Category Archives: Food

Nathaniel Reid Bakery

I mention them in the title, because GO GO GO right now.

Louie’s birthday was Tuesday, so I went to Nathaniel Reid Bakery to get some breakfast treats. Once I got there, everything looked great, so I got croissants, quiche, and little cakes, for a full day of treats.

We had almond croissants and apple pie croissants first.

The almond croissant tasted like what all other almond croissants I have ever eaten aspired to be but weren’t able. It was delicious.

Then we went on a lovely hike in Shaw Nature Reserve. We’ve both had some time on Tuesdays the past few weeks to get outside, and it’s nicer hiking and being out when less people are (versus on a lovely Sunday afternoon when everybody is free.)

I believe this is the Meramac River.

Every time we go to Shaw Nature Reserve we say we should go more often! It’s just a little further than some of our other go-to places, but we always enjoy it. It was a lovely day, sunny and a little cool. We aren’t in full fall colors yet, but some trees are turning.

Then for lunch we had pieces of quiche from the bakery with side salads. Then we worked, and at night with dinner we had a little cake…and then one the next night as well.

If calories didn’t matter, we would eat this way every day. These pastries and cakes and quiche (not picture, it was wedge shaped, yellow, and OH so creamy and custardy) were amazing. I’m glad Louie had a birthday.

Pumpkin Time

It’s October! To be fair, it’s been October for awhile, but I’ve been busy doing stuff other than writing.

Life is going well, if you ignore the dumpster fire that is our political climate which affects every aspect of our life these days.

My morning classes are going well. Waking up at 6 am has been easier than I thought, as long as I make an effort to also go to bed early. I’m not sure if my schedule will be changing in the next few weeks or staying the same, but I suppose if I need to wake up at 5:45 am I’ll make that work too.

I’m still enjoying not doing as much performing. My anxiety in that regard is obviously lower, and I read about people doing things that I sometimes first feel jealous over, and then I think, hah, good for them. I’m also not sure I want to take the risks that some people are okay with (COVID-wise) which makes me feel better.

I had a wonderful time teaching my first improvisation group class last weekend—the kids were great and I made it through some but not all of the activities planned. Better to have too many class activities planned than not enough, of course. If you are a violin teacher and reading them and want more info, let me know—it’s technically open to other students as well though I haven’t been advertising too much as I don’t want a huge class either Smile 

I also attended my own first Creative Ability Development Teaching Training class this week, and also I have lots of videos of the teacher’s classes to watch. It’s been wonderful seeing the kids respond. I’ve gone a bit crazy with my schedule the next few weeks and I’m treating myself to a variety of courses to improve my teaching and become somehow more inspired. One good thing about this pandemic is that I have been able to totally revamp my teaching thoughts and really put my ideas in order and into practice. I hope my students are benefitting as much as I think they are.

So it’s been busy but fun enough. The weather was lovely on Sunday and Louie and I took a nice walk in Forest Park. We had to wear masks a decent amount, since we were hardly the only people with this idea. I’m hoping we will have opportunities for more hiking and walking in the future, and I’m sure we will. Louie was feeling a bit under the weather over the weekend so we didn’t do anything extensive (in fact, we were avoiding people entirely as he did end up taking a COVID test to make sure he wasn’t sick, and until his results came back negative we didn’t want to spread it!) He’s feeling better now, and I feel confident my slightly runny nose is from allergies and the change of seasons. With that in mind, we ordered a no-contact pizza delivery from Pi on Saturday night, and then on Sunday I had a nice zoom chat with my family and we cooked a delicious dinner.

This was a Blue Apron week…it ended up being delivered on Friday so that meant fancy cooking over the weekend.

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Panko encrusted tofu with roasted broccoli and a radish salad.

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Cod with a mustardy panko topping, kale, and delicata squash. We certainly haven’t had enough delicata squash lately! (This is a joke because the garden has been producing a lot of the squash, and we didn’t even plant it!)

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This was an awesome one: couscous with capers and golden raisins stuffed into a poblano pepper on a bed of yogurt garlic sauce.

I’ve been trying to really do meal planning and having a good time trying new recipes in addition to sticking with some of our favorites. We don’t eat meat, so usually there is one or two fish meals a week and then the rest are vegetarian. My latest favorite website for recipes is Budget Bytes and I linked to a recipe there I’ve tried and enjoyed. Today we are trying white beans with mushrooms and marinara, which looks like delicious comfort food for a Wednesday night.

