All posts by hannahviolin

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

Cake problems

Sunday was a simple plan:  Rehearsal, run 4.5 miles, make two desserts.

The run was exciting–the longest I’ve run since the half-marathon!  Of course, it only builds from here.  Next weekend is another 5k, (maybe) with a friend, though I’ll run it alone if necessary as I’ve registered already!  I want to try to run more of it, less walking…should improve my time.

Desserts:  One for each upcoming party.  First I made Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Blondies for a “Pumpkin Party” on Monday night.  I got the recipe here.  The hostess of the party is vegan, so I thought it would be a nice treat to take.  That said, even without butter, cow milk, or bacon, these are still delicious!!

Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Blondies

Adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup almond milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375*F. In a large bowl, combine wet ingredients (pumpkin, oil, sugar, brown sugar, almond milk, vanilla) and stir well. Sift in dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, spices) and stir to combine. Be careful not to overmix. Fold in chopped pecans and chocolate chips (optional). Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and even out the top with a spatula. Bake for 25-28 min. or until toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool before slicing.

Before cutting them...

(I added more brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice after tasting the batter.  Additionally, I used MORE pecans and dark chocolate chunks than the recipe states.  Use your taste/discretion.  Also, the toothpick didn’t come out clean even after an additional 10 minutes so I gave up and decided worse case the middle ones would be gooeier.  We’ll see what happens!)

Other cake:

I have wanted to make this recipe for raspberry buttermilk cake for a long time.  Finally an opportunity!  Chris doesn’t care for raspberries so I decided to substitute strawberries.

Before baking!
Out of oven!

Then things took a bad turn.  I did not do the toothpick test as the top was super brown…in retrospect, a HUGE mistake.  When I flipped the cake, it felt apart, and then I dropped the pan on it and smooshed the cake completely.  It felt to bits 🙁

I didn’t take a picture as I was just too upset.  I almost started crying!  Then I ate a few of the bits, as did Chris.  It tasted delicious.

A few hours later, I decided to try again.  I made just a few changes–I set the oven just slightly lower so it (hopefully) wouldn’t overbrown.  We made SURE it was done–I stuck a variety of toothpicks in various places, and CAREFULLY flipped the cake out.  SUCCESS!  It held its shape.  Hopefully it will taste as good as the last one, or better….

 

 

Text from Smitten Kitchen website:

Makes one thin 9-inch cake, which might serve eight people, if you can pry it from first two people’s grasp

1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (56 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup (146 grams) plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1 large (57 grams) egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz)

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup (146 grams) sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter (see Note) raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

[Baking time updated, shortened, after so many of you concurred that this cake bakes crazy quickly.]

Note: Directions like “scatter” always scare me. Where’s the science? Here’s what my neuroses taught us: the ones that were downward were almost all swallowed by the batter. The “o” ones stayed empty, like cups. Both were delicious.

Make your own buttermilk: No need to buy buttermilk especially for this or any recipe. Add one teaspoon tablespoon [updated, as an astute reader pointed out that the larger amount is more common] of vinegar or lemon juice to one cup of milk and let it sit until it clabbers, about 10 minutes. Voila, buttermilk!

Weddings

Weddings in Crystal City, MO

Saturday was a busy day!  Two weddings in Crystal City, MO, and then a rehearsal with Chamber Project St. Louis for our upcoming concert.  Crystal City is about 45 minutes south of where I live.  I had never been there, but the name made me think of the Wizard of Oz…not so much.  Crystal City was not sparkling, though it did have a nice Panera where we had coffee in between weddings.

(As you can see, I decided to use my retro camera app today again to make everything look a bit fancier!)

First:  Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

 

The Holy Family

 

Front of the Church

 

Organ Loft

The first wedding was for trio, the second for quartet.  In between we got coffee at Panera (also known as St. Louis Bread Company here).  I have been very careful to pack snacks for this sort of thing as to not be tempted by junk, so I had my coffee and a Luna Bar, which was tasty.  We had to bring our instruments in, of course, and several people commented on this.  One employee came over to ask questions about violin lessons for his girlfriend!  We couldn’t really help him though, since we were 45 minutes south…we just suggested to ask the local music store for recommendations.

It was strange to have two weddings so close to each other.  The second wedding was literally right down the street, and we only had 1 hour in between.  Great timing!!  The location was Grace Presbyterian Church.  I only took a couple of pictures here because I was tired.

