E is for Eric and Energy

Letter of the Day:  E

E is for Eric and energy.  He was energized when he got this Obi Wan Kenobi cape and lightsaber at the Disney MGM studios during our family trip in 2007.  He is officially the youngest of the Rude brothers.  His twin brother Charlie is 12 minutes older.  Eric is more of a poser. He likes plays and acting, like his mother, and volunteers to read in church, or take a part in a script.  That's fun!  He also likes high energy sports.

What is meant by energy on stage?  I remember once when my little sister came out on stage to do a scene for Fiddler on the Roof.  She played Tzeitel, the oldest daughter.  The director, a woman who was a bit harsh, stopped the scene and yelled at the cast to because they "had no energy."  We had to debrief about that later. 

Of course, there's the Robin Williams type of frenetic energy that we're all drawn into.  He can charge a stadium full of people with his act.  One man on stage with his voice and a brain that runs at warp speed.  Not all theatre is quick-paced comedy.  We also have drama and quiet, emotional scenes.  The energy is still there.  You can feel the audience tense at the moment of truth.  We take a collective breath when the kiss finally comes.  If the actors are true to their emotions and bring them up from the depths of their own experiences, we will react with laughter and tears, sighs, and cheers.

Journaling Prompt:  Where does true emotional energy come from in your art?

D is for Duet

Letter of the Day:  D

My older sister, Nancy, challenged me to use a name for each letter of the alphabet during this A-Z blog challenge.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it.  Today, I'll mention two friends, Don and Dawn.  They are both songwriters in my area and are helping me by writing original music for Coffee Shop Confessions.
D is for duet.  When two performers sing or play together it is called a duet.  However, when I accompany a singer, she is called a soloist.  Often, the accompanist is overlooked, and occassionally not even mentioned.  Yes, I've felt slighted by this.  On the other hand, a good accompanist is support for the soloist and allows her to shine.

Here, Joy and I are playing the duet part for Heart and Soul.  You all know it.  The bumpa, bumpa, song that sticks in your head forever.  Joy also got up and sang the words to the song as a solo, at which point I faded into the rhythm, bumpa, bumpa...

These photos are from a show we did together.  We opened by singing a duet of Sisters.  We were fighting over my scarf while singing the final stanza, "Lord, help the mister who comes between me and my sister, and Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man!"

Duets are a fun part of any production.  Some of my favorite duets are Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better, Hey Baby it's Cold Outside, Sunrise, Sunset, You're the One that I Want, and The Music of the Night.

One more for my mom since it's her birthday today.  She likes Do You Love Me? from Fiddler on the Roof.  Happy Birthday, Mom, I love you. (My mom probably won't see this considering she doesn't even own a computer.  Ah, they still live the simple life, down on the farm.)

Journaling Prompt:  What are your favorite duets? With whom would you like to sing a duet? (hoping Missed Periods will stop by and see my proper use of whom and sentence structure, here.)

C is for Charlie, Cat, and Curtain

Letter of the Day:  C

This is Charlie and our cat Matilda.  Charlie is the older of my twin sons by 12 minutes.  He prides himself on being the different one.  When he was younger, to express his individuality, he'd do things in his own sweet time.  That could sometimes be challenging to the rest of the family.  Being one of four brothers, plus having a twin that looks much like you, causes many comparisons and a few controversies.  But, Charlie can handle it with class, if he chooses.

The cat Matilda isn't doing very well.  She's only eight, but has stopped eating.  I took her to the vet, and they did a dental including extracting two rotten teeth. She's still not eating.  I'm worried.

C is also for curtain.  In an older traditional stage, you would enter for a show and the curtain would be closed.  The audience didn't know what was behind the curtain.  When I was in a few plays in high school, I loved walking onto the stage while the audience was being seated.  I'd check my props and stare at the curtain knowing that I could do anything, and they wouldn't see me, but all that would change as soon as the curtain lifted.  Now, it is more common to walk in and see the curtain open, or no curtain at all, and the audience is immediately drawn into the mood of the play by the set.  When I direct children, we often perform in open spaces, no curtain, no hiding, unless you get creative with the set.

