It's March Already?! Events Around Macon

Good lord yall, when did it become March?

Needless to say, this weekend alone there are all kinds of fabulous happenings around town. I'll start off with Macon Arts Alliance's show "Kirk West's Playlist". From their Facebook event page:

         The exhibit will showcase music photography by Kirk West, photographer and former tour   manager for the Allman Brothers Band. For more than 25 years, West photographed musicians in the clubs of Chicago and on the road touring the country. After taking hundreds of photographs at an event, he’d sell two or three. The remaining images were put into storage and left for a later day.

Well folks, the later day is here! I'm for sure going to make my way down. Also tomorrow night we have the first of two performances of "Hot on Broadway", this is part of the Butler Lexus's Broadway Series at The Grand Opera House. The second performance will be Saturday night. Also from their Facebook page:

         
            Hot On Broadway is the only show that brings together a cast of Broadway’s best and brightest stars – direct from current Broadway shows including Wicked, Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia!, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Chicago and many more – to create a show-stopping spectacular with song and dance numbers from Hairspray, Les Miserables, Rent, Nine, Cats, Grease, Guys & Dolls and other hot Broadway shows. This high-energy song and dance production will have you singing and dancing in the aisles with today’s Broadway hits!


Gosh, how to choose what to go to? For those of you who don't know, I am a tremendous Broadway fan thanks to my days in musical theatre at Stratford Academy (I even took private voice lessons- but don't ask me to sing now). For more music tomorrow night, one could also check out the Mercer Percussion Concert. I'm thinking this is how my night will start tomorrow- first, the Arts Alliance, then the Mercer concert (hey- I'm a student and I get in for free- actually it might be free for everyone the Facebook page doesn't say for sure). But I also can go to a special event following the Hot on Broadway show because I am a member for Bravo with the Grand. Decisions decisions... I'm also going to have to eat at some point and it's been a little while since I went to Dovetail. I'm thinking it's time I visited one of my favorite bartenders, as I have told yall before Wayne always comes up with something special for me.

Saturday is going to be just as jam packed, if not more. First, we have the Casting Call at The SoChi Gallery to take my kids to, then a study session for my final on Monday, then I've got to go and try on clothes from Ella Bleu Boutique for a photo shoot, THEN I've got The Big Bird Bash. Think I have enough planned?

Oh but it doesn't stop there. Sunday is just as insane, with church, the Macon Symphony "Pet" Show, more studying, and my photo shoot for Ella Bleu Boutique! 

Does my life ever slow down? What do yall think haha...

Til next time yall!

The Dinner Conversation: Robert McDuffie - McDuffie Center For Strings - Pa...

Check this out!!! I love this blog, Roger always interviews some of the most interesting people...


The Dinner Conversation: Robert McDuffie - McDuffie Center For Strings - Pa...: This is one of the moments I love when it comes to working with the Moonhanger Group restaurants. I am a huge music fan, so to be able to...

Lots to Catch Up On- and Tickets to Win

So, I'm going to test out merging my Around Town blog over here, cause frankly the blog title "Would You Like Some Wine With That...?" could apply to more than just cooking and other lifestyle events. And since I am corrolating "wine" with "whine" then my editorial opining can fit in here as well.

So. Yeah. Anyways...

As for my goings on 'round town I do have quite a bit to catch up on. For one- the Civic Club show. I went with a friend that Gala night on Friday and saw many of the usual suspects: Betsy and Keith Fitzgerald, David Quackenbush and Steven Fulbright, Tori and Jerry Jennings, etc. The show itself was a rather large undertaking as per usual, but my favorite part wasn't even the singing this go round but the parts between skits where different characters would pop up and making joking commentary. I also rather enjoyed Steve Solomon's role at "Bigfoot". The best part of this show are always the jokes at the expense of people you know around town as well as various political characters. To be honest- I miss being able to hear the C Jack jokes. Oh well. I'd rather miss those jokes than have him in office. The scary thing is- he will probably run under the new consolidated government. Pray for otherwise...

I made another trip to The Grand for the Clifford Live! show with my sweet babies. Cindy Hill was doing the red carpet even for the little ones:

My sweet babies had SO MUCH FUN- oh my gosh I can't wait til the next one. I was happy to see other parents I knew in the crowd, and that the house was rather packed. We actually were able to snag one of the box seats, as it was open seating, and it was definitely the way to go. Babies were laughing and singing and having a ball. We won't miss the next one!

