Saturday night, Christopher Mark Jones accompanied by David Hart on Mandolin.Expert musicians played two sets to an appreciative audience. Their music made the house come alive.
Laura and James came in from Columbus to help host. I couldn’t have done it without them. We made a Gourd Tree on the cupcake stand my friend Joanne sent last birthday. I baked a New York Cheesecake, the kind with no crust where you start at 500 degrees then turn it down to 225 and let it bake undisturbed into the night after you turn the oven off.
L said it was the best house concert she had ever attended! Everyone seemed to be in agreement that it was a wonderful concert and lively evening. Friends and neighbors joined in singing a few choruses with the sing along portion and the house lent itself with a warm, welcoming spirit and ambience.
They left their umbrellas at the door. The threat of five days of rain with Sandy coming up the East Coast didn’t prevent anyone from coming.
It was a lovely, musical event. Thanks to Christopher and David! The candles provided a warm glow.
Music really does make the house come alive- !!!
That is my sort of party! Just move the camera a wee bit closer to all that delicious looking food now will ya’ 😉 A recipe for cheesecake would be awfully nice as well!
NY Cheesecake (ingredients at room temp) 24 oz cream cheese 24 oz sour cream 1 1/2 c sugar 6 eggs 2 tsp vanilla
Beat but not overbeat. Pour into buttered 9′ springform pan BAKE in preheated oven at 500 for15 min turn down to 225 and bake for an hour and half turn off oven let sit in oven undisturbed ( I left mine overnight cause I baked it at 11pm) Cool in fridge
You can make a can of sour cherries, thicken the liquid with a 1T cornstarch in a bit of water add a 1/4 c sugar, cook til clear, add cherries cool
Thank you!!
It was a lovely evening!
Looks like a wonderful evening with soft light and wonderful music.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Thats a party I would have liked to make but it would have been difficult being on time from Dharamsala!
Sorry we couldn’t be there. Hesh would have loved the music.
Ruth, you always seem to be around wonderful, talented people LIKE YOU! I would love to have been there — please stay safe if Hurricane Sandy hits Pittsburgh — I’ll say a great big prayer!
What a great house. I’m sure the music did make it even better.
I’ve a very similar cheesecake recipe that I copied from one of our newspapers about 30 years ago. The ingredients are just about the same but the amounts vary. It is quite a cake, though, isn’t it?
I love that the molding around your ceiling hasn’t been painted over. It looks so much better that way. Mine has been painted, more than a few times, unfortunately.
It is a cake and a half, really. John you are so right. I will have to get the varying amounts recipe.
You are also right, I am fortunate that the downstairs woodwork has never been painted. The house built in 1926.
I was sorry I didn’t take any close ups of the food but we had dried figs, almonds, slices of apple and pear soaked in a lemon juice/water combo to prevent browning, a couple of cheeses and assorted crackers, lots of seedless grapes of various colors, and then the desserts= Pignoli cookies, my Italian strip cookies(some with walnuts some plain) and Split second cookies with Four Fruit jam filling and also some with Apricot preserves, a dark chocolate bar broken into bits, and then the NY Cheesecake.
Sounds like a great evening 🙂
Wow what an evening
Ruth wins the prize for best house concert host of the millennium (no half measures here…). We all felt part of a special evening.
I adore the last 2 pictures in the series. The lighting makes it feel incredibly welcoming and homey.
Stef, thanks for making time to write such thoughtful comments on the blog posts! Delightful.
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