I’ll probably marry a viola player

December 13, 2011 hannahviolin 2 Comments

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.)

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

December 13, 2011 hannahviolin 3 Comments

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.

Weddings

Cookie free day

December 12, 2011 hannahviolin 5 Comments

I haven’t had a cookie all day. I think I may have the shakes from withdrawal.

I decided I would make a mug of hot chocolate instead. I got some chocolate peanut butter cocoa at Target a few weeks ago and tonight seemed like the perfect night to try it. Does it beat a cookie? Hmm…hard to say, but the hot chocolate is pretty awesome. I think it’s good I broke the cookie streak.

Today: THREE WEEKS until my wedding.

It’s been a busy day of wedding planning. We met with our photographer (Sarah Crowder) today to discuss what pictures we wanted, who should be in them, timeline stuff and all that. She’s going to come take pictures of us all getting ready, and then all day long! We had a nice lunch at Bridge—some delicious sweet and spicy cashews plus a Cuban sandwich for me (see, no cookies.)

After the meeting Chris and I did a bunch of other stuff for the wedding. Those of you who have planned weddings know what I mean, but seriously, there are just so many details to cover! We’ve been working with our officiant on the wording and order of our ceremony, and starting to put together the rough draft of the programs. I ordered the guest book and pens (not a completely normal guest book) and I’ve been putting together the finishing touches on my wardrobe. We’re also planning our cruise excursions and figuring out if we need any clothes for the honeymoon (answer, yes, of course a few things!). It’s incredibly fun and exciting, but there is just SO much to do. Tomorrow has a entirely different "to do" list. One item of which is to get started on the seating chart!

Funny Wedding Ecard: Please don't sit me at a loser table.

Funny Wedding Ecard: Let's focus on pairing single guests to avoid the reality of spending eternity as a couple.

THREE WEEKS.

It’s going to be awesome.

How was your weekend? Mine was great! I attended two different Christmas parties (and took NO pictures, sorry!). The first was at my friend Megan’s house on Saturday night. It was pretty low key—lots of chit chat and mulled wine. I really loved the mulled wine. The second party was a drop in on Sunday afternoon at a friend’s house in Lafayette Square. The house was GORGEOUS (they are renting, but did a fantastic job decorating) and the snacks were excellent. There was a delicious buffalo chicken dip that I want to get the recipe for and also some candied bacon cashews. SO tasty! (Cashews are the greatest thing ever.)

In between parties I ran about 5 miles uphill and downhill with Vanessa. We’re running a 12K this weekend in Tower Grove Park. It was a tough run—I was really out of breath for most of it. I think that means it was a really good workout!

I have one more week of teaching before Christmas/wedding/honeymoon break. Seriously, it’s crazy that I’ll be on vacation from teaching for approximately 4 weeks! My poor students will probably do no practicing at all :( (If any are reading, let this be a challenge to you, keep up on your practicing over the break!!)

I debated cooking a nice Christmas dinner, but Chris and I have decided to go out instead. That way we won’t have a ton of leftovers around tempting us, but we can still eat a really nice dinner. We are on our own for Christmas Day, which I am honestly looking forward to! After last year’s blizzard that almost trapped us on Long Island for weeks, I’m really excited to just stay in town and relax. There will be plenty of family time at the wedding. Maybe we’ll be extra fancy and go out for Christmas Eve dinner as well, before my gig. Recommendations on where to go, anybody? We will probably see the new Sherlock Holmes around that time as well.

(VOTE for my blog for best personal blog in St Louis)

Food

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011: Eggnog Cookies

December 12, 2011 hannahviolin 3 Comments

(The premise is this: sign up. Receive the addresses of three other food bloggers. Send each of them one dozen delicious homemade cookies. Receive three different boxes of scrumptious cookies from other bloggers. Eat them all yourself (or, you know, share. If you want. No judgment either way.) Post your cookie recipe on your blog. See everyone else’s cookie recipes. Salivate. Get lots of great ideas for next years’ cookie swap. Rinse and repeat.)

I have to say: by the time I got started on these cookies I was super "cookied" out. Originally I had planned to send my tri-color cookies for this swap, but there ended up not being enough of them. The problem was, after slaving over the tri-color cookies and then hosting a cookie party, I really didn’t want to bake anymore! If I had been able to wait until the following weekend I would have been up for it, but goodness I was busy.

