So with the leftover eggnog I have (read about that in my previous blog post), I tried another baking recipe to use some of it up. This time, I baked a loaf of frosted eggnog bread courtesy of the Inside Bru Crew Life blog. Dessert breads, like banana breads, are very easy to make. You just throw everything together in a bowl, pour the mixture into a loaf pan, and bake it! So I figured I'd try it.
INGREDIENTS
FOR
THE BREAD
·½
cup butter, softened
·½
cup sugar
·½
cup brown sugar
·1
teaspoon rum extract
·1
egg
·2
cups flour
·1
½ teaspoon baking powder
·½
teaspoon baking soda
·1
teaspoon salt
·1
teaspoon nutmeg
·1
cup eggnog
FOR
THE GLAZE
·1
cup powdered sugar
·2
Tablespoons eggnog
·pinch
of nutmeg
INSTRUCTIONS
1.Preheat oven to 350°degrees. Spray an 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch bread pan with nonstick spray.
2.Beat the butter and sugars
until combined. Add the extract and egg and beat again until creamy.
3.Stir together the flour,
baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg.
4.Slowly add the flour
mixture alternately with the eggnog into the butter mixture until everything
has been combined.
5.Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 58-60 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 15
minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
6.Stir together the powdered
sugar and remaining eggnog until a thick frosting comes together.
7.Spread it over the top of
the cooled bread. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Let set. Store in a loosely sealed
container on the counter.
Since my eggnog already has alcohol in it, I didn't add the rum extract; it would already taste boozy enough! And I tried the bread first without any frosting. I thought that if it tasted good like that, why bother making the glaze? And it was delicious! It wasn't dry, unlike the eggnog cookies I made recently. So if you like icing, go for it, but otherwise, save yourself some time and just make the bread. Delish!
I decided not to buy a ballet subscription from the Kennedy Center this year, hoping I could get discounted tickets throughout the season. That has not happened, so I haven't been able to see many ballets (I didn't even get to see the Nutcracker at Christmas time!). But my friend was able to get some tickets during a Black Friday sale (I didn't even know the Kennedy Center did that!), so we went to see the United Ukrainian Ballet perform Giselle.
Cristina Shevchenko (not to be confused with Christine Shevchenko from ABT) played Giselle, and Oleksei Tiutiunnyk played Count Albert. She was beautiful, but Tiutiunnyk's massive curly hair was distracting... Image found here
I think Giselleis a pretty well-known ballet, perhaps just a step below something like Swan Lake. I had certainly heard of it before, but I didn't really know the story (other than assuming the main character is a woman named Giselle). There was a lot of pantomiming that was a bit over-the-top, but I guess it has to be since there's no talking; I was able to figure out that two different men were in love with Giselle, but I wasn't able to figure out that her mother was trying to dissuade Giselle from dancing because her daughter had a weak heart... After the first act, my friend and I looked it up on Wikipedia so we'd know what to expect for the second act (since the Kennedy Center still does not offer paper programs since COVID, we weren't able to read what the show was about; I HATE the digital programs, particularly since I can't take notes to look at later when I'm writing blog posts like this!). I'm glad we looked the synopsis up, since I'm not sure I would have 100% understood what was going on.
The second act features ghosts of women who were wronged by men. I wouldn't have known they were ghosts with their pretty dresses and graceful movements. That's perhaps one area where modern dance is better than ballet: there's more room for creativity! Although at one point some of them looked like they were floating, which was cool! Giselle's ghost also "magically" disappears into her grave at the end, which was kind of an interesting effect, too. Image found here.
I was excited to see this particular company perform, firstly since I had never seen them before, but mostly because of the conflict happening between Ukraine and Russia for the last year. The company was actually formed after these dancers had fled Ukraine due to the violence. Their choreographer is Alexei Ratmansky, who has worked for the Bolshoi and Mariinsky ballet companies (arguably the best in the world) and ABT in New York (and soon to be with the New York City Ballet), so it is amazing that he is involved with this group. I think the dancers and others in the company are very brave, and it was moving to see the dancers hold up the Ukrainian flag and sing the Ukrainian national anthem at the end of the show. Even people from the audience were singing along!
The show is sold out, but here's a video clip you can watch of the performance:
Now that I know the story of Giselle, I would certainly see it again. It would be fun to compare this particular performance with that of another ballet/dance company.
My boyfriend bought some
alcoholic eggnog for my parents this Christmas, but since I had bought them the
same thing (but from Twin Valley Distillers), he tried giving it to a
friend. But she wasn't too into it, so she gave it back, and my boyfriend
doesn't like eggnog, so he gave it to me. BUT what am I going to do with a
OUNCES bottle of alcoholic eggnog? So I immediately looked up baking recipes that
use eggnog, and I found a lot I was interested in! So I thought I'd start with
these eggnog snickerdoodles from the Lil' Luna blog.
