EVMCO Concert Day

CONCERT DAY!!!

April 20, 2012

Turkey & Peacock sang with the Young Singers choir.  They performed Mozart's Alleluia and A Bushel & A Peck (from Guys and Dolls). They were darling!!

Penguin sang with the Children's Choir and they performed The Lonely Goatherd (from The Sound of Music), Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze (in German), and When You Believe from The Prince of Egypt (in English & Hebrew) which included a solo part in Hebrew for Penguin.  She did an awesome job and confidently sang in front of 1000's of people!  As she stood up at the front of the stage and sang, I couldn't help think about the miracles that took place and the things I had to trust & believe in to get her from a Russian orphanage & into my family.  The lyrics were very fitting for my sweet girl.  I was SO proud of her!! And in both concerts after this song was completed, the performers received a standing ovation.

And I, the mother (with a pink star below), faithfully plowed away on my trusty ol' violin for about 6 hours yesterday evening.  Today my back, neck, arms, etc are not happy with me, but I had a fabulous time!  Thanks to all who made the effort to come share a spectacular evening with my family & me!!

orange - aprilphotoaday

Fresh-Squeezed Orange Juice made from Oranges that were picked from my parents' back yard citrus trees.  YUM!

From Classical to Broadway - An EVMCO Event!

It's concert week!!  Yesterday I practiced my violin for 4 hours.  Today I could only get in two hours ... my brain was somewhat dead.  My Turkey is practicing standing still in concert position for 15-minutes a day ... a very hard task for my wiggly boy.  My Penguin is gearing up for a little solo part that she will perform (in Hebrew!) in front of 1000's of people Friday night.  And Peacock is ready to go! We are all super excited for our Friday night concert and we hope you'll grab one of the few remaining tickets to come see us perform!!

If you love the classics of the masters and Broadway tunes, this is the concert for you!  We will be performing everything from Rachmaninoff to Mozart and Les Mis to Sound of Music.

The 8pm concert is currently sold-out (but keep your eyes peeled because sometimes seats might pop up if tickets are sold back to the arts center) and the 5pm concert has limited seats, so if you are interested in attending, get online and buy your tickets now!  If anyone is interested, I have one ticket for the 8pm concert.

Here are a couple songs that I'm looking forward to performing ... 

Lemon Loaf Cake - Tuesdays with Dorie

Life is very hectic this week, but I had to take a break from violin practicing to make this recipe this afternoon.  The batter was pretty easy & quick to put together.  The hardest part was zesting the lemons, so this is a recipe that anyone can bake.

I sliced into my loaf while it was still a bit warm and the crust was a tad crusty - perfect! In insides were soft and dense like pound cake - perfect, perfect!  Mine turned out just a little bit drier than I'd like, but I was a bit sloppy in measuring my flour and being in AZ, I could reduce my flour a tiny bit next time.  I have lots of strawberries in my fridge, so I think I'll serve my lemon loaf cake with some berries and whipped cream for an after-dinner dessert and I think the berries and cream will add a little moisture to help make the cake seem a little less dry.

Can't wait to see everyone results.  To get the recipe, go HERE or HERE.

Happy Tuesday!!

First Swim of the Season!

My kids have been driving me somewhat nutty because they've been asking numerous times a day for many weeks when we could go swimming.  I know they'd be happy to hit the water once it's about 80* here, but with chilly dessert nights, it takes a while for the water to warm up so I wanted to wait until it was at least 90*.  Yesterday I told the kids if they got their schoolwork & chores done by lunch time, that we could go swimming.  All the kiddies were eager to do their jobs so we could go play!  And they had a blast!!

 

{my sister & her cute boy}

Pizza Rustica - Tuesdays with Dorie

This recipe was not at all what I expected.  When I hear pizza, I think of a crust (pie crusts do not come to mind), cheese, toppings, maybe some kind of sauce....  This "pizza" was more like a quiche.

First I made the dough.  It came other alright, but I've never made a dough that didn't instruct me to put it in the fridge for a bit before using it.  When I rolled the dough out, it seemed kinda ... wierd.  I could see where it was cracking (not because it was dry though ... maybe mine was too wet??) as I rolled.  I had to do lots of patching after it was transferred to my pie dish and making a lattice with my dough was almost a joke.

Then for the filling.  I'm not a huge fan of ricotta cheese ... it's just OK.  I decided to try something else instead that I love ... cottage cheese.  I'm also not much a meat person, so I added sliced mushrooms & left out the ham.

Everything cooked up fine and in the end, I think it all worked-out.  Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of the sweet dough/crust with the savory filling.  Some of my family members had a hard time eating one slice and some went back for seconds, so we had mixed reviews at our house. :)  If I were to make this again, I'd add more veggies & use a unsweetened dough for my crust.

If you are interested in the recipe, please go HERE or HERE.

Martha's Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Last weekend, our church had a Sunday evening birthday party to celebrate the organization of our ward.  We had cake, ice cream, and fun socializing to celebrate.  I had a bunch of freshly-picked lemons, so my family decided to try Martha Stewart's lemon meringue cupcakes.  FYI: If you are working quickly & have good help, plan on at least 2 hours for this project ... cupcakes, lemon curd, frosting, & browning ... and lots of mess!!  Martha's recipe yields 24 regular-sized cupcakes, but we did the mini size and I think we got at least 50 ... maybe quite a few more ... out of the batch.

Martha's Cupcake Recipe

Martha's Lemon Curd Recipe

Martha's Seven-Minute Frosting