All posts by hannahviolin

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

Bacon Cookies

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I believe I mentioned I would be making these bacon cookies.

(I believe I also mentioned I would try to post/eat less cookies.  You get to choose:  wedding or cookies.  That’s what I thought.)

Chris and I were invited to our friend Kyle’s party over the weekend and I thought bacon cookies would be perfect.

It was an ugly sweater party…

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So, bacon cookies.

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Recipe courtesy of Eat, Drink and Be Meiri

My comments/observations are in italics

1 1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup bacon grease
2 cups sugar
2 large beaten eggs
1/2 cup maple syrup plus extra for the candied bacon
2.5 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups flour
2 lbs bacon
1/2 cup white sugar for coating the dough balls

First things first: the bacon. Line baking sheets with tin foil. Put racks on them, and lay out the bacon. It can overlap some, but not too much. Spread on a healthy amount of maple syrup, spreading it with a brush, if you have one. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes. Flip the bacon, spread on more maple syrup, and bake for another 15 minutes, or until perfectly crisp. You can turn the oven off, because the dough will need to chill out in the fridge for a little bit.

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*I did not have racks to use so my bacon didn’t get as crispy as Rose’s did.  Also do not put maple syrup bacon on paper towels*

Next, the grease: Pour about 1/4 cup of the bacon drippings into a measure cup, and set aside. You can discard the rest of the grease if you want. Or save it in your fridge for the next time you’re making pancakes. YUM.

Now, the cookie dough! Melt the butter in the microwave and mix it with the sugar in a large bowl. Let the mixture cool (Since the butter will probably still be warm) and add the beaten eggs. Add maple syrup, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Mix it all up. (Note:  also add the bacon grease now)

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Again with the bacon! Set aside about seven strips of bacon. DO NOT EAT THEM. All of your eating bacon should come from the other bacon. Chop the other bacon up into smallish pieces. Eat as much as you want, but remember, the more bacon that goes in your stomach now, the less bacon you’ll have in your cookies later. Mix you chopped bacon in to the dough. Then add the flour and mix thoroughly.

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*This tasted fantastic.  Rose warns you repeatedly not to eat the bacon but I had a harder time not eating all of this dough.  Oddly after chilling it didn’t taste as good.*

It’s chill time! Chill the dough for at least 1 hour in the fridge. (Overnight is fine too.) This is a good time to clean up the kitchen. Alternatively, depending on how much bacon you ate, it’s a great time to take a nap or go for a run. I chose to clean up.

I also chose to clean up.

It’s cookie making time! Roll the dough into walnut sized balls with your hands. Error on the side of small, because these cookies will spread out. Roll the balls in white sugar and place them on parchment lined cookie sheets, 12 to a standard sheet. Keep them at least an inch apart, but more if you have room to spare. They spread out and will mush together if you do what I did and put them too close together. Take your remaining bacon and cut it into half in pieces. Put a piece of bacon on the top of each cookie. Flatten them with a spatula or potato masher. (I used my hand, and tried the baking mats which were a shower gift from Leslie, but ultimately preferred not using the mats).

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Baking Time!  Put oven rack in the middle position.  Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes or until nicely browned. Cool on the cookie sheets while you clear off a place for the cookies to cool down further. You can shift the parchment paper off the cookie sheet and place it on, say, your washing machine, so you can reuse that cookie sheet.

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Wait a gosh darn minute! The cookies will seem soft, but they will crisp up a little bit. They’re remain sort of soft, though, which is how I like them. (My first batch were too soft and I realized too late they were practically raw in the middle.  Oops.)

Now, eat as many as you want, then pass out in a delicious bacony coma.

Note: If you somehow don’t eat all the cookies right away, you should store them in the fridge, because, yeah, bacon. That goes bad, yo. (I did not read this part until just now.)

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the end of the recipe!!

I found a bacon cookie to be a perfect post-race snack after the Reindeer Run 5k.  Okay, not actually, as then I was absolutely starving within an hour, but MAN it was a tasty post-race snack.  I also found out that Rose has a recipe for sausage cookies.  Seriously, how is that woman not 400 pounds??

Running

Reindeer Run 5K

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Snowball Reindeer

I had originally planned to run the 12k with Vanessa, but a few days beforehand she realized she had a rehearsal and needed to be done sooner.  She had never run as far as 12k before and had been looking forward to the challenge, so we said, well, we’ll just have to shoot for a fast 5k as the new challenge.

Little did we know how true that would be!  Another friend, Carrie, decided to run the race as well.  Here we are at the beginning (sorry, all the pictures are terrible, my phone must have been dirty plus the sun glare didn’t help…)

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I thought Vanessa was taller than that?  Who knows.

