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Here’s a little tour of our new mini-studio in the bedroom. It’s convenient and streamlined – great for quick recordings. Thanks to Ryan for the loan of the M-Audio digital interface!
We get by with a little help from our friends …
Kiki
Finally blogging again. It’s been quite a summer and fall with “the move.” Lately we’ve been working on finishing up Sunlight in My Soul, Abraham, Standing in Moonlight, Raging Winds, Walking Over the Water, Autumn Wind and Dear John. There’s a new live video of Abraham, recorded last week in our home recording studio. You can view Abraham on our youTube channel. We’ve been asked about Greg’s free “Peace on Earth” holiday card. If you’re looking for it, you’ll find it online, with instructions for printing, in our dancing light café.
Today, we’re taking some time to do a little holiday baking. This year we created a special “Holiday Biscotti” for our family, friends and fans. We love the crunchy sweet Italian cookies, especially with coffee.
While reading a French cookbook, we learned the phrase “mise en place.” It a fancy French term that basically means, “get all your ingredients out, prepared, measured and ready to go before you start cooking.” Greg says it means, “Are the mice in place?” We’re finding that cooking from a recipe goes much more smoothly if everything’s ready to go.
We hope you enjoy the Holiday Biscotti. Happy Holidays!
Love,
Kiki and Greg
PS If you’d like a printer friendly copy of the biscotti recipe, click here.
Kiki and Greg’s Holiday Biscotti
PREHEAT OVEN TO 350°
Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 large farm-fresh organic eggs
2 teaspoons freshly ground anise seed
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 one ounce squares white chocolate
¾ cup dark chocolate chunks or chips
¾ cup chopped crystalized ginger (could sub craisins for ginger, but use about half as much)
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- Enjoy!
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- The finished biscotti
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- Transfer biscotti to a cooling rack and cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Can be made several days ahead. Here’s Greg with the biscotti, fresh out of the oven.
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- Place the partially cooled log on a cutting board and slice diagonally into ¾” slices. Lay the slices down on the baking sheet. Return them to a 350º oven for 15 minutes.
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- Form into a log that’s 16″ long and 3″ inches wide. Bake until light golden, about a half and hour. Take it out of the over and leave it on the baking sheet to cool for another half hour.
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- Cream butter, sugar and anise with an electric mixer until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time until blended. Add vanilla and blend. Add flour mixture and beat just until combined. Stir in white and dark chocolates and chopped candied ginger.
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- Put everything in place before starting. Chop the chocolate and crystallized ginger, grind the anise seed, measure the ingredients
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- We bought a coffee grinder for $1 at the second hand store. We use it to grind our spices. This is ground anise seed.
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- Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl (quickie sift) and set aside.
Cathy DeWitt is one of our bestest friends. We could tell you all about THAT, but it would take several hundred blogs, so we’ll just tell you this one story.
On our last evening in Gainesville, we were driving through UF campus as Cathy’s Sunday afternoon show, Across the Prairie, came over the air on UF’s NPR station, WUFT-FM. So we were running errands listening to Cathy on the radio and after Cathy’s show ended, we decided to go surprise her on campus so we could see her one last time.
So we are sneaking up to the radio station hoping to catch Cathy as she’s leaving the station. As we’re pulling up, we hear a car honking excitedly behind us. Looking in the mirror, we realize it’s Cathy following us! Cathy was headed OFF-campus as we were headed ON-campus, when she noticed our car and got curious about what WE were doing on campus!
Cathy gave me one of her flowers and Greg snapped this shot…
Cathy and Kiki ... when stalkers collide
What a treat! Just had a wonderful breakfast with our dear sweet friend Jonell Mosser. Jonell suggested this terrific artisan cafe, Marche down in the five points area of Nashville. We had salmon with capers, onions and crème fraîche (how fancy is that!) and deep chocolatey coffee roasted right here in Nashville. We savored every morsel.
Jonell is one of the sweetest people you’d ever hope to meet. She has a big heart and often lends her considerable talents to benefit concerts whose work is making a difference in this crazy world.
If you’ve never heard Jonell sing … you simply must. Jonell is amazing and her vocals have graced many a recording project. Jonell’s website is http://www.jonellmosser.com .
One of my favorite tracks of Jonell is her blazing version of Robert Johnson’s Crossroads from the Boys on the Side soundtrack.
Jonell’s voice is earthy, bluesy and soulful – one of my dreams (this is Kiki writing) is to hear Greg and Jonell sing a duet together. I can only imagine those two powerhouses teaming up.
Jonell and Kiki at Marche's in Nashville
Jonell and Greg at Marche's
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- PHOTO “F”
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- PHOTO “A”
These are the photos Randy Batista took out on Kanapaha prairie yesterday. One or two of these will be used for printing – for newspaper articles and promotional photos.
We would love your opinion. If you have the time, please let us know which one you think we should use. We will publish the results at the end of the week.
