Etiquette: Chopsticks

I just took down a post of this picture from another social media platform because I had offended viewers.                

Of course I googled more on the why. It is only custom at funerals to stand chopsticks vertically in a bowl of food only for the deceased whereas in other areas of China like Wuhan, it’s okay especially if there are no chopstick rests. I truly did not mean disrespect and will remember this lesson.

Cooking: Steak Torta

The PTSO let us order meals from a local Mexican restaurant, and I chose a Steak Torta. It was not what I expected. Steak Milanese? I thought it would be like a carne asada sandwich though I did like the onions and chiles as an additional filling. I guess I was expecting something like the mollettes or open faced breakfast sandwiches I used to eat at Rick Bayless’s Frontera restaurant at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. I love a savory meal at the beginning of the day that doesn’t always include eggs.            

And so I had the other half for lunch the next day, but I couldn’t settle for more bland. A slice of pepper Jack and chipotle Mayo and sprinkles of chopped cilantro turned it into a much better grilled sandwich. And so one of these evenings I’m making this Torta with leftover steak but much better than we could get at a restaurant.

Ceramics: Coleman Porcelain Vase

I was a bit disappointed by this bud vase made out of Cone 10 porcelain. I wanted that lavender blue bloom that was on a pendant with the same glaze.

However, Zan says the pot likely didn’t mature to cone in explanation of why the colors aren't more vibrant (I remember there were a few times that day where the temperature didn’t get hot enough). And so I’m leaving my vase behind to fire again. I’m so glad however that I mixed that Coleman Red glaze.

Ceramics: Jewelry Dishes and Pendants

From the cone 10 firing last week, I am super happy with the jewelry plates I made for the grandnieces. The jewelry pendants are rather plain, and so I'm thinking of embellishing them with decals. As for the glass inlay plates, they're either gonna be coasters or end up on my dresser to hold jewelry.

Below is what I had hoped for from the Coleman Red glaze I mixed--with that lavender "bloom"--and so I can't wait to loop with a leather cord. Such a sweet little pendant.

I am so in love with these jewelry pendants that I put glass into its recess. One has the Coleman red on the edge, and the other two have Blue Celadon and Rutile on the edges.

And so today I'm gonna reclaim the dry frost porcelain I have to wedge this afternoon and make some more jewelry pendants.

Ceramics: Art Supplies Vessels

At the second firing of my frost vessels, three of them cracked . Oh well. These three that survived will hold my colored pencils, pencils, pens, Sharpies, and Micron pens.

I was going to adhere an iron oxide decal on each these vases, but I rather like them as is. They need no embellishment. I'll be sad to part with the containers that were my dad's bowling and U.S. Coast Guard retirement mug which are holding my supplies now, but I will thank them for reminding me of my dad because I think I can now remember him without those objects. Because I've got no more frost porcelain, I'm gonna roll out slabs of Bmix for this Saturday. Mark. Paint. Cut. Again.

Cooking: Saturday Salmon Night

Leftover pasta with English peas and blanched and buttered sugar snap peas were in the fridge along with salmon I bought on sale the day before and frozen corn in the freezer.                    

I'd love to cook fish again tonight. A Chilean sea bass steamed in soy sauce and sesame oil and then topped with grated ginger and garlic and sizzling oil and then garnished with chopped scallions and cilantro. But no. Hubs said not fish again, and so I'm making him cook the rib eye steaks he wants tonight.
 

Cooking: Herb Baked Eggs

Some mornings get so busy that I forget to eat breakfast, but I was wanting to eat the sourdough rye that Cecilia gave me, and so I harvested rosemary and thyme and microplaned a bit of garlic into a pat of butter and heavy whipping cream in a gratin dish I found at the Goodwill. Then I heated the mixture in a 400 degree oven until bubbly and toasted the bread. And then I cracked not just one egg, but two eggs and sprinkled pecorino Romano and maybe baked for a minute too long because they were custard rather than runny. But that was yesterday, and here's today's eggs.  

And Sunday morning I cooked them again.

And this morning, I ate two more. And so, I'm over eggs for a little while.