Anyway, we followed the crowd to get lined up for the race and then it turned out we were all lined up in the wrong place and had to move—we really had no idea what was happening as we couldn’t really hear the bullhorn.  Turns out inadvertently we were lined up now at the very front of the race…there were a couple guys crouched down, ready to race and then us and some other women who were panicked as they also realized they were in the front of a 800 person race.  Oops.  NOT our fault.

That mean the beginning of the race went fast.  People were definitely passing me, but I was keeping up a 7:30 pace for way too long.  I decided to just go with it and ran about as fast as I could, “relaxing” into about 9:30. (This is crazy fast for me.)  We basically just looped around Tower Grove Park, my usual stomping area, so it was both good and bad that I knew exactly where we were at all times—good because I knew where the hills were, bad because I knew exactly how much farther there was.  I was breathing hard the entire time (the rest of the day my throat felt sore and raspy!) and on the verge of vomiting for much of the time.  I suppose that’s what you have to do to PR.

After about 2 miles I thought my legs were dying (and my lungs but that was old news at this point.)  I thought if I could just hang on I would most definitely PR (my goal was to break 30 minutes, of course!) I really wanted to just lie down but I kept running.  Finally the finish line was in sight and I heard Vanessa yelling.  The clock was under 29 minutes and I sprinted as fast as I could (really not fast at all…) and got in at 28:55.  MONSTER personal record.  (Previous PR was 30:40.)

My garmin watch says I did mile 1 in 8:46, mile 2 in 9:34, and mile 3 in 9:42.  I suppose mile 4 would have taken about an hour, as I needed to lie down right afterwards.

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We wore the shirts—they are great and super soft!

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I’m awkwardly trying to avoid sweating all over Vanessa.

Oh, and Carrie won her age group!  She was super speedy.  Vanessa had a PR as well—overall it was a super successful day.

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(the last 5k Vanessa and I did together, mainly because I think this post needs some color!)

So what did I learn from this race?  Firstly that if I really push myself I’ll feel like dying and throwing up but then really awesome afterwards, oh, and that I can indeed run faster than I like to.  Would I have been able to keep that pace up for much longer?  Absolutely not.  But I shouldn’t be afraid of sub-10 minute miles anymore.

Random thoughts

Thanks for breaking my cow lamp

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I would like a cow watch!  One of you should give me one of these for Christmas!

My sister Leslie used to have a cow watch when we were little.  I think it was from Hershey’s Chocolate World.

And go Here to watch a delightful Homestar video!!

Transcript below:

(from wikipedia)

STRONG BAD: strongbad, underscore, email, dot e-x-e. Enter.

{reading}

Dear Strong Bad,
Why don’t you and The Cheat pull a
caper of some sort. It seems like
there has been little cooperation
between the two of you as of late.
James
Detroit Mi

{Strong Bad pronounces "Mi" like "me"}

STRONG BAD: {typing:} Well, you’re right. It’s no secret that The Cheat and I haven’t been getting along very well… since he screwed up our last caper.

{Cut to Strong Bad and The Cheat in Homestar’s house at night, stealing his newspaper.}

STRONG BAD: I don’t care about the crosswords, man, just the jumbles, the jumbles!

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

STRONG BAD: I don’t know, go look over there.

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises} {goes over to a table with a cow lamp on it}

STRONG BAD: No, look out! Oh, great, man.

{The Cheat knocks over the lamp, breaking it. A light turns on and Homestar comes out. He is wearing pajamas, and it appears he hasn’t shaved. Strong Bad looks hastily for an escape and The Cheat puts his hands in the air.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {sleepy} Hey, Strong Sad, Batman. What are you guys doing in my house?

STRONG BAD: We’ve been ID’d! Every man for himself! {he and The Cheat run away}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Thanks for stopping by, you guys. Thanks for breaking my cow lamp.

{Cut back to the computer}

STRONG BAD: The Cheat, man. {Music begins} Where did we go wrong? It seems like just yesterday we were setting fire to Strong Sad’s underwears.

STRONG SAD: {offscreen} That was yesterday!

STRONG BAD: This one’s for you. {singing to the Compy’s music}
I got mad at The Cheat, uh!
For screwing up the jumble caper, uh!
I hope I don’t see his name in the paper, in the obituaries
Cause that would mean he’s dead.
{pulls back to show Strong Mad and Strong Sad standing next to the computer clapping to the beat. Strong Bad is standing on his stool, still singing}
The Cheat is not dead,
I’m so glad The Cheat is not dead.
The Cheat is not dead,

STRONG MAD: DEAD!

STRONG BAD: Ohhh, I’m so glad The Cheat is not dead.
The Cheat is not dead,

STRONG SAD: Dead!