As for other events- today we also went to the Mercer women's and men's basketball games. I swear it seemed like all of Macon was there- my kids had a great time, too. And Mercer really has a fantastic facility- I am aware of it because I am finishing my undergrad studies there (Jesus finally) but I'm not sure how aware Macon as a whole is. Mercer does SO much for Macon as a whole, not just the students and College Hill area but really enriches all of our town. We should give back by attending more of their functions, not just the athletics ones, too.

Now- future events. I have two big ones coming up I will be attending. One is Project Trio with the Macon Symphony on March 9th, here's a YouTube video, it's probably easier to watch this to start off:

To quote the Macon Symphony's press release:

" On March 9th at 7:30pm, the Macon Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert backing
PROJECT Trio, a flute, cello, and bass combo that is pushing the boundaries of chamber music with a
high-octane mix of classical, jazz, hip-hop, and rock." I am a big music fan in general, and of all genres, so when I have the chance to see a live performance of classical instruments performing a mix of all types of music- I take it. Gosh and it's right here in Macon- how freakin cool is that?!

The weekend before that is The Big Bird Bash- I'm pretty sure most of my friends are aware of the Bash and the line up they are presenting but in case you aren't here's a quick breakdown: Gringo Grande, Drivin' and Cryin', Back City Woods AND Drive By Truckers. Guess who has two tickets to give away? Me!!!

How am I going to choose the winner? How about this: tell me (either here in comments or on Facebook or hell email me at makeitworkmolly@gmail.com if you want) what you love about Macon's current musical offerings. I want to hear something positive about music in our town- not just where we have come from but where we are going and how we keep turning out great acts. Myself and Kristen Thompson O'Neal will pick the winner based on the answers we get.

Looking forward to seeing yall around!

Listening With My Heart This Lenten Season

So, this blog isn't intended to be just about cooking and other editorials but also a place for me to voice my opinion. And honestly, I am considering merging my "Around Town" blog here as well. However I digress...

This Valentine's Day I could mope about being single, but I won't. Frankly, there are so many other bigger issues out there to me than just my own little life.

Today is Ash Wednesday, and while many will give up chocolate or the like for Lent, I have read some curious articles about what the Lenten season is truly about. I will not delve in to any religious musings here except to say what I am doing this Lent is aiming to pray every day.

Please pardon me, as this might be a little scattered as I attempt to gather my thoughts coherently....

The things I am praying about revolve around a few issues. One- gay marriage. Whether you argue over the semantics of it or the religious aspect, the fact of the matter is to prevent two people from joining in a legal union is just plain wrong. It is. There's no getting around it. It's simply no different than the Civil Rights movement and for someone to argue otherwise shows their ignorance. But hey, let's delve in to religion for a moment. For me, God is simply about love. Just that simple. He tells us to not cast stones, and only those who are without sin may do so- we're all sinners. Therefore- we don't judge. So, if being gay and acting on it is a sin- well damn I'm gonna let God take care of that at the Pearly Gates. But in the meantime, I'm jut gonna choose to love like God and do my best to not prevent others from doing so as well. Out government should take the same stand.

Two- gun control. Now, I used to be all over this one: don't take my guns away. But recently I asked myself: "who needs these assault rifles"? Do I need one to protect my home and my kids? In my War and Diplomacy class at Mercer, we have learned that during the Revolutionary War (roughly when our Constitution was written) that guns themselves were very inaccurate. Remember the phrase "don't shoot til you see the whites of their eyes"? Guess what- it's because those darn things weren't so accurate. And therefore, not terribly deadly either. I'm pretty sure our forefathers would argue for safety on this one. I could be wrong. And one could refer to Jefferson's quote "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." Yeah I get that- but are we really giving up any freedoms here? I would argue not. No one is saying we're gonna take all of your guns away- not do I really think this would set the precedent to do so. At some point in time, common sense must reign above zealots.

Three- human trafficking. Yall, this shit is real. It runs me crazy how people think otherwise. Dr. Andrew Silver had a great post on Facebook today about it:

