturday night Jon and Tegan invited everyone over for dinner. They whipped up some totally fab bean dip and lasagna, and we all hung out for a few hours. It was great to actually have some time to socialize with the whole company, especially our choreographer Julie, who doesn't stay the whole summer.

On Sunday, we geared up and left the house for a hike by 10 am. We took an eastern trail out of town...

...up to Lower Dewey Lake (about 1.5 miles)...

...and then on to Sturgil's Landing (another 2 miles). Get ready for more pictures of mountains, because the beauty around here is out of control.

Passing through the mossy vales was like passing through an enchanted glade. 

Everything was so green – and I bet it gets greener later in the season.

The ground is soft, almost spongy; the Tongass Forest National Park is actually rainforest. After a steep and rocky descent for the last half mile, we emerged at Sturgil's Landing, a little promontory overlooking the canal. You know, I keep thinking the views can't get any more incredible here – and then they do.

Anyway, below the promontory was a little water-level, tide-pool-y, rocky beach, which we picked our way down to and explored. Mussels and strange balloonish seaweed abounded.

We ate a little lunch in the sun – the weather was perfect – sat quietly for a while, and then headed back!

The walk back was a little quicker than the walk there – not so much uphill, and not so many stops for pictures! My knee started bugging me on the last half-mile descent, but other than that it felt great to have trekked 7 miles by 3 pm! We spent the rest of the day chillin' out, doing a winter-themed puzzle that Tess had found at the Community Sale, and eating leftover lasagna for dinner.

So that was Sunday!

We had another show on Monday and a couple more Tuesday, plus post-show put-in rehearsals, as once we really get going the roles will rotate regularly. Also on Monday we had family taco night, which was delicious. Tess has a great taco night photo up on her awesome blog. We all look very beautiful in it.

Tacos

=

Lifeblood.

And on Wednesday, we took a company trip to Whitehorse! Julie needed to get dropped off at the airport, since she's leaving us for a contract in Vancouver, and we all thought we'd come along, for the adventure and for the Walmart (ugh, but necessary). So the company rented an 8-seat van and we all piled in. The drive out there – on the only road out of Skagway – is breathtaking (duh). I forgot my camera, but I'll again refer you to Tess's blog if you want pics. We passed through Carcross (permanent population: 12), and within about three hours arrived triumphantly in Whitehorse. We dropped Julie at the airport (goodbye, Julie! We'll miss you!) and headed into town. We grabbed sushi for lunch, since it's not an option in the Skags, and we were truly, utterly satisfied by it. A little pricey – I'm used to purchasing sushi only during the many times it's half price, haha – but soooooo good. We had a few minutes to walk around the few blocks that exist of downtown Whitehorse (it's not actually that much bigger than Skagway), grabbed some Starbucks (!!! water in the desert !!!), and then headed out to the Walmart, where I spent more than I hoped but less than I feared on such items as mascara, a trash can, Clif bars, heat protection hair spray, sunscreen, a baking sheet, a mixing bowl, a silicone spatula, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a 9x13 baking dish, and a 9x9 baking dish (haha, can you tell what I care about?).

Home again, home again, jiggety jig, spotted a black bear by the side of the road on the way (!!!), passed uneventfully through customs, and rolled back into Skagway before 6 pm. We stopped on the outskirts of Skagway to check out the Gold Rush Cemetery, which is the home of Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith's grave, as well as the grave of Frank Reid, town hero. As you'll find out if you come see The Days of '98 Show, they killed each other in a gunfight on the dock! Above the cemetery is a short path to Lower Reid Falls. I didn't have the right clothes on to explore on the rocks (plus also my knee hurt), but we'll definitely return later in the summer when we're dressed right and the water is lower, and climb around on the falls and cross the creek into the cave on the opposite side, which Jon recommends.

Tess got pretty good pics of each of us by the falls!

At any rate, a perfect day-off excursion!

And that's all for now, folks! I miss everyone!

Miscellaneous Mundanity

Just made a bad batch of macarons - they're purple, which makes me happy, but I was in a hurry and not paying attention and undercooked them a bit, so when I tried to take them off the parchment paper, the shells popped right off of the middles. Now I have a bunch of thin purple macaron shells, and I'll try to do something creative with them - fill them with lovely and delicious things between football games today. Pictures upcoming if I meet with success! I also have a couple zucchinis and should make zucchini bread with them today, and I still have egg whites to use up, which means more macs or some other kind of meringue cookies.

