New gig!

I am now the official musician blogger for the symphony! I will be blogging twice weekly through the season about what is going on at the KSO as well as just music in general. My first blog posted today!!! (can you tell I'm excited?) To check it out, go to the symphony's website: http://www.knoxvillesymphony.com and click on "blog."

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, all!

WG picked out her pumpkin when Grandma G (aka my mom) was here this past week. And again she has vetoed carving it. If you remember, WG has a love affair going with squash. "Lumpy Pumpkin" is safe and sound in our house. Last year's pumpkin stuck around for the Christmas pictures before he got soft and "ran away." We'll see how long Lumpy sticks around. I did just read an article on how great homemade pumpkin puree is and WG is in school every morning......

WG is dressing as a dinosaur again this year. That is, WG will dress as a dinosaur IF we can convince her to put the costume on. WG has a very fertile imagination these days and she thinks that if she dresses as a dinosaur she will turn into a dinosaur. Personally, I think that would be a handy thing to be able to do, but the idea freaks WG out. When I asked her to try the costume on a few days ago she started sobbing and said, "But I don't want to be a dinosaur, I want to be WG!" I had to smile at this because I had completely forgotten that not too long ago if we asked her if she was happy or sad or angry she would answer, "I'm not happy, I'm WG! Don't call me happy!" She did eventually put the costume on for a few minutes. She also wore it to school yesterday for the Halloween parade. Still, she has her reservations about the whole thing. We'll see.

We also got the proofs for school pictures back today. They had two shots of WG. In the first she was biting her lip. It was not a great picture. She was smiling in the second picture but there was a look on her face that is very familiar. WG started giggling when she saw that proof. I asked her if she was growling when they took the picture and she laughed harder. Poor photographer!

March of Dimes petition

Okay, I am lame. I sent a mass e-mail asking people to sign the March of Dimes petition and then forgot to include the URL. Doh! It is a sign of how things have been going here lately. Too many rehearsals, too much running.... Anyhow, I do urge you to consider signing the petition. 1 in 8 babies born in the US are born too soon. That is WAY too high. Even worse, in many cases there is no clear explanation as to why the baby was born early. March of Dimes is the leader in funding and supporting research on prematurity. They have saved many many lives. Here is the URL for the petition:
http://www.marchofdimes.com/padpetition/index.aspx?a=1&z=1&c=1&l=en

Chicken in a pot

I made this chicken tonight and was blown away. It is really really good. I don't think it could be any more simple. Better and cheaper than picking up a deli roasted chicken. By the way, if you are following a GF diet, be wary of supermarket roasted chickens. Many are rubbed with breadcrumbs. With this cooking method, the skin doesn't brown and get crisp, but that didn't bother me because we always take the skin off the chicken anyhow. I got the recipe from America's Test Kitchen Best International Recipe. They have a pan sauce that goes along with the chicken using the drippings, white wine, chicken broth and butter. I didn't bother because I was making the chicken to get the meat to make other dishes.

Chicken in a Pot

1 Chicken, trimmed, extra "stuff" removed from the cavity
1 Tbs Olive oil
2 shallots, diced (about 1/2 cup)
4 or 5 cloves garlic, peeled and trimmed

Put the oil, shallots and garlic in the bottom of a pan with a lid. Put the chicken on top, cover. Bake at 375 for around 60 minutes until the breast meat registers 160 degrees.

I doubled the recipe and used my giant turkey roasting pan (which has a lid). I had to bake them for 75 minutes.

Letter of the week

Preschool is going well. WG now enters the building of her own free will and today, for the first time, she did not have a meltdown when I picked her up. She has friends and seems to be settling into the routine. Her main beef is that they make her use the bathroom. WG has a tremendous bladder capacity which combined with her tremendous pain tollerance makes pottying an annoyance. If she had it her way she would use the bathroom once a week or so.

She has homework. Granted, it's preschool, so it's not hard homework. Last Friday she had to wear something green because green is the school's color. (Their mascot is the dragon.) Today she came home with her sheet about what they were learning this week as well as homework. They are learning all about the letter R this week. Her assignment for tomorrow is to bring something that starts with the letter R for Millie the Letter Muncher to eat.

I have never met Millie, I'm thinking they want WG to bring a picture of something that starts with R. A picture of a rainbow is much easier to send than the real thing. WG spent dinner going through a laundry list of words. "ruh-ruh-refridgerator. Does refridgerator start with R? Ruh-ruh-pisghetti. Does pisghetti start with R? HAHAHAHA!!!" She gets it.

We forgot to find pictures so I was looking for some to cut out for her to choose from in the morning. I found an old Rachel Ray magazine. I cut her out. She is a double R, which in my opinion should mean extra credit. And besides, don't you just want to feed Rachel Ray to Millie the letter muncher? I think I might send her along anyway even if WG chooses the Roadkill Racoon.