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line two
large baking sheets with parchment or spray with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand
mixer, beat together butter and 1 cup sugar, until light and fluffy. Add the
egg, rum extract, and eggnog, and mix to combine. Add the flour, salt, baking
soda, and nutmeg, and mix until a soft dough forms.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the ½
cup sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Scoop the dough into one-inch balls and roll
in the sugar mixture. Place on the prepared baking sheets.
4. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until lightly
browned on the bottom. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling
rack.
5. While the cookies are cooling, whisk together the powdered sugar
and enough eggnog to make an icing that is easy to drizzle but not too runny.
Pipe snowflakes onto the cooled cookies, or drizzle with the icing.
My first mistake was that I forgot to buy butter
when I went to the store to get eggs specifically for this recipe (face-palm).
But I did have a banana, and fun fact: one banana can be used to equal one
stick of butter in baking. Now while this tastes fine, I'm not sure if it
impacted the texture of the dough: it was so sticky. There was
no way I could roll that dough into anything. So I made them into drop cookies
and sprinkled (or in some cases dumped) the sugar mixture on top before baking; I also used pumpkin pie spice because I thought I didn't have nutmeg and then found it afterward (double face-palm).
And I did make the icing, but I only put it on a few of the cookies my friend
and I ate that night; baked goods are easier to store without a wet, sticky
icing.
These did taste good, but next time I'll
remember the butter! Stay tuned for more of these eggnog recipes (which I realize are coming belatedly...).
Sorry this blog post is coming so late, since the Interfusion Festival happened over MLK weekend! But I've been going through a job transition, so it's been hectic lately!
This year, I took more dance workshops than anything else. Part of me wonders if, now that I've been to Interfusion several times and have had those experiences of connecting with complete strangers, the novelty of that has worn off. I also wasn't as open to sharing with strangers as I have been previously; I would rather talk to my boyfriend about my thoughts/feelings, since the two of us could actually do something about it (a stranger is just a sounding board).
Vinny and his partner are great Zouk teachers! Photo credit: Dan D.
I took the Brazilian Zouk beginner workshop with VinÃcius "Vinny" de Souza, which I did last year as well. Interfusion ends up being the only time I dance Zouk! I really enjoyed doing it this year, so I looked into dancing with District Zouk here in DC. But it's so expensive! If you want a lesson on top of a social dance, it costs between $20-$35 per dance every week. In comparison, which I was blues dancing every week pre-pandemic, I paid less than $10. And if you can't dance every week, there's almost no point in doing it (at least when you're just learning), because you'll easily forget what you've learned so far. So I guess I'll just have to wait until NEXT Interfusion to get my Zouk fix again! Here's a video of Vinny and his dance partner doing some Brazilian Zouk:
Ann Kite leads 5Rhythms workshops, and she is so good! Photo credit: Nicole G.
And while ecstatic dance is very different from a social dance like Brazilian Zouk, I think I enjoy it just as much. I made sure to take a 5Rhythms workshop with Ann Kite; I had done this with her at least once previously, and I knew I'd love it. It's just so freeing to dance around like no one is watching, just moving your body however feels good. I think she was offering the workshop one evening and one morning, but I prefer to do it at night: it's a great way to end the day, just shaking everything off. She does qualify that some people will start to "feel feelings" during the dance, since emotions can rise from letting go in this way. That's never happened to me before, but it did to my friend that time, so it really is a thing!
This was a group of us from the "5 Elements Dance" workshop. Photo credit: Ross L.
There were two workshops that weren't necessarily connected, but I made them so. On Friday night for my final workshop of the day, I changed which class I'd be in at the last minute. I decided to take "The Science of Pleasure: Tuned In and Turned On" with Nilgun "Nil" Akselioglu. The main exercise of the class was to envision an experience of pleasure in intimacy and consider what made it pleasurable, particularly the context: What time of day was it? How did your partner smell? How were you feeling about yourself? And then on the flipside, we considered a time of intimacy that was not pleasurable, and contemplated the factors for that. We were told to write it down, but I just thought about it in my head (especially since I had already had these thoughts on my own; I'm a pretty reflective person in general.). So then I took all of those thoughts and brought them to my final Interfusion workshop of the weekend: the "5 Elements Dance" with Peter Petersen. I have taken many workshops with him in the past, so I knew I'd enjoy it. This dance was similar to 5 Rhythms, except there was more of a manifestation/action behind it; you would picture a goal or dream you have, and then through dance you would nurture that dream, disperse the things holding you back from achieving it, and then send it out into the universe to help make it happen. So the goal I pictured was related to that pleasure in intimacy that I was thinking about the day before. I really enjoyed the ecstatic dance aspect of this workshop, and I liked how I could actually picture my dream moving through these cycles. I would definitely recommend it!