Cooking and Clay: Cone 10 or Gas Kiln Firing

I thought I was gonna make a bunch of coupe plates from the bag of Coleman porcelain I bought at Clay Planet, but was stupidly not aware of the timeline. I made one plate that’s warped though maybe it’ll come out flat from the final firing. And so last minute before the bisque firing of the Cone 10 greenware, I made a mug, a bud vase, and jewelry trinkets.                                     

I forgot to borrow Meral's cobalt oxide, and she was away camping. I knew I wouldn't have been able to find that jar in her studio, and so I settled for the blue underglazes I had on hand.

I borrowed Zan's electric blue, but it didn't differ that much from my medium blue. I really need to get a marine blue underglaze the next time I'm at a ceramic store. At ceramics club on Wednesday, I was persuaded to mix up a Coleman Red glaze. We didn't have enough Gerstley Borate, but Zan was able to borrow it from the Skyline College ceramics program. 

I am so worried that I doubled the portion of the EPK or Edgar Plastic Kaolin. I am hoping it will look more like Flambe rather than Coleman Red.

But I went ahead and glazed my bud vase with the glaze I mixed plus Celadon Blue and left part of the shoulder of unglazed because I do like the look of raw fired Coleman porcelain.

Whew was that a long day after running around a lot in my library, and so I made a taco salad when I got home. A literal taco salad as in I had leftover chicken enchilada and cheddar tacos and leftover frijoles, which I put atop a bed of chopped lettuce, guacamole, sour cream and verde salsa.

I had made the ceramic dishes and pendants on a Saturday to be ready for a bisque fire on Monday. I wanted to layer shards of glass in the jewelry plates and in the recesses of the pendants. I think I glazed the flat pendants in the new Coleman Red as well as Blue Celadon which I had also rimmed some flat round jewelry dishes also to be layered with glass. For the grandnieces flower jewelry dishes I merely inscribed with text of their names which I under glazed in black velvet and then dipped in clear gloss. 

Maybe I'll string the flower pendants on a leather thong or even make some other pendants with frost porcelain--I plan on getting another bag. And then it was Friday! The day of firing up the gas kiln. 

I knew Zan was going in early to start that Cone 10 fire, and so I had baked her spanakopita the night before to give her breakfast. The day before, she loaded the gas kiln.

She said not to post a pic of the gas kiln as she said it was such a bad load--too much space above some of the ceramic pieces. Work was so busy, and so I popped in only on the morning. I barely had time to eat my lunch of broccoli cheddar soup and managed to push out the cart of brand new summer books for a teen read program at the local public library.

I stopped at the supermarket to buy salmon to grill for dinner and put on top of leftover pea puree, but I so wanted sushi.

I also made a tangerine margarita. Whew, it was a busy but fun clay and cooking week though I'm still looking forward to clay on this Saturday morning. I saw this pic of these beautiful quilted potholders, which I plan to sew--but check out the speckled clay bowl and those triangles!

Definite inspo for Saturday Clay.

I had intended to make Chicken Flautas for Cinco de Mayo, and we're already now halfway into May. I had bought flour tortillas and was gonna use up leftover rotisserie chicken I doused in enchilada sauce. I forgot until a neighbor recently returned from Pismo Beach saying she had the best flautas.

She also said a filled fried rolled tortillas is called a flauta if it’s a flour tortilla and called a taquito if it’s a corn tortilla. I served the chicken flautas as if we were in a Mexican restaurant with guacamole, sour cream, and salsa atop a bed of lettuce. I made myself a blood orange margarita to sip with dinner. Muy deliciozo!

Gardening and Foraging

I've been coming home to some gorgeous bouquets. Hubs has been watching regularly J Schwanke’s Life in Bloom as well as P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home on PBS. 

I love those two shows for giving home florists permission to improvise. However, I definitely see in hubs' bouquets the six Principles of Design: Balance, Contrast, Dominance, Proportion, Scale and Rhythm.

