Tuesday, March 27, 2007

March 27: CARMEN'S BIRTHDAY!


We hope you have a wonderful, happy and memorable birthday bash with your daughters. Take care!

Carmen is a a great person with lots of superlative qualities that makes her unforgettable, lovable, and a fun person to deal with! Take care!

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Family Time

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

What I Baked Today: "Chocolate Almond Oatmeal Cookies"

I can't resist baking again so I did bake this just now. Two days I baked the apple pie and we finished it last night! Here are the photos of the "oatmeal cookies." I vacuum packed them in two canisters to keep them fresh for the next few days or weeks, months and even for a year- this is the greatest thing about this vacuum packer we have. Cheers!

BTW, this is a very crunchy cookie...it's yummy!

Salsa Basic

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

How To Samba

How To Cha Cha

How To Foxtrot

How To Salsa

Monday, March 19, 2007

An After Thought: Baroque Music And Baroque Period In My Time

When I was a music student in college, I would save some money from my weekly allowance to be able to buy those long-playing (LP) records that I liked. FYI, these LPs have been replaced by CDs since the emergence of this technology in the music industry in the early 90s. Anyhow, one of my favorites is Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor.” This evening I found the CD version of this at www.amazon.com

Well, I look forward to finding out where to buy the music score of this piece so I could play this on the piano. I love baroque music and my hands are feeling itchy and wanting to play some prelude and fugue, lol. Ah, well~ to listen to this concerto click this link:

Johann Sebastian Bach's HARPSICHORD CONCERTO IN D MINOR

LOOKING BACK

When I was teaching middle school art (up until March 2004) in international schools under the British and American system, my favorite subject was art history where the lives of artists of different centuries are studied in reference to their influence in the development of art globally. Likewise, in my music classes (yes, I taught the fine arts: art, music and drama) music history is integrated in the study of music theory and in the interpretation of musical compositions of each century. What I did then was to compare and contrast what transpired in art and music . This holistic learning experience is very informative and usually, students find every bit of information quite helpful. Of course, I had to modify the lecture and made sure it was quite colorful and easy to comprehend. Otherwise, it would have been a bore studying history had I have been a lousy teacher. I didn't want my students to dislike history (the way I did). Later, I realized it was only boring because history learning was associated with memorization of data, figures and the stuff. When I started my teaching career it dawned on me that history is indeed a wonderful subject to learn. However, what made it less interesting for me then as a student was the way classes were conducted during my time. Teachers were not creative enough to do something bold in class and it was all one-sided which was based under the category that the huge contributor in class was the teacher and there was so much authority addressed to it. Students were the silent majority and this is where my love for history died. There was also the infinite writing time and copying of information from history book to one's notebook. Grrrrrrrrrr! I won't recommend this approach at all~ as it was a nightmare (sigh) just thinking about it. Yikes! I hated writing and my handwriting for that matter. Then, there was the lecture part of the history class that was dull; there's the pack of history teachers in my time who were autocratic zombie creatures in my class.

BUT---when I became a professional, I decided that my students would love my subject so I did my best in teaching. As an educator, my favorite subject has always been baroque period because of its musical form which is polyphony (counterpoint). I like listening to it and to the sound of harpsichord and the whole orchestral works. Now that I am speaking about teaching- apparently, I miss it at times but not always. Sometimes I still wonder in awe about what I am doing inside the house I share with moi husband; and with me being a stay-at-home wife~ twenty four hours a day~seven days a week. But I am liking it!


Years ago when I was single, I'd roll my eyes about giving up my successful career and a lifestyle that evolved around so much on travelling, meeting people from cross-cultural groups, partying with honchos from the diplomatic circle, shopping non-stop; living/vacationing in different cities of the world. I did all these while teaching in the international community where ENGLISH as a language was like music to my ears as it came in different tones and harmony because people come from different continents of the world. In international schools, the studentry is mostly comprised of "third-culture kids." Why third culture kids? Because these kids deal with three cultures in their lifetime living and studying overseas: the host country's culture, the school's culture plus their own as foreign students from different countries. Most of their parents work as expats for multi-national firms and/ or for the diplomatic circle. This was my world~ international education and living overseas.

