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.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you may already know that in recent years, my husband and I built a new house, including moving my piano studio into the basement and out of commercial space.
My husband did a lot of the work while still working a 40-hour workweek, so the bulk of the build took around three years.
Since cooking is my other mojo, I’ve wanted to share photos of the kitchen and pantry for a good two years, but it kept getting put off.
After finally capturing some good photos for our cabinet builders to display, I had no more excuses. It’s finally time for a tour!
Before
Sharing photos of the empty “before” construction space isn’t much fun considering it was new construction. What is interesting, though, is to see what we went through leading up to completion.
Since our deadline to move out of our rental house was six months before our kitchen cabinets were ready (or the upstairs being complete), we lived in an unfinished basement (my future studio space) with no carpet or kitchen.
This past week was the 2022 Music Teachers National Conference. Since it was virtual, a few teacher friends and I decided to come together so as to not miss out on one of the best aspects – spending time together. Plus, it’s easier to feel more enveloped in the virtual experience when you’re not alone and easily distracted by other life happenings.
As someone who loves to cook and host, I was quick to volunteer our home as the location. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to come together with other teacher friends. It’s practically like a spa day as you walk away feeling rejuvenated, refreshed, and newly motivated!
Call me crazy, but since I usually cook for two, I considered cooking for five for multiple meals and days as a fun opportunity. Of course, my teacher friends were happy to oblige. Meet my friends and guests:
These muffins are not only healthy but incredibly moist and delicious! Sugar free and egg free, the shocking component is 1.5 WHOLE oranges that are first boiled and then puréed.
Egg casseroles aren’t usually my thing but this simple baked egg recipe is a winner. Pepper-jack cheese is the star ingredient that adds tons of flavor without actually making it spicy. I’ve tried substituting cheddar cheese and it’s not nearly as good! Definitely go with the pepper jack. Also, the original recipe calls for 16 oz (1 lb!) of shredded cheese but I find that to be too much and 8oz to be a lovely amount.
(Pictured above). Unfortunately, Milk Street is a subscription website, but I’m sure you could google something similar! The base is noodles, ground pork, and scallions, and the sauce is simply soy sauce and sugar – so simple!
I served this alongside the Shanghai-Style Noodles, and it really is “obsessively good”. It’s best eaten fresh, so I wouldn’t recommend making it ahead of time, although you could at least mix the dressing ingredients ahead of time and then toss them with the avocado and cucumber right before eating.
A one-dish recipe full of good southwest flavor. I would suggest serving it with sour cream and taco chips on the side. We also had a very simple shredded cabbage salad with a chili-powder-based dressing
The title alludes to the fact that the dish was inspired by the old practice on dairy farms, repurposing old large milk cans for travel and camping meal preparation. All the ingredients are essentially steamed in the pot flavored by beer, bay leaf, thyme, and S&P. Don’t be tempted to double, as the recipe amount is about all you can get in a 6-7 quart Dutch oven!
My absolute favorite stir-fry. The only downside is sugar snap peas can be a little bit of a pain as they’re best if you remove the stringy portion (check out this post). Serve with rice or quinoa.
Snacks/Dessert
A one-dish recipe full of good southwest flavor. I would suggest serving it with sour cream and taco chips on the side. We also had a very simple shredded cabbage salad with a chili-powder-based dressing.
I’m honored to be stepping in at the last minute, filling in for The Hungry Musician who normally works with Paula Dreyer on the food side of this virtual conference.
Hope to see some of you there as we make fluffy omelets together this Saturday, January, 29 @ 11:00 am PST.
If you’re interested in registering for the conference, you can do so here:
I recommend many resources and tools here on Piano Pantry to help you be more organized and productive in your personal and studio life. Find a list of those resources here: Recommended Resources.
Two of those are LastPass, my favorite password manager, and Paprika, my favorite recipe app.
Both of them have big sales going on this week.
All four versions of Paprika are on sale from now until the end of November.
Sale prices will vary by country, but the currently displayed prices on their website, the App Store, and the Play Store are indeed the correct prices.
Some of my favorite features of this app are:
You can purchase a desktop version
It has a built-in browser, so you can browse the internet directly in the app and download recipes directly from there
You can download a browser bookmarklet so you can download recipes from the browser you use on a daily basis.
Gone are the days of repeating the same password over and over or using the same one but changing one number every month, or, like my dad, writing it down on a half-dozen index cards (oh my!).
Some of my favorite features of the premium version of Last Pass are:
Get access to all devices.
Generate passwords that are secure and customizable
It’s more than just for passwords! Save:
Health Insurance Informaiton
Drivers Licenses
Credit Cards
Bank Accounts
Wi-Fi Passwords
Save and secure personal information in one location.