Cooking: Pea Purée with Scallops and Shrimp

I'd been wanting to get cheffy and change up my rotation. When I saw a pea purée recipe in Food and Wine, I cooked the English peas that were leftover from my pasta dish last week along with the shrimp and scallops I picked up from the fish counter.

Get your mise en place on, and you're all set. Season the scallops and shrimp and then make the pea purée which you can make an hour ahead of time. Boil fresh peas in salted water for 4 minutes, 2 minutes if the peas are frozen. Then pulverize the peas with a tablespoon of mint, a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese, a clove of garlic and lemon zest. Reserve some of the boiling salted water to thin the purée to your liking. I then ladled the pea purée onto pasta bowls, ready for final plating and headed to the neighbors with my glass of Chardonnay until it was time to cook dinner.

Cooking takes just a few minutes after all the prep. Sear the seafood: 2 minutes per side of the scallops and a minute per side of the shrimp (they were pretty petite). And since the pea purée was already plated, I zapped it in the microwave for 15 seconds at a time while the fish was grilling. There was some pan juice from the scallops and shrimp to which I added a dab of butter and a few squeezes of lemon which I simmered and reduced before spooning over the seafood. I also had blanched the sugar snap peas (also leftover from my pasta dish) and tossed while hot in butter.

Beautiful right? I even impressed myself and fancied myself as able as any professional chef. But shoot I forgot to garnish so as to let a diner know what’s in the dinner.

And so I sprinkled lemon zest and baby mint leaves on my dish, which had double the portions of hubs' dish because I was hungry. There is still some leftover pea purée and sugar snap peas, which will turn into a later dinner on which I need to figure out what kind of protein to put on top. Salmon I think, which I can pick up from the Japanese supermarket down the street.

Cooking: Denver O’Brien or Breakfast for Dinner

I said I'd been craving poached eggs ever since an Eggs Benedict breakfast, but this time I needed to get dinner on the table. And I've gotten better at poaching eggs. Why only two? Because hubs has a smaller appetite, but there will be enough leftover for me to eat for dinner another night by poaching another egg.                          

One of the few breakfast for dinner meals that even hubs likes. 

Now that I've gotten poached eggs down, I'd like to make a Frisée aux Lardons.

Ceramics and Work Week in Review: Kiln Loading & Unloading and Leftovers

This past week has been such a blur. Zan had fired all the greenware, which I unloaded Monday. So much wealth. And when faced with all that plenitude in the past, I would rush and take it all in and glaze in a rush and sloppily. I boxed all my pieces up and vowed to take my time before their second firing.

In the meantime, idiot that I am, I had not worked on making any pieces for the Cone 10 firing of the school year beside making this Coleman porcelain plate.

It's warped, and I'm not gonna bisque it. Aargh. It's okay I'll dry and crumble it into a plastic container before putting it in the bag of the rest of my cone 10 porcelain.And then it was home for dinner and no time really to cook except for a husband asking what's for dinner. A scrap of gruyere and thawed Christmas ham to grill into sandwiches and a tub of tomato basil soup which the hubs finds too spicy and into which I pureed a can of stewed tomatoes with the addition of some additional cream--dinner done.

And Tuesday was a complete blur of more unloading the kiln some more. And I was reminded that the next day was Ceramics Club. While my colleague, Demian was on the wheel after not doing it for years, throwing a bi cylinder. I stayed in my safety zone and hand built my usual sea mug and a bud vase out of the Coleman porcelain.

And I was reminded that I promised Zan that I would go to the art show of our high school students at a downtown gallery in the school's city. And so I went.

And glad I'm did. Oh how I have missed looking at people's creative outputs. I've always liked art with political meaning, and there were quite a few produced in this pandemic. There were also a few produced by students I'm advising on their IB research paper, and one of my favorite people on campus took photos in Chinatown in honor of AAPI month, which turned out to be my favorite.

And of course, she produced one of my favorite pieces of the late afternoon. Which I bought! So charming.

Before I left, one of the students dropped off her acrylic canvas which I loved. I was also inspired by the vase I saw in the window of one of Zan's ceramics students.

And I got home later than usual.

And so leftovers again, but I like it.