Semi-reading Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand - just finished The Bitter Kingdom (<3 a="" and="" baby="" babysit="" basil="" bit="" excess="" for="" get="" hang="" i="" know="" morning.="" my="" next="" of="" one="" out="" p="" pots.="" poured="" rain="" saturday="" then="" to="" today="" water="" with="" you="">
On my list: Record some more, apply for financial assistance at the Long Island City YMCA so I can keep gong to Zumba, get confirmation about some work dates and then book my ticket to the CSJO board meeting in November, read, read, read.

It's really a lovely day out today - gotta go for a walk before football starts!

I actually did have an idea of something interesting to write in this post, but I forgot it amid all the pleasant mundanity.

Oh, and in case you're wondering where else I am online - http://www.pinterest.com/shoshaname/boards/ - http://aclimaxofhope.tumblr.com/
there you go :) A. DDICTED. to tumbling.

Your poem for the day is verse 36 of the Tao:

"That which will be shrunk
Must first be stretched.
That which will be weakened
Must first be strengthened.
That which will be torn down
Must first be raised up.
That which will be taken
Must first be given.

This is called "subtle illumination."

The gentle and soft overcomes the hard and aggressive.

A fish cannot leave the water.

The country's potent weapons
Should not be shown to its people."

Sometime's Lao Tzu's subject changes are a little perplexing to me, but I still enjoy them!

Kitchen Reflections

I love it here, and the weather is great - lots of warm summer days (actually, I could stand a few more and a few hotter - it's no California, but it's 8 million times better than New York), interspersed with surprise mountain storms. I just went for a run in the rain! That's two days in a row of going for a run, although they're only 10-15 minute runs of probably less than a mile, because those hills are DESTROYERS OF LIFE, plus the altitude. And I just got a letter from Katie, and the shows are going great, and my coworkers are delightful, and I'm living in a nice house with a large and functional kitchen (I made sour cream coffee cake last night - new recipe - yummy!) (the 9,500 ft. baking conditions aren't even that difficult to work around, either - extra flour, an extra egg, underestimate the sugar, turn up the oven 15 degrees, and you're solid :p), and now I have a nice cup of tea to take with me into my bath in my claw foot tub! I miss my ice cream maker, though, and I miss sitting outside in the sun on my sidewalk in Queens wearing a floppy straw hat and having a homemade milkshake in a teacup. You know, miscellaneous moments and habits are what make a place home, maybe. Actually, about the only two things I miss about Irvine are driving with friends to the beach (not even the beach part as much as the driving with friends toward the beach part!) and sitting outside on the enormous sidewalk in the sun wearing my floppy straw hat and having neighbors lean down from their balconies and offer me tacos. So I guess I just like food and sun. I can get that here! Vestiges of homesickness, gone!

I still miss the ice cream maker, though.

Here's the new Millay poem I just memorized:

"The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn't a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn't a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.

My heart is warm with the friends I make,
And better friends I'll not be knowing,
Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take,
No matter where it's going."

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sometimes I think Millay knows everything about me!

Actually, that poem reminds me of another one of hers that I love:

"Not in this chamber only at my birth--

When the long hours of that mysterious night

Were over, and the morning was in sight--

I cried, but in strange places, steppe and firth

I have not seen, through alien grief and mirth;

And never shall one room contain me quite

Who in so many rooms first saw the light,

Child of all mothers, native of the earth.

So is no warmth for me at any fire

To-day, when the world's fire has burned so low;

I kneel, spending my breath in vain desire,

At that cold hearth which one time roared so strong,

And straighten back in weariness, and long

To gather up my little gods and go."

Home everywhere - but nowhere so much home that I'm not missing somewhere else.

And I kind of love it.

