Mom's Visit

John took a trip to Little Rock and Memphis this past week for the Society of American Music conference. So I thought it would be fun to ask my mom to come up and keep me company. Sunday was her birthday, so we celebrated in (relaxed) style. I only managed to take pictures of things that happened on Sunday, but on Friday and Saturday we went to Zen Gardens and Bungalow for dinner, and I got to introduce Mom to the magical wonder of Bulk Barn.
On Sunday, we went to Morrissey House for breakfast. I've eaten there many times, but somehow never for breakfast, and it didn't disappoint. I had the huevos rancheros with potatoes. A++.

Matthew came over for a dinner of gnocchi in tomato broth from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (recipe here). For dessert, we each split these cupcakes from Hey, Cupcake, a place very near our house that I've never tried before. Clockwise: chunky monkey (banana chocolate), carrot cake (Mom's favorite), and peanut butter cup (almost too rich to eat, but awesome). 

While I cooked, we followed the IU-Michigan game on my phone. Mom called out  the updates while I finished dinner, and IU just barely pulled out a win! It was very exciting, and a great touch to the birthday dinner. Now they're the Big Ten champs!

                             

 IU basketball, gin and tonics, and cupcakes. A pretty good birthday.

Over the weekend, my friend Gwen asked me to dog sit for her very sweet and well behaved dog, Ollie. Mom and I loved having Ollie to play with. I even got to take him running, which was so much fun. I've always wanted a dog running partner. Running with him was just like I've heard other people say - it was easy to relax and enjoy running because I could see how much fun he was having. I tend to over think running, among other things (I know, you're shocked), and it was fun to see Ollie run just for the sheer fun of it. It helped me relax and just run without thinking too much. The house is a little too quiet now that he's gone. 

                                      

Bloomy Bridal Shower

On the last Saturday of our break, my aunt Becky and my cousin Halley (shown here on the right, with me and my mom on the left) threw me beautiful bridal shower. 

I was impressed by the decorations and pretty touches before it even started. When I told Becky that she said, "Hey, when we've showered you, you'll know it."

Watching them set up and decorate was like watching one of those TLC shows where they decorate the White House for Christmas. Everything about the shower was lovely and perfect, from the table cloth to the pasta salad to the gorgeous cupcakes form Scholar's Inn.

Mimosas with raspberries, and a heavenly cheese plate. 

That's Kira's hand and mimosa, since I stole a bunch of her photos from the shower. I'm so classy. Nice manicure, though, right?

They also ordered sandwiches from Scholar's Inn, and I enjoyed several that evening/the car ride home the next day.

Everyone at the shower was extremely generous, to the point where we couldn't fit it all in the car to take home. We did, however, make this coffee grinder a priority. It was John's most-wanted item on our registry, and it came from Lauren. John swore afterward that, in return, he will no longer make fun of Purdue. 

The shower was a great chance to hang out with some of my absolute favorite people, and I feel like it was just a fraction of how fun the wedding will be. I can't wait to hang out with all of them in the same place!

And I'm only half joking when I say that you should totally hire my cousin Halley and my aunt Becky to do your next bridal shower or other event - they made everything so easy and special that day. They are both amazing and I'm so grateful!

Music Theory Midwest 2012 -- Ann Arbor, MI

 Last weekend John and I traveled to Ann Arbor for this year's Music Theory Midwest. Unlike the previous two years (2010 post here) that I've attended, I was actually giving a paper. Luckily my anxiety about presenting in front of people whose opinions really matter to me didn't take away from the fun of the conference.

John and I shared a room at the Holiday Inn with Djillian and Bryn, and their two delighful pugs. I didn't get any pictures of the pugs during the trip, but you can see them sitting on John during their visit to our house earlier this year. The brown one in front is Vernon, and the little lady sitting behind him is Prudence.

