TWO Ballets over Christmas!

Over the holidays, I got to see not one but TWO ballet performances. How awesome is that!

The first one was when my friend and I saw the Sarasota Ballet and their "Masters of Movement" performance at the Sarasota Opera House. This was the second show of our subscription, and we both agreed we liked it better than the first one we saw. The "Masters of Movement" performance was a nice mix of class ballet and modern dance (and I usually don't care for the latter).

Image found here (photo credit: Frank Atura)

Divertimento No. 15

This first piece was choreographed by George Balanchine, a legend in the ballet world, and set to music by Mozart. It premiered in New York City in 1956, so it's been around for a long time. I totally forgot that I had seen the piece years ago at the Kennedy Center, that time performed by the New York City Ballet (read that blog post here). There is no story or plot, but rather is just meant to appreciate the "elegant and inventiveness" that is "playful, refined, and surprising" (notes from the program). I tried to watch it just to appreciate the movement of dance and the inherent fun in dancing. I really liked it!

While the video below features the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, you can get a taste of the piece:

Mozartiana

The second piece was also choreographed by Balanchine, and while the dancing is set to Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 4, that music is actually the Russian's orchestration of works by Mozart (so I guess kind of like a medley or remix?). This was also a classic piece, and the Sarasota Ballet's version featured some child dancers, too. This one felt a little less fun than the previous, but still just as beautiful.

This video was filmed in 1983 soon after Balanchine's death (he choreographed the piece in the early 80's just a few years before he died). But this is the full thing, so you can really appreciate it.

Image found here (photo credit: Frank Atura)

Jazz Calendar

Even though this was the modern dance piece, my friend and I liked it the best! It was so fun, so creative, and just very different! Sir Frank Ashton choreographed the piece in the late 1960's and based it on the nursery rhyme, "Monday's Child," creating a dance for each day of the week set to jazz music from the era. I had actually seen the Friday dance at the Sarasota Ballet's gala last year, but I didn't know that at the time! So it was cool seeing it again along with all the other "days." The music, written by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, is so lively, and each part was exciting with all the colorful costumes. It kind of reminded me of the "sweets" featured in the Nutcracker: each one is unique but just as fun as the others.

Here is a preview video from the Sarasota Ballet so you can see the awesome costumes and some of the artwork/structures that went along with the dancing:

What a great show! The next performance from our subscription isn't until March, so I'm glad I got to see another ballet show so soon. Just a few days later, my mom and I saw the Sarasota Ballet School perform The Nutcracker (I LOVE the Nutcracker and had not seen it the past two years, so I was really looking forward to it, especially because I got to see it with my mom!). 

There were 130 students (!) in the production from multiple studios, and we were so impressed! Their ages ranged from teeny tiny girls, maybe four years old, to the Sugar Plum Fairy (played by Kerry Shannon, a new member of the Sarasota Ballet Studio Company, and she was SO good!), who is probably in her early 20's. Because there were so many dancers, they had to get creative with the roles. For example, the Arabian Coffee dance (what they called the "desert dance" for some odd reason) featured three boys and three girls (six dancers total), when usually that piece is performed by only women or is featured as a pas de deux. But it's so nice that all the students could be included. 

Along with Shannon, we also thought Violet Olson, who played Clara, and Gregory Dempsey, who played the Nutcracker prince (Nathaniel?) did a great job as well. It was nice that, because they are both teenagers, they seem age-appropriate as a couple, as opposed to the traditional Nutcracker in which Clara, a young girl, is with a grown man prince. 

Here's a little video from a few years ago. These kids are really talented!

And you can check out this article in The Sun about this year's production, too!