So I found an eggnog cookie recipe that I had been meaning to try for a couple of years, and since I had eggnog in the fridge, it seemed appropriate. It also seemed easy enough…

I decided to add a little extra eggnog and use less nutmeg since the reviewers seemed to recommend that. The dough was very sticky and tough to work with, and the cookies are NOT pretty. I also didn’t package them pretty, sorry guys. I just stuck them in freezer bags. I had originally thought I’d get little holidays tins to put the cookies in…nope. None of that happened. I forgot to take a picture too(that’s how you can tell I’m not really a food blogger!) but I posted one that looked pretty similar to my cookies. (Forgive me, I’m planning a wedding!)

Even with the crappy presentation, I hope my swap buddies enjoy them. My fiance thought they were quite tasty, very mild flavor, but unique. (He is a huge eggnog lover, but I think even if you don’t care for eggnog you’ll enjoy these!) I don’t have a single cookie left at home, which makes me sad and also makes me want to make another batch!

Eggnog Cookies, originally from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup eggnog (I used 2/3 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I used 1/2 teaspoon)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Cream sugar and butter until light. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Sprinkle lightly with nutmeg. Bake 20 to 23 minutes until bottoms turn light brown.

Again, not my picture—the powdered sugar would probably be a nice touch too! I didn’t do that.

Who did I send these to?

Loy at Grandma Loy’s Kitchen

Brandy at Nutmeg Nanny

Amber at Bluebonnets and Brownies

Go check out their blogs, they have fantastic photography and recipes! I will stop beating myself up over my lousy cookie presentation ;)

Here’s what I got in return:

Chocolate cherry chip cookies from Kristin at Meringue Bake Shop.

Candy Cane Kisses Cookies from Amber at Bluebonnets & Brownies.

Snickers Cookies from Brandy at Nutmeg Nanny.

All were delicious!

Want to participate next year? Go here to sign up for an email reminder.

Remember to go vote for my blog for best personal blog in St Louis!! I don’t think I’ll win or anything, but a girl can dream right? If you vote for me, tell me in the comments (and you can do this more than once) and I’ll love you forever.

Food

I should have done a test cookie

December 10, 2011 hannahviolin 2 Comments

Remember to go vote for my blog! I don’t think I’ll win or anything, but a girl can dream right? If you vote for me, tell me in the comments (and you can do this more than once) and I’ll love you forever.

pic.twitter.com/tVQykO44

I stole this from @slso on twitter. The irony is someone took the picture, posted it, @slso retweeted…but note the screen! This is the inside of Powell Hall, before the symphony is about to play for Michael W. Smith.

I had a long day with lots of gigs, but now I’m relaxing at home. After the symphony concert my friend is hosting a party at her house. I am baking cookies to bring. I just burnt the first batch though…oops! Two cookies were salvageable. (maybe I shouldn’t be blogging whilst baking? Meh.) This is why I should do a test cookie, like my grandmother taught me…the second batch was perfect, and honestly we don’t need that many cookies anyway, right? It’s fine to bring only a dozen to someone’s house, correct? I would take a picture, but I’m recharging my camera battery. Basically they look like 1 dozen cookies arranged on one of the last of the plates from my bridal shower.

My goodness, I have an odd craving for cheese grits..

Tomorrow we are running the Taco Bell Fitness Course again, then Chris and I are getting a tree, then another party to attend, and a concert to play.

Anyway, here’s the recipe for the cookies I made. I bought a bag of Andes Baking Chips…um…last December. I thought tonight it was time! (I hope they don’t kill me…the bag was unopened.)

Andes Baking Chips Recipes Flourless Mint Chocolate Cake

Andes Crème de Menthe Cookies:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup salted butter – softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 package (10 oz.) Andes® Crème de Menthe Baking Chips
2-2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Blend butter, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and eggs until mixed.

Stir in Andes Baking Chips and then flour. Chill approximately one hour in the refrigerator.

Measure out approximately 1 oz. of dough. Form a ball and slightly flatten.

Raise oven rack one level above the middle and bake on non-stick baking pans.

Bake at 350° F for approximately 8 – 10 minutes.

Cool on pans for two minutes before removing.

