Beans!

Today I spent most of the afternoon making Brazilian-style beans, so I thought I would share the recipe.  This is my interpretation of the way my friend taught me how to make it.  There are endless different variations on this theme, but this is a version that I make "everyday" kind of beans.  I like to use Roman beans rather than pinto beans, because they don't disintegrate into the mixture quite so much, but pinto beans will work fine too.  The broth is optional.  It give a slightly richer feel to the beans.  I always cook the full pound of beans, since it takes so long to prepare, and then I freeze the leftovers to reheat later.  It will keep for months in the freezer, or about a week or two in the refrigerator.

Note: many people are familiar with the Brazilian dish feijoada.  That is more of a special occasion dish, made with many more different types of meats.  This dish here is for everyday meals and only uses sausage.  It can also be cooked without sausages for a vegetarian version.

Cooking time: 4 hours + 4-8 hours of soaking          Active cooking time: 1 hour          Serves 10-15 people

1 pound dry pinto or roman beans
1 package chicken or vegetable broth (optional)
2 large chorizo sausages
1 head of garlic
1 medium onion
1 green bell pepper
1 tomato
2-3 bay leaves
salt, pepper, and cilantro to taste

1. 8-12 hours before you would like to serve your beans, sort through them and remove any that are shriveled or hard, or any tiny stones that may be accidentally included in the package.  Soak the beans in a very large bowl of water.  I usually do this step the night before, so when I wake up in the morning, I can start preparing the beans for a large lunch.

2. About four hours before you want to eat (or the next morning), remove the beans from the water.  Throw away any floating beans, as they will be bad.

3. Measure the volume of the beans in a liquid measuring cup, and then place them in a very large soup pot.  Add the broth to the pot, then add water, to come to a total volume of five times the volume of the beans.  For example, if you have one cup of beans, you should add five cups of liquid.  The more broth you use, the richer the beans will taste, but you should use a maximum of one package of broth, to not make it too thick.  If I cook one pound of beans, I usually have to add about 20 cups of liquid.

4. Turn the heat on high.  Stir in about 2 teaspoons each of salt and pepper, and add the bay leaves.  At this point, you can go do something else while you wait, but make sure to reduce the heat if the pot starts to boil over.

5.  After about an hour of cooking, cut the sausages up into rounds of about 1/8 inch thickness.  Add them to the beans and stir.

6.  After the beans have been cooking for a total of two hours, put about one cup of the bean liquid into a blender.  It's ok if some beans get in there too, but avoid putting meat in the blender.  Add the garlic, onion, cilantro, bell pepper, and tomato.  Blend until very smooth and return to pot.

7. Cook another hour or so until a bean is easily smashed between your tongue and the roof of your mouth.  People prefer different amounts of liquid.  I usually cook a bit longer to remove more of the liquid from the beans.  Serve over rice with farofa (fried mandioc flour - available at Brazilian grocery stores).

Music I Love #3

Today, for a change of pace, I would like to share with you one of my favorite non-classical music groups, The White Stripes.  I dream of seeing a live concert of theirs, but unfortunately it seems that they probably won't ever tour again.

This was the first of their music videos that I ever saw, and it's so amazing! I read somewhere that they had to make more than 30 identical drum sets to create these effects.  My two favorite parts are at 2:52 and 3:09.  Imagine how much work that would have been to make!  Enjoy this video.

Until next time!

Lauren

This past week

Mainly this week was the same as the past few weeks - busy and full of auditions - so this will be a pretty brief post.  We finally went back to school after a bit of the snow melted, and just one day after returning to playing, I had an audition in New York.  Tomorrow I go to New York for another audition, and then on Monday, to Baltimore.  Only four more auditions to go!

