We are still enjoying all the blueberries we can possibly eat, so I thought I would post another recipe today (coconut cardamom vegan overnight oat parfait with blueberry chia seed jam!) that makes use of blueberries. I haven't made this recipe yet, but it's definitely on my list. The chia seeds act as a thickening agent; in some recipes, they are almost like tapioca. I keep a bag of chia seeds in the fridge and use them to thicken everything from smoothies to spaghetti sauce. If you are a new vegan or transitioning into a vegan diet, coconut milk is another ingredient that you'll find is a staple. We always have a few cans on hand in the pantry; it's good in curries, soups, smoothies (can you tell we like smoothies at our house?!), and I've even made delicious popsicles with it.
Yesterday Bryan & I made a trip to Winston Salem, where I spent most of the day rehearsing with our friend J.W. We are preparing a recital for this coming October; we'll be performing at Western Carolina University and at High Point University, where J.W. teaches. One of the pieces on the program is a new piece that Bryan wrote for us; it was great fun to read through that piece together for the first time, and to hear Bryan's reactions and suggestions.
We rehearsed for a total of about five hours, a morning rehearsal and an afternoon rehearsal with a lunch break in between. J.W. and I have been working together for about three years now (this is the second full program we'll be doing together), and are becoming accustomed to relying on just a few lengthy, rather intense rehearsals to get all our work done. We were able to get through the entire program, worked out some of the more challenging passages and made plans for our next rehearsal.
Chamber music rehearsals are one of my favorite things about being a pianist. I love trying out different interpretations of phrases, varying the dynamics, tempo, and articulation to see what sounds just right, and drawing from multiple musicians' perspectives and experience to make decisions about how the final performance will sound ... or, how we hope it will sound!
With only a couple of weeks left until the fall semester begins, I've been busy getting entries in order for September's Mountain State Fair. The photo above is one of the many (probably at least a hundred) quilts that hung in the exhibit hall last September. This year I'll be entering several items in the handspinning category: a skein of yarn made with wool I dyed using natural dyes, a skein of yarn yarn I spun (but didn't dye myself), and a knitted item made with my hand-spun yarn that I'm just finishing up. Last year everything I entered won at least one ribbon; I'm hoping to be just as lucky again this year!
This past weekend several farms in Jackson County, NC, hosted the annual Jackson County Farm Tour. I didn't get to go this year, but the vegetable garden at our church was on the tour, and apparently there were quite a few visitors.
As I've mentioned before, Bryan & I have made several visits in the past few weeks to a blueberry farm near our house. It's been a very good year for all kinds of berries here; blueberries, in particular, are abundant and especially sweet. We picked a few pounds of berries this afternoon and had a chance to visit with the farmer who manages the farm, Thomas Berry Farm, for the family who owns it. (We learned that he had recently moved to this area from northern Vermont, not far from where we had lived in New York!) The farm is completely u-pick, and they have sold over a ton of blueberries so far this summer! There are still plenty of berries to be picked, and the farm seems to be very popular, though it's never crowded. We've eaten some of the fresh blueberries (how could we resist!), but most of them are in quart-sized bags in the freezer, and will go into oatmeal or muffins this winter. I may get adventurous and make a few pints of jam, too ... we'll see!
Everything at the farm is self-serve; usually there is no one there; everyone is on the honor system to pay for what they pick, and it seems to work. Buckets are provided; a jug of ice water and some paper cups (kept in mason jars to keep them clean!) are on a table where guests sign in and pay for their berries.
Today in church, our communion hymn was Rockingham. I love that hymn because it has a really interesting alto line. One of the many things I love about our church, St. John's Episcopal in Sylva, is that we sing five hymns all the way through every Sunday: a processional hymn, a sequence hymn, a presentation hymn, a communion hymn, and a procession at departing (we also chant the psalm each week, and sing the gloria and the sanctus). I can't remember ever omitting a verse or leaving out one of the hymns. The music and words we sing are an important part of the worship service.
Clouds here in the Smoky Mountains can be so beautiful! I find the sky much more interesting to look at on a cloudy day than on a perfectly clear day. One day last week as we were driving back to Cullowhee from Waynesville it started to rain. This particular stretch of highway travels through several gaps and ridges in the mountains, so it's quite common to encounter changes in the weather every few miles, in the winter as well as in the summer. At some point we realized that it was still raining, but that we were driving through a patch of bright sunshine! It reminded me of this song, and the line, "I'm going where the sun keeps shining / Through the pouring rain."
In the early 1970s, when I was in grade school, grocery prices were very high. I remember accompanying my mother on weekly trips to the supermarket, begging for plums, nectarines, raspberries, and blueberries, all of which were too pricey for our budget. We usually had bananas, apples, and oranges, and melon in the summer; more than what many of my friends' families probably enjoyed at the time.
This summer is our first year living in the Smoky Mountains in Cullowhee, NC. In early June we found berries growing all over the mountain where our house is; first, black raspberries, then blackberries. And a few weeks ago we discovered a large u-pick blueberry farm just a five-minute drive from our house. We've had berries for breakfast every day for the past two months, a luxury unthinkable back when I was a little girl. There are still plenty of berries that aren't yet ripe, and we've managed to store some in the freezer, so we'll be enjoying these healthy treats for a while.