We had such a blast working with Randy. He’s sweet, funny and has a big heart. Randy has a gallery in downtown Gainesville and you can check out his photos online at http://randybatistaphotography.com
We just uploaded a new song for your listening pleasure. This Light Becomes You was recorded in Rob Rothschild’s studio in Gainesville last week. Cathy DeWitt graced our song with her smooth harmony vocals. Rob is a wonderful guy to work with…so supportive, great ears and big heart. Rob gave Kiki Grand Marnier to sip while she was recording. Kiki thinks all recording studios should do that.
We love hearing what you think. Should This Light Becomes You be on the new CD??
Here’s a link to the tunepak http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/1303135 If you click on this link, a player should open and “this Light becomes you ” should play first. If you look at the top of the player, near the photo of dancing Light, you’ll see a LYRICS link. Click LYRICS to see the words to any song you’re listening to. There are 21 songs loaded on the player. This Light Becomes You is not yet available on iTunes, but you can listen to our songs for free on the RN player any time you’d like.
By the way…hands down winner on the photo contest (see previous blog “Peg’s photos“) was #7 the “glam” shot. In second place was #14. Third was a three-way tie between #9 # 10 and #13. Thanks for your e-mails, calls and comments!
We’re doing a photo session with Randy Batista out on the prairie on Thursday night. More about that soon!
If you would like to join our producers team and help support the recording and production of our new CD, you can make a contribution by clicking here. http://dancinglight.us/newcd.html
PHOTO WINNERS
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- The Winner is #7!
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- Second runner up
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- Tied for third
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- Tied for third
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- Tied for third
Our friend Peg took some photos of us last week. Would you help us pick out a good one? We’re planning to use a couple of these photos for our websites.
If you have the time and inclination, check out the photos below and let us know which are your favorites. You can voice your opinion by posting a comment to this blog. The photos are numbered. Thank you!
The photographer, Peg Libertus is a treasured friend who illuminates our Gainesville adventures. Peg is brilliant and funny, an everflowing fountain of incisive sarcasm and wit. She’s also an amazing writer and editor and is no doubt scrutinizing every jot and tittle of this post. [Hi Peg !]
Among Peg’s many accomplishments is the penning of a theatrical musical called Boxer of Basin Street about a sailor named Boxer on his first shore leave in New Orleans. Back in the late twentieth century Kiki played Margo, a high-class prostitute in Storyville, the legendary red-light district of New Orleans, near the French Quarter. One day we hope to post some of the music from Boxer of Basin Street. Peg’s melodies are on a par with Sondheim, we kid you not. Pegs lyrics are full of beautiful imagery, no doubt a big influence in Kiki’s lyric writing.
Here are the first lines to the opening song from Boxer (a savory little taste of Peg’s amazing gift):
whispered creole litanies
rusted wrought-iron balconies
dripping in the rain
pouring down the drain
on cobblestone
Lord, it’s cold in the wind’s song
who knows where all love’s gone
from New Orleans
in winter
from the Old Town
New Orleans
Vieux Carré
Ship horn blows its lonesome sound
Mississippi rolling down
misty in the night
hiding shoreline lights
and harbor homes
Lord, it’s cold in the wind’s song
who knows where all love’s gone
from New Orleans
in winter
from the Old Town
New Orleans
Vieux Carré
lady on the balcony
perfume drifting down to me
could you spare some time
make me feel that I’m
not all alone
Here are Peg’s beautiful photos…thanks Peg!
- PHOTO #1 Greg looking west at the sunset
- PHOTO #2 Kiki and Greg talking to the wee folk. Who knew there were faeries in Chili’s parking lot?
PHOTO #3 dancing Light looking west
PHOTO #4 just kidding
PHOTO #5 dancing Light (in front of hedge) color
PHOTO #6 dancing Light (in front of hedge) black and white
PHOTO #7 a little glam
PHOTO #8 dancing Light looking north towards friends in minnesota
ff
PHOTO #9 Kiki thinks this one is kinda creepy
PHOTO #10 Kiki
PHOTO #11 dancing Light more serious
PHOTO #12 Greg
PHOTO #13 (get a room guys)
PHOTO #14 putting our heads together
PHOTO #15
Greg (in the striped shirt) produced the show. Bill was the executive producer.
(by Kiki)
Bill Suchy and I first met when he was a film major at the University of Florida and I was a music major. A mutual friend introduced us during the shooting of Prelude, a student film project about a pianist who gets murdered. I still remember lying on asphalt in a parking lot across from the music building gasping my last breaths as red food coloring and corn syrup erupted from my chest, soaking my clothes. I met Bill’s wife, Joyce, years later before we were married to our current husbands. Joyce and I stayed up many a night hanging out, puzzling over our relationships with our “boyfriends.”
I was thrilled to get a chance to visit with them both again. We reminisced over a chinese lunch and again later that day at Bill and Joyce’s home in Orlando after the shoot.
