snowbirds surgeries and other shenanigans!

So, a few updates on the life of the Snowbirds:

1. We have a show on February 16th at 8 o'clock at The Stanhope House with another duo called Paul and Melissa (a double date show, as Dave has said!) - another band will also be added, but as of right now remains a mystery! What makes this show even more exciting is that it is my birthday and my first real coming-out since my most recent surgery, which brings me to our next update...

2. Had my second spinal surgery on Thursday morning bright and early at Sloane-Kettering in NYC. I'm pretty sure most of ya'll know what's going on with my health at this point, but for those of you who don't, just ask - I'm so used to talking about it by now, haha! I've been pretty much confined to a hospital bed since then, with no Bravo or Food Network to watch (I CAN NOT DEAL). But there were a couple perks to being here, aside from the obvious:

Magazines! Junk food and wine combinations, an article after my own heart.

Candy stripers! Hell to the yes! Lucky me, all patients under pediatric care get their pick of the big candy cart, full of delicious and completely non-nutritious snacks. Don't worry, I didn't eat all of this.

AHHHHHHHH! Okay, maybe this isn't a perk, but it's certainly another battle scar. But right now, it just HURTS. Pass the painkillers, boo.

3. A new Snowbirds shoot captured by the lovely and wonderful Amber Byrne of Live it Out Photography. The shoot is part one of two, showing us wandering around the Princeton University campus in the town that I love! She got some beautiful shots that showcase the campus and our loooooovin' for one another. Part two will show us in Small World Coffee and Christmas tree shopping! (To see the full post of the shoot, please visit this link and then check out all of Amber's other great photos and posts!) Here are a few of the faves:

Can't wait to get home, relax in my own space with my fellow Snowbird, watch some Real Housewives and most importantly work on some music to get out into this beautiful world. <3

another snowbirds slow-cookin' saturday!

So, we've taken quite the liking to my new slow cooker and after two weeks of awesome turkey chili leftovers, we decided to give it another go with some venison that Dave procured. This is the first of many meals we'll be making with said venison, because there is literally POUNDS of it. Anywho, here's what we came up with - and boy, was it good.

Slow Cooker Venison Minestrone:

 (for 3.5 quart slow cooker)

 

-     3/4 lb. venison

-         1 (15.5 oz.) can cannellini beans, drained

-         1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes

-         16 oz. beef stock

-         12 oz. tomato sauce 

-     3/4 cup dry ditalini soup pasta

-         2 garlic cloves, minced

-         3/4 cup Spanish onion, minced

-         6 baby carrots, chopped

-         3 oz. spinach, rinsed and ripped

-         1 heaping tsp. dried basil

-         1 heaping tsp. dried rosemary, crushed

-         ½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

-         ½ tsp. dried oregano flakes

-         ½ tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed

-    2 pinches of cayenne pepper

-         salt and pepper, to taste 

-    salted flour, for dusting venison

Instructions:

1. Cut venison into bite-sized pieces. Roll the pieces in the salted flour until evenly and lightly covered.
2. Heat a large pan on medium-high heat and spray with cooking spray. Add venison when pan is heated and sear for about fifteen minutes until all the sides of the venison are browned.
3. Transfer the meat to the slow cooker – don’t discard drippings. Add onion to the pan & season with salt and pepper. Cook for about five minutes, then add carrots and garlic. Cook for several more minutes, stirring. Add to the slow cooker.
4. Add stock, tomato sauce, tomatoes and spices to the slow cooker.
5. Cover and cook on high for 4 ½ to 6 hours or 8 to 10 hours on low.
6. When there is 30 minutes of cooking time left, add the beans to the slow cooker.
7. When there is 15 minutes of cooking time left, prepare the pasta in salted water according to instructions. When pasta is cooked, add it to the slow cooker along with the spinach (add spinach gradually). Stir for several minutes until all ingredients are evenly incorporated and spinach is wilted. 

SO YUM.

Note: This isn't our minestrone, but it sure looks like it!

The Stanhope House

So we played the first "Free-for-all" Sunday at the Stanhope House in (you guessed it!) beautiful Stanhope, Nj. If you don't know where that is, I don't blame you, it's right around the intersection of 206, 46, 80 aaannnndd 287.  I had played there a few time while Matt "fat" Angus was running it into the ground with Brian Molnar & the Naked Hearts (look you got a plug!), but it's currently under new management and is definitley better than ever. I knew the place was old but it's actually 220 years old (that means 1790 it was est.), and I got a quick history from our friend Adam. It was a brothel, it's haunted and Babe Ruth drank whiskey in the basement during Prohibition (they even found some hundred year old bottles of whiskey but i guess they weren't what you would call 'drinkable'), how cool is that!?