Anyway, I guess this was a pretty miscellaneous post, and after a substantial hiatus. It's not as if I haven't been doing actual things out here for the last few months - sushi in Colorado Springs, a familial visit including the tram up to Pikes Peak, karoake at the bar, the '20s-themed birthday party of a coworker, a latke-vodka party last week, the super rad farmers' market in Woodland Park, time in the sun on the porch with Hazel my wonderful stage manager and housemate, free Zumba classes 2-3x/week, picking up shifts at the coffee shop across the street (I started out as a regular - like, she knows my order and gives me discounts and I hang around - and all of a sudden today I was employed!), Impi bars with peanut butter chips, brownies, Italian chocolate-almond torte, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, coffee chocolate chip cookies, tons of great science fiction/romance/classic reading, and I just started watching Girl Code on Youtube (I'm degenerating with this list here! But seriously, one episode in, and Girl Code already rocks. I still have some Psych to get through, too!). And it's not as if there's not tons more stuff I want to do here, that I probably won't even have time for - the mine tour, more time in Manitou Springs, shopping with a couple coworkers, the museum at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, hiking....

But I'm not going to try to cover all of that.*

Instead, I'll leave you with one more poem. She's still on the travel theme here, but not too melancholy - just saucy!

"How shall I know, unless I go
  To Cairo and Cathay,
Whether or not this blessed spot
  Is blest in every way?

Now it may be, the flower for me
  Is this beneath my nose;
How shall I tell, unless I smell
  The Carthaginian rose?

The fabric of my faithful love
  No power shall dim or ravel
Whilst I stay here,–but oh, my dear
  If I should ever travel!"

*Praeterition = my third favorite literary device! Partly because of its fun name, and partly because sometimes it's like winking at a person (although sometimes it's like stepping up in their face to challenge them and then stepping back passively as if you've been friends all along, which is also sort of my style, unfortunately).

Mostly, Food

I have been on a cooking spree!

Well, first, I have been on a checking-cookbooks-out-from-the-library spree, actually. Cook This Now, The Sweet Life in Paris, Simply Satisfying, and Around My French Table.

Which has caused me to be on a cooking spree!

Walnut cake with mocha whipped cream frosting: Tasty, mildly nutty, light. The frosting is the star of this show - hot cream poured over coffee and bittersweet chocolate, chilled, and whipped stiff. Also I am proud of the chocolate curls on top.

Quickbread with chives, walnuts, and cheddar. Sounds so awesome; turned out kind of boring and a hair dry. However, it's great toasted and spread with...

...cheesy creme brulee! Which, as you can see, was almost a disaster. Certainly the recipe didn't work for me at all; it asked for 40-50 minutes at 200 degrees F, at which point the brulees were still 100% liquid. I turned it up and left them in for another 45 minutes or so, took them out, sprinkled cheese on top, torched them, and then despite my skepticism around the concept of savory creme brulee...

...discovered that they were INCREDIBLE DELICIOUS, reminiscent of super rich mac and cheese, and SO WORTH all the hassle. Great on chips, great on toasted cheese quickbread, great with a spoon.

There was also an entire quart of leftover charoses from Pesach, which Alex and I have been struggling to eat before it goes bad. I mean, it's delicious, and you can eat it by the spoonful, but a quart is still a lot of charoses. So what to do with leftover charoses?

Charoses pie/crisp! Graham cracker crust, mound of charoses, crisp topping with oats and spices, 350 for half an hour. Delish!

And the final project of the two-day period: Milk and honey brioche. Which takes two days. Which requires 3/4 lb of butter and ten egg yolks. Which also requires a mixer with a paddle attachment, which I don't have, so I used my hands, realizing too late that Stella suggests in the comments trying it in a food processor. Which for a long time seemed like an utter disaster, with the texture of extremely sticky cookie dough and an apparent inability to rise at all.

When I at last put it in the oven, trembling for its fate, it did puff up but it also was a very ugly shape and blackened on the outside immediately rather than turning golden. Then I took a bite...

...and it was basically the best thing I've ever eaten. It's flaky, light, rich, sweet, crispy on the outside, buttery, and GLORIOUS. I legit wish I could make it every week. Too bad I can't afford that much butter! (Egg yolks I often do have, given frequent macaronnage. Although ten is still, um, excessive.)

Anyway, that's it so far for this week! Although I have a batch of macarons to make, commissioned on behalf of Paul's cast (for money!! although I'm definitely price gouging the competition). Probably mint or espresso with chocolate ganache.

In the meantime, here are more things I made in the last month, which I haven't posted about yet!

                                     

Clam chowder!

AMAZING chocolate torte. Basically, it's a ton of unsweetened chocolate and a ton of meringue, which was confusing and ugly, but incredible and now in my rotation, although unsweetened chocolate is also too expensive to use that much of very often.

