Things to Do!

Hello everyone out there in TV Land... I mean Cyber Land. I just got an e-mail from one of our lovely professors about some great events happening this weekend. The Meadville Council of the Arts is hosting there M.C.A.rnival of the Arts, and all of the events are free! Yes, I typed that right, its FREE! 

Read bellow to see there itinerary and learn more!

 

Looking for something FREE to do Labor Day Weekend?

Interested in the Arts?

Want to join a local arts organization for more opportunities?

 

MCA has just the event for you!  We are offering this completely free event as a thank you to our current members/participants, as well as a way to showcase what we do to anyone who isn’t familiar with us!

Thursday, August 30^th through Sunday, September 2^nd, MCA will be hosting a a jam-packed itinerary of art, music, dance, theatre and more for all ages, AND IT’S ALL FREE!  Please visit our facebook page or contact our office for complete details of our events!!!

 

Thursday, August 30^th

4-5pm – Puppetry Showcase

5-7pm – Adult Writers Workshop with Matthew Ferrance  (GO TO THIS ONE, simply because its Ferrance) 

6-7pm – Free Zumba Preview Class with Heather Onderko (Recommended ages: 12+)

7-8pm – Tai Chi Demonstration

 

Friday, August 31^st

6-8pm – "Val & Dave Do Clay" Portrait Sculpting & Wheel Throwing Demos with Dave Mosbacher & Val Gilman

6:30-8:30pm – Improv Theatre (Adult)

9-11pm – Literary Open Mic (Adult)

 

Saturday, September 1^st

10-11am – Metal Working Demonstration

10:30-11:30am – Faux Painting Demonstration with Blair Hartman

10:30-12:30am – Theatre/Music Audition Techniques Seminar Panel

11-Noon – Quilt Talk with Michael Kashey

Noon-2pm – Art Attack Challenge

12:30 – 1:30pm – Free Voice/Acting Class with Dan Crozier

2-2:30pm – “Don’t be afraid of the Gallery” Talk

2:30-3pm -- “Mill Run” Mosaic Mural Talk

2-3pm – Allegheny Dance Intensive Presentation

3-4pm – Movement Workshop

3-4pm – Taste of the Arts Q & A

4-5pm – History Tour of MCA

4:30-5:30pm – Devised Project Workshop with Beth Watkins

5-8pm – MCA Board Member “Q & Art” – A live art presentation and a chance to meet some of our current Board Members. Have questions or ideas about MCA? Feel free to bring them and chat with us at this time!

7-11pm – “Blue Planet” Musical Presentation with Mike Litzinger and Friends

 

Sunday, September 2^nd

11:30-12:30pm – Creative Movement with Miss Heather (Recommended Ages 3-7)

12-1pm – Family Gallery Tour & Activity

12-1pm -- An ‘all genres’ Vocal Showcase with Diane Kalinowski

1-2pm – Fiber Demo with Medis Kent

2-4pm – Art Attack Challenge

3-4pm – Watercolor Demo with Nancy Apple

4-5:30pm – Musical Open Mic

4:30-6:30pm – Free sculpture class with Val Gilman

6-8pm – A Staged Reading of new one-act scripts by emerging playwrights. (Adult)

 

Meadville Council on the Arts

Meadville Market House, 2^nd Floor

PO BOX 337

Meadville, PA 16335

Phone: 814-336-5051

Email: artscouncil@zoominternet.net

Front Stoop Picnic

With the weather nice out, sometimes you just want to have a picnic. But our schedules don't always allow for us to pack up a basket or backpack and walk down to a park, spread out a blanket, and then eat dinner. So instead, we are having front stoop picnics. Armed with freshly boiled corn, leftover pesto pasta, and warm garlic bread, Nancy and I sat out on our front stoop and enjoyed dinner in the fresh air. 

The one downside was we find out there are adorable mice living under our stoop. 

Peach Fuzzes

So a few nights ago, Nathan and I decided to have peaches fuzzes for an evening refreshment. If you have never had one, then I pity you. They are simply the most delicious things on this planet. I mean it. It is like drinking a peach, which just happens to be one of my all time favorite fruits. 

    For college students, our evening sure don't reflect any college movie I have ever seen. Actually, I would say our lives are a little more driving miss daisy than life in the fast lane. Fortunately or unfortunately, those evenings have come to an end, because OUR HOUSEMATES ARE BACK! I will tell you more about it later in another post, I promise! 

PEACH FUZZ

Place in blender:
    1/2 a tube of frozen lemonade and the equivalent in water, OR regular lemonade 
    Add ice cubes
    Peaches (halved, but NOT peeled) 
    Freshly grated nutmeg. 

Blend until desired consistency is reached, which should be smooth with a few chunks in it. Pour into glasses, and top with a little more nutmeg. 

A perfectly refreshing end to the day. 