There were a few workshops that didn't quite meet my expectations, mostly because of how they were marketed. I had hoped "Individual Moments in a Partner Dance" would give me some styling tips, but we weren't really taught styling moves that we could incorporate in social dancing (although I did learn what Urban Kiz was!). "Grounding in Movement" was supposed to be a Zouk lesson on top of the bootcamp, but it was SO SLOW! It felt like the most beginner class ever. I didn't even learn anything new; I was bored the entire time. "Solo Musicality" sounds like dancing on your own and listening to the music to inspire your moves. But instead we learned an entire dance routine together, which is not solo at all! I felt like a little kid practicing for a dance recital. I think if these workshops had been "sold" for what they really were, I wouldn't have signed up for them and would have taken something else.
I also took two workshops that didn't last their fully allotted time. The "Gong resonance" class I took had to end early because, while we were trying to meditate, a laughing yoga workshop was happening next door, messing with our vibes! Hopefully the organizers will think about things like that when deciding which rooms should house which workshops. And this wasn't the only workshop to end early: "Festival Meditation" in the last slot of the day on Friday lasted only 30 minutes. Had I known it wouldn't take the whole hour, I would have left earlier so I could have eaten dinner at a reasonable hour. I think the instructors also need to be clear with the organizers about the true length of their classes.
Luba Evans led the "Absolute Love" workshop. I wasn't a fan, but the young woman on the left loved it so much that she now co-presents the workshop! So clearly it works for some people! Photo credit: Nicole G.
I was disappointed how many of the workshops focused on your negative energies/feelings/vibes, like releasing your anger or confronting your traumas. I understand that some people need that, but I don't: I'm a very happy, positive person who hasn't had awful experiences like that. So when the instructors of the "Absolute Love" and "Ying Yoga and Your Chakras" workshops kept bringing stuff up like that, it kind of brought me down and made me less happy ("Raga Fusion Kirtan" was the opposite, thank goodness. Hemant Kapoor was all about peace, love, and happiness in his mantras!"). I wonder if there is a way to market those specifically, like having the words "anger" or "trauma" in the title. Or perhaps the instructors could balance out the negative feelings with positive ones.
I really liked Hemant's good vibes! Photo credit: Ross L.
We were dancing and singing; very kumbaya! That's my ponytail in the front! Photo credit: Ross L.
The main bummer of this year is that I actually had something stolen! It's unfortunate when you've spent all weekend with this beautiful community, only to have someone take something that isn't theirs. In general it's a very trusting space; people leave their coats, bags, etc. around the rooms. I had put the quarter-zip not near my bag when I was getting warm while dancing, and when the workshop was over, it was gone. I want to be charitable and give this person the benefit of the doubt: maybe they mistook the item for theirs. But I think someone saw that it was a nice Under Armour item and stole it. Luckily, things are just things, and they can be replaced. But it was just a sad way to end the whole weekend.
Want to read more about the Interfusion Festival? Here are my many other blog posts from previous years:
I had two ripe bananas that were perfect for banana bread, but I didn't have any eggs. So I went searching online for an eggless banana bread recipe. I found this one first, but it doesn't give any measurements for the ingredients! So that was worthless. But after a little more digging, I came upon this recipe from the Hebbar's Kitchen blog.
Ingredients
3 ripened bananas
3/4 cup sugar (or 1 cup depending on the sweetness of the bananas)
1/2 cup oil or butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup maida/plain flour/all-purpose flour
3/4 cup wheat flour/atta
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup walnuts
Directions
Firstly, take ripe bananas and cut them into pieces.
Also add sugar and mash the bananas.
Furthermore, add oil and vanilla extract.
Also sieve maida, wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
Blend and combine all of the dry ingredients with the banana puree.
Furthermore, add walnuts and fold gently.
Transfer the batter into a cake mold or bread mold.
Pat the tray twice to remove the air incorporated into the batter.
Place the tray into preheated oven. Bake the cake at 180° Celsius or 356° Fahrenheit for 40 minutes.
Further, allow the cake to cool completely.
And later cut to slices and serve.
Finally, serve the banana bread or store in airtight container.
Even this recipe is not great (I laughed at the "furthermore" phrases in the instructions), but at least it gave me measurements! I only used all-purpose flour (which I did not bother to sieve), and I used melted butter (I find that's easiest to work with, but use the oil if you're trying to make this recipe vegan.). I also added chocolate chips along with the walnuts (who doesn't like chocolate chip banana bread?). The recipe doesn't say to spray the bread mold, but as an experienced baker, I feared the bread would stick if I didn't do it. Also note that the recipe never says to remove the bread from the mold... Because this is such a rudimentary recipe, I wasn't sure how this banana bread was going to turn out.
