July 4th Weekend

My July 4th weekend was busy. It began when I performed in a concert with the Saint Louis Wind Symphony on Friday, July 2. The concert was held at the Foundary Art Centre in downtown St. Charles.The Saint Louis Wind Symphony (SLWS) was founded in 1998 as an avenue for music educators to continue to perform. Founded by Dan Presgrave and a core group of musicians, the Saint Louis Wind Symphony was established as a non-profit, all volunteer concert band dedicated to the highest-quality performance of the best wind literature.
There are about 60 musicians in the wind symphony: seven flutes, three oboes, one bassoon, 13 clarinets, four saxes, four French horns, eight trumpets, six trombones, three baritones, four tubas, a string base, and four percussionists. Performances revolve around a theme and compositions are selected to fit the theme. This concert was a Patriotic Musical Tribute.
It has become the premier Wind Ensemble in the Saint Louis metropolitan area, with a reputation for quality performance spreading across the country. I have been performing in the group since 1999, only missing the first concert season.

After the concert my friend Ginger and I went to Llywelyn's Pub in downtown St. Charles. Llywelyn's has several local locations and I am pleased to see that they recently renovated an old bank building. I have always enjoyed visiting Llywelyn's in St. Louis, now I have a location close to home! We enjoyed a salad and some beers on the outdoor patio.

On Saturday I met some girlfriends at Brio for lunch. It was a very special lunch because my friend Nicole was in town from Indianapolis and my friends Nicole and Tonya were in town. It was great to see them along with Justine and Ginger. Brio is one of our favorite places to go for lunch when everyone is in town.

Nicole, Justine, Ginger (holding Abby), Jennifer (me) and Tonya

Nicole and Justine. Best friends pregnant at the same time with due dates a month a part! Nicole is having a girl and Justine is having a boy!

Ginger and Jennifer with baby Abby.

On July 4th Ken and I performed an outdoor concert with the Northwinds Concert Band on the grounds of the Florissant Civic Center. We had a short rain delay and began the concert a half an hour late, but with a shorter intermission we were able to play every song before the fireworks display began at 9:30. The city fo Florissnt really outdid themselves with a spectacular fireworks display! Our concert included show tunes, marches, and patriotic favorites. I have been performing with the Northwinds Concert Band for about 12 years and Ken has been a member for at least 7 years.

Father's Day 2010

Ken and I with our fathers.

Ken and I had our parents over to our house to celebrate Father's Day. We continued eating our way through St. Louis favorites by having St. Louis style pizza. Ken's parents brought pizza and salad from Pirrone's Pizza. Pirrone's is one of our favorite places to get pizza in St. Louis. The characteristics of St. Louis-style pizza are a super-thin yeast-less crust, the use of Provel processed cheese, and pizzas cut into squares or rectangles instead of large wedge shaped slices. Provel is a trademark for three cheeses fused to form one (provolone, Swiss, and white cheddar), Provel cheese was developed by the St. Louis firm Costa Grocery in the 1950s and is made in Wisconsin primarily for the St. Louis market. The cheese is not widely available outside the St. Louis-area.

I kept the tradition of making homemade ice cream on Father's Day alive by finally making a successful batch of ice cream. My chocolate ice cream turned out perfectly and we enjoyed chocolate ice cream with all of the toppings. It was fun creating sundaes with the following toppings: (strawberries, whipped cream, sprinkles, chocolate fudge, nuts, and cherries)

A Taste of Saint Louis

Grandma Talley and Aunt Geri made a visit to St. Louis June 17-21. In honor of their visit my mother-in-law hosted a dinner at her home on Friday, June 18. It was a Saint Louis themed dinner and everything on the menu had something to do with our city.

The Menu

Toasted Ravioli

St. Louis BBQ Ribs

Twice Baked Potatoes

Slaw

Baked Beans

Gooey Butter Cake

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Fitz's Root Beer

Toasted ravioli, or breaded deep-fried ravioli, is an appetizer created and popularized, according to common claims, in St. Louis, Missouri. Toasted ravioli can be found on the menus of many St. Louis restaurants. Legend says that in 1947, a chef in St. Louis accidentally dropped the pasta into oil instead of water.

I contributed the Fitz's Root Beer, a St. Louis tradition. Fitz's Bottling Company is a regional soda brand in St. Louis, Missouri. Fitz's has a microbrewery and restaurant located in University City, Missouri on the historic Delmar Loop. Although Fitz's is best know for root beer we also enjoyed Fitz's Cream Soda. Click on Fitz's Root Beer and read about the history of this yummy beverage.

I also brought the gooey butter cake. I bought the cake from Gooey Louie. Click on Gooey Louie to find out more about this yummy bakery that sells gooey butter cakes in a variety of flavors. Gooey butter cake is a type of cake traditionally made in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It is generally served as a type of coffee cake and not as a dessert. There are two distinct variants of the gooey butter cake. There is a bakers gooey butter and a cream cheese and yellow cake mix variant. It is believed to have originated by accident in the 1930s when a St. Louis German American baker was trying to make regular cake batter but reversed the proportions of sugar and flour. My mom and dad made creative ice cream cone cupcakes. The ice cream cone would seem to be a simple and unpolitical a treat, yet it's origin is hotly contested. The most favored folk tale regarding the invention of the ice cream cone takes place at the 1904 World's Fair held in St. Louis, Missouri. Two food vendors had stalls next to each other. Arnold Fornachou made and sold ice cream. His neighbor, Ernest A. Hamwi, had come to the United States from Damascus, Syria. Hamwi made sweet wafers (much like today's wafer-like cookies). Hamwi cooked the wafers on a waffle iron heated over a coal fire, coated them with sugar, and rolled the wafers while they were still hot so they were easy to eat and carry. When Fornachou ran out of dishes to hold his ice cream, Hamwi rolled his wafers into a cone shape instead of a tube, and the gentlemen topped the wafer with scoops of Fornachou's ice cream. Zalabias became "World's Fair Cornucopias," and the cone concept was born.