STRONG BAD: So glad The Cheat is not— {stops singing, starts bobbing his body left and right on each clap} Just the claps! Just the claps… Strong Sad, I didn’t know you had any rhythm.

STRONG SAD: Oh, sure, I got tons of rhythm.

STRONG BAD: Keep it rolling for me guys, keep it rolling.

{Strong Bad runs out to the field where The Cheat is waiting for him. The Compy is still playing the music.}

STRONG BAD: The Cheat, I… I just wanted to say that…

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

STRONG BAD: Oh, I can’t stay mad at you!

{He rubs The Cheat’s head}

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

STRONG BAD: Aww, how about a little kick for old times’ sake?

{The Cheat places his arms akimbo and looks angry}

STRONG BAD: Nah, I’m just kidding, man. {makes several fake kicking motions; The Cheat prepares to dodge each one} Oh, what, watch me now! Had you there.

{The Paper comes down. About five seconds later, Homestar walks out. He is still in his pajamas.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: You guys are so cute. {pause} Man, I should probably get dressed or something. What is it, like three in the afternoon? Looking good, Homestar.

STRONG BAD: Yeah, what’s the deal? I didn’t know you had to shave.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, I don’t. It’s cinnamon.

Food

Cracker Cookies

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I know, I know.  More cookies.  But these have to be blogged about!

Evidently these are also known as "Crack" cookies.  I got them from a friend at my cookie exchange party last year!

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One sleeve of crackers laid out on the foil wrapped pan.

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Nothing is better than butter and brown sugar.

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Unless it is butter and brown sugar, caramelized, and poured over crackers…

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Oh wait!  Topped with chocolate.

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"Cracker Cookies"—courtesy of Betty Hogan

Ingredients:

1 box Club Crackers

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 12 oz package MINI chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line an 11 x 15 cookie pan that has a lip with foil.  Cover foil with one layer of crackers, breaking to fit bottom as necessary.  Heat sugar and butter together in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes.  Then pour and spread mixture over crackers while hot.  It will seep in and around the crackers and that is okay.  Bake for 5 minutes in 400 degree oven.  Remove from oven and sprinkle mini chocolate chips all over.  As chips melt spread evenly with a spatula.  Place in refrigerator to cool.  When very cold break apart in large pieces peeling away the foil.  Then break into smaller serving size pieces and store in covered container in refrigerator.

Note:  the unevenness of the pieces makes these cookies attractive.  Do not expect to break them into the shape of the crackers.  Also, you must use MINI chips.  Regular sized chips do not melt appropriately.

Hannah’s note:  I only used one sleeve of the Club Crackers.  This means I need to make these again, over and over.

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I sent these to Fashion Fitness Foodie as part of the Great Blog Sweet Swap.

You might be asking yourself, why does Hannah complain about her weight, and then complain about having too many cookies around all the time, and yet keep making and eating cookies.  You might be asking yourself that, but if you were, you should stop asking.  You know I’m crazy.

Random thoughts

I’ll probably marry a viola player

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Today I didn’t do any of the wedding stuff I was supposed to.  Oops.  I did buy bacon with the idea of making these bacon cookies for a party on Friday night (it’s a party at my friend Kyle’s, who has hosted previous parties called “Meat Day” and “Meat Day Part II” so bacon cookies seem VERY appropriate.)  Chris has a run out tomorrow and my last student is gone which means my evening is rather free.  I figured making cookies was a good idea (if Mike is reading this, no I’ll totally be working out and steaming broccoli, not making bacon cookies.)

(If you didn’t know:  a run out is a concert out of town, but not like a tour.  It means you go there and back in one day.  )

(Do I use too many parentheses?)

Yes, today in my workout my trainer, Mike, asked why, when he logged on facebook, my entire profile page is dedicated to me writing about cookies.  He asked, do you make a lot of cookies or something?  I said…maybe…

I mean I also work out and stuff.  (Stuff being, you know, talking about planning my wedding and such.)

And I teach also.  On occasion.

All the cookies have absolutely no bearing on the fact that I have doubled in size since a month ago.  (Slight exaggeration.  Only slight.)  It’s cookie season anyway, right?  Rather than heating the house, you can just make cookies and let the oven heat the house!

Okay, I’m done talking about cookies right now (I have another recipe I’m sharing tomorrow or Thursday, but that will wait.)  What else to talk about?

We got our Christmas tree on Sunday, but haven’t decorated it yet.  It smells fantastic!  I will try to decorate it tomorrow and take some pictures!  (Or Thursday. We’ll see.  Bacon cookies and such.)

