March Music Challenge - Day 17 - Irish Tribute

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone! 

Thinking of this beautiful isle, its welcoming people, and dreaming of the day I will return.

Day 17 March Music Challenge: 

What is your favourite Irish song?

For me, it would have to be Bing Crosby's "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" written and popular long before my time but it reminds me of my grandparents ... "when Irish eyes are smiling sure they steal your heart away."

Here are a few of my photographs from the Emerald Isle from 2011.

Ring of Kerry

Cliffs of Moher - County Claire

Us at Kylemore Abbey

Kylemore Abbey

Moon over Sligo

Celtic Cross - Kilkenny

March Music Challenge - Day 12

I have fallen so far behind in this challenge so now my challenge is to catch up.

The challenge for today, Day 12, is a guilty pleasure.

Wikipedia (oh, no, not Wikipedia!), defines a guilty pleasure as something, such a movie, a television program, or a piece of music, that one enjoys despite feeling that it is not generally held in high regard. In other words, low brow rather than high brow.

BUT that's the whole point of this challenge! The whole point of this blog! This whole music challenge is one guilty pleasure after another -- but you know what if you love a song -- just love it! Loving my perfect imperfect life means that I have finally learned to just be myself and that includes owning the fact that I love music from the Disco days to the pop hits of the 80's to Top 40 hits of today, I love jazz, an alternative, and country music. Oldies, newbies, boy bands, duos.

When I googled guilty pleasure songs I found this article by Complex Magazine, "50 Awesome Guilty Pleasure Songs We're Ashamed to Like (But Not Really)" and a number of the songs that they list are some of my favourites such as "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies, "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips, "I Melt with You" by Modern English, and "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals.

So here is "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies and to make it even more guilty I chose the video from the Bathroom Sessions.

So what's your guilty pleasure?

Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze

I pinned this recipe a couple of years ago and have made it several times. It's one of those recipes that always comes out perfect with very little effort. Warning: it makes the house smell amazing making your mouth salivate during the cooking time and creating a huge appetite.

Like I said, this recipe takes very little effort for a huge pay-off and uses ingredients that most people have on hand.

This recipe is from Food Network.com from Georgia Downard and featured on the show, Cooking Live and can be found here. The aim of this blog is not to supply original recipes but to unveil the mystery of good cooking and show that anyone can cook.

Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze
12 servings and then leftovers

Ingredients:

Whole cloves for studding the ham
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup prepared mustard
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 12-lb smoked ham
1/2 tsp. ground cloves (this is a variation from the original recipe)3

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Glaze:
Add brown sugar, mustard, vinegar, and ground cloves together in a bowl (as shown in the picture).

Place ham in roasting pan. Score the ham into diamonds. Stud the ham with whole cloves (as shown in the picture).

Pour the glaze over the ham (as shown in the picture). The original recipe doesn't add the glaze until the very end but I add it from the beginning of the roasting time and continue to spoon the glaze over the ham as it cooks.

Bake ham for 1 1/2 hours but make sure to verify the cooking time depending upon the size of the ham. Test with a meat thermometer to ensure the internal cooking temperature is 140F.

Transfer to a serving platter and let the meat rest for 15 minutes before carving.

If you have a bone in the ham, save it along with any dippings and even your vegetable water to make a wonderful soup.

I tried desperately to get a photo of the finished ham but getting dinner on the table is a busy time with everything ready at the same time and by the time the photo crossed my mind, the family was busy munching.

March Music Challenge - Day 11

For Day 11, the challenge asks you to choose your favourite holiday song -- this one is particularly easy  for me and you'll see why in a moment. 

When you think of a holiday song, often it's Christmas songs that come to mind and there are some great ones from traditional like Bing Crosby singing Faith of our Fathers to pop hits like Baby It's Cold Outside and It's a Marshmallow World. It seems like Christmas sets the whole world to singing but for me, my favourite holiday song is tied to Halloween and my birthday. 

There are actually quite a few Halloween songs like Thriller by Michael Jackson and Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr. But it isn't Halloween or my birthday, the day begins with Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Kickers released in 1962. 

So next October 31st play this and I promise you won't be able to resist dancing.

March Music Challenge Day 8

The Day 8 Challenge is to choose a song from a concert that you have been to. I've been to some amazing concerts with big names -- Elton John, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Sheryl Crow, David Bowie in Edinburgh with the Thompson Twins, Chicago in Caesar's Palace -- and some equally fantastic concerts with lesser known names but first class music -- Harry Manx, Martyn Joseph, Dala, Delhi to Dublin, King Crow and the Ladies from Hell.

I would say the two best concert experiences are when Dave took me to see Maroon 5 with Owl City and Neon Trees in GM Stadium in Vancouver and the outdoor concerts held nightly during the Canada Winter Games especially Black Spruce Bog (a local group). So the songs that I would choose are Everyone Talks by Neon Trees

and Tete Juane Road by Black Spruce Bog

Both of these nights, both of these concerts were magical -- the crowds were charged with electricity, I was caught up in the excitement of the crowd, the love for the man I was with, and carried away by the music. The power of music is that hearing those songs, I simply close my eyes and can feel all those same emotions. 

Temperature Blanket - Update 3

Temperature Blanket 

The study in blue continues with the white between the shells representing the snow and the white fluffy clouds the fill the horizon.

Shells: 
Row 22: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 23: Chain 3 (counts as first treble), turn and skipping 4 stitches 7 treble in the 5th stitch (shell), *chain 1, skip 7 stitches and 7 treble in the 8th stitch**, repeat from * to ** across to the last 5 stitches, sc in the last stitch. (Turquoise)

Row 24: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 25: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 26: Chain 6 (counts as first treble), 3 treble in last stitch of last row (at the base of the chain 6), *chain 1, skip 7 stitches and 7 treble in the 8th stitch**, repeat from * to ** across to last stitch, 4 treble in last stitch. (Dark blue)

Row 27: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 28: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 29: Chain 3 (counts as first treble), turn and skipping 4 stitches *7 treble in the 5th stitch (shell), chain 1, skip 7 stitches and 7 treble in the 8th stitch**, repeat from * to ** across to the last 5 stitches, sc in the last stitch. (Medium grey blue)

Row 30: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 31: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

March Music Challenge - Day 7

The Day 7  March Music Challenge is to choose a song that reminds you of your childhood. My childhood was filled with music. My mom played the organ, sang at church, and filled our house with hits from Jesus Christ Superstar to Petula Clark's Downtown that she played on a then state-of-the-art record player and sang along to -- it's difficult to pick just one song. For some unknown reason, I have been thinking a lot about the novella and music of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I recently re-read the novella written by Richard Bach and published in 1970, which tells the story of a seagull who becomes disenchanted with the conflict and materialism of his flock. Jonathan follows his passion for flying practicing and perfecting his flying abilities until he finally leaves the flock and is taken to a higher plane where he is mentored by a generous and skilled teacher. Jonathan realizes that his journey is not complete until he can find the forgiveness he needs to return to his original flock and continues his journey towards flight by taking his own students and spreading his wings so to speak. It's a beautiful story of the search for our true passion, self-fulfillment, and teaching and learning. In a truly enlightened situation, the positions of teacher and student constantly shift as the teacher often learns from the student and vice versa.

The soundtrack sung by Neil Diamond is equally moving winning the 1974 Grammy for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special.

Not the typical childhood song but then I didn't have a typical childhood mom.