Quick! You’re a New Yorker.
What’s the first thing you think when your rooftop looks like this and your walk to work looks like this
and this
and this?…
If you answered “Book of Mormon tickets!” you’d be right.
Wish us luck.
Baked Kale Chips
We were having kale for dinner last night, but we bought a bit too much for just the two of us. So while Mr TBTAM sautéed some up with garlic using his now-famous recipe, I took the rest and made kale chips for snacking. It was all we could do not to eat them all before dinner.
BAKED KALE CHIPS
This recipe is modified from one I found in the Beard Foundation Newsletter.
- Olive oil (1 tbsp per large bunch of kale -you barely need any oil)
- 1 large bunch of kale, rinsed and pat dry, leaves cut away from stalks and torn into large bite size pieces
- Sea salt
- Pepper
Preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit. Put about a tbsp of olive oil in a large bowl, then add kale and rub with the olive oil so that both sides are coated. Season with salt and pepper. Place kale on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes or until leaves just start to brown. Turn and bake another 3-5 mins. Be careful, they burn quickly. Remove from oven, let cool and eat. Or store in an airtight container for later snacking.
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More Kale Chips from around the Web
- Smitten Kitchen crumbles her homemade kale chips on popcorn.
- Kalyn massages her kale with olive oil in a zip lock bag and adds vinegar.
- Kitchen Treaty has some gorgeous prep pics
- A Cup of Jo makes here with sesame oil, soy and sesame seeds. (I’m totally trying these.)
- David Lebowitz compares kale chips baked at different temps. (He likes them both ways)
- Whole foods recipe uses Parmesan cheese. Another must-try variation.
- Vegans like their kale chips with nutritional yeast, red pepper, walnuts and maple syrup coating.
Maternal Age and Congenital Anomalies
There will likely be a bit of press this week on a study presented at the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine that found lower rates of congenital anomalies at second trimester ultrasound screening among mothers over age 35 compared to their younger counterparts.
[The] group looked at the routine second trimester ultrasound screenings of 76,156 euploid fetuses over the course of 18 years at Washington University Physicians, and the data were split into younger than 35 and 35 and older.
Overall, 2.4% (1,804) of those screened had a major anomaly. But contrary to previous beliefs, only 1.7% of women of advanced maternal age had a fetus with a major anomaly compared with 2.6% of younger women (aOR 0.59, 95% CI 0.52-0.66,P<0.001).
The study was well done, but the headlines about it – Older Maternal Age Tied to Lower Risk of Fetal Anomalies – are misleading. That’s because the study did not look at all women over age 35, just those carrying infants with normal chromosomes who made it to the second trimester and presented for a sonogram.
Risks of chromosomal abnormalities increases with maternal age
One of the biggest risks of advancing maternal age is abnormalities in chromosome number, the most common of which are Down’s syndrome (trisomy 21), as well as trisomies of chromosome 18, 13 and abnormalities in sex chromosome number. Fetuses with abnormal number of chromosomes have multiple congenital anomalies of the heart, genitourinary, brain and GI tract.
The risk for trisomy increases from around 1 in 500 at age 22 to 1 in 200 at age 35 , 1 in 65 at age 40 and 1 in 20 at age 40. Those risks are probable an underestimate, since the majority of a fetuses with abnormal chromosome numbers will miscarry early in pregnancy, an explanation for the higher miscarriage rates in older mothers.
Most miscarriages occur in the first trimester of pregnancy, which is why a study that only looks at pregnancies in the second trimester will miss a low of abnormal pregnancies. If you then confine your study further to only those pregnancies with normal chromosome number, you’ve eliminated the majority of infants with congenital anomalies.
Bottom line
This study is not adding much to what we already know about pregnancies in older women, other than to tell us that pregnancies in older women who have had normal chromosomal screening and make it into the second trimester are in general going to do well. Even better in some ways that that of a younger woman.
Think of it as survival of the fittest. The older woman’s fetus has had a harder row to hoe and made it this far.
It is one tough little cookie.