I must be hungry…I guess I’ll go make some lunch. Louie got a bunch of tomatoes from a colleague so maybe I’ll slice one up with a toasted cheese sandwich or something like that.

Baking and Parlor Tour

When I was younger I always heard the “grownups” talking about how fast December went by, and I didn’t understand them. Now I do!

There’s only a few days before Christmas, and I’m ready! I didn’t have much to buy, and mostly I’ve just been having fun baking some goodies to share with people. Louie and I have enjoyed a few holiday activities, in particular, the Lafayette Square Parlor Tour.

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It felt a little weird traipsing through other people’s houses taking pictures, but we got into the spirit of it quickly enough. This is definitely an event we would do again if I were free for it!IMG_0526

The homes varied from being reasonably sized and beautifully decorated to gigantic and beautifully decorated.

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The Lafayette Square neighborhood is filled with gorgeous houses, and it was really neat to see some of them on the inside. The tour was easy to follow and we spent about 4 hours visiting all the homes. There were lines at times, and we took a short break to use the bathroom and get free hot chocolate at a local business as well. There is a trolley you can ride and we did manage to hop on one time!

We went to see the Messiah at the Symphony earlier. I hadn’t been looking forward to it, since I’ve played the Messiah so many times, but I ended up really enjoying the performance! It was very well done (of course) and not too long (ha!). We also went to the see the 442’s Holiday Spectacular at the 560 Center and didn’t enjoy that as much. It was a little more religiously Christmas than we expected for a  “Holiday” show and not really my type of music. I went because some of my students were playing on a few tunes, and I was happy I went for that reason (and I ran into a few families of former students and one former student—former because they graduated, so always nice to catch up!). A little elevator music, a lot of praising god, and a bit of Prairie Home Companion feel—I know people love that show, and I really hate it! The audience really seemed to love the show however, so this is in no means a negative review, just a “not my type of thing but if you like that you’ll love it” type of review!

I’ve also been doing a good amount (probably too much) of holiday baking. I hadn’t really done much baking in a long time, so this is my return to it. I’ve been trying to figure out what I really do enjoy in life and do more of that…I’ve let work overwhelm me the past couple of years and I’m trying to regain some sense of personal life.

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A very delicious Cranberry Eggnog bread.

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Pomegranate, Sage, White Cheddar Cheese Ball.

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Cranberry Shortbread Cookies.

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Wait, that’s not a recipe!

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Holiday Sugar Cookie Brittle (I’m not sure this one turned out quite right).

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Ooh, and Cherry Almond Shortbread. The recipe only makes what you see here, but it was tasty. If I were only making one kind of cookie I’d double the recipe. Note to myself, flatten the cookies a bit before baking.

So that’s what I’ve been up to! How about you? Are you getting some vacation for the holidays? Doing any travel? Have you done any baking or are you still planning to?

Part 3: Didn’t see many ashes in Asheville

We left you in Cataloochee…Part 1 and Part 2. Lots of camping and talking about hiking and the rain.

So, after spending about 6 days in the wilderness feeling rather…damp…(the humidity!), Louie and I drove to the civilized world. We had three nights booked at an AirBNB so we’d be sleeping in a bed, using a bathroom with HOT water (fun fact: the campgrounds in National Parks never seem to have hot water, only cold), and who knows what else? Wearing real clothes, eating food at restaurants, and more!

First stop: the electro bike tour. A few years ago we’d done a bike tour in the Rocky Mountains (that was all downhill, so much fun) and I wondered if there was anything like that to do. A little searching brought me to a company that provided a tour on electro bikes—bikes that gave you a little assist with the hills. We met the tour guide in a park in Asheville, and it would be just us and another couple on the tour. The guide’s name was Torin, and he brought the bikes, helmets, and water for everyone.

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You can see the bikes look very similar to regular bikes. In any case, we took a few minutes to ride around the parking lot and see how we felt. I thought the bikes were great! You could have the assist off, but that’d be crazy, and then there were a few levels, low, med, and high. Torin told us he’d warn us when to turn up to high and otherwise we’d probably want to keep it on the middle level. You still had to pedal and otherwise steer/ride the bike as normal, but if you are comfortable riding a regular bike, you can do this. I personally thought it was amazing, because it made bike riding more fun and more easy, and you definitely still get a little workout!

We went to a variety of places, and got off the bikes and walked around a bit as well. You do ride in the street some, though the guide does his best to make things comfortable and safe, but there will be cars on occasion. I don’t mind at all, but the other party seemed to have some trouble with that.

