Friday Finds #255

December 23, 2022
by Amy
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I couldn’t resist squeezing in one more goodies post before the end of 2022! I mean, who could let it sit at #254? LOL. Plus, I had a lot of Christmas fun to share with you, including a list of items I’m in charge of making for our various holiday gatherings. Let’s start there!

 

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Pimento Cheese Spread (Gimme Some Oven)

We always provide a tray of venison summer sausage and crackers for both family gatherings. This soft cheese spread will make a nice addition to the mix. I prefer about half the amount of green onion. You could even substitute with a 1/2 t. or so of dry onion powder.

Brandied Apple Cake with Figs and Walnuts (Williams Sonoma)

I’ve made this cake one other time, and oh my…. it’s full of apples, incredibly moist, and full of flavor.

Apple, Pecan, and Blue Cheese Salad with Dried Cherries (Pioneer Woman)

When my brother texted my mom and me with who should bring what for our Christmas Day meal, my list included dessert and “Adam’s favorite salad.” I knew exactly what he meant!

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Ten Posts and Podcasts You Loved in 2022

December 20, 2022
by Amy
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As 2022 comes to a close, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of you for being here. It’s a joy and a privilege to share with you all through this blog, podcast, and social media.

This time of year, it’s always fun to peek back at what the year brought us before being present for the holidays and looking forward to the year ahead.

While the Piano Pantry Blog was a little quieter this year due to the launch of the weekly podcast, I still managed to share with you through the written word in 22 posts (now 23) and 13 Friday Finds. Included in that mix, we hit #250 in the Friday series, where many of you chimed in with YOUR favorites. Launching at the start of January 2022, the podcast hit a nice round #50 (which makes this Enneagram 3 very happy! LOL).

This post will highlight the top five blog posts and top five podcast episodes from this past year.  Honestly, it’s hard to say how 100% accurate the stats are because posts that occurred earlier in the year have had more time to get more views, etc., and with podcasts, it can be hard to get clear and accurate stats between all the platforms.

Previous Top-Post Highlights: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

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My 2021-2022 Student Christmas Gifts

December 14, 2022
by Amy
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Over the years, I’ve shared several ideas for Christmas gifts for students, including all that I’ve done up until 2020. If you would like to check out some of those, visit these posts:

Christmas Gift Ideas for Music Students: Who Couldn’t Use Another Idea?!

Music-Themed Bookmarks for Student Christmas Gifts

Christmas Gift Round-Up

My Perfect Homemade Student Christmas Gift: Hot Cocoa 

I’m playing a little “catch-up” in today’s post, sharing what I did last year and this year.

My 2021 Student Christmas Gifts

Have you ever done a “hodge-podge” gift year? This was one of those years for me.

The main gift I planned and was especially excited to give was sugar cookies decorated with the new studio logo (the small version).

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European Food Inspirations: 9 Easy Recipes to Make At Home

December 11, 2022
by Amy
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As 2022 quickly closes, I wanted to squeeze one final blog post in! This one, in particular, because it is the last of four things I wanted to share with all my teacher friends from our 28-day journey through Europe in the fall of 2022.

The first was a fun list of random observations and experiences – especially useful for anyone looking to do some travel in Europe.

The second was Episode #42 of The Piano Pantry Podcast, where I shared the entire story of the month of adventures, including when I lost my passport!

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500 Years of Keyboard Instruments

December 8, 2022
by Amy
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This past fall, my husband and I had the privilege of traveling to Europe for the first time. Countries visited included Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (London), and France.

If you want to get a little peek into this adventure, listen in on episode #47 of The Piano Pantry Podcast!

The entire trip went quite smoothly. The only transportation hiccup we encountered was traveling via train from the Netherlands to London. One of our trains out of the Netherlands was delayed, causing a missed connection from Brussels to London. Luckily, they could get us on a train later that evening, but it meant we had an eight-hour overlay in Brussels, Belgium.

What at first seemed to be an inconvenience turned into a wonderful opportunity as we could spend an entire day exploring the city! A delay of two or three hours would have kept us waiting at the train station.

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Friday Finds #253

November 18, 2022
by Amy
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Items that I’m making for various holiday gatherings over the next week:

Dry-Brined Turkey with Roasted Onions (Smitten Kitchen)

I have never made this turkey recipe so I can’t vouch for it, but I’ve been a Smitten Kitchen fan for years. Also, this past year we made a few recipes that used Gochujang sauce (a fermented chili paste) and we really liked it. I don’t think it will make the turkey spicy or “Asian-food” flavored, it will just give it a nice deep “Umami” flavor.

Arkansas Green Beans (Bubba Pie)

Dijon-Roasted Brussels Sprouts (Recipe Center)

Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallow Topping (Cook’s Country)

Apple Fritter Cake (King Arthur Baking)

Citrus-Cranberry Tart (The Kitchn)

Cranberry Rosemary Shrub Cocktail (Good Life Eats)

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Friday Finds #252

November 11, 2022
by Amy
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While working on one of my speaking sessions, newly available this year, I discovered a highly useful tool on Canva.

It’s a Color Wheel. You can input one color, and it will give you a variety of other colors that can be used in combination with that color. This would be super useful if you had a studio or brand logo with a color and you wanted to add more colors to it.

 

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Canva is part of my daily work flow. While working on slides however, I wasn’t sure at first how I could use their slide templates but then easily change the color scheme without changing each item one by one. I knew there had to be a solution. As always, I just had to Google it! The place to do it is at the bottom of the page and I didn’t even see it until I read about it.

How to Quickly Update All Colors in Canva with Just One Click | Anchor Design Co.

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Random Observations from Our European Travels

October 24, 2022
by Amy
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My husband and I recently took our first-ever European trip (and first-ever month-long vacation!).  After week one, we realized we should start documenting our observations – little things we especially felt were fun, interesting, and good to know and remember for the future.

Throughout the trip, we continued to add to the list. I thought it would be fun to share it here as both a way of passing on our knowledge and experiences and also simply for the sake of documenting it for ourselves for the future.

To make it easier to digest, I organized our random list into the following categories: food and water, language, bathrooms, money, gear, mannerisms and miscellaneous, and transportation.

A few disclaimers:

  1. This has nothing to do with piano teaching (hope that’s OK 🙂 )
  2. It is in no way exhaustive.
  3. As the title states, this list is completely random and consists only of our thoughts and opinions.
  4. While we know it’s important not to overgeneralize, sometimes there are just things that “stuck out.” We realize it doesn’t mean an entire population/culture is that way, it’s just little things that we noticed or found interesting from the moment in time /location we experienced.
  5. Our opinions were formed by the places visited including Germany, Netherlands, London, and France.

If you have had the same experiences and observations or found this post useful for your travels, I would love to hear about it in the comments!

Enjoy!

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Friday Finds #251

October 21, 2022
by Amy
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Welcome back! After a bit of a break from Friday Finds following #250 (which you should check out because it includes fun finds from other teachers), I’m excited to get this series going again!

While I strive for it to be a weekly series, I’ve learned that it’s better for life not to put those restrictions on myself, so if you want to make sure you get the latest delivered to your inbox, signup for my email list here. (Be sure and check the box that says “please send new posts to my inbox.”)

Enjoy!

 

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Irina Gorin’s Tales of a Musical Journey method has received an update! I’m excited to see the changes. You can order from her website here.

 

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Over 25 Music Podcasts Music Educators Can Follow (Jennifer Foxx | Music Educator Resources)

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