Still having problems getting my computer to pass on the audio that registers from the tape player. I can see that it is hearing the tape player but I cannot hear the sound and presumably my Audacity recorder (with which I made the sound file I put up yesterday) will not either.

I poked around and found some instruction videos about updating sound card drivers and followed the instructions. Still nothing. Another hour or so wasted. I unplugged the tape player (the on/off button seems to be stuck on) and will look at it another day (tomorrow).

I had an attack of good sense yesterday and decided to give myself another week to learn the Böhm organ pieces I want to perform at church. The problem is not these pieces but rather I am spending a lot of time with this weekend’s pieces, especially Virgil Thomson’s variations on “Shall We Gather at the River?”

These have some tricky parts but the challenge for me is moving from variation to variation in a timely coherent manner, leaving enough time for a pause that helps the listener understand what is happening and also changing the registration each time for each variation. I spent a good hour yesterday on this and will work on it again today. It’s cool music and I enjoy rehearsing it, but by the time I’m done working on it, I don’t have another hour just for Böhm pieces.

So I substituted a lovely piece by Naji Hakim that I have been playing. Here’s a recording of him playing it.

Many thanks to Rhonda Edgington for turning me on to this composer. He reminds me of a 21st century Durufle. High praise.

I found an easy “Procession” by Alan Ridout to pair it with as a postlude for a week from Sunday.

While I was diddling with the tape recorder and the computer, Eileen got up and took off for a breakfast with the other two altos from the choir. This is the second or third Saturday morning they have gathered.

I made a successful souffle yesterday morning. I’m finishing the last of it while blogging. It was quite beautiful.

Eileen took a good pic of it and put it up on Facebooger.

 

Notice the pills peeking out at the top of the pic. Here’s a link to the recipe:

Cheese Soufflé Recipe – NYT Cooking

There were a few problems with this recipe. The roux (the mixture of butter and flour) did not have enough butter called for. I wasn’t actually using butter since there was none in the house. But I still had to add some to make this mixture usable.

I also didn’t have enough milk in the house, so I found a can of evaporated milk and used that. I omitted 5 of the 6 egg yolks called for to lower the fat and caloric content. I used the reduced fat mozzerella we had in the fridge instead of the Gruyère called for. I calculate that the entire recipe had around 1175 calories in about 392 in a serving of 1/6 of the entire recipe.

As I was calculating the calories it occurred to me to wonder if food in cooked calories had a different caloric count than raw ones. I found this article which gives me pause.

Why Calorie Counts Are Wrong: Cooked Food Provides a Lot More Energy – The Crux (a blog on the Discover site)

This article makes sense to me.

But obviously the jury is out on this question.

I think monitoring diet helps no matter what. I found an interesting recipe that I plan to try out on Eileen and adapt for myself.

Bacon Cheddar Open-Face Tomato Sliders | Devin Alexander 

I was surprised to find the brand name cheese (Cabot light cheddar) at Meijer yesterday.

I also skipped the turkey bacon and bought a center cut bacon instead which was a bit higher in calories and fat from calories. I don’t think Eileen will go for the turkey bacon.

I am thinking of making a veggie version of this for me. Easy enough to do. I will substitute some fakey veggie meat and omit the bacon. I think it will still be tasty.

Devin Alexander – “The Secret of Food” | Welcome to my blog

Devin Alexander posts new recipes regularly on her blog. Excellent.

Roberto Bolaño – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a writer that interests me. I recently heard one of his stories read on The New Yorker Fiction Podcast. He sounds just loony enough to appeal to me.

NYPL Digital Collections

A friend of mine posted this link on Facebooger. He was astounded at what the New York Public Library is making available. Cool beans.

Barack Obama: Guns Are Our Shared Responsibility – The New York Times

On the Media has a good episode on the gun stuff. It’s madness for the US to continue the way it is but of course our entire election system is broken. Kudos to the President for giving a shit.