How Much Longer Will the Pandemic Continue? And the Prospect of Travel

Yesterday after clay, I went to a medical center to get my first shot of the Moderna vaccine. I had been telling my clay mate, Meral that I was feeling anxious about the re-opening of schools and everything else and of having to readjust socially. As an introvert, I relished not having to leave home when the world shut down last year though later the unintended consequences of the closures of art museums and the community pottery studio and outdoor recreation spaces was a regret. I also like being shrouded by a mask and not having to respond all the time with facial expressions. Therefore with all the announcements of society opening back up, instead of relief and happiness, I was feeling nervous and a bit depressed. I had settled into and liked the break from work in March and going on all day walks and making art after the initial shock, fear and sadness accompanied by lots of wine and Netflix. And going back to my workplace was not a big deal as the campus is largely deserted. I also confessed to my pottery partners yesterday that I wished I had accomplished more and that wine and Netflix hadn’t been so dominant in this pandemic. However, I know my social anxiety is a first world problem. I am immensely grateful to have remained employed and that I had the luxury to be bored. I need to retain that gratitude as life gets more hectic with the reopening of my school.  

Once I got that CDC card in hand, I got hopeful once I realized I could resume traveling. I could book a trip for maybe this summer and present this card to airlines and hotels. I could go see my family once they're vaccinated too. I had even avoided road trips during this pandemic, and now I can see me and the hubs going to some national parks and scouring other states for retirement.

I had scheduled my vaccination for late afternoon, and it had become too late to cook a proper dinner afterward and decided to run to the store for celebratory food (for me): wine, bread and cheese. And I remembered too the other gourmet cheeses and pate I bought the day before.

Luckily, hubs was okay with leftovers and in fact, declared that spinach pies taste really good with chili con carne.

      

As well as the makings for a kimchi fried rice, I've got a mess of mushrooms and pizza dough as well as the ingredients for lasagna roll-ups. 

On Sunday, I finally cooked the kimchi fried rice.

Pretty darn tasty, and I gave the rest to my neighbor, Cecilia.

However, on that Sunday, I was not feeling great. My left arm was painful from the vaccination shot, my eyeballs felt like they were burning, and I was just feeling out of sorts. I ended up taking a long afternoon nap, and then summoned the energy to cook an Italian American dinner. Before my nap, I soaked lasagna noodles in hot water for 10 minutes and cooked Italian sausage. I rolled the lasagna noodles with spinach and cheese and Italian sausage. I wanted to prevent a mushy, leftover lasagna and thought rolled-up individual portions of lasagna to spoon over marinara later right before cooking would make for better leftovers. I also sliced into a baguette to make garlic bread.

I was also hankering Caesar salad.

I was surprised that hubs garnished his Caesar salad with croutons and shaved Parmesan, which I left out of the dressed salad because I assumed he wouldn't.

However, I wished that I had let the lasagna cook 5 minutes less as the sauce in the bottom of the dish got burned, but hubs said no he liked a well-done lasagna.

And so I regard our old school Italian dinner a success.        

Ceramics: Slab Vases

 

Clay body: sandstone buff

Underglazes: sky blue, yellow, orange, medium blue, white

Aquarelle: There Is No Beginning Too Small

 

Cooking: Reading and Food as Central to Life

Some years ago, hubs got me a Kindle, and I did use it to read until I lost its power cord and didn't replace, but I also continued to read physical books. There's something more appealing about paper, book board, fonts, pictures, illustrations and the heft of hard print in your hands. Before afternoon reading, I got some soaked garbanzos to simmering and then went outside into the hubs’ bonsai garden, poring through all the wonderful hardcover, vegetable-forward or vegetarian cookbooks: the pages were toothy, almost like cardstock, and contained gorgeous photography to go with the mouthwatering recipes and wonderful narratives that mirror the short stories I want in my own existence. 