Date-Orange Scones
I think nature gives us lengthening days in late January and early February to help us get through the interminable winter and remind us that spring is just around the corner.
More than once this past week I have headed out of my windowless office after a long day, having braced myself for the cold and dark, only to find my spirits uplifted by a still light blue sky. That same evening sky beckoned me to forgo the crosstown bus twice this week and walk through the snow covered Central Park instead.
If Punxatawny Phil is correct, we still have another five weeks of winter. I prefer to think if it as five more weeks of increasingly long days. Sunset today is at 5:30 pm, but on March 16, it will be at 7:04 pm! By then, it may even be warm enough to bike a loop in the park after work.
If that’s not enough to cheer you up, maybe these scones will.
DATE-ORANGE SCONES
These scones were modified from the recipe for Orange-Currant Scones from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook, written by the late great Judy Rogers and acclaimed by many as one of the best cookbooks ever written.
This recipe breaks from traditional scone recipes by using an egg, which is thought to act as a leavener and extend the shelf life of a scone. It makes sense that a cafe chef would use an egg in her scones, which are notorious for becoming dry and stale very quickly, to allow for advance preparation. Rogers also bakes her scones at a lower temperature, doubling the baking time. If you want a more traditional scone that bakes in 10-15 mins, try my perfect scone recipe.
I’ve also made these scones using sheep’s milk yogurt instead of milk (adding a tbsp or so of skim milk or water to thin it before using). The recipe makes 12 scones, and the extras freeze well – just reheat in the oven or a wide toaster. Or cut the recipe in half to make 6 scones.
- 3 cups flour (13 1/2 ounces)
- Scant 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 stick cold butter, cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup chopped dried dates
- 1 tbsp freshly grated orange rind
- 1 egg
- 1 cup whole milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter till the size of small peas. Add dates and orange zest and mix well. Whisk egg and milk together and add quickly to dry ingredients. Don’t over mix.
Divide the dough in half, dump out onto a floured surface and pat each half into a one once think round. Cut like a pie into 6 wedges.
Bake until golden and firm to touch, about 25-30 mins. Best served warm form the oven.
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More on scone recipes and technique from TBTAM
Other food bloggers try the Zuni scones
- Tea for Six gets a gorgeous rise out of hers. So does Angela. Hmm…maybe I need to freshen up my baking powder…
- Alice Garden makes a Meyer Lemon and Blueberry version of the Zuni scone
- Cooking Zuni has the same thoughts I have about scones helping make it till spring
Landline Bye-Bye
So we weighed the chance of another NYC power outage making us the only ones in the building with a working phone line, and decided that the monthly cost of upkeep for a landline we barely use anymore was just not worth it. This will also take us off the grid for political pollsters, but we figured that as long as we can still walk to the polls, we’ll be okay. As for the telemarketers, well, they want have us to push around anymore.
We were considering also getting rid of cable TV, but we’re too scared.
If you need to reach us, use our cells or work numbers or E-mail or Facebook or Twitter or Peggy’s Blog. And if they all fail at the same time, we’re doomed anyway. Or there’s been another NYC power outage.
In which case, we made the wrong decision.
See you in the future.
Sunday in the Tropics (and Roast Cauliflower Soup)
Leave it to my friend Paula to get me out of my hunker on a cold January morning, as only she can do, with an email entitled “This Sunday in the Tropics”, in which she proposed a walk at the New York Botanical Garden. “The weather is supposed to be clear and warm (25 degrees!). This the cheapest trip to the tropics ever! Can you feel the winter funk lifting?”
Well, Paula, lift it did. On snow covered trails,
that took us along the flowing Bronx River
through the Ornamental Conifer Grove
past a stand of redwoods
flowering crabapples,
and budding pussy willows carrying the promise of spring.
The bright snow provided a sharp contrast to the winter foliage
and while the ornamental gardens and conservatory beckoned
by 1 pm the sun had retreated,
as did I, home to a warm bowl of roast cauliflower soup.
ROAST CAULIFLOWER SOUP
This recipe, enlightened from one on Epicurious, is a great way to use leftover roast cauliflower. You can adjust the amount of chicken broth to the amount of cauliflower you have left. This recipe serves four.