Also, only part of this is homemade - the baguette - but I'm posting it because it was pretty much the best lunch ever. That's some kind of blue-veiny expensive cheese from the grocery store, and mind-blowing smoked salmon dip from Trader Joe's.

I also had a ton of leftover black eyed peas from making Hoppin' John (see: Sundays at Moosewood), and was tired of eating black eyed peas. Some dollops of cream cheese, cheddar, parmesan, garlic, and leftover green sauce from Mama's Empanadas, and bean dip it was!

Last but not least, in other news, Alex and I bought an expensive coffee table and I love it!!!! Well, expensive for us. Pretty normal priced for a regular coffee table that is fairly sturdy and pretty and not from IKEA. From now on: coasters and place mats, no exception!

Also, Andy Ball is here! And we have a great new subletter named Lara! And Alex's brother Ben came to visit! And I have a music director master class in programming keyboards with Mainstage coming up on Thursday! It's a cool week. :)

Passover

So Pesach was really great! I didn't take any pictures because I couldn't find the camera easily in the rush of all the cooking and all the people, so you'll just have to use your old-fashioned visualizing skills!

We had 29 people total - after 4 or 5 people who were planning on coming weren't able to make it! Which is probably a good thing, because although they were missed, we used every single available piece of furniture from our apartment, Faye and Katie's apartment, and Amanda and Tom's apartment in our quest to seat everyone and provide them a surface upon which to place their food. We have finally found the limits of our hosting capabilities! It actually didn't feel that packed, because we did a great job the day before of thinking it through and arranging all the furniture (in a long line through both living rooms of tables flanked by couches and chairs, with the bar sticking out into the center of the library to turn it all into an L-shape) so that everyone had at least a small space of their own, and passage wasn't too difficult.

We had enough food and just exactly enough wine. Alex and I had spent probably 6-8 hours each in the days leading up to Monday prepping, cooking, and arranging the house - not counting planning the menu or grocery shopping! Which really wasn't too bad, spread out over several days, particularly since I actually enjoy cooking and baking! On Monday itself we had a lot of help, particularly from the lovely Jillian, who showed up at 2:30 and didn't stop chopping vegetables for an hour and a half! Menu items included 96 deviled eggs (one batch of which I forgot to serve, which means we have leftovers, which is AWESOME! because all deviled eggs will always get eaten if they are put out in public, it's just the way of the world), veggies with hummus and delicious (if I do say so myself!) ricotta basil dip (with homemade ricotta! well, fake ricotta, made with acid rather than whey), matzo ball soup chock full of veggies (although for some reason the matzo balls got passed around before the soup, and mostly got eaten separately. weird), utterly scrumptious fish soup that Jamie and Alf had spent the entire previous day making, leek patties, potato-leek matzo casserole (no one in the Seid family likes wet matzo, but it is very popular with all other people of my acquaintance, and the leek patties and casserole were big hits), charoses concocted by Rivka and Lital, startlingly fresh horseradish as well as enchiladas and baklava from Lynne and Teri, a hilariously inappropriate but fairly tasty ham-cheese-and-noodle casserole that I'm not even sure who brought, cupcakes from Esther, fresh mint ice cream and cinnamon ice cream from Amanda and Tom, and some ugly-because-I-was-rushing-but-still-tasty macarons (pistachio with white chocolate pistachio ganache, and hazelnut with leftover caramel).

We used the Kinderland hagada that I stole when I attended their seder my first year in New York. It's a little Holocaust-heavy and has some lines that have great intent regarding solidarity with other oppressed groups but which could use slight rewording so as not to appropriate the experiences of others, and also it's generally just not as well written (or as short) as Judy's. Also, too many candles to light, which this year we lit only metaphorically, thank goodness. But it's still a pretty good progressive secular hagada. It took about 40 minutes to read through, which isn't bad for a raucus group of 29 people, only two or three of whom are capable of reading Yiddish transliterations in a non-absurd way. It afforded a few moments of solemnity, which I appreciate. I had updated it to be slightly more explicit (although still a little even-handed and a little opaque, as I have guests with Israeli families, and I haven't talked about the issue with them previouly) about my justice-for-Palestinians sympathies, and next year I'll remember to add the Rape of Nanking to the list of events that we are committed to remembering. Although next year we'll be using the Seid family hagada, which we would have done this year if I had located my copy of it BEFORE I made 7 copies of the Kinderland one! Heck, maybe I'll even put together my own, with bits from each and bits of my own! If I'm feeling ambitious.