Today was a very exciting day, though.  After teaching a lesson, in which my student (an undergraduate here who isn't majoring in music) showed huge improvement since the previous lesson, I met up with a former student for coffee.  S was my first horn student ever, who I taught when I was in high school.  Now he's about to graduate high school himself, and it looks like he'll be coming to Yale next year! It was really nice to see him, and to see what progress he has made in the past six years!  After that, I had my first lesson with A, my two-year-old student.  She is super cute.  We're learning basic musical concepts - like clapping to a beat, loud and soft, and high and low notes.  We sing lots of songs and dance around the room.  It's lots of fun!

Well, I'm sorry for the short post, but I better go.  I have to get up super early for my 11am audition, and I still haven't packed for my weekend away or anything.

Until next time!

Lauren

Music I Love #2

Today's tune is a quintet from Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute.  This is one of my favorite songs from an all-together incredible opera.  It is known as the "padlock quintet" because the quintet opens with the character, Papageno, singing despite the padlock that has been magically placed over his mouth.  The version I have put below is performed by the Metropolitan Opera in 2006, with James Levine conducting.  They sing in English, so you should be able to understand it pretty well.

My favorite part of this begins at 3:25.  It sounds like the infinitely famous canon by Pachabel (listen below - I'm sure you will recognize it, even though this version, ahem, takes some liberties), but with the influence of Mozart's genius.  Enjoy!

My life since Jan 26

I have been quite busy in the past few weeks, but now that I have been holed up in my dorm room thanks to Snowstorm Nemo, I am ready to update you on what I have been doing.

"criptocardiograma" by August de Campos,
just in time for Valentine's Day!

As usual, my Portuguese class has been kicking my butt.  I know I'm only taking two real classes but my the homework for this course really takes forever.  However, one fascinating poet I have discovered through this course is Augusto de Campos.  It may seem a bit gimicky but I find it so fun, especially after reading so much dry boring poetry!  My favorite of his works is the "criptocardiograma".  You can appreciate the poem even if you don't speak Portuguese - the end result is kind of trans-lingual.  To read the poem, first you have to decode the symbols using the letters in the word bank on the left of the flash player.  Once you solve the puzzle, you will understand what I mean about not needing to speak Portuguese in order to understand.  Once you finish that, you can explore all the other interesting works of this contemporary Brazilian poet.

Of course, I also have been working on my auditions.  I had on audition since I last wrote about my daily life in Washington, DC.  It was nice to get home once again this semester and see friends and family living in that area.  It started to feel for a while like I was in NoVA more than I was here in Connecticut!  Because of the huge snowstorm, though, I had to cancel my trip home this weekend.  I was supposed to audition for the Marine Band in DC, but I had to cancel my audition since I couldn't find a way to get there.  The trains and buses were shut down, and my friend who could have driven us couldn't dig his car out.  So that means I'm just looking ahead to three more auditions in the next week, and then I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, with only two more auditions after that!

I made it to the top of a 15-foot pile of snow
in the aftermath of the storm!

Despite the snow, I have spent a lot of time outside in the past few days.  On the day after the record snowfall of 34 inches (more than half my height!!!) I went outside with my friend S to go exploring.  We walked all over the city of New Haven, got coffee at the only venue open (Dunkin' Donuts, of course), and then walked to an amazing sledding hill another friend let me know about.  There we met up with a whole group of people from the School of Music and a fantastic time was had by all.  School has now been cancelled since Friday afternoon, though my Friday morning classes were cancelled by the teacher as well, and they've already cancelled through Tuesday! I'm getting pretty stir-crazy here at home, which brings me to my next topic...

I signed up for a 5K! Running a 5K is one of my 25 goals to accomplish before my 25th birthday in November.  The one I signed up for is on March 3, and takes place on the Yale campus, so I don't have to worry about how to get there without a car.  So I am beginning my training.  I already run somewhat regularly (outdoors when the weather permits, and inside the rest of the time), so I'm not doing the ever-popular Couch-to-5K plan.  I instead made my own training plan for myself, which basically involves running a few miles 3-4 days per week (I get to choose whether I want to run again on the fourth day or do some other kind of physical activity).  I guess the training plan is more about being consistent rather than an actual distance to run.  Anyways, I made it into a sticker chart that is currently hanging on the side of my fridge, and I've been following it so far (all four days since it started snowing and I got bored...).

