Sunday, August 28, 2016

This evening's musical interlude... Bella Figlia Dell'amore from Verdi's Rigoletto

I just love lyric opera. I know very little about it but I do love the music. I particularly enjoy the way that the voices and orchestra blend so beautifully together to make so many sounds so perfect together. I thought I'd share some of my favorite pieces with you. 

Tonight please enjoy the quartet "Bella Figlia Dell'Amore" from the final act of Giuseppe Verdi's tragedy "Rigoletto". The quartet is sung by Dame Joan Sutherland (my favorite female opera singer) who, by the way is waaayyy too old for this part as 17-ish year old Gilda Rigoletto's daughter, but I digress, Luciano Pavarotti as the Duke in disguise, Leo Nucci as Rigoletto, and Isola Jones as Maddalena. Of special note is that Ms. Jones bodice deserves an award for keeping her heaving breasts from popping right out of that outfit.



Step away from the kitchen...

I've been on a tear this weekend. I decided to make some more Tomato Jam this weekend because those tomatoes just keep coming. As I was cutting up the tomatoes for the jam I took one of the larger tomatoes and cut a nice big plank of tomato from the middle of it and made myself a delicious tomato sandwich... just like you dream about...

This really is the payoff for the work you do
to raise your own tomatoes. 
I like wheat bread, untoasted, with just
mayo, salt and pepper for this sandwich
Want one? 

This weekend's recipe: Kentucky Fried Chicken

As you may know the Colonel's secret recipe has been revealed. His blend of "11 herbs and spices" was divulged by a nephew of the Colonel's after he found a hand written copy of the recipe in a scrapbook of his mom's. It's been published everywhere and I will include it at the end of this post. I decided to make this myself last night and it went something like this:

As always, assemble your ingredients before you start.
Mise en place..
Add the herbs and spices to the flour in a bowl large
enough to accommodate 2 pieces of chicken
The result will be a ruddy colored flour with lots of fragrance
In a large bowl whisk together the egg
and 2 cups of the buttermilk 
Add the chicken pieces to the buttermilk mixture and let it sit
on the counter for 20-30 minutes to marinate

 Click the "Read More" link below for the recipe and the rest of the process