Last night for dinner, I marinated a bunch of chopped local veggies (an eggplant, new potatoes, zucchini, garlic, onions, and a tomato) in some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and sea salt. I did the same with two large portobello mushrooms and let everything get nice and soaked in for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. I was trying to remake that really yummy vegan mushroom dish we had at our good friends' wedding a few weeks back, without having to spend all day making a balsamic reduction. It worked!
I roasted the chopped veggies in the oven at 450 for about 40 minutes, and added the pan of mushrooms and let them all cook for another 10 minutes. I then turned the mushrooms and let 'em go for another 10 minutes. Once out of the oven, I topped the mushrooms with the chopped veggies and melted some organic Muenster cheese on Brett's (he liked it but said it would have been better with provolone - just a tip for you cheese eaters out there). This was a very special dinner too, it was incredibly good for something that was this easy. Brett said he would have paid good money for it in a restaurant, but then again, he would say that wouldn't he? Especially if he wants me to keep feeding him... ;-)
In all seriousness, this was really good. Our only complaint was that there wasn't more. We'll have more mushrooms next time. I thought adding some cooked pearl barley to the "filling" would be really good too.
As I very happily noted just a few weeks ago , we have a Hammond organ now, and we love it. Brett plays the guitar so now that I'm more comfortable with the organ (meaning, I can kind of pick out a melody, I'm getting there), we have been experimenting and "jamming" together. He has learned the bass lines or rhythm guitar sections to some jazz songs and I have learned the melody, then we play together - so far we've gotten part of my favorite jazz song down "Blues in A Minor" by the Modern Jazz Quartet , we've gotten the legendary Bill Evans' "Lullaby for Helene" (I like the take on The Complete Bill Evans on Verve without the whole orchestra section), I've learned some Tetris music (hehehe - Brett is working on the "bad guy level" music from the original Super Mario Bros), I've attempted the "Girl from Ipanema", but so far, it's just not quite right, I started to work on "Canon in D" and realized I was far, far out of my range of abilities with that one - such a pretty song though, I really like the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's take on it. So much fun! The Hammond also has a nice bass walk feature. So once I had learned the A minor scale, we put that on for a back beat and had a bluesy-jazzy jam session.
Our latest project is "Bouree", but the Jethro Tull version, not the Bach one. I like JT's take on it better. Brett plays the bass line, I play the flute part. :-)
I want to thank Cookiemouse for giving me the idea of uploading a Youtube video of the song we are working on.
Well, this is my last day off of my long weekend. I've got some emails I want to catch up on later in the day, but the most part, today will be spent with Brett, the Playstation, books, and the Hammond.
Enjoy this gorgeous Tuesday!
Oh, and I'll try to catch up on all your blogs in the next couple of days.
I roasted the chopped veggies in the oven at 450 for about 40 minutes, and added the pan of mushrooms and let them all cook for another 10 minutes. I then turned the mushrooms and let 'em go for another 10 minutes. Once out of the oven, I topped the mushrooms with the chopped veggies and melted some organic Muenster cheese on Brett's (he liked it but said it would have been better with provolone - just a tip for you cheese eaters out there). This was a very special dinner too, it was incredibly good for something that was this easy. Brett said he would have paid good money for it in a restaurant, but then again, he would say that wouldn't he? Especially if he wants me to keep feeding him... ;-)
In all seriousness, this was really good. Our only complaint was that there wasn't more. We'll have more mushrooms next time. I thought adding some cooked pearl barley to the "filling" would be really good too.
As I very happily noted just a few weeks ago , we have a Hammond organ now, and we love it. Brett plays the guitar so now that I'm more comfortable with the organ (meaning, I can kind of pick out a melody, I'm getting there), we have been experimenting and "jamming" together. He has learned the bass lines or rhythm guitar sections to some jazz songs and I have learned the melody, then we play together - so far we've gotten part of my favorite jazz song down "Blues in A Minor" by the Modern Jazz Quartet , we've gotten the legendary Bill Evans' "Lullaby for Helene" (I like the take on The Complete Bill Evans on Verve without the whole orchestra section), I've learned some Tetris music (hehehe - Brett is working on the "bad guy level" music from the original Super Mario Bros), I've attempted the "Girl from Ipanema", but so far, it's just not quite right, I started to work on "Canon in D" and realized I was far, far out of my range of abilities with that one - such a pretty song though, I really like the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's take on it. So much fun! The Hammond also has a nice bass walk feature. So once I had learned the A minor scale, we put that on for a back beat and had a bluesy-jazzy jam session.
Our latest project is "Bouree", but the Jethro Tull version, not the Bach one. I like JT's take on it better. Brett plays the bass line, I play the flute part. :-)
Well, this is my last day off of my long weekend. I've got some emails I want to catch up on later in the day, but the most part, today will be spent with Brett, the Playstation, books, and the Hammond.
Enjoy this gorgeous Tuesday!
Oh, and I'll try to catch up on all your blogs in the next couple of days.
'Til next time!