Soon, many Americans will be gathering for one of the biggest annual sporting events – Super Bowl Sunday.
In honor of the upcoming festivities, in this post, I’ll share some:
(1) Favorite football-themed lessons, worksheets, games, and music
(2) Favorite game-day recipes
(3) A couple of personal memories of years past
First, the memories.
Football, “Footy,” and I
As a non-sports fan, Super Bowl Sunday is a day where I have fun making fun food and spending time with people I love. I’m that person: the commercial-watching, appetizer-eating, half-time show critic. The only time I’m ever interested in the game is when the Indianapolis Colts are playing.
My biggest Super Bowl memory was Super Bowl XLI (2007) between the Colts and the Chicago Bears. At the time, we were living in Melbourne, Australia. We kept a blog of our adventures back then called Aussie Chaps. Here’s what I said at the time:
Did you think we’d actually miss seeing the Colts play in the Super Bowl just because we live 12,000 miles away? Of course not! We ordered the sports channel for a month just so we could catch the game!
Congratulations to Kristen Rendall, winner of December’s Piano Safari giveaway!
Here are a few fun stats as we wrap up our last episode of Friday Finds for the year.
Since Piano Pantry’s kick-off in March of 2016, I’ve shared 293 finds, and received 53 comments on 36 Friday Finds posts for 2016.
Can I tell you something? I LOVE it when you comment – even if it’s a short one! As a blogger, you can see the stats, but the numbers are just that – numbers. It’s getting a chance to read the words and thoughts of you, my readers and getting to interact with you that makes it so much more fun, so keep it up in 2017!
You would think after sharing 293 things I would be completely out, but quite the contrary. Absorbing content is something I love doing and I promise to only ever share finds that I feel are completely worth your time to check out.
Here’s what’s on my mind as we take a turn into the new year:
These Colgate Wisp’s are great to keep in your purse, or in the console or glove-box of the car for a quick mouth refresher!
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My discovery is a little late for this year but I’m now looking forward to next Christmas as I’ll have both Anne Crosby Gaudet’s Chord Town Christmas and Irina Gorin’s new Christmas Collection that goes along with Tales of a Musical Journey.
Oprah’s favorites lists were always the first page I turned to when I used to get the magazine. Today, we’re not getting Oprah’s list, but Amy’s list!
This list includes the recipes and gadgets I arm myself with year after year for holiday cooking and the Christmas albums that create the most nostalgia in my ear during the season.
For years (until I started using Spotify Premium), I had a personal tradition of purchasing a new Christmas album each Christmas season. I love listening to the same albums each year with one new one thrown in.
Since I start listening to Christmas music on the first of November (about the same time I start Christmas pieces with my students), it’s the perfect time of year for a holiday favorites list as we’re planning our biggest holiday meal of the year (Thanksgiving), and while simultaneously setting the mood for the upcoming Christmas season through music.
A couple of tips: First, I needed six tortillas when I used a regular soft taco shell size. If you use the large burrito shells, you might be okay. Second, adding 1/2 cup of sour cream to the mixture helped make it more spreadable. Adding thin slices of ham on top of the spread is a nice variation before rolling.
Mushrooms are one of my top five foods. I could eat them on everything. Ina Garten’s Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms are delectable. My best friend and I salivate over these puppies. The recipe calls for 5 oz. of mascarpone – forget that! Throw in the whole 8 oz container!
My sister-in-law often makes Pioneer Woman’s Green Bean Casserole, which everyone loves. It’s as creamy as they come, and the pimentos are a nice touch.
The Bird
My husband and I hate nothing more than dry/overcooked meat. The best way to avoid dry turkey is to use a brine. Not only does our favorite turkey recipe use an excellent homemade brine, but it’s also grilled. Drew loves to grill and smoke meat on our Kamado-style grill, so this recipe is a match made in heaven!
After the first time my nephew ate it, he has forever declared, “Aunt Amy makes the best turkey” (sorry, Mom and grandma!) :-/
Here I am in 2010 with my first grilled turkey. He was a 25-pound beauty!
2012 – looking even better with experience!
The same 2012 turkey off the grill and on my favorite cutting board(recommended below). That’s my mom with me. Can you tell?
Dessert and Sweets
I’m not usually in charge of dessert as I prefer cooking over baking, and no one else in my family likes being in charge of the meat. Even so, I still love making a few recipes during this season.
Note: I did one loaf and a pan of mini-muffins instead of two loaves. There ended up with a bit too much batter in the loaf, so it was still wet in the middle after 50 minutes in the oven. The batter was probably 3/4 whole in the loaf pan. If you do two loaves as the recipe calls for you, will probably be fine.
Ina Garten’s Ultimate Ginger Cookies are deliciously spicy. I’m not a huge ginger fan, but I still, love these. I pull back just a bit on the amount of chopped crystallized ginger in the recipe – just a little.
Favorite Gadgets
Disclaimer: The equipment and CD links are all Amazon affiliate links, which means that if you happen to purchase using these links, I will get a tiny percentage back without it costing you anything extra.
This J.K. Adams Reversible Maple Carbing Board won America’s Test Kitchen’s carving board equipment test. One side is flat, and the other has a poultry-shaped well. The trench is nice and deep to catch juices. I’ve had plenty of messes over the years with turkey juices, so a deep
The Polder Digital In-Oven Thermometer, America’s Test Kitchen’s “best-buy” choice, has worked pretty well for us so far. A thermometer like this is an absolute must for anyone interested in smoking meats.