I always say that MTMW 2009 in Bowling Green was the conference where I learned to open a beer bottle in a door jam - I won't say who taught me, but his/her name rhymes with Jim Vest.  This year the hotel had an actual bottle opener installed just outside the shower (not exactly sure why). Someone must have tipped them off. 

Ann Arbor's restaurants and breweries really blew me away. I was expecting something similar to Bloomington, which is, of course, amazing. But Ann Arbor is bigger, and closer to a major metropolitan area. I would say it was slightly more upscale than Bloomington, and I mean that as a neutral statement, since upscale isn't always better.
I loved every thing I ate for the three days we were there. On Thursday, John, Djillian and I hit the town while Bryn went to a pre-conference workshop on schema theory.  First stop: The Jolly Pumpkin, a brew pub that specializes in sour beer. We ordered a flight, and I thought most of it was so-so (note: you can find out detailed info on all the beers I tried by clicking here). I took some notes on our coaster about each one.


















Left to right: Noire ("ok, or meh"), Blanca ("ok"), Oro ("really interesting! tastes oddly like white wine, and is delicious and unusual"), Wheat Grass IPA ("John liked, Abby didn't, tasted like...grass"), Cider ("ok, refreshing").


Next we headed to the Arbor Brewing Co, where we ate dinner twice. The first night, we had a waiter named Don that all three of us instantly wanted to befriend. He accomodated all our weird behavior, even when I asked,
"Can I order the mac n' cheese without bacon?"
"Of course."
"Ok, great, but I was just curious. I don't really want to order it."

My dining companions looked at me like I was nuts. Don was completely nice about it. Over the course of the evening, we learned that the following day was his 28th birthday, and so we vowed to return and ask for his section. But when we arrived, it was already full. Apparently Don is nice to other people, too.

 

Djillian, photobombing the fight from Arbor Brewing Co. 

John and I both liked this flight a lot more than the one from Jolly Pumpkin. My favorite was the Heffeweizen, though they also had a great Double Bock and several others we liked.

My other comment about that place is that every thing on the menu made me drool. I had vegetarian jambalaya the first night, with faux-sausage, and the mac n' cheese the second night. Djillian had some great looking nachos, and John swore that the beer battered tempeh was outstanding - it came to him in his dreams the night he ate it, and not in a bad way. I would go back there now if John handed me the car keys.


We wandered around Ann Arbor pretty much every night we were there, mostly having dessert and drinks, though John did climb into a display window at one point. No one was irritated or harmed.

On Friday night I had a fantastic vegan chocolate-peanut butter cupcake from the Cupcake Station, while John bought a few pieces of candy at Kilwin's. Someone from my past can correct me on this, but I think Kilwin's is the same ice cream/sweet shop where we used to go in Traverse City, MI when I was at Interlochen.
Saturday night was Bryn and Djillian's fifth wedding anniversary, and after a great veg-friendly dinner at Seva, we walked to La Dolce Vita for dessert and after-dinner drinks. I combined the two and had a chocolate-butterscotch martini, but others had desserts that I coveted, including a couple bites of John's tiramisu. We noticed that a couple seated nearby was also celebrating a wedding anniversary, and that the waitress brought them a special treat. After we informed our extremely enthusiastic waitress about Bryn and Djill, she did the same thing: a chocolate raspberry plate scrawled, with two oreo-crumb truffles. La Dolce Vita was a bit fancier than the other places we went, and even had a cigar bar/lounge downstairs that reminded both me and Djillian of our grandfathers.

John made the rounds to a couple of stores with great beer selection, so we had a few drinks in the room, too. I took home a Harpoon UFO (their orange-infused Heffe), which I've had before and loved. We're planning a little beer tasting for next week.*

I don't usually discuss the actual theory of any theory conference when I post here. But I'll close this with a couple fun anecdotes from the weekend that I wrote on my program.

"And here we get a wonderfully continental whiff of Karl Marx." -- Bill Guerin, winner of the 2012 Komar Student Paper Award!! I was so happy to see him win. His paper was excellent.