                           Though Chris Horne blew the story sky high with his front page article in the Eleventh            Hour, as far as I know, the first public writing in Middle Georgia on the issue of sex trafficking in Macon's proliferating Asian themed sex spas came from Erick Erickson in this 2007 blog. When Mary Alice Morgan, Katey Brown, Dee Hill Simms, Elizabeth Greim, Dottie Stafford, Ella Kennen, Hannah Vann, and I started work trying to redress the gaps in our city and county ordinances, Larry Schlesinger, a Democrat, and Erick Erickson, a Republican, teamed up together in city council to help us try to convince our city attorney to act. When that didn't work, Erick helped us get a sit-down with the entire legal team at the Georgia Secretary of State's office, and when that didn't work, he joined us in cheering on Cecil Staton, another Republican, as he passed a Georgia-wide law that helped us, after a year of trying, finally get laws passed at the county and city level. We had support in our efforts to help victims of trafficking and punish traffickers from conservatives and liberals, shock right-wing radio jocks and Unitarian ministers, evangelical conservatives and evangelical liberals, the Junior League and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. I think it's possible to publicly and vehemently disagree with the tone and content of another person's public rhetoric and still work with them to accomplish something good for the community. And in the case of human trafficking, so does Erick. And I want to thank him publicly for his work on this important issue. In an age which commodifies irresponsible and sometimes hateful rhetoric, we increasingly have to look past language and posturing if we want to get anything done for the good of our community.

http://www.peachpundit.com/2007/06/05/slavery-in-georgia-2007/

Come on y'all- if leaders in Macon, Georgia can all come together across political lines to recognize this is a problem then surely we can recognize and acknowledge it. I, myself, wrote a letter to the editor about this around the same time. We have sex slaves in Macon. We have SLAVES in AMERICA. For real yall how do you feel about that? One hundred and fifty years- 150 years- after the Emancipation Proclamation this is a very real problem in the United States. To paraphrase my own letter to the editor, published in The Telegraph in 2008, these women are brought here and are part of a subculture which many do not even want to acknowledge. Slavery, as it was prior to 1863, was an open part of our culture. We made no bones about the fact that it fueled our economy- Northern as well as Southern. But these women who are brought here illegally are voiceless, ignored, abused. And many just wish to turn a blind eye to their existence. To let this go, to ignore it, would be no different than allowing the enslavement of Africans to continue because it is best for the economy.

We live in a truly great country. I am going to use this Lenten season to pray that we continue to work to live up to it. That we work to give everyone here the freedoms they deserve, to marry whomever they love, to be safe from guns that are made to destroy life rather than to protect it, and that we continue to fight for the freedom of those who are abused and without power to protect themselves.

More Experimenting in the Kitchen

So, a Southern lady should be able to cook- we have established that. And so I have decided to take it upon myself to cook more. Of course, having a willing participant/sous chef/test pilot makes a huge difference.

First on the menu is a beer chicken cooked in the crock pot. I got the recipe off of Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/MakeItWorkMolly/lil-foodie/ and http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340491864/).

Ingredients:

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle or can of beer
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper

Cook in crock pot 6-7 hours.

I actually used two cans of beer, Bud Light in this case because someone ended up with a bunch of it and doesn't drink it, and David's crock pot tends to cook a whole lot faster than it should so... two cans. It was stupidly easy and turned out really, really well. With this we also roasted brussel sprouts. We've made them before with olive oil and salt, but this time I threw in some balsamic vinegar as well. I think it added just another touch to them.

We also made this lovely cocktail (http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340122020/):

Ingredients:

2 parts ginger ale
2 parts cider
1 part bourbon

Well guess what- I misread and I am just now realizing it. I read "ginger BEER" not ginger ale. Oops. And I used sparkling cider. David actually mixed the cocktail up but as it was, my mistake turned out something really quite good. Yummy-yummyness.

I had planned to also make this cheesy, garlic bread for this meal but somehow it just didn't happen so that was last night instead. (http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340303511/)

Ingredients:
pizza dough
garlic butter
cheese

Well, the damn pizza dough didn't want to roll out properly so I had to knead it up and spread it out by hand best I could. I mixed garlic powder and unsalted butter and heated in the microwave to let it spread better. Then put mozzarella cheese and pepperjack cheese along the dough- after having put the garlic butter on. Then drizzled the rest of the garlic butter on top. Rolled up and placed in the oven. The oven was already on 350 for the chicken cordon bleu we made (not from scratch- courtesy of The Fresh Market) so I sat it in there for the last ten minutes the chicken was cooking. As it was, I should have done it sooner. Because I did not cut up the roll of bread as the directions said, it took a lil longer. I'd say about 20 minutes, I also got impatient and turned the heat up to 375 about halfway through. They turned out pretty well but I think I used too much cheese and not enough garlic butter. Lesson learned- less cheese. So- what should I try next? Here are the choices:

Entrees:

Bruschetta chicken http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356339868691/

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340446692/

Sides:

Potatoes baked in chicken broth http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340910902/

Oven roasted mushrooms http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340522660/

Desserts:

Peanut butter and yellow cake and chocolate http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340968400/

Golden graham bars http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340968458/

Cocktails:

"Shock Me" http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340971984/

Crimson Spice http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340446683/

Til next time yall...