The oblong shape of the Trudeau Gravy Separator is perfect for pouring liquids into it from a pot.
The best and most convenient way to brine a large turkey and have it still fit in your fridge is to use these fantastic heavy-duty brining bags from Williams Sonoma. They come in a set of 3 sizes. I always use the biggest one, but the small bags are excellent for things like pork loins.
One of my personal Christmas traditions is to purchase one or two new Christmas albums each year. For some reason, Christmas is one of those times when I don’t want to let Pandora randomly choose the music I listen to on the “Christmas station.” I like having specific albums I listen to each December. I think a lot of it has to do with the nostalgia of listening to the same albums each season.
I usually just Google “Best Christmas Albums of 2016” or something of the sort to research what’s out there.
This last CD has a story to it. Country music isn’t usually my first choice. I don’t hate it; I just don’t like it as much as other styles. However, in March 2016, Joey Martin Feek passed away from cervical cancer. She grew up in the same hometown as my husband, Alexandria, Indiana. She was four years ahead of him in school. With a small-town population of just over 5,000, she became a source of local pride.
In September 2016, select movie theaters played the movie To Joey With Love, which told her story. Her husband, Rory, took lots of video footage the last year she was alive, apparently, for no particular reason – he just felt for some reason like he should be filming their lives more. *insert tears!*
I cried the.whole.movie.
Share your favorite holiday grub and tunes in the comments – I can’t wait to hear what you love to eat and listen to over during this season
Last week, my studio families and I walked in our fifth annual parade since I opened in 2011. A five-year anniversary is a perfect time for celebration, so I wanted to share a little more about it with you today.
You will see photos from the last five years, and I will also share how a simple community event like a parade can become a core marketing tool for growing your music studio.
2011 – Year 1
The year I started my studio, I was living off only 10-15 students and needed to go on the cheap. My logo had not yet been designed, so I just cut a simple sign out of a black poster board and borrowed my mother-in-law’s beautiful T-bird.
I made the keyboards from foam-core poster board I bought at Wal-Mart.
Each Friday on this blog, I will share some of my favorite finds from the past week. I absorb a lot of content in Feedly so I’m looking forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out! You will find anything from teaching articles, podcasts, music news, recipes, favorite pieces, and more. I promise to try to keep it at 10 items or less!
A giveaway from Alfred – up to three free books! *Offer expires July 22.
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Teacher Lou Ann Pope shares her love for Tales of a Musical Journey and implementation of the Practicia App in a cleverly-written post inspired by the story-telling style of Gorin’s method.
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Aiming low – Reaching High?
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A bundle of twelve free BEAUTIFUL backgrounds for desktop, laptop, or smartphone food enthusiasts!
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Episode 10of Leila’s wonderful Get Inspired! series is a Patriotic Lab I assign to my students the last week of June because on Monday…
…we’re celebrating Independence Day here in the U.S! My husband is excited to smoke some meat and continue our tradition of setting off a mini hot-air balloon. You know that strange U.F.O.-like light in the sky you think you saw but were afraid to tell anyone about years ago? Yeah, it was just a mini-hot air balloon!
It also dawned on me thinking about the hot-air balloon that the 4th of July is the anniversary of our first date. We didn’t do much..just took a HELICOPTER RIDE at the fairgrounds! I should have known I was in for an aviation enthusiast from the start – 14 years ago on Monday!
Last week, I held several classes for our city’s Parks and Recreation department, including a class for 5-6-year-olds, 7-8-year-olds, and 9-10-year-olds. (The photos below are of the latter).
Holding these classes is just one way I try to continually market my business and keep my name in the community. If you missed my first post that included detailed information on the Tot Music Time for 3-4-year-olds, read it here.
I take various materials for these classes, including Piano Fun for the Young, Celebrate Piano, and Faber’s My First Piano Adventures. Since it’s just one class, the students don’t receive any books; I mostly do improvisation activities, exploration of the piano, keyboard topography, and playing along to song tracks with a steady beat.
We start by playing the Piano Safari animal improvisation game. This game works great for a large range of ages.
In the summer of 2013, two years into my studio, I started offering classes through our city’s Parks and Recreation Department to help grow and market my studio. Several people had mentioned it to me when I first opened, but I pushed the idea aside – silly me. I don’t remember what made me finally try it, but I haven’t regretted it.
I’m going to share with you first a little about the logistics of holding these classes and then will share my lesson plan, materials, and photos from one of the classes, Tot Music Time.
Next week, I will post information and photos from the other classes.
The Low-Down
Our city’s Parks Department offers programming throughout the summer. Anyone can offer a class. All you have to do is send in the class title, description, date, time, and if there will be any charge. They do all the advertising and registrations and simply send me a class list a few days prior. I send them the offerings in January so they are ready for the printing of publicity.
I run the classes either the week of Memorial Day (if I know schools will be out early) or the very first week of June to allow for student sign-ups for any summer classes I might hold. I hold two classes a day: 11:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. (I have them fill up the 11:00 first in case there aren’t enough sign-ups for the second class; then I don’t have to come in as early!)
Each class has a set minimum and maximum. This is based on the “move-around” space in my studio, the number of keyboards I have, and lastly, the amount that I need to stay sane (I don’t do large groups well!) 🙂