Of the cookbooks below, Kinfolk Table was my least favorite. The recipes were as insipid as the boring text and photographs showcasing the pretentious AF, social media-tinged lifestyle of a couple of hipsters whom I find soulless. But I did love Ottolenghi's recipes (and was in fact making his recipe for hummus while poring through these cookbook picks). However, his recipes in Flavor seem a bit unattainable to me though it along with his other cook books also puts his restaurant in London on my travel bucket list. Jeremy Fox's On Vegetables was my next favorite, and maybe I'll cook one of his recipes this weekend as I do have Napa cabbage, broccoli, purple cauliflower, radishes and 3 kinds of mushrooms in my fridge. Six Seasons was by far my favorite cook book, and if I decide to get rid of any of the cook books on my shelf now, I would consider owning this one. I'll post pics of the vegetables I do cook from recipes in any of these books.

I had intended to make spanakopita because I have fresh dill and a small chunk of feta in my fridge that I wanted to use up, but I still would have had to make a run for phyllo dough. Nope. I've been running to grocery store even in this pandemic when I lacked an ingredient for a recipe, and I was determined this time to use what I have. I did have puff pastry instead of phyllo in my freezer, and so I scoured the internet for recipes and decided to make spinach hand pies. Took me all afternoon and part of the dinner hour for them to bake. And for the last few minutes, I added a couple skewers of Mediterranean chicken to the sheet pan to complete dinner. 

Hubs does not care for Greek salad (made the day before to use up cucumbers before they went soft and the remains of roasted gold bell pepper) or hummus (which I finished making after cook book reading by whirring it with the last of tahini, a garlic clove, the juice of a Meyer lemon along with cumin, coriander, hot smoked paprika, and salt) and so those viands went onto my plate, along with some Calabrian chili paste and whole milk Greek yogurt. And dagnabit, I forgot to use up the dill in my spinach hand pies.

Hubs did compliment me on his dinner of chicken and spinach pie, and I didn't disclose that his least favorite cheese of feta was in the pie--but I also extended the spinach with ricotta and some leftover grated cheddar cheese. Lots of cheese scraps in my fridge which calls for fromage fort.

Ponderings on Minimalism and a Laid-Back Life

One of my simple joys in this pandemic is the local public library, and I grew up with regular trips to the library because my mother was such a prolific reader and in turn made her children lifelong readers. I'm fortunate that the city I reside in is able to generously fund its library with collections and services that serve so many needs for information. Whereas once I used to purchase and consume books from bookstores and Amazon, I now put a hold on those coffee table books and popular fiction and then get to return them rather than dump them at the Goodwill. This afternoon, I'll be returning the book below that I enjoyed but feel no need to own. And included in this post are my favorite photographs from surfers' cottages, both funky and not.

I like simplicity in decor, but not so Spartan that it's devoid of the personality of its dwellers. For the past couple years, I guess I've been embracing the fad of living with less, which I also reconcile with my want and need for "stuff." I live not far from the coast, but close enough to want oceanic themes in my home. Fewer material possessions has freed my brain from overwhelm, guilt, and the sadness of a consumer culture. I could never reside in a tiny home, but small is beautiful, which the images from these book are so reminiscent of. Having less stuff allows me to pursue a more handmade and happy life by being more conscious and more deliberate in my consumption of material goods. I'm enjoying that clay and cloth are my primary mediums for making while trying to live a more purposeful life.

And I haven't relinquished owning books completely because I still have an overflowing bookcase and stacks of print on my nightstand. My minimalism is more aspirational than achieved because I still have trouble finding the things I need within my home at times. 

And I think the image below is reminiscent on how much I've decluttered my own bedroom and how soothing my sleeping space has become because of that paring down.

The photograph below is a reminder to me on how much I need to tidy my own dining room table.

Below is an image of a bedroom of a small home in Sayulita, Mexico--one of my favorite travel destinations--and inspiration of how to display my own beach hats.

