Christmas Eve Shenanigans

Christmas Eve has always been a special part of the holidays for my family. In recent years, the traditions have included visiting my Grandma for Christmas with her, eating munchies and fondue and everything fried, and watching movies or playing games. With my brothers now married, Christmas Eve is sort of the highlight of my Christmas because all of my siblings, now, spend the day at my parent's house with us.

Having had a few weeks to relax and unwind from the fall semester, I decided to do something special to wrap up the year, which started with me studying abroad in Spain for 4 months. I made paella, a dish my land lady in Spain made for me and her family at Easter from scratch. Paella (pronounced pie-ey-ya) is a Valencian or Eastern Spanish rice dish, a very traditional dish in Spain. The recipe I made for Christmas Eve was a lot of memory from Easter, along with some additions from online sources. My dish was also made entirely from scratch to get as many authentic flavors as possible.

Paella was a slang term for “pan” back in the day; today it exclusively means this dish, and the pan that is specially made for it.

The rice dish probably evolved from Moorish dishes that influenced Spain until the late 15^th century. There are 3 types: paella valenciana, seafood paella, and mixed paella. The whole idea of paella is pretty much a mix though, it is rice with certain spices, and whatever meat and vegetables were around throughout the centuries. There are specific ingredients that are more traditional than others today, however.

We had a traditional mixed paella with chorizo (sausage) and chicken and vegetables. The paella valenciana is often made with eels or snails, and the seafood paella (although it encouraged me to expand my horizons while abroad) isn’t something everyone in the family would have enjoyed. There are many types of paella that result in competitions across Spain, including kinds with black rice (colored with squid ink) and many different meats and seafood (rabbit, chicken, sausage, clams, shrimp...)

I made a vegetable stock and infused the rice with white wine, saffron, and a mix of sautéed vegetables called the sofrito. Then I combined the stock, rice mixture, and meat in a big pan until the rice is cooked. I was hoping for a crust of rice at the bottom of the pan when it is done—not burnt, but sort of caramelized—called a socarrat (soh-kah-raht, from the verb socarrar, which means to toast lightly). It is the mark of a well-made paella.

When it is done, paella is traditionally eaten directly from the pan.Since we had to transport it to my Grandma's, we skipped this part. I saw some signs of the socarrat but again, with transferring it to a traveling dish, it was hard to tell. My recipe was as follows: 

Paella with Chicken and Chorizo

Stock:

1 1/2 large onion- peel + chop finely or grind

1-2 heads garlic- peel + break into cloves

2 stalks celery- chop off leaves and chop finely or grind

2 carrots- scrub and chop finely or grind

1 bay leaf

½ tsp saffron (<1gram)

1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika (Pimeton)

5 cups water

Paella

½ cup dry white wine

½ large onion, chopped

½ red bell pepper, chopped

½ tomato, chopped

½ lb cooking chorizo in 1/4” slices (Spanish or Basque chorizo, or Portuguese Linguica sausage)

¼ cup chopped parsley

½ cup frozen peas

½ cup green beans

4 tbsp chopped garlic

6 oz roasted piquillo peppers

2 cups Bomba calasparra rice (or Goya California pearl rice, paella rice, medium grain rice)

4 chicken thighs or breasts

extra virgin olive oil

1. Fill pot with stock vegetables, paprika. Sweat for 5 min with lid on, then remove lid and add cold water. Simmer for an hour, and then strain the vegetables off.
2. Chop chicken into small pieces. Salt it and rub with paprika.
3. On medium/high heat, brown the chicken and chorizo in olive oil in a 13” pan 5-10 min. Remove and set aside
4. Add onion, bell pepper, chopped garlic, parsley, tomato, and piquillo peppers and cook for 5 min, stirring occasionally. This is the sofrito. The technique is simple: sauté the vegetables over medium heat until they soften and the flavors meld, and the water from the tomato has evaporated. This mixture should be thick enough to hold its shape in a spoon.
5. Add rice to the sofrito and cook 2-5 min or until golden, stirring. Add wine to the rice and stir until absorbed.
6. In another pan, sauté the saffron in oil for just a few moments.
7. Pour the broth from the pot into the paella pan and add saffron, green beans, and peas. Allow it to boil. Simmer on lower heat until the broth is almost all absorbed. During this time, move the pan to get even heat coverage, but don’t stir the rice. The liquid may boil off too quickly to cook the rice (rice will start to float a little when it’s close) so keep extra stock handy just in case. Rice should be done but not mushy- 20 min of cooking. Last 2 min of cooking, cover with foil or place the whole pan in a 400 degree oven to get even heat.
8. Socarrat is the caramelized crust of rice that sticks to the bottom of the pan. To get some, increase the heat at the end of cooking, paying close attention to the sound of the rice (it crackles) and the smell.
9. When the liquid is absorbed, the rice is done, the paella needs some time alone to finish cooking and round out its flavors. Cover the pan with a clean towel or foil and let it rest off the heat for five to ten minutes.
10. Serve directly in the pan it was cooked in.

To reheat: Add water and heat at 350 degrees until warmed through with the water re-absorbed. 

