All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Food

Pineapple-coconut Cheesecake

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I hope you all had a nice Easter.

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I started my day playing for Easter Mass at St Francis de Sales Oratory.  It’s an amazing piece of architecture—evidently it is the only church in the area built in the German Gothic style and is based on the design of a church in Germany. There is a lot of interesting historic information on the church’s website as well as a virtual tour—and this is all within a few minutes of my house!

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We were instructed to use practice mutes and play very softly if we wanted to warm up.

Sometimes living in St Louis I get caught up with the things that bother me and I forget about the things that I really like about it. I think it’s awesome how interesting and full of history the neighborhoods are, and it’s really fun to imagine how people used to live, and to think about how far we have come as a people yet how much we have lost.

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I also tend to take things for granted, like the fact that I have (in addition to a wonderful husband and adorable cat) amazing friends. Since moving to St Louis we have made some of the best friends we’ve had, and the fact that we have friends we have spent three of the biggest holidays in the last year with is simply phenomenal to me. When I’m feeling like my life is lacking something, I need to remind myself that not everybody is so lucky to have so many good friends as I am (far more than I deserve, I’m sure!)

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I was tasked with dessert for Easter Dinner. After some research and deep thought I decided to tackle a delicious looking recipe for Pineapple-Coconut Cheesecake.  I have only made one other cheesecake before (Natalie’s recipe for Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie…mmm) and it was a challenge. I was looking forward to stretching my culinary boundaries a little (ha!) and, in the end, most looking forward to eating a delicious cheesecake.

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I’d highly recommend the recipe. It turned out really well, was pretty easy overall to make, and there is a little bit left in our fridge still. I used real whipped cream rather than cool whip, and I did make my own crust.

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My mouth is watering just looking at that again…

Good news: the weather is finally looking nice. Yesterday I went for a run in shorts and a tank top and while it isn’t quite as warm today, I find that I am far more interested in running when I don’t have to bundle up. Maybe I’m just a fair weather runner. Maybe I’m just lazy. Anyway, I’m heading out again after I finish this blog post…it may be too little too late for Sunday, but it’ll help out in the long run.

Oh, and I’m deliriously excited for my sister Leslie to visit this week. She’s been training really hard and properly for the marathon Sunday and is hoping for a PR. Maybe I’ll make her write a blog recap for you guys since she is an actual runner. She also has two cats and plays the violin and likes wine and sarcasm. In fact, she is me but perhaps better? I’m about two inches taller though, so I win…(I only have one cat but she is round and very needy and often seems like more than one cat).

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What are you looking forward to this week? Do you have a favorite cheesecake recipe I should try?

Random thoughts, Teaching

The Arch

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Yesterday was one of those days—up early, driving all over town. We had rehearsal in Edwardsville for the upcoming Chamber Project St Louis concert.

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I was stuck in a bit of traffic on the bridge from Illinois to Missouri—the arch is always a beacon of light! As much as I make fun of my city, I prefer it to being on the “wrong side of the river.” (no offense to my Illinois readers 😉 )

After rehearsal I had a concert at the First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood for Good Friday. Then it was off to the school for teaching, but first a quick lunch–

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Lunch at Panera, or St Louis Bread Company for those of us here. I have a thing for the broccoli cheddar soup.

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I literally almost fell asleep during some of my teaching. Not good. Probably should have gone to Starbucks for a stronger coffee, but I do like the coffee at Bread Co too.

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I had an hour off due to some students still being on spring break and spent most of the time lying on the floor, looking sad.

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Not sure if I was more or less sad than this creature? (Chris sent me this during the day to make me feel better…at least I wasn’t SO tired!)

After teaching we met up with some friends at Square One Brewery for drinks and dinner.  Then I caught the end of the Duke game at home (woo hoo, elite 8!).

Morning came pretty early—more teaching today.

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I took some coffee with me. I had a good day of teaching, and had time for some practice as well. It’s nice to not be practicing excerpts…

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Still looked pretty tired though! (Oh, hey, look I’m a blogger taking selfies of me looking tired…nobody wants to see that, right..giant eye bags…hair not bad though—who thinks I should go lighter for spring/summer?)

When I got home it was cheesecake making time. Hypothetically it was running time, but it was raining…I could have gone to the gym, but I was exhausted and lame instead. I wasn’t going to run in the rain because I think I’ve been sick enough this year so far. (I know technically the rain wouldn’t make me sick, but I’m just not willing to chance it at this point, seriously, I’ve been sick so much since 2013 started…and being cold and rainy sounded miserable.)