- 1 head cauliflower
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 shallot
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cups chicken broth (plus a little water if the soups seems too thick)
- 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
- Small bay leaf (or 1/2 large)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Croutons or sheep’s milk yogurt to garnish
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Cut cauliflower into 1-inch flowerets (about 5 cups). In a large baking pan toss cauliflower, garlic, and shallots with oil to coat and roast in middle of oven about 30 minutes, or until golden.
In a soup pot, simmer broth, water, roasted cauliflower mixture, and herbs 30 minutes, or until cauliflower is very tender. Remove the bay leaf. Puree in the pan using an immersion blender. Serve with croutons or a dollop of sheep’s milk yogurt.
Sauteed Tofu and Roasted Winter Squash
I take no credit for this amazing entree, prepared by Mr TBTAM tonight and based on Melissa Clark’s recipe in last week’s NY Times.
I do take credit for suggesting that we substitute lemon juice for the soy sauce, given my all day migraine. So Mr TBTAM made two versions – one with soy sauce for him and one with lemon juice for me. He also sautéed rather than roasted the tofu, but otherwise stayed true to Melissa’s original recipe.
I thought mine was delicious, and Mr TBTAM thought his was too.
We served it with sautéed curly kale tossed with some of the lemon flavored sauce (delish!) for a surprisingly satisfying meal.
Lemon Squares
This family favorite comes from the Pleasures of Cooking magazine, a publication of Cuisinart in the 1970’s-80’s. We treasure the issues we have of the marvelous publication, long out of print and hard to get, but still inspirational.
As I was finishing this post, I went to see just how many issues of Pleasures of Cooking we had and all I could find was one! Now I know that I am infamous in our household for purging when the closets and shelves become too cluttered, but there is no way on God’s earth I would have tossed our Pleasures of Cooking magazines! I have no idea where they could be, but given that I live in a NYC apartment, there are really few places for them to hide that I have not already looked. My one last hope is that I may have taken them up to our cottage, though I have no idea why I would have done that.
So now, instead of being happy to have finally put up this recipe, I am beside myself in loss and despair. Thank goodness my mother-in-law Irene still has all her back issues. (You do, don’t you, Irene?)
LEMON SQUARES (aka Lemon Curd Cookies)
These wonderfully tangy cookies carry a tartness that is balanced by a generous dusting of confectioner’s sugar atop. They are easy to make and freeze well.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/3 cup blanched whole almonds (2 oz, 55 g)
- Zest of 1 medium lemon
- Zest of 1/2 medium orange
- 1/2 cup flour (2.5 oz, 70 g)
- 1/4 cup confectioners sugar (1 oz, 30 g)
- 5 tbsp chilled unsalted butter cut into 5 pieces
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (5 2/3 oz, 160 g)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- Confectioners sugar and candied lemon and orange peel (recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit (175 degrees Centigrade)
Process almonds, 1/2 the zests, flour, confectioners sugar and butter with metal blade in food processor till constancy of coarse crumbs, about 10 secs. Press into square 8 inch baking pan and bake in preheated oven till firm and lightly colored, about 20 mins.
Process sugar, baking powder, salt and remaining zests until zest is as fine as the sugar, about 1 min. Add eggs and juice and process till combined, about 5 secs. Pour over the crust and bake till set, about 20 minutes. Cool.
Loosen around the edges, then cut into 2.5x2in (6x5cm) squares with a sharp knife, being careful not to dislodge clumps of the curd. Dust with confectioners sugar and garnish with candied lemon and orange peel. Remove from pan using a cookie spatula. (See below) Makes 12 cooked, about 1/14 oz (45 g) each.
Candied Lemon and Orange Zests
- 1/2 cup sugar (3 3/4 oz, 100g)
- 1/3 cup water (80 ml)
- Zest of 1 medium lemon, cut into julienne strips
- Zest of 1 small orange, cut into julienne strips
Bring water and sugar to boil in a small saucepan. Reduce the heat to low, add the zests and simmer for 10 mins. Transfer with slotted spoon to waxed paper to cool.