Abby: Everyone's laughing is irritating me.
John: Your anger brings me great joy.

Bryn: [University of Miami, FL, my new employer] is building a new music building.
Our new friend, Greg: Will they have a pool in the center courtyard, with manatees swimming around?
Side note: getting to meet and hang out with Greg was a highlight of the trip, for sure. He's funny and awesome. 

Also, I included a joke in my short bio that Andrew Mead, the session chair, read to introduce me. It said:

Abigail ________ received a bachelor's degree in composition and a master's degree in music theory from Indiana University. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Western Ontario. Her dissertation applies Foucault's theories of power to the writings of Rameau. In her spare time, she enjoys writing about lighter topics, like George Crumb and death.

Andrew Mead said it was the best bio he'd ever heard, and it got a lot of laughs from the larger-than-I-expected group in the room.  Afterward, John said, "Wow, if that bio got such a big laugh, then you guys need more jokes."







*Because that's when OMG Dave and Carla are coming OMG!

November Foods 2011

Instead of a bunch of separate food posts, here's a round up of recipes we tried and enjoyed this fall.

First up: Vegan Broccoli Cheese Pasta Bake from Daily Garnish.

















It's amazing how blended tofu turns into a creamy sauce for this dish. You can use pretty much any shaped pasta and whatever green veggies you had on hand, though broccoli works extremely well. Our only complaint was that this didn't reheat very well the next day. The tofu on the pasta gets kind of hard, even though it was totally creamy the first time. But if you're feeding a large group, I would recommend it.

Next: Sweet Potato and Rosemary Soup from Giada (Food Network).

















My friend Katie sent me the recipe for this and I knew we'd both love it. It's basically a lot of sweet potato and broth, but then you mix in marscapone and it turns into magic. I think subbing almond milk and some Earth Balance would be a good way to make this vegan, and I almost tried it (but then I wanted to buy the cheese, so...you know what happened). We will definitely make it again.


ON TO DESSERT!

Numero 3: Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows from the PPK.

















These. are. amazing. I made them for a get together at Bryn and Djillian's house, and they were gone well before I left. I think next time I would make them a little smaller, since some of them were quite large. They are only slightly more involved than a regular cookie, in that you have to roll the peanut butter part into balls and then cover it with the chocolate to make one giant ball, but really, it's pretty fool proof. I'm looking for another excuse to make them because, seriously, these are the best cookies I've made all year.


Four: Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
























This recipe isn't on the PPK site, though they do have three other cupcakes up there. I suspect that if you google it, you could find the real thing. They have corn flour and almond meal in them and it gives them a little bit of a gritty texture. The cayenne pepper also gives them a little kick - nothing strong, just a bit - because apparently that's what Mexican hot chocolate tastes like. I've made a couple other recipes from this book, but these are by far my favorite.


Cinque: (Vegan) Pumpkin Pie Brownies, also from the PPK.

















I baked these a little longer than the directions called for, and I'm not sure if it made a difference. The final direction is to chill them for an hour and a half before serving, and at that point the pumpkin layer on top was fully set and DELICIOUS. I love these brownies! One of the taste testers said that they have the consistency of a cheese cake. I kind of went on dessert overkill last week, so I froze individual servings of these brownies. I'm optimistic that they will still be good after being frozen.

Six: Mashed Potatoes with Sage and Rosemary and White Gravy from Daily Garnish.
















Not a dessert, but I did serve these and the brownies along with a few other items on American Thanksgiving. We had a couple friends over for a casual meal and these potatoes were a hit. They have mashed apples in them that add the perfect amount of sweetness. We will probably make them again at Christmas!


And finally, chocolate dipped shortbread cookies.

























This recipe is from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and I first made it the day after we got El Mixo 3000 from Costco (we've been through so much since then, El Mixolito!). Unfortunately I baked them a few minutes too long and they were a little brown. Normally this wouldn't stop me from eating them or giving them away, but they were for a church fundraiser, and they're supposed to look nice so people will buy them. So I did what anyone would do - combine a little melted chocolate with a little milk, dip 'em, and cover them with Christmas cheer. Done and done. I think they sold well!

