Friday, November 27, 2009

NOVEMBER 27 - PHILADELPHIA, PA - Thanksgiving 2k9

Stay tuned for more recipes!

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009

Thanksgibbling 2009


LATTICE TOP CARAMEL APPLE PIE WITH CINNAMON-SUGAR MEYER LEMON CRUST

In lieu of rolling the bottom half of the crust, I just press it into the plate itself.

Meyer Lemon Crust

2 sticks Butter, cubed and chilled
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp meyer lemon zest
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup ice water
milk for brushing

Combine flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest in a large bowl.
Add butter, smushing the cubes between you fingers, until it's incorporated into the dry ingredients and resembles cornmeal.
Mix in the yolk, and slowly add the water, and stop when the dough starts to form - it shouldn't be crumbly, but it certainly shouldn't be sticky.
Take about 2/3 of the dough and shape it into a disc.
Place the disc in the bottom of a 9" pie plate and push it to the edges with your good ole fingers, until it covers the dish. Don't worry, this should take a few minutes.
Shape the remaining dough into a disc, cover both crusts with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Prepare the filling.

Caramel Apple Pie Filling

1 stick butter
3 tbsp flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp molasses
pinch of salt
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
4 large Jonagold apples, peeled and sliced into small, thin pieces.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
Add flour, and stir until a thick, light brown paste (roux) is formed (about 3 minutes).
Add sugar, molasses, salt, and water. Bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer, and cook until thickened and reduced slightly (5-10 minutes).
Remove from heat and add cinnamon and vanilla.
Remove crusts from the fridge, and place apples in the prepared pie plate.
Pour caramel sauce over apples.
Place pie in the freezer and roll out the second dough disc into a 9" circle.
Cut into strips, take pie out of freezer, and using strips, prepare a lattice topping (if you don't know how to make a lattice topping... use Google).
Place pie back in freezer and preheat oven to 450°F.
When the oven is ready, place pie on a baking sheet (to protect against the inevitable leakage) and put a ring of foil around the perimeter of the pie (to avoid burnt edges).
Place it in the middle rack and bake for 10 minutes.
Reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for another 40 minutes.
Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes.
Cool pie completely and rewarm just slightly (say, 10 minutes in a 350°F oven) before serving... with vanilla ice cream and almond scented whipped cream.

Almond Scented Whipped Cream
1 pint heavy cream, chilled
3-6 tbsp confectioner's sugar (depending on how sweet you like your cream)
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a COLD metal bowl and whisk until soft peaks have formed.

Monday, November 23, 2009

NOVEMBER 21/22 - PHILADELPHIA, PA - PAPER CAT Session 1

Don't worry, I'll post about that brief trip to Turkey soon (though if you're my friend on Facebook, you have seen the shots)... In the mean time, enjoy these photos from the successful PAPER CAT recording session this past weekend, to satiate my muso readers:

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

And the band with iPhones stays together and plays together... or get easily distracted...

PAPER CAT Session 1

PAPER CAT Session 1

Thursday, November 19, 2009

NOVEMBER 5-10 - PERM/MOSCOW, RUSSIA - Returning to the homeland: Photos speak for themselves...

b1 green room

Perm Party

Wow, all I can say is: What a trip! I literally slept less than 27 hours in these 6 days, due mostly to sheer excitement. See, these shows in Perm and Moscow were not just ABPT shows, but rather a double billing with Eddie Jobson's latest project U-Z (which for these performances, featured a line-up of Greg Howe, Ric Fierabracci, and Marco Minnemann). I felt honored and humbled to share a stage with musicians of such high caliber - incomparable is all I have to say...

Z Shmooze

I'm not going to talk much about food in this post, simply because the cuisine we had (sorry to say) was generally abysmal. Don't get me wrong - one can find decent eats in Russia, but I suppose this wasn't on our agenda this time around. We were booked with rehearsals, meetings, press conferences - it was all a giant whirlwind - but one in which it was was an absolute blast to be caught. I'll forgive them for the bland fried cabbage cakes and acrid buckwheat...

Z Shmooze

View from my Perm hotel room: Aren't the Urals lovely?

Travel To Perm

On the first night, our (amazingly awesome) promoter Sasha took us to a small Philharmonic hall, where we saw two great Russian musicians perform the music of Handel and Bach. It was a lovely performance, although I must admit we were all jetlagged and kind of nodding off after 30 minutes... Don't worry though - we weren't such rude Americans - we woke up... in what was an entirely hilarious moment. See, there was about a 10 second pause in between movements, and all of a sudden, our ears were graced with the loudest, most obnoxious, inhuman noise we'd ever heard. Yes folks, it was MY stomach, undoubtedly eating itself - hey I really did starve all day! Of course, next came the uncontrollable laughter. Adrian sat forward, chair creaking, and just he looked at me, eyes wide, with his blushing cheeks all puffed out. Eric had to pinch me - and I'm glad he did, before the rather large Russian woman did it first...

Luckily, we escaped shortly after (but not before we met the two musicians backstage... I'm sure as they shook my hand, they thought "Somebody get this barbaric rock musician out of here and feed her face so she stops providing tummy tuba solos to the rest of the audience!")

We ended up at a club owned by one of Sasha's friends, Max...

Perm Party

Perm Party

Perm Party

Perm Party

Series of warm Vodka faces:

Perm Party

Perm Party

Perm Party

Oy...

Perm Party

Perm Party

Little Sasha (other promoter) with Max:

Perm Party

And the next night... (we would just stay in our rooms all day, recovering... and rehearsing... yeah)

Z Shmooze

Z Shmooze

Z Shmooze

Z Shmooze

... And then the show (the next night). Here's Eric, warming up my bass for me backstage:

Perm Backstage

While, as you can see, Russia is an endearing place - to party down... but the highlight of the run for me was playing these shows (as it should be!)