Time to Revise Medicaid’s Sterilization Policy
(Click to view full size)
In a well-timed editorial in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, Sonya Borrero, MD and colleagues take on Medicaid’s outdated and discriminatory policy on sterilization.
That policy requires a 30 day waiting period after signing a sterilization consent that then expires 180 days from being signed. Which can sound reasonable till you understand that most sterilizations occur immediately after giving birth in the hospital using consents that must be signed in the prenatal period. And that women with commercial insurance have no waiting period between signing consent and having their tubes tied.
Unfortunately, not every woman who wants sterilization gets her act together to sign the consent in the right time window or remembers to bring the signed consent with her when she is in labor. Especially women on Medicaid, who often have spotty or disrupted prenatal care, and frequently transfer care due to rapidly changing home and work situations. Every Ob-Gyn can tell you about the sterilizations they could not do because their patient forgot the form or just missed the signing window, the form was completed improperly or even worse, never made it to the labor floor from the clinic.
Sterilizations policies have outlived their initial intent
The authors point out that while the Medicaid’s original policy was created as a deliberate barrier to coerced sterilization at a time when women needed these protections, current informed consent laws provide more than adequate protection against forced sterilization. Medicaid’s policy has outlived its usefulness and has become nothing more than a barrier to care that discriminates agains the very women who would most benefit from having those barriers removed – low income women.
Women who can barely take time away from work of childcare to have a baby, let alone come back 6 weeks post partum for an outpatient tubal ligation and recovery because their consent form wasn’t signed in the right time window. Women who only get insurance coverage because they happen to be pregnant, but lose it (and birth control coverage) once they are post partum.
The resultant costs are enormous
It should come as no surprise then, that almost half of women who request sterilization but fail to get it become pregnant again within a year of giving birth – twice the rate among women who did not request sterilization. The resulting cost? It’s enormous.
In a recent cost analysis, we found that Medicaid-policy–related barriers lead to approximately 62,000 unfulfilled requests for postpartum sterilization annually, resulting in an estimated 10,000 abortions and 19,000 unintended births in the subsequent year, at a public cost of $215 million
The consent form itself is confusing and does not support informed reproductive choice
Borrero and colleagues also argue that that the current Medicaid sterilization consent is way too wordy and confusing, leaving significant numbers of women who sign it actually unaware that the procedure is considered permanent and irreversible.
In one study assessing women’s knowledge about sterilization after they had been given the Medicaid consent form for review, more than one third of respondents (34%) answered incorrectly when asked about the permanence of sterilization. When a modified, low-literacy version of Title XIX-SCF was compared with the current form in a randomized trial involving 200 women with Medicaid coverage, those who reviewed the modified form were more likely to know about the 30-day waiting period before the form is considered valid (a 24-percentage-point difference between groups), that nonpermanent contraceptive options as effective as sterilization are available (an 8-percentage-point difference), and that the procedure is permanent (a 16-percentage-point difference).
Ironic, really, that women are forced to wait a month to have a procedure that they will later regret because the consent wasn’t clear enough in the first place. Given the wide availability of safe and effective long acting contraception, these women have many more reversible options available to them to prevent pregnancy. If the consent were to outline such options, it would go a long way toward providing clear informed decision making around family planning.
A call for a revised policy and consent
The authors call for both shortening or removal of the 30 day waiting period and a clearer consent form that supports informed reproductive decision making. Last year, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called for similar reforms around sterilization –
There are unfair differences in consent rules surrounding sterilization procedures based on insurance type. Obstetrician–gynecologists should advocate for fair and equitable access for women who are enrolled in Medicaid or covered by other government health insurance programs.
I fully support their recommendations.
Devil’s Food Cake with White Icing
The week before Christmas is not exactly a good time to have a birthday. Everyone, including me, is overwhelmed with holiday preparations, not to mention final exams. Adding a birthday celebration during that week feels like foisting yet another obligation on your friends and family, not to mention yourself.