Recipe: Toll House Nestle's Chunky Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

My mom bought me the Toll House Nestle's "3 Books in 1" more than 10 years ago, and it's my go-to cookbook for baking cookies. Over the holidays, I knew I wanted to make peanut butter cookies, and this recipe was a no-brainer.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I probably used half a cup, whatever I already had left.)
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped peanuts (I used peanut butter chips instead.)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Beat butter, both sugars, and peanut butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stire in morsels and peanuts.
3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Press down slightly to flatten into 1-inch circles.
4. Bake for 7-10 minute or until edges are set but centers are still soft. Cool on baking sheets for 4 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

These cookies ended up being a lot bigger and more fragile than I expected. So I think I made them too big and underbaked them (for fear of having crunchy cookies, I'd rather them be too soft than too hard!). My scoop was probably bigger than a tablespoon, so that could have been the problem; our peanut butter is also very oily, so that might have made them spread more, too. Next time, I would make them smaller, and I'd make sure I saw some browning on the bottoms of all the cookies before taking them out of the oven. These still tasted delicious, but they broke apart so easily, so they didn't look as good as I would have hoped. Certainly worth trying again!

Recipe: Easy Pumpkin Pie

 

I have made many a pumpkin recipe (I love all things pumpkin!), but I wanted to try a pumpkin pie recipe that I had never made before. I found this recipe on the Cooking Classy blog, and with only six ingredients, I knew this would be a piece of cake... or pie rather ;)

Ingredients

• 1 (9-inch) refrigerated pie crust (store-bought)
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions

1. Set oven rack in lowest position of oven and heat oven to 425° F.
2. Thaw the chilled pie crust according to package directions, unroll and then fit into pie dish. Decorate edges if desired.
3. In a mixing bowl whisk together pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk (scrape in any excess from can), eggs, pumpkin pie spice, and salt until well blended.
4. Pour mixture into pie crust then wiggle to level. Set on a baking sheet. If you don't want the crust edges to get overly dark you can cover them with a ring of aluminum foil.
5. Transfer pie on baking sheet to oven and bake on lowest rack in preheated oven 15 minutes. Leave in oven, reduce temperature to 350° F and continue to bake until pie is nearly set (filling no longer jiggles when moved), about 35 to 40 minutes.
6. Transfer to a wire rack and let pie cool at least 2 hours before slicing. For a chilled pie rest 1 hour at room temperature and then 2 hours in the fridge.

Unfortunately I did not actually have any pie crusts. My sister and mom went out shopping, and they only bought ONE box of pie crusts (2 crusts each) instead of TWO boxes, and I knew I had to use two pie crusts for the apple pie later (find that recipe here). So I used a Pillsbury dough sheet instead; since that cooks a lot faster, the edges of the crust burned almost immediately. I tried to salvage it but putting aluminum foil around the edges, but the damage has been done, and then the foil ended up tearing little holes at the top surface. So this pie (like my peanut butter cookies) did not look, but at least it tasted yummy! I usually make pumpkin pie with evaporated milk instead of condensed milk, so this version was creamier and thicker. I would certainly consider this a traditional pie, great for the holiday season!

Recipe: Coconut Curry

I had never made this recipe before, but it sounded delicious and I wanted to try it. I found the recipe on the Minimalist Baker blog (not baking, but still!). 

Ingredients

Curry

• 1 Tbsp coconut or olive oil
• 1 small onion (diced)
• 4 cloves garlic (minced // 4 cloves yield ~2 Tbsp or 12 g)
• 1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger*
• 1/2 cup broccoli florets (diced // or sub green bell pepper)
• 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 1/4 cup diced tomato
• 1/3 cup snow peas (loosely cut)
• 1 Tbsp curry powder
• 1 pinch cayenne* (optional // for heat)
• 2 14-ounce cans light coconut milk (sub full-fat for richer texture)
• 1 cup veggie broth (DIY or store-bought)
• Sea salt and black pepper

Coconut Quinoa

• 1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
• 1 cup white quinoa (rinsed in a fine mesh strainer*)
• 1 Tbsp agave nectar (optional)

