Upcoming Performance

When I started this blog last year, I intended it to be an account of my travels and performances. Sort of an open diary for my family and friends. In the past year, I think I have done a pretty good job at posting my whereabouts. However, I seem to leave out important information; the music I am performing, when and where the concerts are, and so on. I usually just post non-performance related things, like; "I'm in Somewhereville, look at the funny building."

I have wondered whether or not to start a separate blog, one in conjunction with my website I am trying to get going. For now, I'll keep it like this and if there is ever a time when I need to expand, I will!

So... that leads me to announce what I have coming up:



Yes! It's Gilbert & Sullivan with the University Community Chorus. Dr. Schauer was kind enough to ask me back to join the chorus and a fine group of student soloist to partake in this joyous occasion. "Trial by Jury" was Gilbert and Sullivan's first full collaboration, and started them off on their merry way as a librettist/composer duo. (if you haven't seen Topsy-Turvy and like G&S even a little bit, you must see this movie). I play the part of the Judge in this concert version and end up with the girl in the end!

I wish you could all be there to see me!

Windy

Well, my heart goes out to all of the people in Southern California, especially my friends Todd, Nishi, Tim and Karen. I spent some down time reading about the fires, hope you and your friends make it through okay!

On a lighter, but not completely unrelated, note; here are two silly videos from my trip to Wilcox. You can't hear a damn word either Kathryn or I say, but you can see you beautiful it was there, and see how windy it was.


I explain of the varieties of pumpkins:


Kat's Southern Arizona inspired version of Oklahoma:

Hard Day on the Farm

There comes a time in a man's life when he must brave the elements. When he must roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty, enjoy the dirt under his nails, the sun on the back of his neck... yes; a man must break a sweat to find find nourishment. Or go to Trader Joe's, whatever is easier, really.

Today I wanted to investigate where the food actually comes from, and have a bit of fun picking my own! Kat and I drove to Wilcox (about 90 miles) today to visit Apple Annie's Orchard and Produce Farm (which are actually located in two different places!). Despite the windy weather (dust!) and the crowds, it was a great day. I came away with a big bag full of apples (about 4 pounds of mostly Fuji and Granny Smith), one awesome pumpkin, and bag full of tasty looking fresh veggies.... so many photos!!!














Some more photos here.

Done!

Wow,
Done with Lucia in Pheonix! It was a great weekend. Click here to see photos of costumes. I'll bother you once more with opera videos:

This is a video of the baritone who sang Enrico in our production, great guy and incredible baritone:

Weston Hurt sing "Cruda funestra smania"

AZ Opera in Phoenix!

Well, the weekend is here, and I'm enjoying my working vacation! I'm up in Phoenix singing in the chorus for Arizona Opera's production of Lucia di Lammermoor. We have four performances this weekend (Thursday through Sunday) and the opera puts us up in the Wyndham in Downtown Phoenix. It's not too shabby, and it's a pretty exciting place to be, with the Diamondbacks in the NLCS and the happening downtown PHX nightlife... (it was impossible to find food last night after the performance!).

If you are interested, here are some clips of the opera from youtube:
First Act by the Fountain:

The Mad Scene


And a couple of photos: (I promise to post more!)
Adam enjoying our bus ride with only 1 near death experience (thanks to our attentive driver Dan!)

Jay, how did he get the good wig?

Christopher and I

Winner! And Canelo Hills Wine Opening

Wow... I am a geek. Proof:


CBS was nice enough print a story on the league home page! My team was the Geronimo Catchers (named after the street I live on and the position I respect most!), and as you can see, I finished second in my division. However, the top two teams in each division make the playoffs, and I made the push to the top!!!! In case you are curious, here was may line up for the last week: (this was an American League only league)



The other recent big event was the Canelo Hills Grand Opening. It was a great success, and tons of people joined the Muellers this past Saturday. We sold a lot of wine and people loved it!!!!
Photographic evidence:
HERE

Wine Country

In anticipation of the Canelo Hills Grand Opening next week, I took my friend George (Visiting from St. Louis) to Sonoita for wine tasting and then to Patagonia for a picnic and a tour of the Nature Conservancy Bird Sanctuary. The weather was great (most of the day) and all of the wine was amazing!!!!

First we stopped at Canelo Hills to visit Joan and Tim. They were busy getting ready for their opening (which I will be working at!) and getting ready to harvest the grapes. Tim let us sample a Syrah that had just finished fermenting and was just about to be put into barrels for aging.
After getting the tour of Canelo Hills, we moved next door to Callaghan Vineyards to sample some wine. Then it was on to Ranco Rossa, and finally to Dos Cabezas Winery.