Now, don’t go feeling sorry for me and throw me a party – it’s already been tried. My first year in med school, my sister Fran, God rest her soul, made me a surprise party the night before my Biochem final. I was utterly miserable the entire evening. Thank god I passed the final, but not all my friends did.
The final straw on my birthday camel’s back was when I married into a Jewish family and Chanukah got added into the holiday mix.
Oy.
Between shopping for presents for eight nights plus Christmas, lighting candles, making latkes and decorating the tree, who has time for a birthday? I certainly didn’t.
Then, 18 years ago, on the day before my birthday, my second daughter Natalie was born. Now that was a reason to celebrate! Amazing really, how that additional birthday was nothing more than added joy. I found plenty of time to make a birthday party for her every year (one of which I even chronicled in this blog). No sweat. Really and truly. Just a joy.
This of course, gave me yet another reason to continue to ignore my own birthday, which is actually a good tactic for forgetting how old you really are. My family of course remembers, as do friends, and I get cards and gifts, but I never found myself celebrating my own birthday beyond that. I’m just too busy and I just don’t care.
But this year, my daughter, now a college student with her own schedule, finals and friends, suggested we celebrate our birthdays together. Suddenly, all the energy I had used to make her birthday special spilled back on mine. My husband made the dinner and my daughter and I made the cake. (Well, I made the cake and she licked the beaters.) Although we sorely missed my eldest daughter, now living in Philly, it was really fun. And, for the first time in many, many years, I found myself actually enjoying my own birthday!
I think this shared celebration is going to be a new family tradition.
As is this delicious cake.
DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE WITH WHITE ICING
This cake recipe is my third foray into a wonderful vintage cookbook, Favorite Tortes and Cake Recipes by Rose Oller Harbaugh and Mary Adams. The first two (Blueberry Cake with Lemon Sauce and a Rococco Torte) were resounding successes, and this recipe joins them as new classics in my baking repertoire.
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 pound butter
- 1 1/3 cups brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 5 squares bitter chocolate, melted and cooled
- 1 1/4 cups milk
Sift flour, soda and cinnamon three times.
Cream butter until lemon colored, add sugar and cream together thoroughly. Add well-beaten eggs and chocolate and continue beating. Then alternately add flour mixture and milk, beating well after each addition. Bake in 3 well-buttered and floured 8 inch pans (I lined mine with wax paper) and bake 30 mins in 325 degree fahrenheit oven.
Fill and cover layers with Pretty Darned Near the Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had.
Pretty Darned Near the Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had
This flour-based icing recipe got famous on the Pioneer Woman’s website. I decided I would try it anyway since the recipe itself came from Missy Dew, a reader, and not Ree herself, whose recipes I don’t trust so much although she clearly is making a lot of money.
I’m probably just jealous that the whole gyno-food blog thing hasn’t quite taken off as well as the home-schooling ranch mom thing. Maybe I should just post a few pics of my husband’s back side like Ree does. That would land me some real blog traffic…
Cake recipe coming up tomorrow.
PRETTY DARNED NEAR THE BEST FROSTING I’VE EVER HAD
What I love about this flour-based frosting is that it is sweet, but does not have that teeth squeaking too-sweet taste that most icings have. You can really taste the vanilla, and the cake flavor shines through. It very well may be the best frosting I’ve ever had, but I’m not passing final judgement till I try this recipe for another flour based frosting.Let me know if you try either one what you think. Next time I make this frosting, I’m going to process the sugar in the food processor first so it’s superfine – instructions here. That should make the second step go much faster.
Ingredients
- 5 tbsp Flour
- 1 cup Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 cup Butter
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
Instructions
- Whisk flour into milk in a small saucepan and heat, stirring constantly, until it is very thick. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.
- While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy without sugar graininess. (This will take what seems like hours, but is probably around 15 minutes. Hopefully you have a standing mixer.) Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat till it all combines and resembles whipped cream, another 3-5 minutes or so. I’m told if it separates to keep beating, but mine never separated, so that’s good.
The Death of Queen Jane
One of the saddest songs from the Coen Brothers wonderful new movie “Inside Llewyn Davis” is “The Death of Queen Jane”.
