music post #1

Yesterday my friend linked me to another blog, focusing on music, called In the Round. It sort of inspired me to dedicate a post to the songs I love the most (at least the ones I like that come to the top of my head right now!)

I'll use my librarian-esque skills here, and categorize these babies by genre! So, for your listening pleasures (click the links) here are some songs that are great (in my opinion...):

I'll start with some Jazz.

1) Miles Davis - So What. Off his 1959 album, Kind of Blue. This chart is one of my all time favourites, and especially Miles' solo after the introduction. I remember in my Jazz History class in 3rd year we were learning about Miles, and the prof sort of started to scat the first 3 notes of the solo ("bee ba doo"), and the whole class chimed in and we did the whole thing. It was one of those wicked moments.

2)  Louis Armstrong & His Savoy Ballroom Five - Tight Like This. This was recorded on Okeh in 1928. Parts of Louis' solo in this chart are SO amazing, totally funky, years beyond its time. What a player. I love when he sort of breaks away from the stop time and starts swinging like nuts. I have a feeling that a lot of people start and stop at Louis & Ella sort of stuff (ie: What a Wonderful World...) and forget the stuff he recorded before he was Louis.

3) Charlie Parker - Lover Man. This is from Bird's Dial sessions, recorded in 1946 or 1947, not sure which. These recordings took place at a particularly terrible time in his VERY tumultuous life. The story behind this record is one of those jazz legends; During the time of these recordings, Bird had turned from heroin to booze after moving to California briefly. For this particular session, he had drank about a quart of whiskey, and his producer had to physically hold him up to the mic for this chart, and you can hear him struggling to get notes out at the beginning. On another chart, called Bebop, you can hear the trumpet player shout "BLOW!" on his second eight bars. He was a genius, no matter how troubled.

Stuff from the Sixties:

1) Crosby, Stills and Nash - Helplessly Hoping. I'll link you to the Woodstock footage of this just for effect, though it's not as good as the record (CSN). This song is gorgeous (love the alliteration), and might be one of my favourites ever. These 3 voices blend so well.

2) Joni Mitchell - California I heard this song for the first time, and promptly fell in love with it when I was (fittingly) driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in California a few summers ago. I can't get enough of Joni. I just learned Case of You on guitar, so that's exciting!

3) Rolling Stones - Rocks Off. This is off one of their best records Exile on Main Street. It's a super catchy song, the horns are great. It was not actually put out in the 60s, but it's still great.

4) Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road. Ok, now I'm really not in the 1960s anymore, but this song ROCKS. There is no chorus, it's pure story. Amazing. BRUUUUCE!! He really is the man.

5) Bob Dylan - Girl from the North Country. What a poet. Also a douche bag. But, aside from that, this song is one of my all time favourite Bob Dylan tunes, a totally beautiful piece of music. Old Bob melts my heart.

To be continued...

not quite panic mode...

So, on Monday I have 3 things due. A law assignment, an annotated bibliography, and a paper about knowledge management. I have finished 2 out of the 3, so I think I'm in pretty decent shape. Also, I've done all the research for the paper. It should be not TOO hard to pound out, so I just have to sit down and work hard tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday to finish! I basically plan on locking myself in the library until everything's finished. Tonight, Mallory and I are going to have a study date, which I hope will be productive! My brain is not working yet, though, so it better hurry up and start before 8 pm!!!

On another note, today after I finished working on my annotated bibliography I came home and made a pretty tasty dinner! Earlier on in the week I had purchased some roma tomatoes, gnocchi, and bacon, not really knowing what I was going to do with it, but knowing enough that I wanted to put them together in some way. So today I stopped by the grocery store and bought a box of baby spinach to add another colour to the "dish".

 
I cut up about 4 slices of bacon (which means I have leftovers for a wake-up fatty!) and fried it, put some olive oil, chopped garlic (from a jar), 2 diced tomatoes and a few good handfuls of spinach into a pan.I tossed it all to coat all the veggies with the oil/garlic, and let the spinach wilt a bit. I also used a new knife (very sharp...), and like the genius I am, cut a good chunk out of my pinky finger. Ouch!

I added the cooked bacon in with the veggies, and also put a few glugs of balsamic vinegar in the pan and let that simmer while the gnocchi cooked.

When the potato bugs finished cooking, I drained them and then added them to the pan with the veg/bacon and tossed it all up with a bit of Parmesan cheese! It was very good, and the balsamic added a nice zing to everything. Voila! 

My only issue with the whole thing is that it just tasted so much like everything I ever make ever. I need to branch out a bit from tomatoes and spinach and pasta and parm. Though, the chili plans I have are straight up tomatoes, I feel like even that's a bit different. So, I am now inspired! I shall make new things!

best friends, paper writing...