We had a good 6-8 Jews present, which was cool, and another probably 5-10 people for whom this was their first seder (plus everyone in the middle, friends who are not Jewish but who have been to my seders before), which was very cool. Passover is turning into the favorite holiday of all my New York-based friends, and I will totally take credit for that! It turns out that my Jew-job is providing people with their first Passover experience, and it is a job I totally embrace! Also, providing expat Californian Jews with a home for the holiday while exposing them to a more progressive version of the holiday they know (and boy do they tend to be super thrilled about it).

And so today I am tired but pleased, and I only work six hours, until 3:30, when I can go home and take a nap before book club! (We're reading The Summer King by Alaya Dawn Johnson, Emily's pick, and it's pretty cool so far. I can't tell yet if there will be more books, though? I hope not, only because I am already in the middle of 11 unfinished series, which is way too many!) Then tomorrow I work at StarVest and then go straight to Xanadu rehearsal, and then on Thursday Esther and I will watch the last Lizzie Bennet Diary together (AGHAHGHGAHGHGH DEVASTATING SADNESS THAT LBD IS OVER AGHAHAGHAGH) and then I'll go out for Carla's birthday, and then on Friday we will all have an LBD wake, and also Ben (the brother of Alex) will get here and we will hang out all weekend, which will be great. Then Andy gets here and stays for a week, and then I have some music directing master classes to go to, and then Xanadu goes up... basically, I don't get to rest until the end of April. Yikes! But it will all be great stuff, and I will try to remember to blog about it! See y'all later :)

Adventures in Piping, Part 1

My god, that's flamingo turd pie!

(It's good, though.)

Y'ALL, I AM REALLY GREAT AT THIS

Baking, that is.

View my BEAUTIFUL MACARONS, please:

 (1st - cacao nib macaron shells; 2nd - buttery almond macaron shells; 3rd - buttery almond macaron with salted mint buttercream; 4th - cacao nib macaron with bittersweet espresso ganache)

(also, they are SO DELICIOUS. the cacao nib ones particularly. the butter ones are no bittersweet espresso, but they are pretty freaking good when sandwiched with their creamy white buttercream - with a hint of sweetness giving way to faint mint, and finally leaving a lovely salted butter aftertaste. mmmmm.)

Macarons, Austen Day, and Work!

Hey, y'all!

Baking right now, for Austen day tomorrow - two kinds of macarons. Sweet vanilla almond macarons with bittersweet espresso ganache and cacao nibs, and buttery almond macarons with salted mint buttercream.

The first one I found online (and here's a secret - "sweet vanilla almond" just means "regular," actually); the second I made up. Not sure how it's going to taste yet - I added a 16th teaspoon of butter flavor and an extra pinch of salt to the meringue, and added another 16th teaspoon each of butter flavor and peppermint extract, with another pinch of salt, to the buttercream. The meringue batter and the buttercream individually tasted lovely when I stuck my finger in them, so here's hoping! The cacao ones are out of the oven, pictures to come; the delicate yellow buttery ones are still in the oven. And can I just say how much I love my new insulated cookie sheets? My cookies in general are coming out so much more even - and so far the whole macaron batch has only one, count 'em, ONE cracked shell! Booyah!

Austen day, by the way, is to be approximately 12 hours of Jane Austen movie adaptation marathoning (Keira Knightly P&P, the 2007 Persuasion with that blonde guy, the 1999 Mansfield Park with the brunette holding a key, the Emma miniseries, and one or another of the Northanger Abbeys. No Sense and Sensability because I haven't read it yet and ACTUALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN IT, so no spoilers, please [yes, I'm aware it's been out for two hundred years, thank you very much], and not the for-real 5 hour P&P because it's too long, and no Clueless/Lost in Austen etc. because we don't have time - we'll just have to have Austen day part 2 at some point!), accompanied by appropriate-feeling snacks (tea sandwiches, maybe scones) (yes, I know macarons are French) and tea.

In other news, I saw Pentatonix a couple weeks ago and it was very cool - big theatre, lots of lights and pop/rock concert style effects. Not gonna say I don't prefer them in a more intimate venue where I can hear the less-amplified vocal blend and see their faces a little better, but they handled the bigger show very well, managing during most of it to continue to provide a pretty friendly, intimate feel. Plus now that they've earned doing whatever they want from their last tour, we got to see some beat-boxing/cello playing from Kevin, some (AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING) dwarf singing from Avi, and some very cute goofing off, plus of course a double handful of new arrangements and a new audience sing-a-long. It's been great watching them grow as a group!

