Music and Friends

I can remember looking in awe and wonder at photos and videos of family bands and wishing I could meet them. I don't think jamming with them ever crossed my mind. Maybe I didn't have a lot of confidence in my own musicality. Looking back, I think my musical influences often had celebrity status in my mind!

How amazing it is to now find ourselves the ones others want to meet and play with! The ones who might be getting a sort of celebrity status! We have just spent the last two Sundays visiting new acquaintances, making new friends and playing music together. Our new friends all thank us for taking time to play with and inspire them. Really, it's the other way around. Thank you for playing with us and encouraging us! Playing for and with appreciative people and making that almost mystical connection through music makes the day-to-day practice worth it!

Jeff and Ashley B. invited us to their home for lunch and an opportunity to play with Ashley's sisters who were visiting from Montana. We had two harps, three violins, recorders and piano all playing together!

Mom and Mrs. H sharing hearts over the dishwater!

Kathrina, Kristen and Amy played the Bach double concerto.

Last Sunday we visited yet another family who were longing to meet and play with us. We met the S family at a civil war reenactment last fall and finally found time to visit them. We sang hymns together, played and sang songs for each other and hung out for an entire afternoon! Kathrina and Elsie got to play duets together!

Ah, the social life!

Another Video

Here is a video of the final song we played with Highstrung for our joint concert! I finally edited together all the clips and burned them on a DVD, so if anyone would like a copy let us know! We would appreciate $5 to cover the cost of materials. The first DVD is the first half of the concert, with Highstrung String Quartet playing Christmas and Classical selections. The second DVD is our family playing Christmas and Celtic favorites as well as the two songs we played with Highstrung at the end. I added titles to all of the songs so you know what we are playing!

I would have posted this video sooner, but everytime I tried to upload it to youtube I got an error message. Recently I was looking at my account and lo and behold! this video was uploaded. I guess it must have worked one of those times!

You can watch a video of us playing God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen together here .

Make Your Own Vanilla

Have you ever tried making your own vanilla? I learned how from an old gourmet cookbook of my Grandma's, The Heritage of Southern Cooking, by Camille Glen. As Ms. Glen wrote, "The best and purest vanilla extract in the world is the one you make yourself. It is not cheap, but few things of quality are; and ounce for ounce, the extract made from the vanilla bean using an alcohol base is not as expensive as the small bottles of vanilla that are mislabeled "pure" in supermarkets and gourmet shops."


Making it is surprisingly easy! First, you need some sort of alcohol for a base. Pure grain alcohol will do, brandy is even better, but the world's best vanilla is made with cognac.

Next you need to purchase some vanilla beans. These can often be found in the bulk sections of stores such as New Seasons. You will need about 1 bean for every 2 1/2 ounces of alcohol.




Cut the vanilla beans in half lengthwise, exposing the tiny black seeds. These seeds are the source of the vanilla flavor.




Next, cut the vanilla beans crosswise into 1/2 - 1 inch pieces.







Add them to your bottle of Cognac and shake well! See how pretty it looks with the light shining through. Store the bottle at room temperature for 2 to 3 weeks, shaking every few days. Then strain the mixture through a fine sieve to catch the little black seeds - I like to use several white paper towels set inside a regular strainer. Add the vanilla beans to a fresh bottle of Cognac - they can be reused two or three times!

Now you can use your homemade vanilla in cooking! Cognac vanilla adds a delicious flavor to vanilla ice cream, custard or anything where the flavor is prominent. It is also great in baked goods, but the difference between homemade and store-bought is less pronounced. Before vanilla became a popular flavoring, cooks used to flavor with brandy and Cognac, so this vanilla brings back some of that old-fashioned flavor.

Here I am adding it to a giant pot of hot chocolate!

Now it is your turn! Give it a try!

~ Janna Rae

Christmas CD: Recording Session 6

Drive The Cold Winter Away
Just a quick update on Tuesday's session. We recorded all the vocals for "Drive The Cold Winter Away". Considering this is one of the most difficult songs to sing that we do, it went quite well. We will now start rehearsing for the next set of sessions! It feels good to be moving forward!

~the Fourth Rose