It is a traditional folk song that Davis (Oscar Isaac), on the down and out from the NYC folk scene, chooses to sing in an impromptu audition for Chicago music producer Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham). Given that Davis is still mourning the death of his musical partner and reeling from the knowledge that he has fathered a child, the song choice is not surprising. But like almost every choice Davis makes in this movie, it is a poor one.
The song is the legend of King Henry’s second wife Jane Seymour, who died in 1537 after giving birth to Prince Edward I. After laboring for nine days, her attendants so tired that they can no longer attend her, the Queen begs King Henry for a Cesarean section, which he at first refuses for fear of losing both mother and child – “If I lose the flower of England I shall lose the branch too”. But eventually, the Queen swoons, a C- section is done, and later, she dies.
Grossman listens intently as Davis sings (watching Abraham is itself worth the entire film) and when the song is done, utters a single sentence –
“I don’t see a lot of money here.”
He’s right, of course. Maternal death doesn’t sell records. It’s just too depressing.
What is even more depressing than Llewyn Davis’s song choice is the fact that today, almost 500 years since the death of Queen Jane, some 350,000 women worldwide still die each year as a result of giving birth, almost all from preventable causes.
That rate is half what it was a decade ago, but we still have a long long way to go before childbirth is for every woman the joyous event it should be.
Lest you think maternal deaths are Africa’s problem, know that maternal mortality here in the US has actually doubled in the past 25 years. Despite all our advanced and expensive healthcare, the US ranks 50th in the world in maternal mortality, with the highest rate of all the developed countries. The major causes of maternal death in the US are preeclampsia, hemorrhage, embolisms and cardiovascular disease, with death rates 3-4 times higher in African American women. Reasons for the rise are complex, but include increased C section rates, multiple births and higher rates of underlying maternal diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Approaches to reducing maternal morality here in the US include reduction in C section rates, protocols for rapid response for transfusion for maternal hemorrhage, and team training to respond to obstetric emergencies. Here in New York State, ACOG has instituted the Safe Motherhood Initiative, developing and implementing standardized protocols for tackling maternal hemorrhage, hypertension and venous thromboembolism in hospitals across the state. Using lessons learned from the airline industry, states are beginning to take a centralized approach to data collection and response to adverse events. It’s a multi-pronged approach to a complex problem that has the potential for a real and lasting impact.
Inside Llewyn Davis is a fabulous movie that will be getting lots and lots of press in the upcoming month as Oscars approach. Here’s hoping that some of that limelight will get cast on the problem of maternal mortality, and lead to conversations about more than just folk music.
The Death of Queen Jane
Queen Jane lay in labor full nine days or more
‘Til her women grew so tired, they could no longer there
They could no longer there“Good women, good women, good women that you may be
Will you open my right side and find my baby?
And find my baby“Oh no,” cried the women, “That’s a thing that can never be
We will send for King Henry and hear what he may say
And hear what he may say”King Henry was sent for, King Henry did come
Saying, “What does ail you my lady? Your eyes, they look so dim
Your eyes, they look so dim”“King Henry, King Henry, will you do one thing for me?
That’s to open my right side and find my baby
And find my baby”“Oh no, cried King Henry, “That’s a thing I’ll never do
If I lose the flower of England, I shall lose the branch too
I shall lose the branch too”There was fiddling, aye, and dancing on the day the babe was born
But poor Queen Jane beloved lay cold as the stone
Lay cold as the stone
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More Reading
- WHO fact sheet on maternal mortality world wide
- CDC data on US maternal deaths
Penne with Vodka Sauce
A guest post by OBS Housekeeper, pasta cook extraordinaire and sister of TBTAM.
The kids are all together for the first time in months and we have just 5 days until Christmas so it’s time to decorate the tree. In need of something simple and delicious for dinner I hit the freezer for some Vodka Sauce that I had made a few weeks ago.
Pair it with penne,
a Caesar salad
and crusty Italian bread and dinner is served.
It must have been tasty because there were no leftovers! And the tree couldn’t be more beautiful! Happy holidays!
