Scattered Thoughts . . .

I 'm a few days late with this St Patrick's Day post due to some lousy health over the past few days.  Fortunately, I managed to record and upload a couple of piano recordings this morning so I was able to publish this post.   Ideally, I had hoped to have these two recordings posted here sometime  before St Patrick's Day but being only three days late isn't all that bad.  At least it's still the right month, the right week and the right time of year!   This first recording is "Danny Boy" which is an arrangement by Keith Jarrett.  I really like most of his arrangements and his arrangement of "Danny Boy" is definitely one of my favorites . Here is the recording... This next recording is of the Irish lullabye, "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral"... I really need to do more recording at the piano before I lose any more of my piano ability.  Unfortunately, I usually have a difficult time recording myself though.  Whenever I attempt this, my mind tends ...

As always, when it comes to a good corned beef and cabbage meal, we both ate far too much last night! Last night's corned beef and cabbage was tasty! The previous time I made this meal, I attempted to cook it in more of a traditional way... everything in the same pot but each thing added at the appropriate time.  Uggg...  that was nasty. Everything took on the taste of the corned beef yet it all tasted bland because everything tasted the same. Last night I went back to my usual way of cooking this meal... meat in a dutch oven and slow cooked at 275 degrees in the oven. I cut up an onion, added spices, and added a weak beef broth to the pot... covered it... put it in the oven.   The remaining items are cooked separately. The potatoes are boiled but then I do a quick fry in a pan at the end with onion powder, salt, pepper and some paprika. The carrots are separate also... boiled until soft... then drain the water and add some butter and a little bit of brown s...