Directions

1. If serving with coconut quinoa, begin by washing thoroughly in a fine mesh strainer. Add to a medium saucepan over medium heat and toast for 3 minutes. Add light coconut milk and 1/2 cup water (amount as original recipe is written // adjust if altering batch size). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the quinoa is light, fluffy and the liquid is absorbed. Set aside until serving.
2. In the meantime, heat a large saucepan or pot to medium heat and add coconut oil. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, broccoli and a pinch each salt and pepper and stir. Cook, stirring frequently, until softened – about 5 minutes.
3. Add curry powder, cayenne (or chili pepper), veggie stock, coconut milk, another healthy pinch of salt and stir. Bring to a simmer then reduce heat slightly and continue cooking for 10-15 minutes.
4. Add the snow peas and tomatoes in the last 5 minutes so they don’t overcook.
5. Serve over coconut quinoa and garnish with fresh lemon juice and herbs (optional).

My main problem with this recipe was the quinoa. Maybe my quinoa has it expired and it's old, or it's the fact that I didn't use light coconut milk but instead mixed cream of coconut with water. But my quinoa did not get light and fluffy. The water did not absorb! But the quinoa was not hard, and it did have a coconut flavor, so I went with it. I also changed a lot of the ingredients. I added cauliflower, shrimp, and bell pepper, while I didn't use broccoli, carrots, or snow peas (I used frozen peas instead). So I kind of made this recipe my own. I did use full fat coconut milk (mainly because I could not find the light version) for the curry itself.

Maybe it was because of the quinoa, but this felt more like a soup. Maybe if I made it again, I would make it more traditional with just rice. But it did taste good, and this makes A LOT of food, so you're guaranteed to have leftovers!

Recipe: Chicken Crescent Casserole

I love Pillsbury crescent rolls, but I usually eat them plain or fill them with something sweet (jam, etc.). Of course there are pigs-in-a-blanket, but I had never thought to make a chicken casserole with them until I round this recipe from Allrecipes. 

Ingredients

• 3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 2 (8 ounce) packages crescent roll dough, unrolled and divided into triangles
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
2. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium heat; pan-fry chicken until no longer pink in the center, about 10 minutes per side. Shred chicken.
3. Spread chicken over crescent roll triangles. Roll triangles, starting with the wider end, around chicken. Arrange rolls on prepared baking dish with the seam sides down. Place rolls into prepared baking dish.
4. Mix cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, milk, and cheddar cheese in a bowl; pour mixture over crescent rolls.
5. Bake in preheated oven until bubbly and rolls are golden brown, about 40 minutes.

The hardest part about this recipe is trying to fit the chicken into the crescent rolls and not let any fall out! But other than that, this recipe is super-easy to make. I even diced up the chicken and cooked it in the air fryer, which I think is a faster option. The photo online shows broccoli in the casserole, which clearly is not listed in the ingredients. So instead I made broccoli on the side so that we had a green vegetable with dinner (because otherwise, this dinner is not healthy AT ALL). But it sure does taste good!

Recipe: Vegan Lemon Olive Oil Cake

I had planned to bake with my vegan friend while my husband watched football (anything to keep ME from having to watch!), but then she had to visit her dad over the weekend, so we made this vegan lemon cake after work one day. We each brought some ingredients to the table (no pun intended), and I think it turned out very well! Thanks, Anthea from Rainbow Nourishments for the recipe!

Ingredients

Vegan Lemon Olive Oil Cake

• 2 ½ cups (315g) all-purpose plain flour spoon and leveled (note 1 for gluten-free option)
• 1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• Pinch of salt optional
• 1 cup (250g) dairy-free milk room temperature
• ½ cup (125g) extra virgin olive oil
• ⅓ cup (80g) lemon juice (note 2)
• ~2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract optional

To decorate (optional, see note 2 for alternatives)

• 1 ½ cups (150g) powdered sugar / icing sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup (150g) fresh berries

Instructions

To make the cake:

Preheat your oven to 180°C (355°F). Line an 8-inch (20 cm) loaf pan with parchment paper.

Add all the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) to a large bowl. Mix until there are no lumps. Add all the wet ingredients (milk, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla) and mix until just combined.

Pour the lemon cake batter into your prepared pan. Smooth the surface if necessary.