That's that for fall foods. I'm so proud that this list even includes two non-dessert recipes. It's that time of year again. I have lots more Christmas stuff to write about. In the mean time, it's after December 1st, so crank up the volume on the Christmas music!

The Comps: A Narrative Through Food

I decided the week before our exams started that I wouldn't upload any photos from my camera. "It's the comps!" I thought, "No fun of any kind!"

That turned out only to be partly true. For the first two weeks, I worked about 7-8 hours a day, every day, and I wrote a LOT in that time. But by the end of the second week, I was physically spent and really stressed. My body figured out a new way to manifest that anxiety in my skin:






Nope, not a sunburn.











That picture doesn't really convey how red my skin was (and that's good, it's less gross). Basically, it looked like I had a sunburn on my chest (just above my tank top) and neck, but I actually had some kind of rash. You can also sort of see the irritated skin around the corners of my mouth. A doctor at UWO gave me some stuff to put on it, and after I kind of hit a bottom with my stress after week 2, it went away. That seemed like a big warning sign to me that my 8-hour a day method was not working out.

So I took some time away from the exams each day, I was more liberal with break time, and I still finished with a couple of days to spare for final tweaking and editing. I guess I won't really know how it went until I know if I've passed, but I know for sure that I couldn't have finished them at all if I'd continued that way for all 4 weeks.

Today I uploaded the photos I took on my point-and-shoot camera during the comps, and of course, they are mostly food pics. So here's a very random account of some stuff that happened during the comps and just afterward.

Our last pre-comps meal: cajun catfish, hot crash potatoes, and whisky glazed carrots (based on this recipe, but with WAY less butter).















At one point during the exam our friend Dana had a party, so I made some vegan chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and iced them with very non-vegan peanut butter cream cheese frosting that was left over from the Easter cake we made.

















It was nice focus on something other than the exams and get out my cake deco kit. I was particularly proud of how the piping turned out on these! Also, I've had some hits and some misses with this cupcake book, but the basic chocolate cupcake recipe seemed pretty solid. I'll probably make these again.























Here they are perched on top one of my many piles of books for the comps. I ended up checking out probably 30 or so books and I initially stacked them in little piles in the living room.





Note the laundry, clean but not folded. That was the way of things during the comps.













Unrelated to the comps, John and I decided to get a small table to put some potted herbs on, and didn't find one we liked. Instead, we bought this new-to-us bookcase and figured it could do the job.


















The herbs looked nice on it, and I realized that I could put my books for the comps on it. Win win! But that window doesn't give the herbs enough light, so they went to live in the kitchen/balcony. Still, the new bookcase is probably our favorite piece of furniture.

John and I planned all our meals for the comps in advance, including this little number: grilled cheese on bread from the farmer's market, and roasted tomato and garlic soup. Nothing like comfort food when you have to write 60 pages in 4 weeks.


















Tuesday we had a brunch with a few friends to celebrate the end of the exams. It involved mojitos in some glasses I bought at Goodwill (score!).

















I've also been experimenting with variations in iced tea, including this one with either mint or basil, plus frozen raspberries. I usually add 3/4 tsp of simple syrup. It's easily spiked with whatever alcohol you prefer!
























So there you have it...a super random post about what we've been eating and doing for the past few weeks. I may write more about the comps themselves another time, but it's still hard to turn my brain off after thinking so intensely for 4 weeks. John and I have a lot of fun stuff coming up in the rest of June and later on in the summer that I will be sure to write about here. John and also joined an ultimate frisbee league, and I have some pictures to show off that I took with our fancy new camera (thanks, John's research grant!). Hope you're enjoying the summer so far!