PENNE with VODKA SAUCE
Vodka sauce traditionally does not include garlic, but OBS housekeeper says “What’s a pasta sauce without garlic?”
Ingredients
1 stick Butter
1 Onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Cup Vodka
2 – 28 ounce cans Crushed Tomatoes
1 pint heavy cream
Directions
1. In a skillet over medium heat, saute onion in butter until slightly brown and soft, add the garlic in the last munite or so.
2. Pour in vodka and let cook for 10 minutes.
3. Mix in crushed tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes.
4. Pour in heavy cream and cook for another 30 minutes.
5. Toss sauce with penne.
6. Add plenty of freshly grated parmesan cheese.
7. Enjoy!
The Forty Part Motet & Thoughts on Choral Singing
Thanks to my friend Rachel, I visited the Cloisters on the final day of Jane Cardiff’s stunning installation “The Forty Part Motet“. I’m sure I had a very different experience than what Cardiff imagined when she set up 40 speakers around an empty room, each one playing the voice of one of the singers of the Salisbury Chorus performing Thomas Tallis’s Spem in Allum.
Cardiff meant for listeners to move freely about the space, sampling the piece from the vantage point of the different singers in the choir, then stepping into the center to feel them all hit you at once.
“While listening to a concert you are normally seated in front of the choir, in traditional audience position. With this piece I want the audience to be able to experience a piece of music from the viewpoint of the singers. Every performer hears a unique mix of the piece of music. Enabling the audience to move throughout the space allows them to be intimately connected with the voices. It also reveals the piece of music as a changing construct. As well I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.
I placed the speakers around the room in an oval so that the listener would be able to really feel the sculptural construction of the piece by Tallis. You can hear the sound move from one choir to another, jumping back and forth, echoing each other and then experience the overwhelming feeling as the sound waves hit you when all of the singers are singing.”
But on this last day of the exhibit, the crowds were too large to allow for free movement without disturbing others. Thus, I stood in one place for the entire piece, and then to listened to it 7 more times from 7 different vantage points in that glorious space. Only once did I make it to the center of the room, but found my favorite spot was in the back in front of a baritone, where I could feel the music starting far away then moving towards me, till finally I was in the music.
But no matter where I stood, I experienced an incredible feeling of community with the others around me, as we all were transfixed by the hauntingly beautiful voices and themes of Tallis’s music. Even small children were stunned into glorious silence, their wriggling stopped, their heads upon their parent’s shoulder as they stared dreamily upward. As I looked around the room, the swell of the music combined with that feeling of shared emotion literally drove me to tears. I have rarely felt so connected to a roomful of strangers as I did in the midst of that music.
As a choral singer, I should be able to say that I experience this feeling of collective joy frequently, but the truth is that I don’t. When I’m singing, I’m usually too focused on getting the notes and the entrances right, counting along with my finger on the score, reading the notes I’ve written along the staff that remind me to slow down, or speed up, or watch my pitch, or the little eyeglasses that tell me to look at the conductor for an ending or change in tempo. It is rare that I experience the swell of emotion that comes from the experience of being in the midst of a collective voice.
But then it happened – on the very same evening as my visit to the Closters – when, as chance would have it, I was performing the Durufle Requiem with my chorus in our annual winter concert.
And there were moments – not enough, but a few – where I felt confident enough in my singing to let myself listen for it, and there it was – that swell of emotion that comes from shared vocalization. That point in the Kyrie when we echo one another , then join in together. The soaring highs of the Libera mi. And those moments in the In Paradisum when we sopranos totally nailed our group solo.
Those moments of joy in choral singing really only come when you are confident enough in the music to let go and feel. And I got there because, between the two choruses and two performances, I had finally had enough rehearsal to get to that place.
I’m going to remember this next season, and dedicate myself to really learning the music early on. Woodshedding, we call it. The rehearsing you do on your own with the score and a piano or rehearsal CD to really learn the music. It’s a lot of hard work, hours really, outside of the hours already spend in group rehearsal.
But the payoff ? It’s glorious.