Berries--blackberries and blueberries--seemed to be at their peak this week here in Cullowhee, so we looked for some recipes to put the surplus to use. These blueberry bounty buns, a recipe from Dreena Burton's Vive le Vegan!, are so good eaten warm out of the oven with a glass of iced tea! They are good with either blueberries or blackberries, though Bryan expressed a strong preference for the blueberry.
Blueberry Bounty Buns
(a cross between a scone and a muffin)
1 cup + 1 tbsp ground oats (grind them in the food processer)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vanilla non-dairy milk
1 tbsp flax meal
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl combine the ground oats and flour, and sift in the baking powder and baking soda. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients and mix to combine well. In another bowl, combine the non-dairy milk and flax meal, stir and let sit for 1 minute. Add the maple syrup, vanilla, and canola oil, and stir through. Add the blueberries. Immediately add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, and stir through until just well combined. Scoop large spoonfuls of the mixture (~1/2 cup each) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20-23 minutes, until the buns a lightly golden and are set in the center (gently touch to check). Remove from oven and let cool on pan for 1 minute, then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 6-7 buns.
A few weeks ago I got a new metronome. This metronome is the third one I have owned. The second one was an electronic battery-operated gizmo that finally konked out. My first metronome was purchased around 1970 at Marshall Fields in Chicago, back when it was still Marshall Fields and you could buy anything there. It was exactly like this new one, a red German-made Wittner Super Mini-Taktell, the kind you wind up, set on top of the piano, and follow its ruthless authoritarian tick-tock until every note is perfect and every passage up to tempo. This little hunk of plastic and metal keeps me honest.
A documentary about entertainer Sophie Tucker was released in 2014; read about Sophie Tucker here.
At this very moment, there are bowls on our kitchen table with ziploc bags full of wool and natural dyes: juniper, alkanet, and black-eyed susan. I'm letting them soak for now to try to get more intense color, but I'm not sure if that will happen. I've already dyed, carded, and spun some wool with indigo. It came out a beautiful shade of blue!
I plan on continuing the experiments with natural dyes. I want to see which colors I like best, and also what colors I can get from plants that are growing right around our house.
Thanks to heat and thunderstorms, we've had no new outdoor adventures this week other than our usual daily walks with Cookie. I thought I'd post this photo taken on July 1, 2007, on Jenkins Mountain in the Adirondacks. When we lived in northern NY state, we enjoyed frequent hikes and snowshoeing trips in the mountains. Now that we live in the Smoky Mountains, it's fun to notice the differences in the terrain, as well as some of the similarities. This photo reminds me that Cookie has enjoyed hikes in the mountains since she was a puppy!
Grace Episcopal Church in Asheville was our church home for several years while we lived in Black Mountain and I worked in Asheville. Although those years in Black Mountain were a difficult time for us, Bryan and I loved the church and still maintain close ties with many of our friends there.
This summer I've subbed for Grace's regular organist, Cathy Adkins, on three different Sundays when she's been out of town. It's been such a treat to see all our friends again and be back at our Asheville church home. Sundays at the organ at Grace involve a 9am and 11:15 service, with choir rehearsal between services. While I'm working with the choir, Bryan attends the adult Sunday school class. After the second service we have time to visit with friends and drink some lemonade. Before I left this morning, I took a few photos from my seat at the organ bench.
"Comfort food" is not something that I'm ... comfortable with. Something about the idea of turning to food for comfort has always seemed not quite right to me. When I encounter this term in one of my favorite cookbooks, I know that the recipe will probably be something familiar, something that my mother or grandparents might have prepared. Maybe a better term would be "traditional foods," since I do associate many dishes labeled as "comfort food" with the food traditions passed down to me by my family.
When I became a vegetarian and then a vegan, I quickly realized that I would need to figure out how to re-create some traditional recipes without using ingredients I wanted to avoid. I've learned how to make a mushroom and barley stew that somehow satisfies me in exactly the same way as my mother's beef stew, and I've settled on a chocolate-chip cookie recipe that's just right. Macaroni and cheese is another dish that I knew I wouldn't want to do without even after I decided to go vegan a few years ago. Fortunately there are many recipes for vegan mac & cheese that are quite good. Today I'm sharing one of our favorites, from one of Alicia C. Simpson's cookbooks, Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations.
This evening I had the privilege of playing for some residents at Skyland Care Center in Sylva. I played a short very informal program including works by Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, Bach, and Chopin, interspersed with some hymns and familiar songs. It was the first time I've played at Skyland, and it won't be the last. It was fun to visit with the residents, and they seemed to enjoy the music.
Early this morning we went for a hike on the Richland Balsam Summit trail. When we left the house we were in a blanket of fog, which is typical for mornings in the Smoky Mountains. The fog is patchy, though, and by the time we'd driven a few miles, we could see that it was a beautiful morning with just a few clouds in the sky, a perfect morning for a hike.