The English expression, "It's curtains for you," comes from the use of the curtain which dropped or closed signalling the end of a play. It can be extended to mean the end or death of something or someone.

If Matilda doesn't start eating soon, it will be curtains for her.  That makes me horribly sad.

Journaling Prompt:  Write about a pet you have or would like to have, or a time when you had to say good-bye.

The Best Ever Blueberry Muffins

Last week a co-worker's husband called work and when I answered the phone he started raving about the muffins his wife had made the night before.  He told me they were the best muffins she had ever made, which is saying a lot because she is a fabulous cook.  Later in the day I asked her for the recipe and she quickly printed it for me.

Let's me just say, that these are definitely the best muffins I have ever made.  They have a light, cake like texture that isn't too sweet.  The best part about them is the wonderful blueberry swirl that combines with the whole berries.  And let's not forget the lemon sugar topping or the streusel topping, I made both because I couldn't decide which would be better--both are equally wonderful on top of these muffins.  Inadvertently, bought the wrong size container of blueberries at my store, so I didn't have as many as the recipe calls for, but it didn't matter they were still FABULOUS!  I plan on making more of them very soon with the variety of fresh and frozen fruits I have on had.  Enjoy!

**I'm linking this recipe!  Go check out some of the great recipes other bloggers are putting out there!**

  

 

Blueberry Muffins

Recipe Source: Modified slightly from my friend Anisha who got it originally from Cook's Illustrated


Click Here for a printable recipe

**Cook's note-These muffins can be flavored with any variety of fruits and toppings.  Using the muffin recipe as a base for any flavor you like!**

Edited 12/24/11--Add your butter gradually if you decide to do the streusel topping.  More or less may be needed depending on the humidity in your area to create a nice crumbly topping.  If you find it is too soft add more flour to achieve the consistency you need.

Sugar Topping

1/3 cup (21/3 ounces) sugar
1½ teaspoons finely grated zest from 1 lemon

Streusel Topping
3 T white sugar
3 T brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
5 T melted butter

Muffins
2 cups (or less if you are me!) fresh blueberries, picked over
1 1/8 cups  plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon water
2 1/2 cups  unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

If topping with lemon sugar, stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.

  If topping the muffins with streusel, combine ingredients until it is the size of peas and set aside.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. If your oven cooks on the hot side normally, reduce the heat.  Some people have commented that 425 was too hot.  I would recommend getting a thermometer for your oven if you aren't sure.  

Prepare standard muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray or liners. Bring 1 cup blueberries, water,  and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing the berries with your potato masher or fork several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced by about half.  This will take about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and well combined. Slowly mix in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not over mix.)

Using a cookie scoop or large spoon, divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle lemon sugar or streusel evenly over muffins.

Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

B is for Bobby and Bravo!

Letter of the Day:  B
B is for Bobby, my first-born son.
B is also for Bravo, that shout of praise at the end of a performance.  Did you know that Bravo is the praise word for a man, and Brava is the word to use for a woman?  My sister Joy, who is learning Italian and is also a performer - singer, actor, all that jazz (also sings jazz), gave me that quick lesson.  If the performers are mixed, then Bravo is fine.

B is also for baby.  This is a picture of Bobby, my first-born, holding his new baby brother when he came into our lives 13 years ago.  Bobby is offically a Robert, but he was Bobby as soon as he flashed me those baby blues!  When his little brother, Zach, was born, he felt him grasp his finger and he asked, "Is he as strong as Superman?"  As soon as we brought him home, he said, "When can he wrestle?" 

A few years later, twin boys entered the picture. Now, I'm a MOBO, mother of boys only. And, oh, boy, can that be a blast!


Bobby is a great older brother.  He is a defender against bullies, and loves to play games.  He'll graduate from high school next year, and plans to be some kind of engineer.  I can see him inventing new games.  Bravo, Bobby!


Journaling Prompt:  Do you have brothers or sisters?  Write about your wild rumpuses!

