Feast Family Shots from October

 ..with my parents and aunt

Family Fun Aunt and Niece Times!

This summer, I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful niece.  She is growing up soooo fast!  Anyway, ABOVE is a pic we shot for fun. While her parents were out celebrating their anniversary with dinner, we got to spend some fun Aunt/Niece time together.  Spending time with family is priceless.

BELOW:  The night right before the anniversary babysitting evening; thanks to a lovely friend for inviting my sister in law, myself, and my niece over for a "ladies night in" while the men were at spokesman club.  The evening turned into what we can call a "Cinderella night."  Sophia came in her little princess dress and asked if we could watch the new with real live actors; Cinderella which I thought was a really good movie as I've never seen Cinderella before and I liked how it was clean and promoted good character instead of looks and other things.  Anyway, in the movie, Cinderella was on a swing and it inspired my niece to want to swing, and fortunately for her, our friend had just the swing in her backyard, so after the movie, we went out to swing.  Good times!

 BELOW:  Going back in time about maybe one month ago, we had a girls night and had head scarf fun.  The sweetest thing that Sophia told me that particular evening when playing with head scarfs was "I want to be just like you."  She also had started talking about her dad and mom a lot, and how she adores them.  Ahhhh, children make you feel soooo loved sometimes!  I never thought it would be such a blessing to be an Aunt.

PYC Pics

Making a change for the first time in years this year!  Instead of posting PYC pics from weekend services as has been done for years, these pics will now be hosted on password protected peacefulstorms.com which is safer and better thanks to my brother.  We're still taking them, they will just be in a safer place.  Trying to shift more things over to official sites.  They will be available for viewing soon!

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Florida Singles Weekend 2019

Florida Singles Weekend Appetizer Photo  :-)

Pictures at peacefulstorms.com.

Spring Semester Recital Update

Life of a pianist in training update...... 

Playing Rhapsody in Blue with my teacher in the Dwight Armstrong Performing Arts Conservatory in the AC Spring Area Recital.  I'm thankful to God for giving me this opportunity, and to Mr. Malone for the invitation to perform.  It was fun!  I have wanted to be able to perform this song since I was a child, and it was like climbing Mount Everest to be able to do so; at least to me being that I'm no where near expert level at all!

Originally, I didn't post this publicly when it was performed back in May.  I'm kind of picky about what personal music endeavors I post, and I also try to not come across as in your face and all about self, but since a few have asked, I'll go ahead and show it for those who would like to see.  Whenever I perform I always get soooo nervous, but then I stop and think about how performing isn't supposed to be about showing off, it's really about serving and giving to your audience, and that always calms me down.  Not a 100% perfect performance, but as my teacher put it, an okay performance.  Still growing towards perfection and still have a long ways to go, but playing this song was the biggest piano endeavor that I've done yet.  This is not an easy piece, it's super difficult, and again, it's not perfect, but I completed it to the end.  It was like a piano marathon...long and difficult.  It's over 15 minutes long, so warning.  :-)

BELOW:

My niece's end of year Spring semester Ballet Recital on stage in Armstrong Auditorium.  She did great!  We'll leave the video private as I'm not sure how her classmates families would feel about a video posted publicly.  Being extra careful is always a better route to take, but I'm so thrilled for my niece and the opportunities that God gives her; that I wanted to at least post one pic of acknowledgement of her end of year dance recital.  They have a great teacher in Mrs. Privratsky!  Everyone did better than ever!

Dessert Gathering!

 A few pics from an dessert gathering at my place back in June.  I had fun, but it's all about serving the guests, so hopefully they enjoyed themselves too.