Evergreen Cupcakes

John invited me to come to his final class women's studies class so that I could watch his presentation. I've joined him and his classmates after the class at the Grad Club a couple of times, and we went with them to the Santa Clause Parade, so I was looking forward to seeing them. I decided to make some cupcakes to bring to the class.



















Red velvet cupcakes seemed Christmasy (and it's my favorite kind of cake). But we're out of red food coloring, and my car was trapped in an ice cave, so I had to use what I had. And what I had was green.


















Last year when I was in a similar situation, I used blue dye and called them Blue Jean Cupcakes (in keeping with the fabric theme). This year, I wasn't sure what to call them...Elf Knicker cupcakes? Green Velvet (I'm guessing that's what elf pants are made of)? It looked more like a mossy green than anything, so I called them Evergreen Cupcakes, since that sounds more appetizing than "moss cakes."

The cancellation for Wednesday's class came in while I was making the icing for these cakes. I decided to finish the job and just bring them to a Christmas dinner party we went to for John's anthropology class on Thursday.










Well, yeah, I ate one. To make sure they aren't poison ivy! Ha! Get it? Poison ivy? They're gre- oh, nevermind.








The recipe is the same one from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book I've linked to before. Here it is again. They're delicious!

American Thanksgiving, 2010

Naturally, John and I don't get a day off for American Thanksgiving. Since I'm doing an independent study this semester, I can feel like I have a "day off" any time I want, except that then I would feel really guilty and behind my imaginary deadline. This year, we marked the American version of Thanksgiving by staying at home to work on papers and cook fairly normal, American Thanksgiving fare.

Since John and I don't really buy meat in Canada (because of the expense), we went with a meatless Thanksgiving and ended up using a few different vegan recipes from this website, which I love. The author over there had a couple different tofu preparations that looked delicious, and I ended up choosing the one I did because it involved making gravy, that was too goo to pass up.

So here are the things I made, some of which were for that day in particular, and some for other occasions.

Pumpkin Chocolate Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World.





Delicious.












Those were meant to be dessert after the holiday meal, and I think I'm the only one who had any room left to eat them. Also, they're great heated up in the microwave the next day.


Molasses Spice Cookies, from America's Test Kitchen Family Cook Book.



















Don't believe the recipe when it says this makes 2 dozen cookies - it made more than 2 and a half, and they weren't small, neither. I gave half of it to a local holiday bake sale and brought the other half for my students on Black Friday. One of my colleagues said these are better than the same cookie at Starbucks. Ahem.

Then we set the table and our friend Gwen came over for dinner.

















With just three people to feed, I tried not to let the menu planning get out of control (as I'm wont to do). We had three dishes, gravy, and the cupcakes. It was kind of perfect because I stuffed my face (especially with potatoes) but I didn't eat my weight in three kinds of potatoes.




















Here's what we served:

• Steamed green beans, with margarine, sea salt and pepper
• Crash Hot Potatoes (I could eat these every. day.)
• Pan-Fried Tofu with Mushroom Gravy, from fatfreevegan.com.
  

It was sort of hard to explain the tofu recipe to John until I made an analogy to chicken-fried steak. Then he was on board. This was a delicious recipe, and it reheats in the oven well. The breading is delicate, since it's just flour and some herbs. Our guest (who told me in advance that she would try anything once) said if I hadn't told her ahead of time, she would have thought it was chicken. The chicken seasoning is a pretty crucial ingredient for making it so good. I seriously couldn't wait to have this again the next night.

As for the gravy, our guest also told us that mushrooms are the one food she absolutely abhors, so we left them out of the gravy. Still, it was delicious and came together easily. I think if you added some finely chopped and sauteed celery, and maybe some bread cubes, it would taste just like regular stuffing. The mushrooms would make it even better and I hope we try that again. John and I were putting the gravy on everything on the plate by the end of the meal. I was concerned that it all might taste overly like soy, but it didn't at all.

