Diavolo

sliding, diving, flying, catching, falling, rolling, lifting, pushing.

bruises, bumps, blood, sweat, strains, tears.

set, drop, go.
performance.

DIAVOLO (Di-a’-vo-lo) “Dia”: Spanish for "day"; Greek for "through, across, from point to
point"; “Volo”: Latin for "I will fly."

These past few days of working with Diavolo Dance Theater have been amazing and intense. After long, long rehearsal days, the company members have set an entire piece on us in just 3 days! We open the show this coming Friday and have another performance Saturday night. I think this is the fastest I have had to build trust with a new group of people, and the hardest I have pushed myself to overcome fears and insecurities. There is no room for hesitation. Amazing experience, and sure to be an amazing show!

Cakes of all sorts

I happen to love cake of all kinds. It's funny though, I think I actually enjoy making cake more than I like eating it. The truth is, if you gave me a choice over cake or ice cream, I would hands down chose ice cream *gasp* But that being said I still do love cake, and instead of my usual cupcakes, I tried out different types of cake this week.

First is actually a savory cake. Black bean cakes. Well "burgers" really, but for the sake of this post, I'm calling them cakes. I am getting tired of the same old veggie burgers and patties that I buy all the time at the grocery. Sure they are great, but there is no variation and lets be honest, they are pretty expensive. So I started looking around for some quick veggie burgers, or cakes, to make and keep in the fridge so I can throw them in the microwave after a long day of class, work, and rehearsal.
I adapted this recipe for black bean cakes from here.

It is really a simple recipe. Just mashed black beans mixed with chopped onions and bell pepper then bound together with a couple eggs and some bread crumbs. I didn't have any hot sauce to throw in like the original recipe called for, but I did sprinkle some Tony's on after baking and the added spice was nice.I added some cheese to the top of a couple and they turned out delicious, and so much cheaper than buying veggie burgers in the freezer section!

Then I wanted to make a birthday cake for Tara, and her favorite cake is carrot cake! I enlisted Virginia as my little carrot grater. lots and lots of grated carrots.A pretty simple batter

but with the added carrots and nuts (I used walnuts instead of pecans because that's what I had around the house) it is a delicious carrot cake!Then whip up a simple cream cheese frosting...

look at all that cream cheese and butter, Paula would be proud.I usually stick to cupcakes because layer cakes make me nervous, but I decided to give it a try. I am no expert cake carver, so the sides were a little uneven, but that just shows the homemade love right?Instead of the normal piped carrots on top of the cake, I decided to roll some shredded carrots in sugar and decorate the cake with actual carrots! And it helped me camouflage the unevenness of the cake...Then I just used a little melted chocolate to pipe a birthday wish on top!After kidnapping Tara for breakfast out I finished up the cake to take to our dinner that night!

Happy birthday Tara!

Birthday!

I can't believe I am already 22, it feels like I just turned 21 last week! I always love birthday's, it's your one day of the year to feel extra special! My friends and roommates made my birthday a great one this year starting bright and early waking me up with walnut and cranberry pancakes for breakfast and bringing a tiara to ballet for me to wear during class. Its the little things like that, that really mean so much to me.

For my birthday dinner, we went out to De Palma's downtown and had a great dinner with a small group of friends. Amazing food, and great company!And they got me a Cecilia's cake! The cake was so good! It was the Red Raspberry cake which is layers of vanilla cake, vanilla custard, red raspberry preserves and whipped cream icing!

Then we got back home from dinner and my roommates gave me a gift! (gift wrapped in their hands :)A ticket to a Jenny and Johnny show!

My actual birthday was a great day, and the celebrating continued into the weekend with a joint birthday party for me and Tara (her birthday is the 6th!)

Birthday girls in our new birthday dresses!

It was a great party with so many great friends! Laura and Dani even came down and surprised us! Twenty two is going to be a great year!