I’ll tell you more about the cheesecake in the future. I haven’t quite finished it yet, but the batter tastes AMAZING. It’s for Easter dinner.

Random thoughts

Tomorrow is Friday (a collection of random thoughts)

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It’s weird because it feels like today is Monday. That’s fair enough considering I work all day tomorrow and Saturday…Sunday is of course Easter which means a church service in the morning (super excited to play for what I understand is an all-Latin mass for this one!)…and then Monday should feel like Friday but it’ll actually be Monday…did I confuse you completely yet? Or, more likely…bore you?

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We had a freak snowstorm on Sunday, as you probably know.

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I saw this on facebook the next day. 

This is what I love to hate about St Louis—people think this is unusual.  Maybe Cleveland was crazy too, but we had plenty of warm one day, cold and snowy the next. It’s called: weather. It happens everywhere, along with most things that people here tend to think are “only in St Louis.”

I have said many times: the things that people think are unique to St Louis generally aren’t, and the thing St Louisians think are normal everywhere often are actually unique to St Louis.  I’d name them, but I’m tired and I don’t want to see like a huge jerk.

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Bathroom selfie! I got a new workout top at Target and wanted to instagram it.

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Which eventually led to this “Inspirational photo”…thanks Tracy! I think it’s important to feel good when you’re working out. I love longer tops because I’m not a huge fan of showing my belly when I’m doing burpees or thrusters or whatever other stuff is named that involves jumping or leaping or pushing my arms up towards the air.

Thanks for your kind comments about my last post. I’m fine. I just get tired of the world I live in sometimes and wish I could change it. I can try, or I can simply choose to live a different life than most in society do.  As one of my Suzuki teacher trainers said (Susan Kempter): we as violin teachers can offer our families an alternative. I feel that I live that alternative as well.

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I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt the other night and tweeted about it. I’m told that everybody calls these hoodies. That’s from a race, back when I used to run…oh and I’m doing a half marathon next weekend. And I signed up for a fall marathon. This will actually happen because we all know I have tons of time in the summer to train. 2013 just hasn’t been quite what I planned but I really feel like things have turned a corner as far as my physical and mental health and my schedule.

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This was one of the most delicious tacos I’ve ever had. Imagine a taco made of cool ranch doritos. Okay? There you have it. People tend to either love or hate Taco Bell. You can perhaps guess where my feelings lie.

Tell me something random.

Deep Thoughts

On being fulfilled

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Life is hard.

That’s what they tell you anyway. Life isn’t fair.

The older I get (and I know some of you scoff at me saying I’m old, but HEY it’s all relative…) the more I realize that’s true.

But you know what. As much as you disrespect my profession…and YES most people do–(At a wedding gig once, “can you play, get a real job?” “I guess you must really like the…flexibility…” “I played bassoon in high school so I could do your job.”)—but

As much as you disrespect my profession, I don’t sit around wondering if I’ve made a difference in the world.  I know I have. I’ve had over 100 students over the years.  I’ve made a difference to all those kids…some more than others. Some will probably remember our violin lessons for their entire lives, and that’s amazing. And a lot of those kids are amazing too and I will remember THEM for the rest of my life.

I also don’t sit around wondering what the meaning of life is. Beyond being “42”…(Hitchhikers’ Guide reference, of course.)

I mean really. Once you’ve played Mahler 2 and Mahler 3, you don’t ponder the meaning of life anymore. You know. You’ve experienced it. Or late Beethoven quartets. Or the opening of the Brahms violin concerto. I could go on.

Maybe I’ll never be rich. Maybe I’ll never even really be happy (because, I’m an artist…I can’t actually be HAPPY because that would be against my grain…against everything I STAND for…I have to be an overly dramatic, narcissist, tortured soul…)…but I won’t wonder about the meaning of life, or wonder if I’ve made a difference to the world.

I know the world is a better place because I play the violin.  I know that the world is a better place because I teach people to play the violin.

You can look down on musicians. You can pretend we are stupid, or frivolous, or that what we do is irrelevant.

But I know better. I know what I do is one of the most important things in the world. I know that I make the world a better place, and that the world is a better place because people make music.

And don’t tell me about my gifts…and my talents. I worked hard to get to where I am. I sacrificed more than you can ever know (unless you are also a musician), and yes…the violin will never love me back the way I love it.  But that’s okay, because my husband understands too.

It’s not a gift or a talent. It’s just…

The only reason to hang around this world, right? And if you’re not a musician or an artist…don’t you listen to music an awful lot anyway? Most people seem to.

Product Reviews

Summertime…and the livin’ is easy

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I confess. I lied. It’s not summertime.