I have no illusions that what we ate was "healthy" just because it was vegan. Fried and breaded tofu may not have have as much fat as similarly prepared beef, but it's still high in fat. I just figured it was a cheaper (and just slightly healthier) thing to eat in place of making a turkey or buying a cut of meat. This meal was a good example of how vegan cooking can still be somewhat indulgent and super flavorful when you want to splurge on the calories a little. We won't make it again right away, since you know, it's fatty and for a special occasion, but we will definitely make this tofu again.

I know I'm late, but I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, whenever you might have celebrated it!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes

This is the year of cupcakes.






















Carla and Dave gave me Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for Christmas. It's written by a couple of vegan woman who write a fun blog called The Post Punk Kitchen.






















I've heard some really mixed things about this book, and I've already had some mixed experiences myself.





















Carla likes it, and has successfully made a bunch of the recipes from it. My friend Matthew doesn't like it so much, though he also claims not to be a good baker in general.


The s'mores cupcakes didn't work out at all, but I blame myself. The thing is, I think I need to learn a few things about vegan baking. There are some ingredients for which you can substitute their dairy counterparts, like butter, but others that need whatever vegan thing they call for. Since I'm new to vegan baking, I'm not always sure which is which.


















With the s'more cupcakes, I used actual skim milk instead of the soy milk I should have used. The consistency is so different, I don't know what I was expecting to happen. The batter tasted great (or so I hear...) but it was really runny and they didn't bake up well at all. Live and learn.


Again, I'm going to avoid posting the recipe straight out of the book. Instead, I found someone else's post with the same recipe. Click here! We used regular skim milk and coconut extract instead of coconut milk (I was out). Other than that, we followed the recipe and topped them with powdered sugar instead of icing.

These cupcakes were amazing, and I'm not exaggerating. They had an incredible, soft, light texture, and the taste was really unique. Cayenne, cinnamon, and chocolate go really well together. If you're hesitant about buying the book, I'd recommend searching for similar recipes (using the book title) on the internet to see if you like them.

It snowed like crazy the whole time Dave and Carla were here. Here's a link to a video of it snowing outside the window, and then a good shot of the cupcakes. You can enjoy listening to my mundane descriptions of the snow.

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

Here's another great cupcake from the Martha Stewart book I got for Christmas.























Have I mentioned how much I love that book? Thanks, Mom!



















As you can see, these baked up as some of the most picturesque cupcakes I've ever made (with Carla's help, of course). These are basically little pound cakes, so their texture is pretty dense. Nevertheless, Dave still managed to shove an entire one in his mouth while they were still in town.


















We made the brown butter icing that Martha recommended.

Again, I'm going to avoid posting the recipe for these, but its easily accessible from her website. Click here for the recipe for the cupcakes and frosting!

We took these to Carla's friend Kevin and his fiance, who had us over for dinner before the hockey game. I was glad to get rid of some of them, since I knew we had more cupcakes in our plans.

Blue Jean Cupcakes

Enough with the non-food related posts. Onward to the cupcakes!



















Is that some blue batter, or is that some blue batter?




















I LOVE red velvet cake, so I was excited to try this recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book that I got for Christmas. Normally I'm not someone who is into all things Martha, but I borrowed this book from the Bloomington Library over the summer and was really impressed by it.



















As expected, Martha is very thorough in explaining how to make a zillion types of decorations and how to use 50 kinds of piping tips. The recipes in here seem pretty well tested, too. I've made this recipe as a two layer cake before and it worked perfectly. So hats off to Martha.


















The only glitch was that I didn't have any red food coloring. So we used the blue from the Martha Stewart Cake Decorating kit. They looked like a real denim-blue, hence the title of this post.

















They were so, so good. I wish I had time to make a batch right now and eat them all myself, but I won't, for several reasons.
We all know Martha has some savvy lawyers, so I'm not going to put the recipe directly in this post. However, a simple Google search led me directly to the same recipe on her website. Click here!


Stay tuned for more cupcakes and other recipes.