 I think that Sophia really likes the culinary arts like my dad...AKA her grandpa, and myself.  Her mom is really good at the culinary arts too and took the same chef's course that I took last year, so Sophia is surrounded by foodies.  :-)  She requested to have a Sunday of baking all day.  I knew it was going to be tiring, and it was, and she got tired too, but it was a fun day!  We used the desserts that she helped make at a dessert party that she also attended.  The chocolate cupcakes with the sugar pink pearls were all Sophia's artistic idea.  :-)  Not bad for a pre-k chef.  :-)

Portfolio - Culinary Ideas

 ABOVE:  Chimichurri Sauce with Seared Strip Steak

Here's the culinary portfolio from over a year ago from the chef's course that my sister in law and I completed awhile back that I had intended to share and just got busy with life and trying to make sure my priorities in putting God first are right.  I love sharing things that may be beneficial to others, but I'm careful because I want to make sure things aren't based on vanity or self, so I find myself posting less and less these days.  The course was a lot of hard work that was not just executing cooking; but it involved taking "written" tests (online), studying notes, listening to lectures, but I'm so glad  that we did it.  I learned a lot and hope to be able to implement it more in my life in entertaining to serve on a higher level.  It was definitely worth taking, and God blessed us with an affordable price to be able to as well.  I would never choose to work in a commercial kitchen as I don't have what it takes and the stamina, but it's nice to have the hosting training for entertaining guests in a home.

 Here are a few portfolio shots for ideas in the future of the plating we created.

BELOW:  Nicoise Salad with Grilled Fresh Salmon

 Beef Stroganoff

 Roasted Chicken with Pan Gravy

 

Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

 Crispy Fried Chicken Wings with Perfect French Fries

 Duck Confit

 Au Gratin Potatoes

 Chicken and Chickpea Curry with Cilantro Mint Raita

 Fresh Handmade Dough Pasta

 Spaghetti and Meatballs with Fresh Handmade Dough Pasta

 Spring Vegetable Frittata (Really neat to serve it in small cast iron skillets on a hotpad.)

 Chicken Paillard with Arugula and Lemony Vinaigrette

 Mushroom Risotto

 Stuffed Lamb Leg Roast (proper serving etiquette would be to have the meat facing you, but I preferred this shot of the overall plating.)

 Baha Style Fish Tacos

 Mixed Berry Compote

 Flourless Chocolate Cake

 Red Wine Poached Pear

 Chicken and Chickpea Samosas

 Miso-Glazed Sea Bass with Pickled Baby Bok Choy

A Few NTBMO Pics

 Thanks to my brother and sister in law for hosting a fabulous NTBMO!  Everything was great!  I'm guessing I'll probably be hosting again next year and am looking forward to that, but it was nice to be a guest and made it even more special to be with physical family as well as extended family.  The food was absolute 5 star restaurant quality, the decor was fit for royalty, and the conversation was inspiring.  The best part of everything all put together besides the physical aspects of everything mentioned above, was just being blessed to participate in serving each other on this special occasion raising the standard every year until we finally reach what we're celebrating.

 ABOVE:  Dan and Paulette.  Yes I'm a little biased b/c I've been friends with them for so long, but many others who haven't known them nearly as long think the same, so I have to say, they are amazing and they rock!  They are always serving others ahead of themselves, they seem to always put God at the center of their life, and they are sooooo kind to everyone!  The big book says let others lift you up, so I can compliment them since I'm not them.  :-)

BELOW:  The aunt trying to keep the niece happy when she got frustrated about something.

 We got Sophia a child's sewing machine to learn how to how sew as she's been wanting to learn.  I remember as a child, receiving a gift on this special occasion really made this evening stand out.  In fact, I confess, I still have the very first NTBMO gift I ever received.  It's old and broken down, but I can't part with it.  Since children only know and see the physical, it's proven in my family to be a nice way to get the kids excited about everything.

...so it is no secret that I will never be in the technical department of HQ......  LOL  ...though my video skills are usually better than this, but I chalk it up to being exhausted from all of the effort leading up to the HD's, so I forgot to focus first before shooting, but it's a general overview of the royal evening spent with family.  Thanks to my brother and sister in law for hosting.