But LOVE changes priorities. I fell in love. Finally, I decided to give it all up for love. These days, I am happy and I am not complaining. It's beautiful. Being "domestic" is now my generic title and relative to it, "homemaking" is my career. The transition was tough during my first two years as a married woman. Life style changes gave me streaks of gray hair (laughs) initially but I am getting by with it. I just color my hair when needed- haha! I am better off now on my third year, in fact. I love it. Sometimes, I just get sentimental like right now. Otherwise, there's nothing more inspiring than being in control of my own time and space. Mostly, I can't even say what day it is today or what'sthe date itself since I am all so pre-occupied with my own little wide world of domesticity. But, hey, has it been that long? Not really. Old folks say that when you love what you have or love what you're doing, the hours pass by so quickly... like years. Well, I think they are right! These days, I still travel but with moi husband mostly and it has been amazing so far. It is absolutely wonderful being married than being single (wink*wink*) so it's worth every bit of what I have given up in life. Whoah!



BELOW ARE SOME USEFUL INFORMATION YOU MAY WISH TO READ ON...

Baroque 1600-1750


Extravagant, ornamented, fancy, irregular... These are all adjectives that describe the music of the Baroque period- a period in which the art and architecture in the world was also very ornate and fancy. During the Baroque period, royalty and church leaders were focused on being the best and brightest and showing off their finest things- including music written for them. They hired composers to write pieces that they insisted be flashier than pieces of the past. With every composition, music grew more and more showy and complicated. Composers were treated like servants- they were only allowed to compose what their religious bosses or noble employers asked them to compose, and oftentimes, it was on VERY short notice!

The Baroque period saw the beginnings of instrumental concertos (pieces featuring one instrument). Keyboard music for the harpsichord was also a focus of compositions-there were many composers of the time that were amazing keyboardists. Dance music also saw a rise in popularity. However, music written for the human voice was the most common composition style of the time. Operas and oratorios (musical settings of a sacred text) were unbelievably popular with Baroque audiences.

Bach was an example of a master composer of the Baroque who wrote very fancy-sounding keyboard music. Listen for the "showy" sounds of this piece for organ

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, a control of harmonic and motivic organisation from the smallest to the largest scales, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Revered for their intellectual depth and technical and artistic beauty, JS Bach's works include the Brandenburg concerti, the Goldberg Variations, the keyboard Suites(1)(2) and Partitas, the Mass in B Minor, the St Matthew Passion, The Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue, and more than 200 cantatas.

Baking My First Pie For 2007: "Lattice Apple Pie With Streusel Topping And Toasted Chopped Almond"

We have been dieting so I have not been baking since January this year. However, with the amount of apples we got at the fridge (they are quite a lot), today I decided to bake a pie. The top is a bit brownish due to the extra sugar that I sifted over it. I used olive oil to make the crust. This pie is perfect when served with a cup of freshly brewed hot coffee. Bon appetito!

See photos below. Click to enlarge.




ABOVE: The crust that I refrigerated for a few hours and covered with cling wrap plus the lattice top crust in close up. The lattice top crust looks great. I initially worked on this in my Bethany pastry cloth then I transfered the woven crust at the back of a round pizza pan. I roll my dough in the pastry cloth which actually has a wood underneath it. I put it on top of the table and there I do the magic trick! To do this lattice crust is quite simple as this is like weaving several strips of paper to make a paper mat. To cut it straight, I used a pizza cutter and a wooden ruler to cut off the thin vertical crust for this my apple pie crust.



The apple pie filling is cooked with butter for 8 minutes on the caserolle. I like this version as the meat of the apple is really cooked and is tender. I don't like to eat raw apples as filling of my apple pie. Yikes! Husband loves this version as well. In fact, this is his favorite aside from cherry pie!

The baked apple pie fresh from the oven...



Wouldn't you like to be my house guest and have a taste of my culinary expertise? *Wink*Wink*

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Lazy Sunday Afternoon


We just came from our luncheon date in Yee’s Restaurant in Chinatown. We had noodles, fried style with seafoods and veggies plus steamed rice. That is all we ordered. We did not even finish it. It was okay but I had a lot of Italian food last night. My palette was not keen to digest those Chinese food today. But since we have nothing to eat at home (I needed to go marketing tomorrow), we headed for a quick lunch in this Chinese community. We didn't eat well. I guess we are settling back to our spring appetite. Our tummies are getting used to having a small portion of food as opposed to how we were last winter: big eaters.