We went to the Grove Park Inn which is an old historic hotel which overlooks Asheville.

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Then we biked to downtown Asheville and had a quick look around, tried to see the Basilica but it was closed to the public, and then headed to the Botanical Gardens.

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On the way, it started POURING buckets of rain. We all got completely soaked. We decided as a group to skip the last stop and just head back, which was a little disappointing, but probably for the best.

It’s important to note that we now each had two pairs of completely soaked shoes, and unfortunately for Louie, the only pair of shoes he had that wasn’t soaked was his tall hiking boots! I had sandals.

Anyway, our next stop was to the AirBNB to check in and do some laundry! We got a room with a private bathroom, private entrance, and shared laundry facilities. It was in the basement of the owner’s house, but it was great, and we’d highly recommend for an easy stay. It was only a short drive from downtown, in a neat neighborhood, and was just a great place to stay at a good value.

After doing some laundry and getting cleaned up, we took a lyft to downtown Asheville and went to Curate (our bike tour guide had recommended it)…OMG this was one of our top ten meals. We got there around 5 pm with no reservation, and were seated at the bar. I think we got very lucky, because the restaurant was absolutely packed from that point on. Based on the current menu online: here’s a sampling of what we ate:

ensalada de sandía y tomate
salad of compressed watermelon, heirloom cherry tomatoes, sheep cheese, sweet onion, and corn nuts with petite lettuces dressed in a honey-sherry vinaigrette

sardinas curadas
salt cured sardines, pickled raspberries, toasted pistachio (inspired by an elBulli flavor combination)

rossejat negro
thin noodles prepared paella style, squid in its ink, shellfish stock, garnished with all i oli and salsa verde, the essence of the ocean

We had a few more things too, but nearly every dish was a hit and was simply delicious!

I should backtrack and tell you a funny story from our lyft. We got into the car and the driver asked us if we had been camping. Here we are, finally all cleaned up and we thought, respectable looking, and yet we looked like we’d been camping? But she said, well she smelled campfire. We were baffled, but we agreed, we smelled it too. Later I realized the smell came from the umbrella! I’d been holding it over the fire the previous day to give Louie a fighting chance at starting it. Sigh.

After dinner, we decided to walk around a bit and headed to a few breweries as well. We’d been told to try the Wicked Weed so we started there and then went to the Green Man Brewing Company as well. After that we were exhausted and headed back and fell asleep.

The next morning my parents were coming up to visit for the day, so we waited a little bit for them to arrive. We had a light breakfast in the room, and luckily had a wonderful coffeemaker to use! Once my parents arrived, we managed to fit everybody in one car and headed out. Our first stop was the NC Arboretum. There was a lot to see there, but we headed for the gardens first.

The gardens were designed by Frederick Olmsted, who designed Central Park, parts of University Circle in Cleveland, the Danforth campus of the Washington University in St Louis, and the Biltmore Estate Grounds.  Basically he seemed to be the only landscape architect worth using for a period of history and had a long and busy career!

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The most interesting part was the bonsai garden, I thought. I didn’t know all that went into making a bonsai plant, that you had to cultivate it to grow exactly how you want and how much work it took!

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Next we decided to head on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a bit. We got some amazing views of the mountains, and ended up at the Pisgah Inn at a good time for lunch, so we ate in the restaurant there while enjoying amazing views.

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I know there were pictures taken with my Mom and Dad but I guess not on my camera! Anyway, they were totally there also.

After lunch we went to downtown Asheville and walked around again. We tried to follow the “Urban Trail” but found it very difficult. We had a good time anyway, and were able to see more things than the day before. We also went back to the Grove Park Inn and wandered around there more than the day before, saw an art gallery and a car museum in the area too. We thought of going to the Botanical Gardens too, but they were closed by the time we tried.

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My parents weren’t staying overnight though, so after a long day of sightseeing, we all got a coffee, visited for another hour or soon, and then they headed on their way. Louie and I looked up a place for dinner and ended up at a fun place called ‘‘Nine Mile” which featured Caribbean cuisine. It was great. We just went back home afterwards because we were exhausted.

The next day we had tickets for the Biltmore House. I’d been two previous times in my life, but not for about 8-9 years, and Louie had never been. We decided to get breakfast at a place called Biscuithead, which was kind of on our way.  I had the fried green tomato biscuit.