However, I think warmer climes allow for a more casual vibe because a lot of your living happens outdoors as much as indoor. Even here in Northern California, we have chillier temperatures some months of the year that necessitate the storage of things like coats or winter wear.

I'm still in a place of figuring out what I want to keep and I'm not that dogmatic about getting rid of stuff.

Sunday Lazy Sunday

Memories pop up on my Facebook reminders of how glorious the weather can be here in Northern California in February. Whereas last year I was cantering on a horse in sunshine, this year hubs and I basked in that same kind of sunlight when we visited the Filoli Gardens, where I gathered more photo references for some planned watercolors.

At home, I let the dog out and we walked Beresford Park and then came home to continue sunning ourselves next to my flower bed.

I try not to get jealous of the mutual admiration these two have for each other. I know she loves me too.

Then it was time to prepare lunches for the week.

I never think to combine these tuna salad and egg salad into one, and I don't think I ever will. They're so perfect in their own way, whether in a sandwich or on top of some dressed greens.

Cooking and Clay: Red Beans & Rice and Another Bud Vase

Before I left for clay, I boiled presoaked red beans and a smoked turkey wing and drumstick for an hour while I chopped a red onion, 3 celery ribs, and a green bell pepper for a trinity.

In Meral's studio, I glazed a few bowls, experimenting with my new pint of Coyote Oxblood and some drips of Really Red and Red Gold and glazed one bowl in Wrought Iron. They're packed in plastic and ready to transport to the glaze kiln along with a Chinese decal bowl that I glazed with clear and some bunny rocks. And had time enough to make a another sandstone buff bud vase. I botched the bottom, but I'm gonna fire it and see how it turns out.

I am liking these little vases and can't wait to try some different surface techniques that resemble this abstract design and color palette at a slide I saw at a QuiltCon lecture. I should maybe make the pendant as well from this Sandstone Buff clay

I can't ever seem to translate the ideas that fly into my brain fast enough onto cloth or clay, but I hope I remember this inspiration.

Once I got home, I boiled the smoked turkey and beans for another 40 minutes until I noticed that meat was slipping off the bones, and so I emptied the pot of beans into a bowl and shredded the turkey on a cutting board.

I also put the trinity into the pot with some pork and chicken fat to soften and caramelize a bit while chopping garlic.

I then added the garlic to the trinity as well as some seasoning and spice. I also noticed that my mixture was dry and suddenly remembered, oh yeah tomatoes need to go into this dish.

And so I turned down the heat of sautéing vegetables while I chopped about 7 Roma tomatoes. And waited for the tomatoes to break down and add its liquid before finally dumping the chopped turkey and red beans and cooking liquid into the pot of vegetables. I also added some leftover bacon.

And then let the red beans stew until it was time to walk the dog at the park. When we returned, I turned the pot back on and let it simmer. That's how I cook without an electric crock pot.

And while just zoning out and watching t.v., it was then dinner time. I had promised the hubs that I would cook leftover ribeye into steak tacos. I cubed the meat and tossed it in hot smoked paprika, chipotle and Mexican chili powder, Mexican oregano and a little Old Bay. T'was a delicious dinner. And checked and tasted my red beans. It was still pretty liquid and bland, and so I added more Creole seasoning as well as hot smoked paprika and hot sauce and Old Bay and tried not to overdo it so it wouldn't be too salty when it cooked down.

And done. I divided the stewed red beans into two containers: one for me and one for Cecilia and then cut up Andouille chicken sausage and put on top of each stew. I plan on cooking some long grain rice before eating. I've loved my lazy Saturdays and Sundays in this month of February. The weather may be mostly chilly, but there are days here in California when the temperatures climb into a low 70 degrees with lots of sunshine. It's also the season for citrus, my favorite dessert and cooking ingredient.

Chilly February evenings are also made for cozying up in a sweater and reading a novel and burning a scented candle. I want some fond memories to harken back to when this pandemic is over and remember to appreciate that I got to enjoy some downtime.