Chandelier directly over where we were playing
It was a pretty small church

 

Evidently we were far enough from home that it was worth mentioning!

 

And after that, another Saturday’s weddings were done.  The bulk of “wedding season” is behind us, but there are still plenty left this year–more often it’s just one per weekend rather than two, three, or four.

I had about 30 minutes at home before I had to leave for Ravel and Mozart rehearsal–it was a nice way to spend a Saturday evening.

 

 

 

Random thoughts

St Louis Magazine Party

Friday night was great fun!  I went with my friends to this party:

My friend Jen Gartley was chosen as one of St. Louis’s Top Singles for 2010.  Congrats Jen!  The party was at Lumen Event Space on Locust. I had a good time getting dressed up with my black and silver dress that I hadn’t had a chance to wear since the cruise.  I met at my friend Laura’s and she drove us downtown.  There was valet parking at the event, and there were stacks of the magazine by the door.  We had to buy tickets to get in, but otherwise food and drink were included.  I didn’t know what to expect (naturally had all sorts of Sex and the City ideas–was not like that) but I figured people would be pretty dressed up and standing around.  That’s basically what happened!  There was loud music, some talking we couldn’t hear (where evidently all the “singles” were announced/introduced) and then a “fashion show” which was a bit lame as there was no catwalk or anything like that, and the models weren’t great (have watched too much ANTM I suppose).  However, the event was fun overall, and I had a great time hanging out with my girlfriends!

Jen and I--didn't really know where to look, apparently!
My friends!

My camera didn’t fit into my bag so I had to depend on friends.  There may be more photos later, we’ll see 🙂

Grand Ideas

Fun weekend ahead!

I love Fridays…today is a day off, so I’m just getting bunches of things done.  Grocery shopping, Target, bank, painting toenails, housekeeping, etc.  This weekend I have three parties to attend, some baking to do for the week (want to bring some Halloween treats for my school students), baking for two of the parties, two weddings, rehearsal, and some practicing.  Huh.  Suddenly I’m overwhelmed 😉

Tonight I am going to this:

One of my friends is going to be in the magazine, so a bunch of us are going to support her and have fun.  I am excited to get all dressed up!  It’ll be a fun girls night out 🙂

Practicing, Teaching

Practicing…again

Another Thursday done…perhaps you are tired of hearing me talk about my busy Thursdays?

Today, as usual, my students ran the gamut from “didn’t practice at all…again” to “Wow, I can’t believe how well they are doing.”  Some of them are just doing GREAT, and making me feel like I really know what I’m doing, others…well…we just do the best we can with what we have.  I am annoyed by the non-practicing though…not practicing equals not trying.  And I do try to educate the parents about it.  Some times the parents are first in line for excuses.   I get tired of excuses.   Not to be negative, but if a child doesn’t have time to practice violin, then they aren’t getting much out of the lessons, and might as well not be taking…or need to prioritize which extracurriculars are most important.  I find there is always time in the day for things that are most important, just not for everything.

But I will continue to teach each child the best I can, of course, because that is my job 🙂  I teach the child who shows up that day, wherever they are.

Random thoughts

Tower Grove Concert

I had a great time at Tuesday night’s concert.  It was a STL Symphony sponsored concert:  “Symphony Tuesdays at Tower Grove Park”, part of the Community Partnership Program.  The concert was free and was really well attended—the Piper Palm House was almost completely full!  Chris (along with some other folks:  Erin Schreiber, Asako Kuboki, and Bjorn Ranheim) played the Ravel String Quartet.  Then Asako, Bjorn, and two other musicians played some Piazzolla and other tangos.  Afterwards there was a small wine and cheese reception. 

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I didn’t get to take any pictures during the concert because firstly I didn’t want to distract the musicians, but also because I was WAY in the back as by the time I arrived that’s all that was left.  So I made Chris pose as he was about to fold up his stand afterwards.

 

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You can see why it’s called the Piper Palm House. Well, at least the “Palm” part of the house!  I’ve played weddings there and attended a reception, but this was the first official concert I attended. 

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You can see the crowd of folks in line for wine and cheese.  This is taken from the front of the stage—all those chairs were filled along with even more in the back half of the room. Chris and his group played very well 🙂