Well, it stuck. And that was after I sprayed the pan, which the recipe doesn't mention! Perhaps I tried to remove the bread while it was still warm, unsure about that. BUT I will say it tastes delicious! I would not be able to tell at all that there is no egg in this banana bread. It may not look great, but it tastes good!
One of my favorite parts of the holidays is making sweet treats with my mom. She was watching a video in which Joanna Gaines was making her Aunt Mary's cherry mashers dessert, so we thought we'd try making them.
Ingredients
One 7.2-ounce package Betty Crocker Home Style Fluffy White Frosting Mix (see Cook’s Note)
1 pound powdered sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) margarine, at room temperature
One 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
One 20-ounce package chocolate almond bark, broken into smaller pieces
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the frosting mix, powdered sugar, margarine, maraschino cherries, vanilla, and condensed milk. Starting on low speed, then gradually turning the speed to medium, beat until the mixture has a fluffy consistency, about 4 minutes.
Form the cherry mixture into 1-inch balls using a small (.75-ounce) cookie scoop. Place on the prepared baking sheet and freeze until firm, 1 to 2 hours.
To make the chocolate coating: In a medium saucepan, combine the chocolate bark, chocolate chips, peanuts, and vegetable oil and melt over medium heat, mixing to combine.
Working in batches, remove the cherry balls from the freezer and dunk them one at a time with a fork or spoon into the chocolate mixture. Allow any excess chocolate to drip off over the pan, then return the balls to the parchment paper.
Refrigerate until completely hardened, about 20 minutes.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
TIP: If you can’t find or don’t want to use the powdered frosting mix, omit the mix and decrease the amount of sweetened condensed milk to 3 tablespoons.
One thing that was tricky about this recipe was that, in the video my mom showed me, Gaines does not use the frosting mix (like in the tip above). So that threw us off. Even in the official recipe, while it says to see "cook's note," nowhere does the page say "cook's note." It's the "tip" I've included above. So this recipe is a little confusing.
The cherry center is very soft even after being in the freezer for a few hours, so you have to move quickly. And we only melted a bag of chocolate chips and one bar of semi-sweet chocolate to cover the chocolate centers; we didn't bother with the peanuts or sprinkles. It got a bit messy with all the melted chocolate.
But what was even messier: as I was carrying the tray of these desserts down the spiral staircase to put them in the freezer, I fell down the stairs. I'm actually amazed how many of the desserts survived my fall, but my pants were covered in chocolate, and I was left with quite the bruise on my lower hip:
So these desserts had to be worth it! I thought they were good, but they are really rich. They are more like candy than cookie, so the smaller, the better. My mom said she probably wouldn't bother making this recipe again, but I thought they tasted pretty good, even if they didn't quite look like the picture:
Pre-heat oven to 325° F. Line an 8-inch pan with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
In a large bowl with mixer, combine cold butter, sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, and egg together until smooth.
Slowly add flour to the dough, mixing until butter turns slightly creamy. Batter will be sticky, not crumbly.
Transfer 3/4 of the dough into prepared pan, pushing it down with hands to smoothen and spread it. Dough should be pressed firmly into the pan.
Spread the raspberry jam over the dough. Crumble the remaining dough over the jam, making sure to evenly disperse it over the filling. Ensure the edges of the pan have enough crumble, as the bars will be difficult to handle without crumble around the sides.
Bake for 37-45 minutes or until the crumble on top is golden brown.
Allow to cool before glazing/slicing.
Now for how it actually turned out...
I didn't have any almond extract, so I just used 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract. At no point did my dough look "creamy" or "smooth." It was crumbly the entire time. And my raspberry jam was so liquidy that I didn't even spread it: I poured it over the dough in the pan. So there was no leaving any edges like the recipe suggests; even adding some corn starch to the jam didn't help. And after 40 minutes, I still didn't have a golden brown topping, but I was afraid to overcooked it, so I removed it from the oven even though it was still a little blonde. I didn't bother making the glaze (the full recipe includes the instructions for that); I figure I can always used store-bought icing if I feel like icing these.
While it doesn't look great (actually looks almost identical to my previous recipe), this one tastes much better and the soft texture is divine. It's a little dry, but not nearly like the other one. I also think I might have used oats that could have been stale or too old, so that didn't help with the other recipe, so I didn't have to worry about that with this one. I would try to make these again, but maybe with a higher-quality jam that actually has some substance to it.