*Some notes: I found that timing was very important, especially when cooking the rice. I added the saffron a little late, so the rice didn't dye evenly. Also, my paella could have used more flavor--  I was light-handed on the spices and on adding the meat. Finding ingredients was hard, especially finding non-long grain rice, saffron, and the chorizo. 

Everyone seemed to enjoy the paella, and the Indian dish my brother made for later in the evening. We introduced my parents to the game Apples to Apples, which was a rousing success, and watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-long Blog. A great Christmas for the Liptaks!

Happy holidays, and thanks for reading!

Lessons Learned This Week

Just last week, the Barre Opera House hosted the Moving Lights Dance Company's annual Green Mountain Nutcracker performance. The Nutcracker is the standard Christmastime show for anyone in the business; a lighting designer I know saves light plots, paperwork, and color for a variety of houses that hire him back for their stock Nutcracker every single year. Last year I worked the show as stage manager during my college exam week-- not a fun experience, especially given the reception I was given by the company as a new member-- but a learning experience for sure.

This year was a little different. Earlier in the year at the Opera House, the technical supervisor I had worked under for several years stepped down. I came in for the Nutcracker load-in and strike as technical supervisor, a new position for me, but one I had exemplary models and teachers for.

I started by looking at hours and timesheets from last year. Without a lot of guidance from the company itself, I wanted to be sure we stayed close to their budget from the year before, so I hired about the same amount of people and tried to work about the same amount of hours. Our main goal was electrics: hang, circuit, focus, and troubleshoot. I asked Peter Monahan, the previous tech guy at the Opera House, to come in for the calls and he agreed. I also had the help of Jeff Salzberg, the lighting designer, who had some specific mechanics, cabling, and effects he wanted to use.

It was kind of hard to plan going in without having done this before. I acted mostly on suggestions, pairing people up on tasks whenever possible, trying to use peoples' strengths. My first mistake was to bite off too much at once: we had enough people to start rehanging all the electrics, but the hemp system at the BOH means things shift pretty quickly when weight changes. I didn't warn people about it and we had to stop and reassess with the people on the weight rail and then handle one or two electrics at a time.

Another thing I wished I had thought of beforehand was the rules about hours worked/breaks needed, especially meal breaks. Sunday was a hard day because we were focusing lights, which only takes a few people, and once the special projects like hanging stars and getting booms together were done, I had people standing around and was struggling to fill the 4-hour minimum call. Once I released the majority of the crew, three of us stayed until 1am focusing-- which is just how focus works, a few people at a time.

The strike of the show went well. We restored the stage to a rep plot, which was simple enough. I learned a little about conserving cable and twofers though, and also about coming in with a clear idea of what needs to be accomplished. I think we did well for the most part. I think the final lesson learned was that fake snow can actually pop the base off of an instrument-- namely parnels-- when it melts onto it. Watch out for that one!

The highlights of the whole job included bringing back my mentee/best friend from last year, Alan, to work the call, as well as another underclassman from St. Mikes, Dee-jai, to work. Connecting my worlds and helping my rising techies get work is a pleasure I discovered last year when I roped Alan in for spotlight operating the very same gig. I also enjoyed not having to be present for the whole week (something my exams this year wouldn't have allowed for), not having a lot of contact with the actors and company (something I've been appreciating more and more as I get away from stage management) despite the uncertainties and unspecified details it presented, and the pay raise.

While I'm not sure how much time I will have in 2012 to be the house TD at the Opera House (not to mention the body strength when it comes to that fly system!) it was a great experience this winter. Many thanks to the crew and my mentors who have been so patient with me through this learning experience!

First Snowfall!

Yesterday, Saint Mike's got it's first permanent snowfall! It was a beautiful night. When I got home from an Irish Christmas music concert (Cherish the Ladies at the Flynn theater) I took a walk with my camera.

The campus was hushed and misty, and took me to a natural, wild place. I love winter, despite the cold, and winter nights are the best. Whether the snow is blanketing down or the sky is clear to the stars, it's a beautiful time of year. I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights, and my walk last night reminded me that if I do get to work on a cruise ship, I should apply for the Alaskan lines.

There's something so still about the world in December that goes beyond cheery Christmas music and decorations, something deep blue instead of bright red, something that you can't help but feel if you stop and take deep breath and really open your eyes to what's around you. Thank God for my Vermont upbringing; I have the ability to do this and to appreciate the beauty all around me.

Crunch Time!

The weeks following Thanksgiving break are always packed with end-of-semester assignments and activities around Saint Mike's campus. Although every day is exhausting, it's rewarding to be productive, especially when I'm more aware than ever of the money going into my education and the benefits I'll gain when I'm done with school and job hunting.

This year I am noticing finals more than ever with a lot of my close friends finishing thesis papers and research projects: Becky and Heather, my friends who are senior English majors, are both part of the senior seminar about monsters in culture and society and have been doing a lot of work relating figures like Frankenstein, Hannibal, and Jekyll & Hyde to the real world. I love going to a liberal arts school because so many classes and themes are related and I'm able to draw concrete parallels between many theories.