The Perfect Christmas Gift

I think part of being a Southerner is knowing how to give the perfect gifts. Example: house warming parties- bottle of wine (I like to go with a red and a white unless I know what the gift recipient likes for sure); kids birthdays- coloring books, crayons, kids books, anything Melissa and Doug, as well as a "smaller" gift for any siblings; etc etc.

Same goes for Christmas. I get the biggest rush out of giving gifts, more so than receiving them. And really, the rush comes when someone opens their gift and they give you the most genuine expression of surprise and thankfulness. The best example I can give is one year I bought a coffee table book about classic sports cars, thinking I would give it to my dad or brother. It was a rather expensive book, too. But after some thought I realized, as much as my brother and dad might like it- they would not be truly thrilled by it. The person who would be thrilled by it would be my (now ex) husband's uncle. Bruce owns a classic car restoration company  (http://www.extrememotorcar.com/ ) and I knew it would just be perfect. The book even went in a chronological order of the years these cars were produced.

When Bruce opened his present, he had this impulsive exclamation of surprise and gave us a genuine thank you that I will never forget. He spent the rest of the afternoon intermittently looking over the book while interacting with everyone. I am still proud of that moment. I can't even remember what I received that year, but I do remember his joy at receiving that book. That is the BEST feeling for me.

One can do the same thing with any gift, and that is what I aim for. To be honest, if I don't get that kind of reception it's a bit of a disappointment and I feel that I have somehow failed in my quest. I like to think this comes, in part, from my Southern heritage. We are taught to always be gracious hosts and guests. Gift giving is much the same: it truly is the thought that counts.

To be perfectly honest, I don't always like to receive gifts on Christmas. I like to be able to give the same kind of surprise reaction to whomever is giving me an item, and I am so hard to surprise and also get so caught up in the giving to others that I often times don't have the energy to give that same reaction that I love to receive. And I am not very good at faking it- but I would not want to let someone else down. Christmas tends to be rather exhausting for me in that regard.

This year, many of my gifts will be hand made. Even without a large budget, I know my family members will appreciate the craft and time that went in to my gifts.

When the World Doesn't Make Sense

Right about now- we want answers.

As human beings, we desperately need to make some sense out of our lives. It has been that way since the beginning of time. It's the reason people tell stories, and make mythologies, and feel the need to tell the lives of our many Gods.

But sometimes- it just doesn't make sense. Sometimes, no matter why or for whatever reason it just doesn't damn matter. I think this is one of those times.

Even if we can figure out why this happened- all of these little babies losing their lives- even if we get inside this shooters head and figure out why he felt the need- it doesn't matter. Cause it just shouldn't have happened.

I guess it's one thing when we lose people to disease or natural disaster, those things seem so much bigger and out of our control but this this feels like we could have and should have prevented it.

And then there are those getting mad about potential politicizing- I have no problem with what our President said. Hell he's right- this should NOT happen and we should do something to make sure it doesn't. When our country was attacked by Al Qaeda  we called President Bush a hero for stating America would not stand by this. And I am a Republican(-ish). We don't know what exactly our President meant by his statement.

Anyways, and that's not even my real point. My point is, this is just one of those times- even if we did know why it happened, even though hell I want to know why it happened- because it's just our own human reaction to want to know- to have to reason through it.... but sometimes we cannot have the answers. Sometimes there just isn't an answer. And even if we do get an answer, does it even really matter? I think not. Whatever answer we have, this should not have happened.

May God be with these families, I pray for some relief for those who died, for those who survived, for anyone and everyone touched by this. Whatever God you pray to, whatever means you use to send kind thoughts towards those you care about- may you please employ them now.

As for me, I know I'll be hugging my kids that much tighter tonight, they can watch Cinderella as much as they want and I won't even think of getting tired of it, and bedtime might have to be a little later this evening.

EDIT:

There's been a lot of talk about gun control/not taking away 2nd Amendment rights. I'm super torn on this because I do believe in keeping one's second amendment rights but I also believe those children had a God given right to live. I don't think God gave me the right to bear arms. God gave me the RESPONSIBILITY to preserve the lives he has placed on this earth. God also gave me the right to free will. Does that mean gun control? I don't know. But what I would like to see is if someone wants to argue against gun control, that they offer another solution or idea as well. Cause I can promise you this- if I were those parents, and even though I am not- I damn sure don't want something like this to ever happen again.