No trip to St. Louis would be complete without a souvenir from the St. Louis Cardinals. I made sure Grandma and Aunt Geri took some St. Louis Cardinal peanuts and baseball shaped cookies home with them. They also got a bag of Dad's Oatmeal Scotch Oatmeal Cookies to take home and share with their friends. As the family story goes, Dad's Original Scotch Oatmeal Cookies arrived in California from Scotland around 1900. Shortly thereafter, the parent company began selling rights to the company name, making Dad's Cookie Company one of the country's first franchised businesses. In 1927, one of the company's salesmen passed through St. Louis and visited Carpenter's Ice Cream on Goodfellow Avenue. After sampling the wares, Mr. Carpenter realized the unique flavor of the Scotch Oatmeal Cookie would ideally complement his ice cream so he obtained the franchise for the St. Louis area.

Young Frankenstein

On Friday, May 21, 2010, we enjoyed seeing the musical Young Frankenstein at the Fox Theatre. Young Frankenstein began previews on Broadway on October 11, 2007 and opened on November 8 at the Hilton Theatre and closed on January 4, 2009. The musical is based on Mel Brooks' classic comedy masterpiece. The story follows young Dr. Frankenstein as he attempts to complete his grandfather's masterwork and bring a corpse to life.
With such memorable tunes as "The Transylvania Mania," "He Vas My Boyfriend" and "Puttin' On The Ritz," the musical made for an entertaining evening. Several original cast members were in the production we saw. Go to http://www.youngfrankensteinthemusical.com/ and find out more about the show.

Mother's Day 2010

Our moms, Marilyn and Janet.

On Sunday, May 9, we celebrated Mother's Day at our house by having our parents over for a special lunch in honor of our mothers.

I served lunch in our dinning room and used my Butterfly Meadow dishes. Ken prepared the meat on the grill. My mom brought a casserole and Ken's mom made appetizers. Our menu was as follows:

Roasted Garlic Hummus with Bagel Chips

Bruschetta Cups

Blackberry & Apricot Cups

Garden Salad

Hot Rolls

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Lasagna Casserole

Green Beans with Almonds

Smoked Apple Turkey

Grilled Beef Sirloin

Sparkling Clementine Cider

Angel Food Cake with Fresh Strawberries & Blueberries

Chocolate Raspberry Coffee

Angel's Dream Hot Tea

Ken and I prepared special bags for our mothers that contain everything they need to host a proper tea at their home. In the bag was a mini tea cup decorated with cherries that I found in Traverse City, MI. They also received cherry preserves, cherry cinnamon tea, authentic English curd, tea cookies, and a gift certificate to St. Louis Bread Company so they can purchase yummy pastries for their next tea.

Ken and his mom Marilyn.

Jennifer and her mom Janet.

It was a great day spent with family. Many laughs, good food, and family. Who could ask for anything more? Ken and I are truly blessed to have two wonderful mothers. Our mothers reminisced on past traditions. The one my mother remembered from her childhood was wearing a carnation to church on Mother's Day. If your mother was living you wore a pink carnation. If your mother was deceased you wore a white carnation in her honor. Ken's mother shared a song she learned in primary Sunday school when she was a little girl. She remembers singing it on every Mother's Day.

"All through the year I try to do

the things to show my love for you.

And not to be happy just to say

I love you, Mother, on Mother's Day!"

Landscaping

We finally have landscaping in our front yard! Above are a few pictures of the new landscaping we added to our house last weekend. We had a wall built and added some beautiful plants and now our home has curb appeal. It was difficult to decide what plants to get. I like the hot pink knock out roses and the Japanese Maple tree. We also have yellow lilies, several varieties of boxwood, and red azaleas. We hired one of Ken's co-workers, who has a landscaping business, to do the work for us and Ken was his assistant. Ken is in the process of adding landscape lighting. Our new landscaping inspired a few other people on our block to do the same.

Busy Days

Work Update
I can't believe today is the first day of May! I have been very busy with work and have not had time to post anything. Let me give a few updates.
Since January I have accomplished many things for work that I never thought I would or could do. Over the past four months I have given 30 sales presentations. That is more sales presentations in four months than I had given in three years! Most of the sales presentations were for Treasures Reading or were a combination of Treasures Reading and Imagine It! Reading. I also gave my first math and a social studies presentations. April brought my first Treasures Reading in-service and Math Connects in-service. Although most of my travels have taken me all over Missouri and Illinois, I also spent time in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Music Update
In January my physical therapy was complete and I began playing clarinet again. I played a concert with the Saint Louis Wind Symphony on January 24 and February 14 in St. Louis. We took our concert on the road and performed a joint concert with the Kansas City Wind Symphony in Kansas City in March and played a concert in Union, Missouri in April. Ken and I have a Northwinds Concert on May 2 and Ken will be a member of the big band in this year's Best of Hawthorne on May 8.

Personal Updates
I have been working hard to be healthier and to lose weight. Since January I have lost 33 pounds! I still have more to lose but I am defiantly on the right path! Ken and I took a trip to Florida in March to attend the St. Louis Cardinals spring training. Ken's parents and some family friends went at the same time so we enjoyed spending time with them. Ken's sister and her husband and two little boys visited us over Easter. Most of my weekends were spent recovering from my busy work schedule, but we also found time to attend a few musicals at the Fox, participate in a trivia night, and go out to dinner with friends.