My four classes for this semester are Spanish Literature, Shakespeare, Early Christianity, and Run Crew Lab. Since Crimes of the Heart is over, my time in the scene shop and backstage has diminished, though with various end-of-the-semester performances and theatre finals going on my friends and I have been putting in a few hours a week preparing for events. I have one exam for Christianity and one on Spanish theatre; an essay on Spanish theatre to do; and then a group presentation on Titus Andronicus in Shakespeare and also an advanced research paper on Hamlet to do. Although things are winding down for the most part, Shakespeare is still a very intense class!

Some of those end-of-semester events include the Saint Michael's Playhouse Holiday Benefit Concert, a sold-out show performing tonight only, featuring some of Playhouse's familiar faces, and the directing class scenes, which will be Monday of exam week.

Other than that, I'm also looking ahead to next weekend, when I'll be working as technical supervisor at the Barre Opera House loading in for their annual performance of The Green Mountain Nutcracker. I've also been doing some research for summer stock jobs, since the time to apply is drawing near. I'll keep you posted!!

Stage Combat Workshop

On Saturday, my friend Ken Nicholas came to St. Mike's to give a stage combat workshop with our Drama Club! It was a great day. We started at 9am with warm-ups and basic hand-to-hand moves like slaps, punches, falls, and chokes. There were about 15 people from the club present, and we all got the chance to do each move.

During the afternoon we worked on a line of choreography using the hand-to-hand pieces from the morning and filmed them! It was definitely the most moves I've remembered in a long time; I find dance classes very challenging. I worked with Julia, my mentee in the drama club, and we had a lot of fun!

Later, we learned how to use whips. It was like genuine Indiana Jones material! Cracking whips is harder than it looks and some of them were really heavy. The workshop was only supposed to go until 5pm, but we had some interested students stay until almost 8pm with the sword work!

The champs that stayed for hours afterward!!

I got to spend some time with Ken and his friend Jenn who came up to see Vermont as well! We went to the Skinny Pancake, the Single Pebble, and around Burlington a little. I hadn't seen Ken since leaving Gateway Playhouse this summer, so it was a real treat to have him come up. Check out a video he made from the weekend: Welcome to UVM (pun intended).

Class Registration...for the final time!

Last week I registered for classes for spring semester...my last semester at Saint Michael's College! It is so hard to believe 4 years have gone by. In a lot of ways I'm ready to be done with school: I often feel that classes and homework are holding me back from what I really want to do, but I know in the long run it's definitely worth the time and effort. I will miss the social life, however, and the safety net that school provides.

My final semester here includes 4 classes: my senior seminar class (during which I'll be discussing and presenting my work on my showcase piece, which is lighting design for the spring mainstage); a class on J. R. R. Tolkein, where we will read his works and discuss/analyze; a Spanish conversation class to keep up my skills; and Costume Crafts, where I'll learn the basics of costume use, history, certain stitches, and patterns. I will spend a lot of time in the theater again, as lighting designer for the spring mainstage, helping out with various tech elements of the other senior showcase plays, and as with this semester helping out with the tech classes there. I also may try to help out with the costume building labs more, since I'll be in the costume crafts class and haven't done costumes at all during my college career yet.

Class registration at Saint Michael's is hard. There isn't really a good way to do it, to be honest, and the registration days are often very stressful for students. I've been pretty lucky getting into the classes I need/want, but this time around especially I've heard a lot of people who haven't gotten any of the classes they needed. It seems that this is a downfall of the idea of small classes with the incoming classes growing every year.

With that update, I'm off to work on researching jobs! The life of a college senior....

University of Vermont's The Good Woman of Setzuan

Last night, I drove some first-years from Professor Nick Clary's first-year seminar class Drama & Culture to see UVM's performance of The Good Woman of Setzuan, a Brecht piece usually classified as epic theatre. The plot is fairly complex, involving a benevolent woman in the imaginary Chinese city Setzuan who is noticed by the gods for her goodness and rewarded with money. She buys a tobacco shop...and immediately is beset by the impoverished and the wealthy alike. The twists in the plot are unpredictable, and the ending left me absolutely stunned and wanting more.

While the point of epic theatre is to alienate the audience, or for the audience to always be aware that they are watching a play, this production directed by Peter Jack Tkatch emphasized the humanity of the characters and elements of both eastern and western theatre styles.

I was particularly interested in the scenic and lighting elements, even more than usual because I know both designers. Hannah Bean Brosnan, currently a senior at UVM who I worked closely with as a fellow stage management intern in 2010 at Saint Michael's Playhouse, designed a flexible world that emphasized oriental aspects, which is a change from the usual epic theatre starkness, but worked with the production very well to create coherency. The lighting by John Forbes was remarkable, creating several dramatic moments, especially with flying specials that isolated characters for certain moments, a dreamy sewer chute, and highlighting and silhouetting the gods. The costume design was an essential part of the revised theme of humanity, emphasizing reality, and differentiating characters.

The questions posed by Brecht in this play are endless, crossing lines of myth and religion, society and government. It fits this country's-- and the world's-- current struggles with poverty and economic crisis perfectly. Is it possible to be good to the world and good to oneself as well? How much is too much? Are the gods able to change anything? Can human nature be changed, or is the solution to change society?