Just a few final tidbits before I go:

-I started reading Moby Dick (another one of my 25 things to do before my 25th birthday).  It's really good so far, though I was really shocked by how racist the narrator is! I'm about 40% done now, so I'll probably have a summary for you in a few weeks.

-I found out that I was awarded a Presidential Fellowship from the University of Georgia!  That means I will receive a generous stipend to do my doctorate there.  I'm still not 100% sure I'll go - I want to wait to hear from everywhere before I make up my mind - but things are looking good for me to end up there.

-As most of you know, I often travel to Brazil to work for a youth orchestra program there.  I'm happy to announce I'll be returning there for a week and a half during my spring break this March!  With the orchestra, I will also be traveling to Oman to play some concerts with the orchestra there during the last four days of the break. I couldn't be more excited!

Until next time!

Lauren

25 Things before 25: Eat sushi

Course 1, Plate 1/2

I went with some friends to accomplish this one of my 25 things.  We went to Sushi Palace, in Hamden, CT, and there were seven of us there.  We ordered pretty much one of everything on the entire menu, so we would get to try a lot of variety.  We had about ten different types of rolls, fifteen types of sushi, and some sashimi.  Additionally, we got sake and a million different types of appetizers.  Highly recommended restaurant, and highly recommended cuisine!

Course 1, Plate 2

Surprisingly to me, you couldn't taste the fish at all inside the rolls.  They were absolutely delicious, and I can't believe all this time I was missing out on such rich flavor and scrumptious texture! However, I really really disliked the sushi itself (sushi is the raw fish alone, without rice or any accompaniment).  While the flavor was great, the texture was very bad to a point where I kept gagging.  I tried about five different types of fish and I just couldn't get over it, so I had to give up on that part of it.

I'm really glad I tried this! The sushi rolls were delicious and now I won't feel like a picky little kid when I go out to eat with my friends.

Until next time!

Lauren

Thoughts on Fourteen Seasons of Law and Order: SVU

So I'm one of those people who goes on TV binges.  Since I really discovered the availability of all things on the internet when I first got my own personal computer upon leaving for college, I have had certain shows that I watch every episode of in an extremely short time span.  Examples of past binge shows include: Lost (the first one), Bones, Castle, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and, of course, Arrested Development.

My most recent true love in TV show form was Law and Order: SVU.  I'm not sure why I love this so much, but I have a major girl-crush on Olivia Benson, who is super bad-ass.  I had been watching SVU on Hulu as each episode came out for the past year or so, but recently I became much more into it.  I started my obsession with season 7, and then I kind of expanded from there, finishing with season 1 a few days ago.  It took me a number of months to get through, but here I am now, with a void where Law and Order: SVU used to be.  So in honor of my months of watching and their years of filming, here are some superlatives for my most recent favorite show:

Best Episode: "911" (Season 7, Episode 3)  This episode is amazing.  I was spellbound the entire time.  In it, Olivia is about to leave the office for a night out, when a 911 call arrives from a little girl who has been imprisoned, but doesn't know where she is or who her captor is.  The entire episode takes place in the SVU squad room as the team tries to find the girl.  Absolutely incredible.

Best Season: Season 8.  I feel like in this season, the SVU writers really hit their stride.  My favorite is in this season, and Benson and Stabler are working really well together.  And the writing is just so amazing.  I was on the edge of my seat (or my bed, as the case may be) for every episode!