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Nerdy, yes.  Does this actually happen when you plug it into Google Maps?  Mine gave some directions in Chicago.  Who knew that the Shire and Mordor were in Chicago?

Practicing

Rhythm, intonation, rhythm, rhythm

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My trainer told me today that he was on facebook and noticed how all of my recent posts were about cookies.  This is true.  I figured it was time for a non-cookie post!

I’ve gotten some questions about my advice for how to prepare for orchestra auditions.  Honestly, I’m hardly an expert on this, as I’ve only ever won one full time audition and a handful of regional auditions, but hey, it’s the internet!  Anyone can write anything and people will believe it.

Just kidding.

Oh, is this supposed to be a serious post?  (Fine, I’ll give it a whirl.  Also make sure you’ve read “Orchestral Auditions for Non-Musicians.“)

Let’s assume you’ve been practicing the violin since you were a young child, and you have spent several years in college really perfecting your craft. (Otherwise I really can’t help you, sorry.) You’ve decided it’s time to enter the “real world” and so you are entering the horrific world of orchestra auditions.  Or maybe you’re still in school but you are auditioning for a part time job in a regional orchestra (that you just might keep for the next 20 years!).

So you get the list of excerpts to prepare.  You may already know some of them.  You may not.  I would allow 1 to 3 months to prepare.  I like to make a CD of a variety of recordings to listen to in the car (former Suzuki child, plus, my use of CDs definitely shows my age.)

What will the committee be looking/listening for?  Rhythm, intonation, rhythm, and rhythm.  At least that’s what my teacher in school told me.  I’ve been told conflicting information, such as intonation, intonation, rhythm, intonation.  I think you get the point though.  Without rhythm (use a metronome, marry it, make it your best friend) and intonation (ditto with a tuner or drone) you don’t have a chance.   A recording device is helpful as well, so you can really hear yourself.

Next step:  make it interesting.  Especially for violinists, anyone can play with perfect intonation and rhythm.  (Do I actually believe that?  No, but that’s what people say…and maybe anyone can for 30 seconds occasionally).  I’ve heard the phrase “pleasing tone” being bandied about.  That means an inoffensive tone, with a nice (not too fast, not to slow) vibrato to go with it.

Other advice I’ve been given over the years:  Follow the printed dynamics.  Play accents when they are marked and only when they are marked.  Do the tempo markings.  Know what else is happening in the orchestra while you are playing alone, but never play too soft or too loud (even though you likely WOULD in the section.)  In fact, don’t play much like you would in the section at all.  Play like you would fit into any section.  Don’t play too loud.  Make sure to play loud enough.  Use contrast.  Don’t worry about contrast too much and just focus on intonation and rhythm.  Don’t sound like you are just focusing on intonation and rhythm.  Anybody can play perfectly in tune.  If you play perfectly in tune you will be the only one.  No one plays a perfect audition.  We’ve never hired somebody who played a perfect audition.  No one played perfectly enough to get hired.

I kid you not.  That paragraph is full of actual advice I’ve been given by professionals.  In a nutshell…work your butt off, practice as much as you can, definitely work with a metronome and tuner and trust your ears, but ultimately, the committee is crazy and often has no real idea of what they want.  You can do your best, and it might never be good enough.  Or one day you’ll get lucky, win a job, and then within a period of a few years, will forget how hard it was and how much of that was good luck and the audition committee smiling upon you, and assume that you are good enough for any orchestra and that people who don’t have orchestra jobs are lesser musicians.  Or you’ll spend decades complaining about how hard your orchestra job is…to people that work three times harder for a third of the money doing the same thing you do but in crappier orchestras.

But this is meant to be a positive and inspirational post, so I won’t get into the bitterness of orchestral musicians, or musicians, or non-orchestral musicians (or my own bitterness)  Because nothing, nothing beats playing a Mahler symphony.  Nothing!

Is this post helpful?  Probably not.  Remember.  Practice, practice, practice.  If you are sleeping, somebody else is practicing.

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One of the best things to do to prepare for orchestral auditions is to take orchestral auditions.  The more auditions you take, the more you learn what parts of your preparation are effective and what parts are not.  You’ll also learn how you react to intense pressure and get more accustomed to “performing” in an audition setting, which is completely different than any other setting.  I always think of it this way:  in a concert or recital, people are there to enjoy your performance and be entertained.  In an audition, people are waiting for you to mess up so they can eliminate you and move on to the next candidate.  Or perhaps for you to be so much better than the other candidates that they can hire you.  But either way they are not looking to be entertained, or to enjoy themselves.

I could probably go on for a long time, talking about auditions.  I’ll take questions though, in the comments.  Like I said, I’m not an expert by any means, but I’ve taken my share of auditions, and can certainly offer my unique perspective and advice.