Chaos in the Kitchen

Does anyone remember that story that they tell us when we are little? The with the grasshopper and the ant? If I remember correctly, (and I probably don't). The grasshopper spends all summer just having fun, jumping around, and making fun of the ant, who instead of having fun is diligently carrying food everyday back to his home to store away. The ant continually warns the grasshopper that winter will be here soon and he should stock up, but he never does. The end result is the ant lives comfortably through the cold months on his stores of food, while the grasshopper has nothing. 

I'm listening to the ant. This weekend became chaotic in our kitchen as we turned our fresh goods from the farmers market and everything in our fridge into preserved goods. We canned, we dried, we strung. We then had to scrub the kitchen, and we may not have finger prints left, but the result is beautiful. Scroll down and see what I mean!   

(If you know the tune to 12 days of Christmas, it actually fits quite nicely with the scroll down) 

But we got....Eight Cans of Peaches

All Four Burners Covered

Three Cans of Tomato Sauce. 

Two Jars of Green Beans

and a House smelling of Dried Corn!

We also figured out a cool way to dry green beans by literally sewing them together with a needle and kite string. It makes a nice ornament in the kitchen and will be great in stews come winter!

Sweet Potato Cupcakes

The Crawford County Fair is here! If you didn't know, it is the largest agricultural fair in Pennsylvania. That's something to be proud of! Anyway, I have been to the fair every year that I have attended Allegheny, so this year I decided I would take the plunge and enter something. Last Friday, I spent hours brainstorming, testing ideas and concepts, until it came to me. I pulled out my trusty wooden spoon and apron and got baking. 

The result was sweet potato cupcakes with marshmallow frosting, and drizzled with cinnamon brown sugar. I proudly entered these in the fair, and even though I didn't even got an honorable mention, I am still happy that I submitted them and officially have a fair number! 

Next year, I will have to try again....

Sweet Potato Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato (peeled and chopped)

½ cup milk

¼ cup butter

1 egg

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2 tablespoons brown sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 pinch of salt

Directions:

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place milk, butter and sweet potato pieces into a pot. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally until the sweet potato is cooked all the way through and easy can be split apart with a wooden spoon. Pour all the content of the pot into a food processor and process until a puree.

Let sweet potato mixture cool until Luke warm. Stir in egg, and nutmeg. Add brown sugar, vanilla, and canola oil. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir sifted dry ingredients into sweet potato mixture.

Fill each cup of a standard cupcake tin a little more than half full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until tops begin to brown slightly.

Makes approximately 10 cupcakes

Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup mini marshmallows

1 teaspoon light corn syrup

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

½ cup confectioner’s sugar

2 teaspoon water

6 drops of vanilla extract

Additional confectioner’s sugar as needed

Directions:

Grease the top half of a double boiler with butter. Add marshmallows and corn syrup and stir with a metal spoon as the mixture begins to melt.

When almost completely melted, add corn starch and sugar, stir until completely mixed. Add water to thin out the texture and make it easier to stir in about 6 drops of vanilla extract.

Take the top of the double boiler off the heat and beat contents with electric mixture, adding a teaspoon at a time of confectioner’s sugar until desired consistency is reached (about 2).

Frost cupcakes immediately.

Frosts about 7 cupcakes

Cinnamon-Brown Sugar Drizzle

Ingredients (Approximate ratio):

3/4 tablespoon butter

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon brown sugar

Directions:

Melt all ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium low heat. Drizzle carefully with a spoon over cupcakes.

Professors Go Local

This week we were lucky enough to have dinner at Professor Darren Miller's house (Thanks to Paige's watering skills). The man's garden is a work of art, which is ironic in that he is also a professor in the art department. The entire meal actually consisted entirely of foods from his garden with only three exceptions: black beans and garbanzo beans that came from a can, and some tortillas he got to go with the hummus.

Dinner was a good spread of food! It included: 

Black bean burgers (far superior to ours, did you know they aren't supposed to be grilled? Who would have thunk it?) topped with arugula and tomato.

Mixed vegetables including yellow and red beats, potatoes, green peppers, and fennel. 

Sauteed swiss chard. 

Corn on the cob.

We tip our hats to Professor Miller for his garden, and the great eats. Its pointless to say, but all our stomachs were very happy by the end of the night!

Dipping into Summer

Tonight was a dinner of dips. The reason being that our CSA share came with summer squash, a vegetable we were not all that familiar with. The result was us looking at it and thinking.... that would be a cool looking bowl to serve dip in. So we made guacamole, and summer medley dip.  

Yes, the dip has bunny ears!

Summer Medley Dip

Step one: Collect summer squash, zucchini, and red pepper from the fridge, and garlic from the basket
Step two: Cut up two average sized summer squash into bite size chunks. Dice up the zucchini. Peel the garlic. Make red pepper slices. 
Step three: Place all the vegetables on a foil lined cooking sheet, sprinkle with olive oil, and place in a 375 degree oven for about 25 minutes, check until they are hot and properly "roasted"
Step four: Dump everything from the tray into a food processor with a dash of  pepper and a hefty pinch of cumin. Process it until it becomes a nice spreadable texture. 
Step five: Carve a whole in one of your larger summer squashes, and place the dip in it. Surround with mini pita and crackers for its consumption.