Yield:

4 dozen cookies.

Notes: This made just about 2 1/2 dozen cookies for me. Also, just over 7 minutes seemed to do the trick if you prefer a soft cookie. However, I didn’t raise the oven rack, maybe that was the problem? Just be careful, don’t set the timer and leave the room to start a blog post. These are like a minty chocolate chip cookie, quite tasty!

Food

Cookies and stress

December 9, 2011 hannahviolin 2 Comments

Note to readers: I just learned that today I was featured on healthylivingblogs.com as the Friday featured blog. Welcome if you are new! And welcome back if you aren’t!!

Oh, and if you want to vote for me for “best personal blog” at the Riverfront Times (local paper here—you don’t need to be local to vote though, I do!) poll, I will be your best blog friend! I’d love your support!

I haven’t been blogging quite as regularly recently. I’ve been much busier, and I’ve also been concerned that I blog too much about the mundane minutiae of my life.

Haha!

I’m just kidding about that.

I’ve simply been busier with work. But I’ve got some time now—let me catch you up on what I’ve been doing!

I’ve been busy with a few blog related activities. I’m participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011, the Great Blog Sweet Swap, a couple of blog Christmas Card Exchanges, a Secret Santa, and December’s Foodie Pen Pals. It sounds like a lot, but it’s been fun. Plus it’s easier as my family is not exchanging Christmas gifts this year due to somebody’s wedding…(oh yes, that would be me!).

Gooey Butter Cookies! I made these last night. There are a ton of similar for recipes for them. Here’s what I used–

Gooey Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter/Margarine

1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Egg

1 8 oz. Cream Cheese (1 bar)

1 Box Yellow Cake Mix

Powdered Sugar for dipping

Non-stick cooking spray

1. Beat butter, vanilla, egg and cream cheese until light and fluffy

2. Mix in dry cake mix.

3. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Dough remains very sticky.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5. Lightly coat cookie sheet with cooking spray.

6. Drop down teaspoonfuls of dough in a bowl of powdered sugar and roll into balls. Place on cookie sheet.

7. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Yields four dozen.

That wasn’t all I made, but that’s all I’ll mention right now. Be sure to read all of step 6: originally I didn’t read the “roll into balls” part of the sentence.

You can see the difference. And yes, I need to clean my oven!

We’ve been getting a bunch of boxes! The cat loves them. This one seems too big though…

What general things have I been up to? Well, it’s been cold, so I decided running outside twice a week was enough. This means hill repeats and sprints on the treadmill, which is probably great for me! I’ve been playing a couple choral concerts, teaching (of course! one more week), and (naturally) wedding planning like crazy. It’s getting down to the wire here…three weeks from Monday!!!

Week in review:

I was videorecorded playing cowbell for an upcoming youtube video with the ocarina trio. (Oh yes, this really happened!!)

I opened a ton of boxes of cookies and wedding presents!

I played a variety of rehearsals for concerts.

I taught a ton of violin students.

I was disappointed by Albert Pujols and was yet again reminded that most people in the world make all their decisions in life based on money first and everything else second, and was saddened by this.

I ate too many cookies.

I had another facial.

I wrote some thank you notes.

I started putting together our wedding program.

I stalked our wedding registry.

I ate more cookies.

I ran, hoping to counteract the cookies.

I went to Frazer’s and Franco with friends. I’m in love with Franco’s Caesar salad with white anchovies. So worth the extra $3 for the white anchovies.

I booked a shore excursion for our cruise. Hard to believe that is coming up soon also!

I emailed/messaged several people trying to track down the remaining RSVP’s.

I panicked. I freaked out. I had a few mini-breakdowns due to stress.

I didn’t eat enough vegetables.

I ate some delicious trout.

I had several glasses of red wine.

I bought new workout capris.

I bought chocolate to give to my students next week.

I froze a bunch of cookies to have later.

I think that sums it up! In a nutshell, cookies, stress, fish, wedding.

stress

fish

Funny Wedding Ecard: All that stands between you and cheesecake is your wedding. Congratulations!

wedding

Happy Friday night, readers! (Or whenever you are reading this…might be another day—)

How is your weekend going so far?

HANNAHVIOLIN

I’ll probably marry a viola player

Rhythm, intonation, rhythm, rhythm

Cookie free day