This is me and my best friend on her dock in July. I wish it was still July.

Instead it's shitty November, and we are stuck inside writing papers about Jackie Jormp-Jomp and knowledge management. But, really, we are watching internet videos and eating crap. And by crap I mean twizzlers and coffee crisps.

I bought ingredients for 2 major meals. Stay tuned! One will come tomorrow, another on Sunday, I think!

Nice is nice!

The plan is to take an intensive french language class for the month of July in Nice!

Seems like a great plan to me!

Stay tuned...

for your (judicial) consideration...

I have been working very hard on this legal librarianship assignment which is due in a week. It is kind of hard and very confusing. That is all I have to say about that!

As an aside, I have plans to make myself a lovely chili this week. Methinks Friday or Saturday. And boy, do I make a mean chili! Turkey! Beans! Tomatoes from a can! A cowboy's fantasy. Also, I freeze some and have leftovers for nights when I have no food. Smart cookie, I am.

I think I would like to work hard(-ish) on this blog. One day, hopefully I can get it to the point where I don't mind showing it to people...

Side note: maybe I should make the cookies from the most recent Orangette post? They look really tasty, and she big-ups them for realz. Oh! Perhaps I will make these for Nicholas' surprise-Christmas-cookie surprise! Ausgeizeichnet!

...or, on second thought, I can just make them for myself and eat them ALL BY MYSELF! Muahahahaha.

...this blog sucks. And I am le tired.

pumpkin pizza! trousers!

Achtung! I had a very productive weekend, in that I was able to pull off the pumpkin pizza (alliteration, what whaaat!?!), buy a pair of trousers and a very lovely sweater, and also see my brother, get work done, and talk to various people who I needed to talk to.

 

For the pizza, since the grocery store was out of flatbread, I just picked up a pack of naan and worked with that. Used a little pumpkin, cut it up and roasted it with some rosemary, olive oil and half a red onion. When that was basically done roasting, I took it out of the oven, got rid of the pumpkin peel, cut the gourd up a bit smaller and loaded the pumpkin/onion mixture onto the naan with a bit more oil, and dotted it with goat cheese. Baked that until it looked about right (crunchy naan edges, melty cheese) and voila! It really was something! Very tasty, especially with a glass of beer!

As for the fashions, I was lucky enough to find exactly what I wanted at Zara. I bought a lovely cable knit mustard coloured sweater with leather elbow patches (!!) and some navy high waisted trousers. Wasn't sure about the pants, so I wore them around today. I like them now. But I also spilled gravy on the crotch, so they are mine by default. 

you're no good

Of course I didn't make it to the gym this morning! I was too busy sleeping and dreaming about baking french macaroons. For serious.

So, I guess that means I will have to make them soon! David Lebovitz has a great recipe on his blog which I will try on a Saturday afternoon sometime soon.

For the rest of the day, I will be doing some homework, and then heading over to Urban Outfitters for some trousers and a sweater. Also downloading the Women of SNL special that I missed on Monday. 20% finished? That means I read my article and start writing, it will be done in time for a quick lunch, then shopping time!!!

Un fois de plus...

And thus begins another feeble attempt to document my happenings, though I almost guarantee this one will be deleted in a matter of months. The ideal situation here would be, on top of school and work, I'd come home and whip together some delicious concoction and document it. On weekends I'd fill my apartment with baking/roasting smells, and also have some classy photos of the people and things I love to share. So far all I've got is tupperware.

Anyways. The plan now is that tomorrow I wake up nice and early to go work out (HA. That's never happened.), come back home and finish writing an article synopsis, begin research on the paper I have due in a week, as well as email a few groups re: projects. Then, it's off to Urban Outfitters for some pants and a sweater and then Nicholas' house for some pizza and wine (see below for pizza plans!). Big plans.

And with that, today's recipe! Tasted pretty delicious. Especially since I ate it right out of the pot (less dishes. You know how it is...)

It came from smittenkitchen.com. It was delicious, but I doubt it'll keep well. The cheese already looks a bit dodgy...might be the lemon? We'll see...

Barely following the recipe, I basically just put some olive oil, mushrooms, rosemary, asparagus (cut up), lemon juice and lemon zest into a frying pan. Also, cooked the rigatoni. Then mixed in 3/4 of a small package of soft goat cheese. Mixed it together, and voila! Rigatoni with asparagus, mushrooms, goat cheese, and lemon.

Tomorrow: Flatbread pizza! I'm thinking of getting rid of one of the little pumpkins from last weekend (seeds!), roasting that with some olive oil, salt and rosemary. Also, putting it with walnuts and goat cheese on herbed flatbread and making some sort of 'pizza'. Yum!

EDIT: Ate the pasta the next day, it was not bad!