Wildflower Honey Ice Cream . . . and Lemon Coriander Shortbread with Sunflower Seeds

"Flower" seems to be the operative word lately. The signs are everywhere. Daffodils rushing toward readiness,  dusky tulips shooting up against all odds, giant stalks of allium gaining height at a spectacular pace, tiny crocuses about to burst open in the grass. Not a thing is in bloom yet, but they're all working on it.

Today's recipes are in honor of those early spring flowers--the ones that make the effort to come back year after year. They let us know for certain, amidst lingering cold, that winter is truly behind us. And so, what better honey to employ in homemade ice cream than that borrowed from bees who consort with wildflowers? What better crunchy, salty item to blend into shortbread than roasted sunflower seeds?

About these recipes . . . 

If you often make homemade ice cream, you'll be unsurprised to see that this honey ice cream recipe is from David Lebovitz's spectacular book, The Perfect Scoop. I adapted it slightly from his formula for honey lavender ice cream. Though I do have culinary lavender on hand, and love it, I specifically wanted to use wildflower honey, and this honey's delicate flavor had to be unimpeded. Lavender's flavor is distinctive and it might have stolen the show. I was pretty pleased when I tasted this ice cream. One bite confirmed that omitting the lavender was the proper tactic. Wildflower honey is at the forefront here, no doubt about it.

The lemon coriander shortbread is based on Nancy Baggett's basic lemon shortbread recipe ("Iced Lemon Shortbread Fingers") from her indispensable classic, The All American Cookie Book. I adjusted Nancy's cookie by including ground coriander, salted sunflower seeds, and I opted not to use her lovely lemon icing. I also decided not to pat the dough into a 9"x9" pan as she suggests, but to roll it out to about a 1/4" thickness between parchment sheets. Then I chilled it in the freezer on a cookie sheet before cutting it, while still very firm, with cookie cutters. (That's my preferred method for dealing with cut-out cookies. It has saved my sanity time and again.)

Oh yes, about the coriander . . . At school, in the baking and pastry arts classes I've taken, we've often used herbs in non-savory recipes, so I already knew that ground coriander would blend seamlessly with the lemon. It sort of stands in the shadow of the  citrus, giving that tanginess an interesting, though subtle, boost. It's really not a weird combo at all.

Wildflower Honey Ice Cream and 
Lemon Coriander Shortbread with Sunflower Seeds

(For a printable version of these recipes, click here!)

Wildflower Honey Ice Cream
Yield: About one quart of ice cream, or slightly less.

1/2 cup wildflower honey
1 and 1/2 cups whole milk (I had no whole milk on hand so I used 1 and 1/4 cups 2 percent along with 1/4 cup of half-and-half.)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (I used pure cane sugar.)
One pinch of salt
1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream
Yolks from 5 large eggs

In a medium saucepan, stir together and warm up the milk, sugar, and salt.

Into a medium size bowl, pour the heavy cream. Mix the honey into the cream, stirring until it's completely blended. (If the honey is cold or too thick, you can warm it slightly in your microwave.) Set a fine mesh strainer over the bowl.

In another medium size bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Pour the warmed milk from the pan very slowly into the yolks, whisking constantly. Then, pour this whole mixture back into the saucepan.

Keep the saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly (and I mean constantly!), scraping the bottom and sides of the pan repeatedly. Cook only until the mixture starts to thicken. You'll know it's ready when you can dip a wooden spoon into the mixture and, when you pull it out, it's lightly coated. (If you cook too long, you'll end up with something as thick as pudding. Not good.)

Pour the mixture into the strainer that's sitting above the bowl of heavy cream. You can help push it through the strainer with your spoon. Stir together until completely blended.

Place the bowl over an ice bath (a larger bowl partially filled with ice and a little cold water) and let it cool, stirring periodically.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

Process it in your ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer's directions. (I use the KitchenAid ice cream attachment that goes on my mixer, and whatever I'm making--ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt-- usually takes about 20 minutes to thicken, using only the first speed.)

Scrape the soft ice cream into a clean container, cover it securely, and freeze it for at least several hours until firm or, better yet, for at least one day.

* * * * 
Lemon Coriander Shortbread Cookies with Sunflower Seeds

Yield: About 2 to 3 dozen cookies, depending on size.