Photos:
George and I

View from Rancho Rossa


Then it was on to Patagonia. First a picnic (I made a quinoa salad and a garbanzo bean sandwich salad, it was so yummy!), then walking around town (we got espresso!) and then to the sanctuary. Unfortunately, the weather turned on us, so we didn't get to hike, but we did see hummingbirds!

Photos:







Because the lunch from the previous day was so awesome, we decided to have it for dinner with our favorite wine that we tasted, a Viognier from Dos Cabezas.



Doesn't that look yummy?

All Homemade and Fat Free!

What? Is this a food blog? :)
No, here's a non-food picture:


Last week I remade a 'refried' pinto bean recipe from the New McDougall cookbook and decided try a version of homemade enchiladas with a sauce from the same cookbook. They were pretty yummy! I served them with a great coleslaw. (from the same cookbook)

I'm lazy and I am not posting the recipes, and besides, I did them by the book, so that would be copyright infringement or something...
The stove:

The Sauce:

Finished:

Plated:


I wish I could figure out how to photograph food!

Food and Planning

Labor day is fast approaching! Do y'all know what that means?

Well, I suppose it means a lot of things, but in general, it means that Kat and I (along with our pianists Aryo and Don) will begin teaching in the OMA program again. This will be our fourth year and by golly are we prepared. Why? (I'm sure you are all asking yourselves). Two reasons, because of the through training session we went through in May (finally!) and because we sat down and actually planned out the first two quarters last night! Let me tell you, it feel great to be prepared!!!!

Oh yea, and we cooked an awesome nearly fat free veggie stir fry!

Photos and recipe:

Everything prepped and ready to go!


Adding the rest of the veggies!


We were disorganized!


But now we are organized!


Veggie Stir Fry:

Ingredients:

Rice or Asian Noodles of some sort, cooked (of course)
Sesame Seeds
Sesame Oil (only a tiny bit, just for the taste)
water (to stir fry the veggies)
Chopped:
-Onion
-Carrots
-Celery
-Cabbage
-Red and Green Bell Peppers
-Broccoli
(about 6-8 cups total, and you could use any combination that you fancy,
these are just the veggies I had on hand.)

For the Sauce (adapted by me from the New McDougall Cookbook):
1 1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice
1/4 soy sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tablespoon dried ginger
4 cloves crushed garlic
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Okay, in wok (or a large fry pan) toast the sesame seeds until they are golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Add a tiny bit of sesame oil to the wok, heat it, and add the long cooking veggies (in our case, the onions, carrots and celery). Cook for about 5 min., adding water as needed.

Add the other veggies (we held out the broccoli, because we like it crunchy, not soggy) and add water as needed (so the veggies don't stick to the pan).

When the veggies are nearly done, add the sauce (which you should have mixed already, DOH!) and cook for another 5 minutes, or until it thickens to your liking.

Serve over whole grain rice, soba noodles or udon noodles. (We used udon noodles, but only because I thought I bought soba noodles. DOH! DOH!)

Note: Kat did all of the chopping and most of the stir-frying. I made the sauce and the noodles. Thanks for doing the hard work Kat!)

Sante Fe Photos

I have too more days in Santa Fe... then it's off to Arizona.... Here are some photos...

Two pics from the Gala Dinner



Climbing Ladders at Bandelier National Monument


Kat, Michal and I on Sandia Crest in Albuquerque


Hiking the Little Tesuque Trail in Santa Fe



In Costume for our Lensic Theatre Performance


Tailgating at the Santa Fe Opera

Grape Planting

Visit Their Website!

Well, despite getting little sleep the night before, I still managed to catch a ride with Casey and Kat down to Sonita to do some grape planting on Friday. It was a little hot (first day of the year to reach 100 degrees in Tucson), but we got some cloud cover and there wasn't as much planting to be done as there was in the past two years. To make it even better, Joan fixed a fabulous lunch and I got to take two bottles of Tim's Canelo Hills Riesling home.

Here is the photographic evidence:
Me, duh.

The Mueller family hard at work (Photo taken by Casey)

A bucket of Gewürztraminer vines

Planting a Gewürztraminer vine

The vineyard

A humming bird's nest

Here comes Charlie


It was a great day. Back in Tucson, I went to Ken's graduation Party (No Photos, Sorry). Congrats Ken!