But sometimes you don’t feel like cooking, right? (warning the following is a sponsored post…)

We all know that eating “real foods” is the healthiest. But I’m a diet coke addict, and goodness knows that diet coke isn’t the healthiest. So occasionally I figure, it’s okay to cheat and use a prepared meal. Perhaps a frozen pizza, or a frozen dinner, or a meal in a bag.

I was given the opportunity to try a new line of frozen meals from Healthy Choice, a branch of ConAgra Frozen Foods.

I chose the Grilled Chicken Pesto with Vegetables.

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I was asked to debunk a few myths about frozen dinners. I will give my opinions and thoughts on this—I am not an expert, but I also can’t do exactly what the company wants, because I don’t believe it.

Frozen Food Myth #1: Frozen foods are heavily processed and not made with fresh ingredients.

This was probably fine to eat and is an okay thing to feed yourself and your family on occasion. It’s still a pretty long ingredient list though. (Apologies for the fuzziness of the picture, evidently I was shaking with hunger!)  And it’s pretty high in salt, and in my opinion, low in calories for a meal.  Fresh ingredients? I am sure that part is true—but once they are frozen and heavily packaged I just don’t know how important it is.

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Frozen Food Myth #2: Frozen foods taste like cardboard and are uninspired.

This tasted okay! I added some parmesan cheese though to give a bit more flavor. It was a fun concept for an entree for sure. I would have liked more chicken and more vegetables though.

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Frozen Food Myth #3: Frozen meals are not good for someone watching their weight or trying to eat healthy.

I paired the meal with a side salad for added nutrition. I personally like a bigger dinner and a bit more protein, but that’s a personal thing.  If you are looking for portion control you’ve got it here—portion control can be important for someone watching their weight, and frozen meals have that down pat! If you are trying to eat healthy, sometimes you just don’t have time or energy to do more than heat something up. I wouldn’t recommend somebody eat frozen meals every day, but probably once or twice a week is just fine.

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It doesn’t look too bad plated does it?

ConAgra Foods frozen meals give families access to real ingredients like crunchy, freshly cut vegetables, homemade pasta and ripe fruit year-round. Just like most people blanch veggies before freezing them – ConAgra Foods does too – to help preserve color, texture and keep them fresh!

Give it a try sometime! Marie Callender’s hearty pot pies are filled with tender meat, freshly cut vegetables and Marie’s authentic golden, flaky crust. And Healthy Choice recipes use chef-inspired ingredients like, apples instead of sugar for tart sweetness and a splash of red wine for a punch of flavor instead of added salt.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of ConAgra Foods.

Random thoughts

Another snowy day

It looks like the weather people were fairly correct. It did indeed start snowing this morning and has continued so far. I will never get caught up on my makeup lessons at this rate. I feel like they are just piling on my head and I am collapsing. (I’m exaggerating, but I’m frustrated with the weather and the amount of times I’ve been sick this semester.)

So today is a day spent at home. I did some practicing for the upcoming Chamber Project St Louis concert and now I’m just relaxing. Chris’s parents are here and Chris is at a concert.  Tonight is likely basketball or a movie. Exciting stuff!

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The weather yesterday on my run. (yes, I’ve been doing some running…oh, and Mike corrected me—I dead lifted 110 pounds, not 105)

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And the weather today. The road in front of our house is surprisingly clear, so that’s a good thing.

Dinner at Trattoria Marcella Friday night was incredible.  I’m considering making a pre-marathon reservation there for Leslie and I, though the night before might be better as far as being more able to eat rich food and drink some wine. 

We had more wine last night at Vin de Set with our friends Sarah and Jason. I especially love when you wake up in the morning and have red wine lips. Scrubbing your lips with the toothbrush to get rid of the wine stains is both exfoliating and strangely satisfying.

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I’m hoping this picture becomes more impressive than right now.  If you follow me on twitter (which you totally should as I’m crazy entertaining there) I’ll keep posting pictures.

Tonight: Crock pot salsa chicken. This is my favorite easy dinner and we wanted to do something in case we got snowed it. Take jar of salsa. Take 3 or 4 frozen chicken chicken breasts. Combine in crock pot. Cook. Optional: add cilantro, corn, black beans, or lime juice. After 4 hours on high/8 hours on low, shred chicken and serve over rice, or in a tortilla, or plain. However you want.

I should do a pinterest worthy picture so you could pin this post for me and I could get famous! But meh. I find raw chicken in a green sauce isn’t necessarily the most appetizing thing. It will be tasty though. I promise you that.

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Hey look.  Music! (Isn’t one trio enough? Why does Schumann have to write such long pieces?)