The day took a turn after breakfast though, because that’s when I found out my dad’s brother, my uncle Sam, had died overnight. He’d been sick for awhile with pancreatic cancer, but still. The news is never expected. I wasn’t sure what to do—it seems ridiculous to just continue your vacation after getting such news, but there’s nothing to be done otherwise…send words of condolence, know how sad you are and how sad you are for your aunt and cousins and grandmother…it’s just so sad.

So I wasn’t in the greatest of moods at the Biltmore House, nor did I know if we’d be cutting our vacation short, or what, but we went anyway, and made the best of it. And then I kept thinking of our last family trip to the Biltmore House, which was right around the time my grandpa died…of pancreatic cancer, and it all just totally sucked.

But we had prepaid, and there was nothing more to be done. We got the audio tour with our tickets, and I’d recommend that as well. We both enjoyed the tour and learned a fair amount. I always love the library and the pool was also really fun, along with so many other amazing rooms. (The Biltmore house is a house built by the Vanderbilts, and it’s like a palace. )

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I didn’t take too many pictures, but there’s a few. The pool couldn’t hold water for long because this was before the modern pool chemicals! And these days it doesn’t hold water at all—there is evidently a crack or something that makes it not work. Anyway, I encourage you to look up the history of the Biltmore House if you are so inclined.

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After the house tour we walked around the gardens. It was a hot day though, and we didn’t enjoy them as much as we might have.

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We went to the winery next and ended up getting a few bottles of wine to take home.

After that Louie wanted to check out the Moog museum, which was near downtown Asheville again. Unfortunately the museum wasn’t open, but there was a showroom with a bunch of stuff, including a few theremins. So we tried our hands at playing theremin!

We had dinner reservations at Rhubarb, a local “farm to table” restaurant. We really enjoyed our meal! Afterwards we went to a few more breweries: Burial and High Wire.

The next morning we were both pretty sad to leave. I was also struggling with knowing what to do next with my uncle’s passing and waiting to hear what would happen as far as a service. I was very hesitant to go to our next destination as I knew I’d be out of phone service there…and I was also hesitant to leave our creature comforts to go sleep on the floor again, ha! Maybe I shouldn’t have split up the camping…I’d thought, in the planning, that it would be a nice break, but it was hard to leave.

But we did. We loaded up the car and set out for the Smoky Mountains again. Since I’m going to stop this post before going on, I will tell you that I was able to make plans for attending my uncle’s service before we went into the wilderness again, and it did involve leaving one day early, so we only had two more nights camping ahead of us. I was happy to do it, because I really wanted to go to see my family and pay my respects.

Asheville: we would return. More restaurants to eat at, see the Moog Museum (for Louie), the Botanical Gardens, and we didn’t do any hiking in the area—evidently there is plenty! They say fall is a beautiful time to visit. We are hardly ever able to travel in the fall, but maybe someday.

Next stop: Cades Cove.

Day Off

A random Friday off is always nice, even though this month is pretty easy overall.

I feel I’ve lost my motivation to do anything musical. I haven’t really practiced at all this week! Maybe I need the downtime, but I have a stack of music to be working on, at least in the abstract, so hopefully next week will bring more motivation. Then again, motivation is something that comes from within, so I’ll look there first.

I’ve been working on reorganizing my house, especially my music collection. I keep getting more music, and hate getting rid of things, so getting it more in order will be nice. I think I’m going to get some magazine holders in order to keep stuff more together, and try to organize somewhat alphabetically/by genre/category. Any musicians have any successful ideas to share? I am not organized by nature but can work hard.

I’m working on my fall schedule as well. Well, as much as one can in June. I’ve got some wonderful “borrowed” students over the summer, but definitely have openings in the fall, especially on Wednesdays. Pass it on! I’m sometimes surprised by how quickly I go from absolutely insanely busy to, well, blogging in my pj’s after spending a few hours organizing. That’s right, I may or may not still be in my pajamas. That’s what days off are for, correct?

I suppose I spend too much time here acting silly Winking smile I was thinking earlier that I’m getting to be old and should be mature soon. I’m in my last year of my 30’s now…but I don’t always feel like I’m an adult, in the same way that I always thought my parents were adults at this age. Granted, I don’t have kids, and did I mention I’m in my pajamas? But I suppose there are times I feel adult. Right now, for instance. Spending a day off organizing my house and doing laundry is pretty adult. Also the other day I gave a student advice on how to help a younger student with a posture issue. Sometimes, in fact, I completely surprise myself with my adult-ness. (Or I’m still being silly. I think I need more coffee. Even with the day off, the sun woke me up by 7:30 am and I was planning to sleep longer after having stayed up late watching an episode of House of Cards.)