Further news - I'm music directing Xanadu at Little Radical Theatrics in White Plains in March and April, and I'm working for Edlyn's company, StarVest, as clerical support, starting now. (No more unemployment - yay! Although of course I still have to make sure they give me the $ for the 7 weeks during which I filed... haven't seen that yet, eh....) I have also accepted summer work at Thin Air Theatre Company in Cripple Creek, Colorado, for which I am totally excited quite a lot.

Gotta run and check the macarons! Plus sandwiching them, and taking photos... ttyl!

Emancipation and Pasta

So last night was great. Katie and Faye and I grabbed soul food at Manna's on 134th and Malcolm X, which I'd been craving for some time. Mac and cheese, collard greens, truly amazing candied yams (and I do not like my yams candied), mashed potatoes, bread pudding, plantains. Yum!

Then we went and saw the Emancipation Proclamation Exhibition at the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture. It was really good. The exhibition was pretty simple, in a small room, and it pretty much consisted of the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, a later draft on vellum, on the other side of the room a typewritten first draft of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 100-year anniversary Emancipation Proclamation speech (with his edits on it in turquoise ink!), and some explanatory panels. But the panels were thorough and detailed, a good brief refresher on the events surrounding emancipation and then a quick journey through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and post-Civil Rights challenges for blacks and others who still face systemic oppression (p.s. I love that museums will come right out and say things that are true, without equivocating or doing that thing the media does where they include viewpoints that are wrong in order to be balanced). And seeing the Emancipation Proclamation, written in Lincoln's hand, with bits copy-pasted in from a previous speech published in the newspaper, with caret-ed in edits, was just amazing, as was seeing the bits of MLK's draft and editing process. It only took half an hour to view the whole exhibit, but it was moving, educational, and totally rewarding.

In other news, round challah drizzled with honey, for a sweet and round new year!

Can anybody tell me what exactly would make a year round,

and why that is desirable?

I made it into French toast today, and that was great, although I think I actually still prefer my French toast from sourdough; it makes the flavor more interesting and vibrant.

Also I made salted caramel ice cream with salted caramel praline, and threw in leftover frozen bits of homemade cinnamon pecan roll, and it's delicious although too salty because when I halved the recipe I forgot to halve the salt. But I would make it again, with the correct amount of salt, and I can already tell it's an amazing recipe! (Recipe can be found here, btw. David Lebovitz is so great.)

Leftover giant upside-down cinnamon pecan roll.

These are a big pain,

even if you're in the habit of making bread,

but SO DELICIOUS.

Also, about a month ago I made pasta for the first time! I had like 18 egg yolks leftover from all the macarons for my tea party, and the pasta dough alone used up 7 of them. What a hilarious, pain-in-the-ass, kind of fun, ultimately delicious process!

You really do make a well of flour 

and throw the eggs and other ingredients in it,

and then...

Stir it up with your fingers! 

For a really long time. 

Until it turns into... 

This! And you incorporate the rest of the flour with a pastry cutter!

Eventually you get a ball of pasta dough! 

It is very important to pose prettily

as you grate parmesan for the alfredo sauce. 

It is also very important to wear your

original French chef hat

from New Orleans. 

After the dough chills in the fridge,

you roll it out AS THIN AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN,

which is difficult and not really that thin,

and then pizza cut it into

fettucine heaven! 

Success! 

Lots of cheese and more egg yolks for the sauce! 

Scrumptious homemade pasta,

and I am ten egg yolks down!

I also made tapioca pudding (which I thought I liked, but blech, I need to toss it), green tea shortbread cookies, and ice cream with the remaining yolks. A good food month!

A Chock-Full Summer's End

I have done so many fun things since I last posted in July!

