Only the Tastiest of Clams for Sister Leah

What a productive day Ruth and I had today! Which is good, because it dawned on us that starting tomorrow we are going to be playing a lot of concerts over the next 11 days. This is what our schedule looks like for the epic adventure we are about to embark upon:

Thursday, July 12, 7:00 pm, concert

West Hartford, Connecticut

Friday, July 13, 3:00 pm, concert

Waterbury, Connecticut

Saturday, July 14, 3:00 pm, concert

Westport, Connecticut

Sunday, July 15, 3:00 pm, concert

Hartford, Connecticut

Monday, July 16, Drive to Ohio!

Tuesday, July 17, 7:30 pm, concert

Defiance, Ohio

Wednesday, July 18, Drive to Wisconsin!

Thursday, July 19, 1:30 pm, concert

Manitowoc, Wisconsin

Thursday, July 19, approximately 4:00, Drive to Minnesota!

Friday, July 20, 7:00 pm, concert

Richfield (Minneapolis), Minnesota

Saturday, July 21, Drive to Western Iowa! Go to a wedding! Drive to Iowa City!

Sunday, July 22, 3:00 pm, Last concert!

Iowa City, Iowa

Monday, July 23-Thursday, July 27, Relax!

(If you would like locations and/or more information on these concerts, see our tour website at http://www.sorelladuo.info/tour.html)


So, realizing that the beginning of the tour was imminent, the natural next step was to buy sparkly shoes to wear for our concerts. After this most important of tasks, however, we got to work rehearsing and polishing up the most demanding repertoire for the concerts. Here we are, hard at work:

After all this hard work, we rewarded ourselves with an awesomely delicious and wholesome meal. We bought a dozen little neck clams (which I had never heard of, but I just now read about them on this website: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-littleneck-clams.htm) and cooked them in a sauce of chicken broth, beer, garlic, lemon,  parsley, and onion. To accompany these delicious mollusks, we had farmer's market green beans and a salad full of fresh veggies. Here's a picture of our feast:

It may not look as delicious as it was, but, particularly when you are from the Midwest, it doesn't get much better than  fresh seafood in New England. Ruth thought that this batch of clams was the best she had ever made, and I said it was clearly because she knew that only the most delicious of clams were destined for her sister, Leah. I was so delighted by the clams (which were dipped in the sauce and butter) that I wished that we had more than 12. To our delight, we discovered that the grocer had given us a baker's dozen! So I got to have one last clam that was the tastiest of all.

After our super satisfying dinner, Ruth's friend Sarah came over to hear us play through the Martinu duo. She was nice enough to be our test audience and give us some very helpful feedback. Now we're just tying up some loose ends and then we're off to bed to get our beauty sleep before our first concert tomorrow! We've got to look well-rested and pretty so that we match our sparkly shoes!


Wish us good luck as we start our concerts tomorrow! Hope to see many of you somewhere along the journey! (Don't worry, if you can't come, I'll let you know how the concerts go here on the blog).