I’mmmmm Back!

Hi Hi Hi Hi Hi Hi Hi!

It has been a way to long since my last post (way back in July), and I have many excuses as to why I have been absent, but being that I am a teacher and very much dislike hearing excuses I’m not going to give you any of mine.  In truth though the fall is insane for me with marching band, high school football, and our school wide musical all occurring during the months of September & October and I thank the Lord (literally) for my wonderful girlfriend who took over some of the cooking while I was attempting to locate my life 😉

Ok on to the food & music.  It goes without saying that since this is a post during the Christmas season musically we are going the Christmas route; so let’s get you started off with a little high energy Christmas music today from Toby Mac and his band Diverse City – The First Noel.

Now onto the food. . . I had been itching to get back into the kitchen and after a long day of working at the OU football game I decided on a rather simple (simple being a relative term for me) recipe for Homemade Chicken Pot-Pie.  And in addition to that I had the idea to make some Hot Spiced Wine as Em and I traveled to Target for the ingredients.  So the meal is Chicken Pot-Pies with Hot Spiced Wine (both recipes will be under the recipes link at the top of the page).

And of course Ella wanted to help and explore the new “toys” i.e. the ingredients.
And along the way I will share pictures of Emily decorating as I cooked, she looks thrilled at my picture taking too. . . 🙂Ok on to the food, one of the issues I ran into this evening was that I should have done some prep work that I hadn’t, this could have been resolved by me planning more ahead, but come on folks, that just isn’t my style.  So regardless I had to wait a while as I hard-boiled some eggs and cooked a couple chicken breasts.  After those were done I layered them and some peas & carrots into the dish.

On top of that I layered some chicken broth and cream of chicken soup, and then a final layer of biscuit mix with butter drizzled over the top and then into the oven it went!

Now onto the hot spiced wine. . . !  We used to drink this in my neighborhood growing up as we went Christmas caroling, so it’s been a long while, but I thought that it sounded like the perfect drink for the cold/windy evening here in Norman, Oklahoma.  We had to improvise on this one because I misread the recipe (surprise!) so instead of needing 1 cup of pineapple juice like I thought we actually needed 2 cups. . .

We never got the 2 cups we needed, so I just added more orange juice, and it still tasted great!  Into the sauce pan I added orange juice, pineapple juice, allspice, cloves, a couple of cinnamon sticks, and some orange peel, and then brought to a boil.

Then the next step is to throw in the wine!  I just bought an 8 dollar bottle of merlot and it worked like a charm for this recipe.

After I added the wine and the pot pie was lightly brown on the top we were ready to roll!

And time to enjoy!!!

And I will leave you with a picture of my house with Christmas lights on it, and my cat Miles really wanted to say hi. . . so I let him.  I hope you all have an exceptionally awesome Christmas/holiday season and I look forward to posting more frequently!

Always There

I love consistency as much as the next guy, I like to tell myself I like change, but in many respects change is hard.  The prevailing constants in my life I am incredibly grateful for; I have friends who love me, I have family that is caring, and I have a sense of humor that gets me through a lot of things 🙂  And it goes without say that I have a relationship with my Father in Heaven and his son, Jesus Christ, that is far and beyond my everything.  These few example have stayed true for me over the years and I can confidently rely on them.  But it dawned on me last evening while struggling to do work and listen to some students that there is yet one final constant, music.

Music.

This is so cliche, but music has the absolute ability to take me away.  Put on some Coltrane or Miles Davis and my problems at that movement seem to to drift past my current stream of conciseness.  The problems are still there, but the silky melodies of the trumpet, or the pregnant pauses of the saxophone provide. . . comfort.  And in a way music is confidence for me, God has provided me the opportunity to be around and in music for the rest of my life.  I am good at music, and at times when things are not going well, music reminds me that I am indeed good at something and that God has blessed me so much, so much more than I can even imagine.

I will leave you with a little Coltrane, this is Blue Train.

Joel

Can I get an AMEN?!

PRESENTING TONIGHT’S MEAL:

 

CEREAL!!!!

