Florence!

Hello all! We've just gotten back from an extended weekend trip to Florence, OR. We attended the Florence Winter Folk Festival and competed in the youth folk music competition there. We also spent a couple of days relaxing in a cozy cabin on the beach and taking long walks in the mild weather. We'll be doing a couple of posts from the trip soon, so check again!

Cheers,

Kathrina

The Night We Arrived Home In The Morning

After recording and performing for nearly all of 2009, we decided it was high time to enjoy someone else's music! For years, we kept hearing about the Voetberg family...another singing family with an eclectic mix of instruments and musical styles. They hail from Chehalis, Washington. We met some of the family last summer, where Liddy, Elisha and Annnie played for our Irish dance at Camp Dwight.

Last weekend we were able to drive up north for Liddy Voetberg's CD release concert. It was fantastic! The music was just the style we love and the quality of musicianship was very good. This was supposed to be Liddy's solo CD but I think she had nearly every friend and family member she could find sharing the stage with her, providing a fun and varied back-up. And we couldn't help noticing that Liddy had more instruments on stage for her concert than we had for our CD release concert! (How could she presume to beat our record?) Anyway, the Voetbergs are now added to our list of favorite family bands on the sidebar!

If you enjoy our style of music and love hymns, then you will probably enjoy Liddy's new CD. Check it out here!

So, back to the story. Why did we get home so late? (It's only an 1 3/4 hour drive.) Well, after the concert we spent some time visiting with several friends. And the ever hospitable Mr. Newkirk, whom we met when performing in Washington in December, invited us to his house to play music. Mom had a sneaking feeling that something of that sort would happen and fortunately the girls had put their instruments in the van. Our family, several members of the friendly S. family (whom we also met for the first time in December) and Ben Booher (the bass player and wonderful singer from our favorite cowboy/western swing band) congregated in the Newkirk's living room. We played hymns until about 11:00 pm with piano, harp, several violins, recorders, clarinet, tuba, trumpet, cello, bass, mandolin...and perhaps more I can't remember! It's always such a blessing to share music with other young people who come from a similar background. Nothing is more sweet than praising our King together with music and song!

Several people expressed concern about us driving back so late at night, little knowing that this is rather regular for us! We always stay at an event until the last possible minute. And Dad is a great night driver. So, we kept him awake talking about the evening for about an hour, then we slept while Dad kept driving and eating chocolate covered almonds! We arrived home a well after 1:00 am with some more great memories!

For Your Sweet-tooth

We have gotten several requests for our cookie recipes lately. We girls consider ourselves cookie experts! We can't claim authorship of our recipes, though. We collect them from many different sources. Our concerts are getting known for their variety of great cookies on the refreshment table. We hope you enjoy this favorite! It's so good...why don't you go ahead and double it and freeze some? That way you can have fresh cookies on the table within minutes if you have an unexpected visitor or get invited to a last minute party. Directions for freezing dough are at the bottom.

Chocolate-Mint Snow-Top Cookies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips or pieces

6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar (we use unbleached cane sugar)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon mint flavoring (we use peppermint flavoring)
Powdered sugar

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a saucepan, heat 1 cup chocolate chips over low heat until melted, stirring constantly.

Beat butter with a mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Beat in granulated sugar until combined. Beat in melted chocolate, eggs, vanilla, and mint flavoring. Stir in flour mixture and remaining chocolate pieces. Wrap dough in plastic wrap. Freeze for 30 minutes or until firm enough to shape.

Preheat oven to 350. Shape dough into 1-inch ball; roll balls in powdered sugar. Place balls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until tops are crackled. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet. Transfer to wire racks; cool. Makes 42.

This recipe is one of the best we've found for freezing ahead. After firming up the dough in the fridge, roll into balls but do not roll in powdered sugar. Freeze balls on cookie sheets, then transfer to Ziploc bags or plastic containers and store in the freezer. When ready to bake, roll balls in powdered sugar and bake. The dough does not need to thaw, but baking times may be a little longer.

Happy New Year: New Year's Eve Tradition

Several years ago, we started the tradition of having cheese fondue on New Years Eve.  We even got Janna these darling fondue pots for her birthday one year!

We dip artisan bread, steamed broccoli and apples into the fondue and try not to loose everything in the process!

We usually enjoy a special movie as a family, something we don't get to do that often!  This year it was the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy!  (We did spread the 12+ hours over a few different evenings!) Janna made our favorite Maple Popcorn and we promised to be very careful even during the exciting parts so we could eat it in the living room! 

We went to bed at midnight, closing another year of wonderful memories, and tried to go to sleep to the sound of fireworks and whistles coming from the neighbors!

Happy New Year: Irish Ceili

We kicked off the New Year with an Irish dance.  Irish ceili dancing is our favorite way to exercise!  Even more than the work-out, we love the music and how intricately the dance steps tie into the music.  The band, composed of a fiddle, banjo and guitar, was phenonmonal!  Plus, our friend Kristal was able to come and share the evening with us!

Do you want to do this too?  Visit http://www.sandairishentertainment.com/ to learn how you can have fun with non-competitive Irish dance!  Take it from us....Sam is THE BEST!

Our First Concert Tour!

Well, it wasn't really a concert tour, exactly. It was our first time giving concerts out of state! And that's a memorable milestone!

December 19th and 20th saw our entire family and all our instruments and our complete sound system at Napavine Baptist Church in the Chehalis/Centralia area of Washington. A big thank you to our friends in Washington who facilitated this opportunity! Pastor Seigler graciously opened the church two days in a row. The King Family welcomed our family of seven for two nights. And, Mr. King kept us energized with his JK Latte Special each morning! All of the families we met through the Never Be Shaken movie project came out and supported us. It was a delight to have time to catch up with them again. And one of the best parts was that we had enthusiastic helpers each time we packed up our heavy sound system boxes! Thank you guys!!!!!

For the beginning of a grand concert tour, we certainly were not run over by hoards of fans and concert goers, but those who did come assured us they had an enjoyable time and we could only expect bigger crowds in the future!

It felt like we went non-stop the entire weekend. We went to bed after midnight both nights and visited with so many different people! Sunday night, we were blessed to visit the home of the Newkirk family for a time of fellowship, prayer, testimonies and singing. You'd have thought we'd be wiped out after two concerts! But no, we stayed there until after midnight singing four-part harmonies out of the hymnbook, playing recorder quartets, trying all versions of the Away in the Manger melody at the same time, and talking and talking!

So, thank you, Washingtonians, for giving us a memorable weekend!