Get 25%
On November 23-29th, 2021, LastPass is running a 25% off sale for annual plans.
If there’s one type of gift you will likely never see me give students, it’s a hand-made craft. Don’t get me wrong; there’s absolutely nothing wrong with those types of gifts – I think they’re fabulous. I am just a TERRIBLE crafter!
What my students WILL get from me is some kind of baked good or food item. My favorite is a homemade hot chocolate mix because what kid doesn’t love hot chocolate?!
Let’s pause for an important question.
Do you call it “Hot Cocoa” or “Hot Chocolate”?
I usually say, “Hot Chocolate.” I only used “Cocoa” in the title because it was shorter. Ha! LOL
Tell me what you call it in the comments! 🙂
This post will show you how to put together this fun homemade gift!
Recipe Considerations
Since I’m not exactly a recipe website, I’m not sharing the recipe directly but have recommended ones online you can use (like I do!)
My favorite recipe is from Cook’s Country, but since it’s a paid recipe service, here are some other versions you could try from Pioneer Woman and AllRecipes.
Consider recipes made with powdered milk, so students only have to add hot water. Along those same lines, I would advise you to not do the layered-type cocoa mix where you have to dump the whole container into a pot to mix.
What all these recipe mixes have in common:
Dry milk powder
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Confectioner’s sugar (dissolves better than white sugar)
(P.S. The only addition to this Cook’s Country is white chocolate chips and a bit of salt.)
Since the Cook’s Country recipe uses white chocolate chips, they have you mix the recipe in a food processor to get the chips into smaller pieces so they will dissolve better/quicker.
Unfortunately, this happens when you process dry powder stuff in a food processor. It’s a blustery mess! LOL
Are you a piano teacher (or independent music teacher of any instrument?)
Does the schedule of your occupation create obstacles in food planning/meals making you feel like you’re in a rut or frequently in “survival” mode?
Then, this post is for you!
Thanks to my good friend, Christina Whitlock, creator of the Beyond Measure Podcast, I’ve found a fun way to pull food fun into the mix a little more here!
Here’s a snippet into a text between the two of us several months ago (shared with permission 🙂 ).
Can you relate to her sentiments? 🙂
Thanks to her, I’m launching this new blog post series called “Music Teacher Eats: A Week of Easy, Healthy Meals”. You can look forward to a new edition of this series coming out at least once a season (fall, winter, spring, summer) and possibly even some holiday versions.
Before we continue, a few disclaimers:
First, I will do my best to meet Christina’s request of easy, healthy, and can be done in 30 minutes or less after teaching (assuming a little prep work has been done 🙂 – see the post: Food Prep and the Studio Schedulefor more on that!)
Second, as we all know, the words “easy” and “healthy” can mean completely different things to different people. I vow to do my best to take an overall general approach to both of these words and will also keep in mind that some of you (unlike me) may be serving families with kids.
Third, all of the recipes I suggest here are ones that I have tried and love. I may not be a recipe website, but I cook A LOT and am really picky about quality recipes. Rest easy that everything I share today is a recipe worth keeping.
Fourth, while I cook a LOT from the subscription sites America’s Test Kitchen and Milk Street, I avoided including recipes from them. (It was hard though because their recipes are soooo good!) All recipes included can be found for free online.
I hope you find something in this suggested weekly meal plan that’s new, exciting, and most importantly, useful in easing the burden of meal planning as a studio music teacher!
Are you wondering why in the world you’re seeing a food post on a piano teacher blog?
Well, first of all, if you don’t know me already, besides piano teaching, one of my life passions is cooking.
Second, we eat, right?
Third, as we can all attest, the schedule of the independent music teacher can make mealtime a struggle – especially if you have a family. After school and early evening is prime time for both music lessons AND asking the universal question, “what’s for supper?” If you’re the person in your family who’s generally in charge of mealtime, this can make for a real struggle!
Today, I want to share with you my three biggest food prep tips for keeping your meal-time work efficient and organized. Then, when you walk out the door of your studio late in the evening, you can breathe easy knowing dinner will be ready in a jiffy.
Also, stay tuned for a new post series coming up called Music Teacher Eats for meal plan ideas that are easy, healthy, and quick to prepare!
Recently, a friend posted on Facebook that she was going to Trader Joe’s for the first time in a long time, and did anyone have items they LOVED she should add to the list?
After commenting using a quick cut and paste of my Trader Joe’s shopping list I keep in Evernote, it hit me: I need to share this list with you guys since we talk about food occasionally here on the Piano Pantry blog!
In this post, I’ll give you a brief explanation of why Trader Joe’s is popular, share a couple of sources where I frequently get ideas for fun things to try from there, and finally, my own shopping list!