Here are some of them:

Faye, Katie, Alex, and I went (at Katie's instigation) to a Jazz Age party on Governor's Island! Actually, first we accidentally went to the Jazz Age party on Governor's Island the weekend before it happened, and were confused but ended up having a lovely day in the sun, picnicking on a bench looking out at boats between Staten Island and Brooklyn, swinging in the grassy area at the end of the island, and eating chocolate cake under the trees. But then the next weekend we went to the Jazz Age party, and it was very fun also! None of us but Faye had appropriate Jazz Age attire (not having been doing promotional parties for The Diviners), but it we felt festive anyway. Alex and I ate leftover homemade mac and cheese and also macarons; Faye and Katie bought some Jazz Age food! There was live music interspersed with some amateur but very cute acts, and I made Alex dance with me on the dance floor!

I did not take this picture; 

I found it by Googling "Jazz Age party Governors Island 2012"

Also I recently had a late birthday tea party, for which I made (with lots of help!) crustless white bread chicken salad sandwiches and egg salad sandwiches, scones, and five kinds of macarons with mixed fillings!

 I made macarons in all the colors!

 Green macarons = a sink full of green

 Pre-macaronage, 

it looks like the meringue and the almond flour 

will never combine!

 Alex arranged them so beautifully.

The green ones are pecan.

The blue ones are peanut.

The pink ones are plain.

The brown ones, some are chocolate and some are espresso!

Petit fours!

Edlyn came with creme brulee doughnuts, and Katie brought a beautiful and delicious chocolate cake from the bakery around the corner!

A bunch of friends got together to give me a great, great gift - a basket of ingredients! And it's good for them, too, because now I can make them more dessert :)

So many amazing ingredients!

We all were dressed up and ate delicately while trading thinly veiled insults, and then we watched The Secret Garden, which no one else had seen. I love that movie a lot.

Also, Alex and I have been subway stopping a couple times! We're still on the 6, but we're finally up in the Bronx, which is great because now I've actually been to all five boroughs. On our last stop in Manhattan (125th St.), we wandered out as close to the water as we could get, eventually stopping at a playground next to the freeway (it might have been the intersection of FDR Drive and the Triborough Bridge), where we admired a mural about the perils of dope. Between our first and second stops in the Bronx (we got out at 3rd Ave./138th St. and then wandered a little but mostly just walked to Brook Ave.) we grabbed food at a Caribbean place (I don't remember which island), which was acceptably tasty but nothing to write home about (not like that awesome sandwich I got around 116th or 120th, the time before!), and then we boarded the subway at Brook and went home. Then about two weeks ago we continued the exploration, managing six stops in one trip. We got off at Cypress and walked as far out toward the water as we could go, through a pretty ugly industrial area, and then north along Bruckner to go back underground at E. 143rd St. Off the train again one stop later at 149th, then cut diagonally along Prospect Ave. to see a little more of the neighborhood (it mostly looked poor/working class but well cared for, although there was one block on which on one side of the street the houses were fenced off and very well cared for, and on the other side they were falling apart, totally dilapidated. That was weird, especially as they appeared to have started out similarly constructed) before heading east again to go underground at Longwood. Again one stop, to Hunts Point Ave., where we were not able to look at the neighborhood map due to a domestic dispute (and police officer) right in front of it, so it was actually somewhat fortunate that we were able to figure out our crooked way to the next stop at Whitlock (finally above ground!). That one was an especially cool walk, though, through a pretty hoppin' downtown area and a few cute residential blocks. Next up we'll cross the Bronx River, and we only have 10 stops (two trips, I would think) to finish out the 6 line and make it to Pelham Bay Park, which I have always wanted to explore! Ah, progress!

Yesterday a bunch of us grabbed conveyor belt sushi (I had never had conveyor belt sushi! It is so fun!) and then karaoke'd for two hours (ack!) before returning home to watch the 49ers crush the Lions, which was awesome. In other news from the last couple months, I had a great time at J-West in early August; I'm finally reading Melina Marchetta; I'm about to start work on Bye Bye Birdie, Footloose, and a Seussical revue; Jamie is finally back and threw a really great barbeque followed by an awesome girls' night at her new place with Alf; I already miss summer weather even though in New York it's pretty terrible; Skye is staying with us during her break from tour, which is delightful; we have a new long-term subletter beginning in November but still need someone for the month of October; I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new mattress (well, new as of Memorial Day, but I was gone for a month and didn't get to fully appreciate it), and I am having a lovely and reflective Rosh Hashanah. Also, Alex and I have been cooking up a storm, and I have been having adventures with house plants - more on that next time! Now to go post that subletter ad and get ready for work! (And the looooooooong commute....)