Joyce and Bill Suchy at their home in Orlando
Bill and his Emmys 🙂
Bill has accomplished so much since we were in school together… I pulled this info about Bill from another site…
“Bill Suchy’s television and educational programs have earned numerous national awards including the Emmy winning PBS program Earl Cunningham: The Dragon of St. George Street, the WNET PBS NATURE Special Cats, the Academy Award nominated feature documentary Building Bombs, and the acclaimed PBS programs In Praise of Wild Florida, For the Love of Manatees, A Citrus Legacy, Future Vision and Nature’s Landlords. He is presently completing the PBS HD documentary Jerry Uelsmann: Visual Poetry. He executive produced, wrote and directed the Emmy nominated syndicated children’s series Secrets of the Animal Kingdom and created the youth sports television series Sports Zone which was nominated for a 2008 Emmy. Bill is also the General Manager and Executive Producer for the local central Florida cable channels, Orange TV and Vision TV. ”
Kiki, Bill and Greg on one of the sets of Orange TV
Priscilla came down to help out. Here we're putting on makeup before the shoot. Cilla also shot most of the blog photos.
On the set. We recorded 7 songs for Bill's station and the DVD
Bill checks the shot
Greg tuning up
We recorded seven songs: Welcome the Change, A Place Beyond, Jingle Dancer, Broken Wing, This Light Becomes You, Rice Cakes from the Moon and Yes It Does.
Cilla got up close and personal with Luke Skywalker on a set across the studio.
watching the taped show in the monitor
Cilla in the driver's seat
Kiki, Greg and Bill's "stunt doubles" 🙂
Bill at the helm (you can see Cilla in the glass taking the photo.)
Back in the day the Devil’s Millhopper was a big sink outside of Hogtown (Gainesville.) The sink is so deep the climate mimics that of Appalachia when you get to the bottom. During the summer rains little rivulets find their way into the depths of the sink, creating waterfalls along the way. There were no stairs in those days and as kids we would scamper down the sides of the sink, holding on to tree roots and rocks when the way got steep. On a hot summer day we’d get covered in sticky sweat as we made our way to the bottom. A stop at a favorite waterfall halfway down would refresh and renew us.
A day at the Millhopper was rivaled only by a float down the Ichetucknee.
These photos were taken in late February. If you go to the Devil’s Millhopper, try to see it in the summer when it’s lush and green. Since I was a young girl they’ve turned it into a state park and built stairs to help you down to the bottom. 210 steps to the bottom have attracted many an exercise enthusiast.
How the Devil's Millhopper got its name
Greg at the Devil's Millhopper visitor center
Here we go...
descending into the Millhopper
more stairs
I wasn't kidding!
Basht makes it to the bottom (the red dot at the end there)
The bottom of the sink is often much wetter than this
I remember folks exploring a cave down here at the bottom. It appears to be filled in now.
Basht headed back up
[scroll down for photos]
Geocaching is a fun little hobby we picked up about five years ago. There are around 3/4 million caches around the world for treasure hunters everywhere. A cache can be a physical container with “treasures” inside, or it can be a virtual cache, intended to take you to an interesting location. You use a GPS to find the cache. You can take whatever item you like from the cache. Usually when you take something from a cache, you leave something in trade. We carry a bag full of trinkets with us. Small toys, puzzles and games delight children who come to the cache. Sometimes we put in an autographed CD. When you find a cache, there is a log book inside for you to log your “find.” You also write down whatever you’ve taken and whatever you leave.
Each cache’s location is marked with GPS coordinates and logged in at the geocaching website at geocaching.com. To search for caches in your area, or in an area that you’re visiting, you create a user name and password at geocaching.com (it’s free) and then enter the zip code of the area you’re interested in. They’ll provide you with a list of caches in that area. To find a cache you plug in the GPS coordinates for the cache you’ve chosen. Drive to the nearest parking area and off you go, usually on foot, following your GPS unit. When we get within 10 or 20 feet of the cache we start thinking about the area as if we were hiding a cache ourselves. “If we were hiding a cache here…where would we hide it?” Often there are obvious places and if we get really stuck, there are sometimes clues in the cache’s online listing that will help us find it.
We joined geocaching.com in May of 2004 as the “Triforce Team” and started seeking caches. We also created a cache using an old army ammo box that we picked up from a surplus store. We chose a picturesque location on Stony Point near our home in northern Minnesota. Click to go to our Stony End Cache listing.
We love geocaching because the sport often takes us to new and beautiful places we would never see otherwise. We’ve explored new forests, climbed sand dunes, checked out interesting urban areas and gotten some exercise in the process. Sometimes caches are close to the parking area and sometimes they’re several miles away. It’s always a nice break from a road trip to jump out of the car and start exploring.
Mom and Gordon also like to geocache, so we set out together to find two caches here in Gainesville on the afternoon of Feb 24th. These caches were both “micro”caches, so there was no room to leave anything. Greg, Basht and I took up geocaching about the same time as Mom and Gordon. We live in northern Minnesota and they live in Florida. This was the first time we were able to go together.
Gordon and Greg discuss the first geocache
Kiki gets distracted by a young magnolia tree
Can't decide which magnolia photo to post. Posting both.
Greg, Priscilla (Kiki's Mom) and Gordon are close to the hiding place of the first cache
Greg is the finder of the first cache. Gordon and Greg examine the contents of this microcache.
Priscilla and Greg at the site of the second cache
Kiki gets distracted by a retention pond
Greg finds the second cache as well.
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