Richland Balsam is between Sylva and Waynesville, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, near milepost 431. We had been there before--last October--but the trail felt very different in the summer. The heavy rainfall we've had recently seemed to have kept hikers away while at the same time encouraging all the plants to grow, so the trail was a bit overgrown in places.
The trail head is near the highest point on the parkway, which is 6053' above sea level. The summit is just over 6400', and is surrounded by trees, so you don't get much of a view. There's a bench to sit and rest before beginning your descent. We stopped for a while and gave Cookie some water.
Hiking this year is a bit different for me. Last December, I was diagnosed with COPD and began treatment. I've had asthma for quite a while, but this feels different. I'm forced to go more slowly, to pay more attention to my breath,and to stop and rest much more frequently. The slower pace has made me aware of so many things I hadn't noticed before! I'm more likely to hear birds singing, and woodpeckers knocking on trees.
On the way down there was more time to stop and notice the beautiful scenery.
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Matthew 19:21 (NIV)
Pope Francis has spoken out strongly against global capitalism in the past week. Hopefully his words will guide voters and public officials around the world in the coming months and years.
Yesterday--July 10, 2015--was Arlo Guthrie's 68th birthday. In belated celebration of this special occasion, today we'll listen to Alice's Restaurant.
Tomatoes! When gardens are overflowing with all sorts of good things, tomatoes are the one thing nobody seems to complain about having too many of. (Zucchini is another story: when I was growing up in Illinois, I remember friends and neighbors leaving grocery bags of zucchini at our doorstep at this time of year. We were zucchini bombed.)
We found some fresh tomatoes and basil at the store a couple days ago, and Bryan made this totally yummy tomato basil cream pasta, one of Angela Liddon's recipes. (We got the recipe from Liddon's Oh She Glows cookbook, and it includes spinach.) If you've never made a vegan cream sauce out of raw cashews, this recipe is a good place to start. The cashews need to be raw, not the roasted salted kind in a can. Cashew cream is wonderfully versatile, and it makes this dish rich and velvety without overwhelming the flavors of the tomato and basil.
A few of the pieces I've been working on lately have passages where my hands are in the extreme upper and lower registers of the piano, as far apart as possible. When I practice piano, I work to develop kinesthetic memory, so that in a rehearsal or performance my hands will automatically know what to do next. I've been noticing that as my hands are further apart, the feeling of that kinesthetic memory being at work begins to dissolve a bit. I'm guessing there is a scientist somewhere who could explain exactly what it is I'm experiencing; for now, I need to spend a bit more time on these few passages.
Pianists spend quite a bit of effort from an early age developing hand and finger independence; this type of coordination is essential for our work. There is evidence that the work we do encourages our brains to develop a bit differently, resulting in a different approach to the brain's control of right- and left-handedness for pianists. This evidence makes sense to me ... I started piano lessons at the age of six, and I'm ambidextrous.
Read this website to learn more about what everyday life is like for women in Syria.
Last Tuesday I was getting ready to dye some wool with natural materials. The entire process took a few days, and I have some photos here to show the different steps.
I started on Tuesday evening by processing a pound of combed top (I used Wensleydale silver), placing it in a pot of water with alum and cream of tartar, bringing it to 180 degrees, and keeping the temperature more or less steady for an hour. I learned exactly why my friend Leslie at Nice Threads Fiber Studio recommends a crock pot--the kind used for cooking meat, with a thermometer that tells you the temperature of the solid stuff inside the pot--for this kind of process. If I do a project like this again, I will shell out the fifty bucks for the crock pot!
On Wednesday I took ziploc bags full of wet wool to the art studio at school, where my friend Erin and I mixed several natural dye preparations. She dyed squares of silk and I divided the wool into smaller pieces in order to test the different colors. We used mint, osage, indigo, tumeric, hibicus, pokeweed, and red cabbage. The only real challenge we encountered was that she was dying her silk in hot water dyes. Wool will felt if it's exposed to water that's too hot, or if it's subjected to a sudden temperature change (and heat + moisture + agitation = felt when you're dealing with wool). I soon found that some of the dye she was using was too hot, so experimented with placing the wool in cold water dye solutions. Here is a picture of some wool soaking in hibiscus dye.
We spent most of the afternoon trying out wool and silk in the different dye preparations. We definitely had some successes and some failures, and it was fun having time to try out all the different colors.
After several hours, I put my wool in ziploc bags so it could remain in the dye solutions over night, and brought it home to soak for a while longer. The next day I rinsed it out and hung it up to dry in the bathroom. I hang wool to dry over the shower curtain rod the way I suppose some women hang panyhose or bathing suits!
The next step was carding the wool to untangle the fibers and make it easier to work with when it's time to spin. I use two dog brushes which work quite well as hand carders. First I pull the fibers apart with my hands, then card a little bit at a time.
In these photos I'm carding the wool that was dyed with osage; the wool turned out a buttery yellow color. When all the osage wool was carded, I put it in a bowl:
I carded the tumeric wool next, and spun the osage and the tumeric, then plied the osage and tumeric together in order to get yellow yarn with two slightly different shades of yellow. The final product looks like this:
The next task will be to card the wool dyed with the hibiscus. It turned out a mauve-ish lavender color, and will be quite beautiful when it's spun.