Bake the cake for 1 hour or until you can insert a toothpick in the center of the cake and there's no wet batter on it. As this is a moist cake, some crumbs on your toothpick are fine. If the surface of your cake is browning too quickly, carefully tent the pan with aluminum foil.

Allow the cake to cool in the loaf tin for 10 minutes then let the cake cool on a cooling rack.

To make the icing:

Add the lemon juice and sugar to a medium bowl and mix until smooth. Add more lemon juice or non-dairy milk for a thinner icing (like a lemon glaze) or more powdered sugar for a thicker icing.

Drizzle the icing over your cooled cake. If desired, top the cake with berries just before serving.

Store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for a day or in the fridge for up to 3 days. The cake can be stored without the icing in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Notes

1. This lemon cake works well with King Arthur's gluten-free measure for measure flour. If using, I suggest baking the cake for 5-10 minutes longer. Other gluten-free flour blends may produce different results.
2. You'll need around 2-3 medium lemons to yield the amount of lemon juice and zest for the recipe.
3. Alternatively, you can enjoy the cake plain, topped with fresh berries or a light dusting of powdered / icing sugar.

Her oven only went to 350°F (We couldn't get 355°F; the oven just automatically jumps to 375°F after that), but it wasn't an issue. And we used plain soy milk, so I can't speak to how the recipe would work or taste if you used almond milk, coconut milk, etc. We only ended up using two lemons, although they were on the large side. We used all the zest and most of the juice in the cake, but put a little bit of juice in the icing (along with Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey whiskey, since we like boozy icing!). And rather than decorate the whole cake with berries, we decorated each PIECE with blueberries and raspberries, which meant more berries per slice!

This recipe was easy to make, and I would certainly do it again (as long as my friend provides the non-dairy milk!). 

Recipe: Apple Fritter Loaf Cake

 I am amazed by all the fun recipes there are on Instagram! I found this recipe from Hailey Pipher @shelikesmilk. Another easy and delicious recipe, just how I like it!

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup brown sugar 
• 3 tsp cinnamon 
• 2  1/2 apples, peeled and rough chopped
• 2/3 cup + 3 tbsp granulated sugar 
• 1/2 cup softened butter
•  2 eggs 
• 1  1/2 tsp vanilla 
• 1  1/2 cups flour 
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp milk 
• 1 cup powdered sugar 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prep your 9x5” loaf pan with a non-stick spray or line with parchment paper.

2. Mix 1/3 cup brown sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl, set aside. Toss cubed apples with 2 tbsp granulated sugar and remaining 1 tsp of cinnamon in a separate bowl, set aside.

3. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat 1/2 cup softened butter and 2/3 cup granulated sugar together until fluffy, approx. 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, then continue to mix. 

4. Gently mix flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl, then slowly add to creamed butter mixture until fully combined. Add 1/2 cup milk into this mix until smooth. 

5. Pour half the batter into the lined loaf pan and add half of the apple mixture on top of the batter in the pan. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture on top of the apple layer. 

6. Repeat and add the remaining batter overtop and top with remaining apples and brown sugar mix. Use a knife or toothpick to gently swirl the apple mixture into the batter, ensuring the apples on top layer or patted into the loaf batter. 

7. Bake until toothpick inserted into middle of loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour. Allow loaf to cool on wire rack after baking. 

For the Icing: 

Combine and mix powdered sugar with remaining 3 tbsp of milk. Add more milk or powdered sugar to reach desired consistency. Drizzle loaf with glaze.

Every step of this recipe is so yummy! The sugar cinnamon mixture (I didn't pack the brown sugar since the directions didn't say to), the sugared apples, the batter itself... so good! I used one large apple and a small one, and I melted half the butter (I find working with melted butter is much easier). I also added a tablespoon of vanilla extract to the powered sugar (to replace one tablespoon of milk) to add some extra flavor. I actually ate mine without icing because I couldn't wait for it to cool: I wanted to eat it NOW! And it was very good, even without the icing!