We started off with 25cent wings, which were smothered in homemade bbq/buffalo sauce, cooked and then smoked! I would say they were brilliant. I washed em down with a Railbender Ale from Eerie brewing company, one solid, dark, full bodied ale.

 We played for about 40 minutes, no one was really there but here's the setlist anyway^

After us Mike Ambrose's band, Les Trois Chaud, played for about the same and played a killer Belle & Sebastian cover! My pictures are terrible but take a look!

Then a group played two songs about pirates, then Mike, Colleen (from Les Trois Chaud), and myself played some blues with a dude on trumpet (I'm sorry I forgot your name!). After that a band from New Brunswick called The Grains played. They had a cool 90's rock n' roll feel to em and did the hell out of 'White man in Hammersmith Palias' by The Clash.  Turns out the singer had played with my old band 'Where's Alaska?' when he was in a band called 'Broom vs. Combine' and after talking to him it turned out that his first show ever was also with 'Where's Alaska?' at the Crossroads in Garwood, Nj, how wierd is that?

 They were also lucky enough to have additional help from our drunk-ass pirate song writing friend:

One of my favorite things there was a SIGNED portrait of Pinetop Perkins in the men's bathroom, and if you don't know who that is look him up or take a blues & rock history class.

We had a blast and it looks like we'll be back there Wednesday, Feb. 16th to play on Al's bday! Hope to see ya there!
-Daver

<3 daver

today we finished our recording of "meet me in montana" with trev @ country livin' studios and i meant to take pictures but oops...i forgot... so instead here are pics of the snow storm!

Slow Cooker Success!

So today, Dave and I had our first experience with a slow cooker - AND WE ROCKED IT.
Want a recipe for some delicious turkey chili?
It's your lucky day, cause here it is!

Snowbirds Turkey Slow Cooker Chili (adapted from Southern Living and Laura's version):

Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 lbs. 94% fat free ground turkey
- 1 large yellow onion and 1 small red onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 red and 1 green pepper, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups canned corn (12 oz.), drained
- 1 large green hot peppers, seeded and minced
- 1 (28 oz.) can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 (15.5 oz.) can of black beans, rinsed and drains
-1 (8 oz.) can of tomato sauce
- 2 heaping tablespoons chili powder
- 1 heaping teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 heaping teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 pinch allspice
- 3 pinches cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper, to taste

1. Cook first three ingredients in large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring until turkey crumbles and is no longer pink. Drain.
2. Spoon mixture into slow cooker. Stir in corn and all other ingredients until well-blended.
3. Cook on high for about 4 hours and then on low 1 hour.

Serve with sour cream, shredded cheddar jack cheese, cornbread and WINE!
I wanted to upload a picture, but apparently I have absolutely no memory left on my computer. Bummerville. But, here is a picture of Snowbirds on NYE with a looming Boba Fett in the background.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Perry!

Enjoy your weekends, guys!

out of my bedroom window...

a beautiful day just to sit and watch the snow fall in the most peculiar of ways, and...

yes. if you can't read it, that's alligator jerky, bitches! today's gonna be a good day...

Our first post!

Hello out there!

Dave and I - I being Alex - have decided to create a blog for our musical project, Snowbirds. This comes on the heels of creating a Yotube Channel for ourselves, where you can view all our music videos (using the term loosely, of course). This blog isn't going to be just about our music, though surely that will be a big part of it. Here is where we will post links to new songs, videos, events like shows and open mic nights, and the like. We have other interests too, it's true! Dave is quite a whiz at brewing beer up at High Point Brewery (yes, I said "whiz" - I am an old soul!) and has a strong interest and knowledge of beers and craft brews. We like to go to gastropubs often to test out new brews, so you'll be undoubtedly be hearing about a bit of that! Also, I love to shop, cook, gossip, and BAKE. We will also be posting about recipes I've tried out (with Dave as my lovable guinea pig) and quite possibly clothes I am drooling over, much to the dismay of poor Dave. And of course we love music, so we will be posting about our current musical obsessions, be it songs from 40 years ago or bands we have just laid ears on. Anywho, this is just a brief introduction to our new blog, so if you love music and musings on life, love, beer, baking and other random ramblings, then please keep reading!

XO

photo courtesy of the lovely amber byrne mahoney @ liveitout photography