Favorite character:  Casey Novak.  Even though Olivia Benson is quite awesome, Casey is even better. She is so strong-willed and doesn't care about anything except justice. I was crushed when she left the show.  She was there from seasons 5-9 and 12-13.  Interestingly, the same actress (Diane Neal) also makes a cameo earlier in the series ("Ridicule", Season 3 Episode 10).  Since at this point I was watching the seasons in backwards chronological order, it was great to see her again! I wish she would come back in season 14 or 15 to being as present as she was in the earlier seasons.

Most similar looking after 14 years: Captain Cragen (Dann Florek) Just look at the man! It could have been a few years between filming these two screenshots, but fourteen?!? (Sorry for the blurriness - I wanted to make sure I was getting picture from the correct seasons so I had to take screenshots instead of Google Imaging it. Also, let me just note that in the process of watching these hundreds of episodes, I learned that video quality has greatly improved since 1999.)

Until next time!

Lauren

25 Things before 25: Donate blood

I decided to donate blood last Monday.  I had been looking for a place and time to do it, but living in New Haven without a car, I had to wait on the fates to present a blood drive close to where I live.  The particular blood drive that I happened to participate in was at the Yale gym, and was some kind of contest with Harvard.  You can't even understand how many bizarre things Yale manages to make into a contest with Harvard until you experience it!

Anyways, I showed up at the gym at my appointed time slot.  First, I was asked a number of questions orally.  Apparently, it was somewhat of a problem that I have traveled to Brazil in the past year.  They had to look up Salvador in the computer about 5 different times to make sure that it was acceptable for me to donate blood.  This was frustrating, not because they had to do it - I want to make sure not to transfer some terrible illness to whatever sick person is receiving my blood - but because they wouldn't trust me when I told them they had already looked it up a number of times.  And apparently it's not very obvious that the city of Salvador begins with an S. o.0

Image from here

Next, I had to fill in a scantron form, with information like my social security number and some tidbits of my medical history on it.  After they collected it, I was sent to a nurse, who took my height, weight, and blood pressure.  They also did a finger prick to check for iron levels.  Apparently I have very high levels of iron in my blood... yay?

After completing another survey, this one on the computer, I was led to a table, where I had to lie down.  They cleaned the area with iodine three times, and then inserted the tube into the vein.  Apparently I have quite lethargic blood because while my blood bag was filling up, about 3 other people came and went at the bed next to mine.

However, my bag was finally filled up, and they detached the tube.  I then had to press a bandage against my inner elbow and hold my arm vertically over my head until the bleeding stopped.  I was quite dizzy at this point, so they made me lie on the bed for a further 5 minutes and drink some juice.  Then they led me over to the "recovery room", which was a table loaded up with snacks and juices.  I was instructed to drink more juice, and eat some yummy cookies and fruit snacks.  I was more than happy to comply!  Plus they also gave me a t-shirt that said something about Yale vs. Harvard blood drive on it.

Image from here

Unfortunately, I didn't realize how long the whole process takes.  I left about an hour and a half for me to do this between two rehearsals, but it took that entire time.  I didn't have much of a chance to recover with the fruit snacks since I was going to be late for octet rehearsal.  But it actually wasn't that much of a big deal, since I ended up being dizzy for nearly the whole rehearsal, and almost unable to play.

I probably will donate blood again, but I will do a few things differently.  First, I will over-hydrate before going in, to the point where I have to use the bathroom three times before they even stick me on the bed.  I will eat an enormous lunch or breakfast before going, and leave at least two free hours, so I'm not rushed when I should be relaxing in order to feel better.  Finally, I will eat another big meal immediately afterwards, since this time I didn't stop feeling better until about 4 hours later, when I finally had a chance to eat dinner.  It was definitely an interesting experience, though!

PS. One of the reasons I wanted to do this was to find out my blood type.  If I were ever in an accident, it would be important to know what blood type I have.  They said that I can find out by email in a few weeks, so I'm looking forward to learning that soon!

Update (3/24/13): I finally received my letter from the Red Cross.  I have O+ blood.

Until next time!

Lauren