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached.)
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 and 1/2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
Grated zest from one large lemon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened and cut into big chunks
1/4 tsp. salt (I used coarse kosher.)
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
3 Tbsp. roasted and salted sunflower seeds 


Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Have another sheet of parchment of the same size ready.

In a medium size mixing bowl, lightly whisk together the flour, cornstarch, and coriander.

In the large bowl of your food processor, process the powdered sugar, granulated sugar, and lemon zest for approximately three minutes.

Stop to scrape the bowl periodically. Add in the butter, salt, lemon juice, and lemon extract.

Process until fluffy and fully blended.

Add in the flour mixture and pulse until smooth and well combined. Stop to scrape the bowl as needed.

Put the dough into the bowl that held the flour, and using a flexible spatula, mix in the sunflower seeds.

Place the dough on top of one of the parchment sheets. Pat it into a rough rectangle and then cover it with the other sheet. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out between the sheets to a thickness of approximately 1/4". Slide the dough, still between the sheets, onto a cookie sheet and place it in your freezer for about twenty minutes.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

When the dough is very firm but not rock hard, take it out of the freezer and take it off the cookie sheet. Peel off the top piece of parchment and place that parchment sheet onto the cookie sheet.

Leave the bottom sheet beneath the dough, and cut the dough into the desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place the cut-outs onto the parchment covered cookie sheet. The cookies will spread very little so they can be baked fairly close together. Bake for about 25 to 35 minutes, until just slightly golden brown.

Let them cool on the pan or on a rack.

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A is for Aalgaard

Letter of the Day:  A
A is for Actor, those wonderful creators with interesting voices and expressive faces and bodies that pull the words off the page and breath life into the characters.  I've always loved acting.

A is for Aalgaard, my last name.  Whenever I spell it out loud to a new person they say, "Wow, that's a lot of A's."  I say, "Yes, I get all the A's in the box."  The double A is an English spelling of the name that originates in Norway.  My brother James will explain a bit more.  I come from a family of writers and wanderers.  Words and music have been our greatest connectors.  James also has a blog called the Wandering Norwegian, which he posts on whenever the spirit moves him, which isn't often.  James is a Lutheran Pastor living in Ontario, Oregon with his family. Here's his story:

Ålgård is a place that has given us a family name: Aalgaard. There's a stream that courses through this little country community in Southern Norway. When I was there for a short visit in 2009, I asked what the stream is called. No one could tell me! The surrounding lakes had names, but for some reason the stream did not.


It's difficult to find a flat patch of ground on Ålgård. The mountains and hills have been rounded by time. Berries, wild flowers and grasses are abundant, and many of the the people who live there can say this has been their home at least seven or eight generations! That's what you call having deep roots!

I learned firsthand how much it can rain over there! We spent a day hiking around those hills, seeing other places that were also part of my family's history. The grasses were tall and the trail sometimes unclear. It was pouring rain all day, and when it was time for me to take off my borrowed rain boots, I turned one upside down, out came a few CUPS of water! All I can say is I had very clean feet for the rest of the day.

It means a great deal to me that there is a place called Ålgård, and that I can trace family back so many generations. What's especially meaningful is that our relatives welcome us for visits any time. There has been a renewal of those friendships recently, and I see that as a blessing!

This past summer my sister Joy, neice Holly, and Marlin (relative who lives in Norway who might be a second cousin once removed, or something like that), climbed the hill above Ålgård for the traditional family shot.  My parents have a similarly posed picture hanging in their house with my dad and two of his siblings.

When I was there, 23 years ago, as a young college student, it was a quick stop, minus this hike and photo.  All I remember is that when we pulled up, my great uncle Carl was in his bee keeping gear, and just as we stepped out of the car, he got stung!  We had a communication barrier, so he sat and talked to my dad's cousin while my friends and I just wandered around.  When we got to my great aunt Signe's house in town, I walked in the door and immediately had the sense of coming home.

Thanks, James for writing a guest post on my blog today.  Thanks, family for staying connected and sharing your stories and passing along these great gifts!

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Where do your roots lead back to? What gifts, talents, and traditions have been passed from generation to generation?