Other things I’m doing: uploading CD’s to iTunes (this is a project I started years ago but never finished) in order to be able to listen to anything I want whenever. My current impetus is because Louie is putting in a new radio in my car (the old one works only as a radio because the CD player is broken, and has no accessory function) which I can use to listen through my phone and also use as a bluetooth to talk on the phone. If I have all my music on the phone, then I can listen to any of it anytime! I learn music best when I combine the visual and the aural, and I just haven’t been listening enough since my CD player broke Sad smile

Also making an omelet with leftover potatoes from my “birthday dinner” last night (one night late.) I’m doing what I call a spanish omelet where you mix up eggs and add potatoes and whatever else to it and then cook it on low heat in a cast iron pan for around 30 minutes until it sets. It better be good!

(Last night’s dinner at Peacemaker Lobster and Crab. Lobster doesn’t fit great into my mostly veggie/fish diet, but I am okay with it plus a little sausage for special occasions. )

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That biscuit is SOOO GOOD too. I wish I could eat it right now, but I already ate it.

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And some oysters. The night was quite a splurge, but was a lot of fun. Thanks Louie!

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How are you all?

Happy Presidents Day

Some of you may have off work today? I don’t, but I’m coming off of a TWO DAY WEEKEND so I’m feeling fully rested. That is to say, I got used to being somewhat slothful and sleeping in and I’m having a hard time getting moving this morning. The trick might be to never take a day off, then you don’t get spoiled. Alternately I could retire early, but Louie thought I’d get bored. I suspect I could fill my time with enough interesting hobbies, but then again, I don’t have QUITE enough saved, nor are my hobbies vastly different than some of my jobs, so work it is.

And cats. For those of you reading this from work, here are some cats!

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I’m always excited these days when there is a picture of Oistrakh in my timehop app. (Timehop takes your past instagram, facebook posts, twitter, and more, and shows you what you posted on the same day in years past.)

Last year Louie and I went out for Valentine’s Day and spent a good chunk of change. This year we decided to cook instead, but wanted a meal that was simple and delicious. (Simple, because cooking is a lot of work!) Also, Louie wanted steak, since he missed it and I agreed. So we decided to buy a local grass fed steak as a good compromise to not eating steak (ha! at least we are eating much LESS meat, which is a positive step IMO) and paired it with shitake mushrooms, a beet and goat cheese salad, and with a mexican chocolate cheesecake and salted caramel peanut ice cream. Louie sauteed the mushrooms in butter and then red wine (in the steak pan) and I roasted the beets with shallots, lemon and orange juice, and a bit of honey. It was a delicious, delicious meal!

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So that was Valentine’s Day. The salad is something I will add to our regular rotation since it wasn’t too hard to make and was absolutely delicious. And there’s more ice cream plus some chocolate we decided to save for later, which means that VDay lasts longer.

But today, I went for a run around the neighborhood. We got a few inches of snow yesterday and most of it was still there.

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I thought snow running would be closer to trail running than road running is. I’m running the Castlewood Cup in two weeks and I could definitely have been training more, but I’ve been running somewhat regularly…the cold and snow have made me a little lazy and I just haven’t managed to get to the gym in well, months. Oops. Today’s run was nice though: the snow was pretty, it wasn’t terribly cold, and I felt good trudging through the snow.

I’m also running the St Patrick’s Day race in March (I should disclose than I got a free entry in exchange for posting about it on here and in social media, but it’s a cheap AND fun race as far as these things go and you should run too) and then the Go Half Marathon in April. Are any runners still reading here? Are you doing any cool races in the near future?

Last note: I tend to do my laptop work on the couch, using a mouse/mousepad on my right side as I’m right-handed. Chloe often likes to join me, and by join me I mean, cuddle on top of my right hand and mouse. It’s cute AND annoying, and sometimes I’m terrified to move her because she has fragile skin and I’d hate to break it! But I hate using a track pad—how do you manage, if you use on? Would I get more used to it if I used it more? The things I like best about the laptop is being able to use the keyboard and the mouse.

Yes, I’m seriously asking how to do work with a cat in the way Smile And on that note, have a great day everybody! I’ve got a pretty normal week ahead of me as far as my schedule goes, but lots of music to be working on, and a few projects too. The to-do list isn’t terribly long but it never stops!