Before lunch, we bought this ball shaped rice cake that is stuffed with black beans, cooked with sugar syrup. It has sesame seeds all around it this Asian dessert. Back home, we call this as “Buche” (pronounced as “BOO-CHE”). I had the cravings for this so we bought 3 pieces for $1.50 at the famous shop that sells this item along Broadway. Husband tasted it for the first time and he kind of liked it. I am not into native Filipino and Thai desserts but this one I like.


Buche
reminds me of my childhood days in the Philippines where vendors of this dessert would scream "Buche! Buche!" to announce to the neighborhood folks that the sweet rice bread is available for sale. Vendors travel on foot and carry the buche in baskets covered with layers of fabric to preserve it from getting cold.

BTW, before we headed to Chinatown, this noontime at 11:45 P.M. we attended our first Italian Mass at Saints Peter and Paul Church.
We were in the company of Italians from North Beach (Little Italy). It is interesting how these people from Europe have grown roots in this part of San Francisco. It was a delight as well, to see how our archaic looking Italian priest in his 80s- to have so much passion during his sermon this noontime. Ordinarily on weekdays, he looks frail and sleepy during the mass he officiates; in fact- at times he'd forget which part of the mass he was in but today, he was very much alive and energized. I realized that it is because he was speaking in Italian and since it is his first language, he is more adept with this medium. On the other hand, I understand very little of the Italian mass, except for the familiar hymns I sang since I was a teen-ager.

Well, we went to the dollar tree along Columbus corner Broadway. There, I was able to purchase two sets of sewing machine needles for 99 cents each. Now, as I write this entry my eyes are feeling heavy. I guess I need to take a nap. We were watching movies until 3:30 A.M. Mamamia! This is all for now.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

When You are Old by William Butler Yeats

This remains to be one of my favorite poems. Let me share this once more with you .


When you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

March 17: Happy St. Patrick's Day!



Thursday, March 15, 2007

Beautiful San Francisco In Spring , Part 2

Click each photo to enlarge*

Our Park (Washington Square)... is 5 minutes on foot from our flat. Here are a few exposures I took this afternoon. Most pet owners come here and walk their dogs, some folks are here to have a picnic time with friends and family; a number of yuppies eat their lunch in this park solo style; homeless folks conglomerate at noontime; the more liberated souls undress in their skimpy bikinis and trunks~ in celebration of the bright clouds above.

On Satudays, many college kids play volley ball and badminton from morning to noontime. Once a month, art exhibits are held here as well.

Washingston Square is the social place for everyone in this European neighborhood. It is also the arena where the Chinese oldies have found their turf to do their exercise for as early as 6 A.M. on a daily basis.

Husband and I come here regularly because we love looking at our city landscape where nature and people are in synch with each other.



Residential And Commercial Buildings

Victorian architecture is what your eyes would feast on once you step into the streets of San Francisco and apart from the cable cars that never fails to intrigue the tourists, it's these buildings that make San Francisco uniquely charming in its own way. Photos here are taken in my North Beach neighborhood...see Coit Tower on the left, this is one of the icons of Little Italy (it looks like a cigarette amid the Victorian residential buildings)...










Saints Peter and Paul Church
& Union (Main Street)

Beautiful San Francisco In Spring

*Click each photo to enlarge*


Street scene along Union


Linear perspective of trees along Powell



Beautiful flowers





Victorian Architecture




We just came from our afternoon walk and it is now 9 PM. The weather was nice, sunny, but cool. We had dinner at the wharf, at Pier 39. We had fish and chips plus coke. We went to different shops that were amusing for us. By evening time, it started to really cool down. I had to pull down the sleeves of my sweatshirt to cover my hands. Otherwise, once we started to walk fast from Powel to our North Beach neighborhood, all was fine. Here are some photos taken this afternoon from our main street (Union) to the park (Washington Square), Saints Peter and Paul Church, Powell (where an array of beautiful Victorian residencial buildings are situated). I took some photographs of flowers that are abloom. Here they are- enjoy!




Bus Stop from Powell; homeless man, walking from the wharf to Powell Street



Alaskan husky; street across Pier 39- notice the trees~leaves are gone!



Spring flowers; our silhouette at the entrance of the wharf~ I love it!










Sea Lions come out here during the day time but by afternoon, they go hiding elsewhere here...



Coit Tower as seen in Pier 39; spring flowers greeting the visitors with their warm and brilliant colors makes it all worthwhile coming to this picturesque place during this time of the year.








European style residencial buildings








Pier 39 a.k.a. Fisherman's Wharf

Dining time at the fish and chips place