And Frosted Flakes at that, my favorite!

So can I get an AMEN?!?

Put me on a dessert island and all I need is cereal and a bible, but please know I would need a lifetime supply of cereal, just to clarify.

 

Cereal is beautiful. . . *sniff sniff*

And I will implore you to watch this video, it’s quite funny and it’s my favorite!  The band is Ludo and I just purchased this CD, it’s fun music.

This is a simple post, but that’s why cereal is beautiful.  (I don’t get that)

Leave a comment with your favorite cereal, I’m always up to try a new one!

Joel

A Simple Meal

For my first two blogs I used some “legit” recipes, for this meal I just used what I had in the freezer/pantry.

It needed to be a simple meal because it was kind of a crummy day in some respects. I got down to Lawton to ride the trail where the “12 Miles of Hell” bike race happens every year. I had attempted this trail several months ago but only got about 5 miles in, so needless to say I was really excited about this ride. Randy, a friend from work, and I started up the trail and the first hill is a doozy. We were pumping our legs and trying desperately to keep our balance amongst the sharp rocks we were riding over, when all of a sudden my legs started pushing with zero resistance. I look down and my derailer, the device that changes gears on your back tire, was hanging from my bike; the day was over. It was really disheartening, because I had trained for this and was really ready to accomplish this big goal I had set up, but oh wells. . . So after that Randy and I grabbed some Meers, which is a big deal in Oklahoma, and I was impressed.

Ok, to the meal.

I checked out the freezer and found a bag of frozen chicken tenderloin tenders and defrosted those bad boys; Emily just last week, when she was in Kansas City, picked up some grilling spices which I used on the chicken. I then raided the pantry and found some corn and green beans that had collected a tender layer of dust, and topped the meal off with some potato skins and a cold brew.

This meal doesn’t need much explanation, but I was quite proud because normally when I’m tired and slightly grumpy I rarely cook, but I rose up and stood in the face of grumpiness and put together this simple yet satisfying meal.

Oooh, seasoning!

On the grill!

Emily brought me a beer 🙂

Did I mention Emily is pretty? Because she is.

Finished product, the simple meal.

Music wise, it needed to be chill, the name of this album says it all and it’s a perfect title.

Pat Metheny – One Quiet Night

Enjoy, and here’s to the simple meal: may you always be there when the hours are not there to prep, when the battle between fast food and cooking is waging and cooking barely wins, and finally when you help clean out my freezer and pantry.

Joel

Summer Music

A lot of this blog is about music & food together, but occasionally I will do a music only post, and this is one of those.

If you are anything like me the urge to listen to music comes in many different forms: mood, weather, feelings, events, friends, seasons, and about a million other things; one of the bigger ones for me is music that is associated with seasons.  Where I may listen to something like Death Cab in the fall, in the spring I may tend to listen to west coast big band (jazz) or something like The Polyphonic Spree or Mika.  Now I will admit that in the last day or so I was not adamantly looking for “summer music”, but as soon as I purchased this CD it clicked in my brain as “SUMMER!”.

I will credit the discovery of this group to a student of mine, we did a project in my jazz class where the students had to bring in a song that meant something to them (regardless of genre) and then play it for the class, and this student brought in Straight No Chaser.  Straight No Chaser is a vocal group made up of men who have a version of the 12 Days of Christmas that is very popular around the Christmas season, so I was quite surprised when this student brought some music from them that was “legit”.  The whole album is fantastic I thought it to be so fantastic that I surprised my girlfriend with this CD and some roses (bf points ;))

So I give you Straight No Chaser – I’m Yours/Somewhere Over The Rainbow from their CD entitled, “With A Twist”.

Open the window.

Drive with the windows down, Sonic drink in hand.

Find a beach and soak up the sun.

Go for a walk as the sun-sets.

Turn on the sprinkler and run through it.

Find your music for the season and go enjoy not only the wonderful things summer has to offer, but with those moments let music accompany you as the memories are made.

I would LOVE to hear about what music you all associate with summer, so comment below and let someone discover something new.

Happy Summering!

Joel