clay: brown dinnerware

Yesterday after my professional development, I went straight to the ceramics classroom. Since it was 3 o'clock when I got there, I built for 3 hours, which is double the amount of time I usually get after school. Zan's texture example was on one of the tables. So cool. I once created a texture tile with dried pasta in her classroom and even went so far as to underglaze and overglaze it. It got stolen. That's how cool the design was. Oh well. I'd like to make a pot with texture from dried pasta again, but using popsicle sticks to texturize is neat also.     

And I saw cleaning tools on Zan's whiteboard list, and so I had to relocate these clay tools to their respective homes before using the slab roller.

While I worked on making 4 of these slab plates, Kacie threw a pitcher, 2 mugs and a pot. I love the shapes of her pots, and yes someday I will learn to throw on the wheel.

 

But yay! I got 3 times more plates than I usually make in the ceramics classroom. I'm going to ponder what glaze to use on these Electric Brown clay bodies. Maybe I don't want to dip them in Colonial White. I really need to make some test pots today after work.

I was noticing a lot of dirty clay tools, and so gave them all a good dunk in a bucket of water and additional rinsing.

I figure it's the least I can do in appreciation of having this beautiful space to handbuild.

mark making: thumbnail sketches

Have I mentioned that I'm an art student? I know! I am tickled pink at being a student and really enjoy the work. I was saying in the class introduction forum that I am absolutely intimidated by a blank white page, and so drawing the thumbnail sketches was a bit of a struggle. However, I'm starting to draw as a daily practice. Yesterday at my professional development for work, I was doodling in between notetaking. 

I'd been pondering putting pen or pencil to paper all week and started sketching (and erasing) on Saturday. And it's only dealing with point and line in my Art 300 or 2 Dimensional Design course so far, but I FINISHED the first assignment. Not perfect but done just like in quilting. Sunday was overcast and therefore perfect lighting for photographing my sketches to upload to the course platform. I did forget to use the Snapseed app on my phone and must remember for the submission of subsequent assignments to fix the photos with the app. The room that gets the most light is my kitchen, and so I had to clear the plants on the windowsill in order to not have shadows cast on the photos. And hey! My orchid that I traded at the arboretum society for some ceramic planters I made is blooming!

Okay ignore the mess that is in my atrium. 

The first assignment was to sketch horizontal and vertical lines.

The instructor told us to study previous student examples carefully in order to not deviate from the constraints of the assignment. I like constraints, but I kind of didn't want to see other examples so as not to copy or emulate. There was an example that I noticed look like a plaid. I felt like a copycat in that respect, but I do like plaids and am feeling that this assignment could turn into a quilt pattern. I also like hatch marks that I've seen on some pottery surfaces, and so that's another possible final painting. But what I'm liking now about the 4th sketch above is the illusion of depth or a vanishing point--it looks like a hallway leading to a door, and that might be my main assignment on horizontal and vertical lines variation. Only in the final collage, I won't place any lines in the door--just a dot to suggest a doorknob.

Sketching diagonal lines on to a page was a lot more fun.

I'm really fond of the diagonal lines crisscrossing in the shape of a circle. The instructor specifically said we're not to cut out shapes from the painted sheets--only lines. But this variation is an opportunity to make hatch marks, and crosses are one of my favorite things now in modern quilting. But again I'm fond of the first diagonal line sketch, and maybe I want the main assignment for the diagonal lines variation to be suggestive of a ball of yarn, and I want most of the negative space to be surrounding the orb.

Ah! The curved line. My favorite because I love a Hokusai print, and of late, become a fan of Chiura Obata's California landscapes. I love Obata's Japanese aesthetic and that intersection of abstraction and realism in his art

You can see in my first thumbnail (going left to right and then down) that influence from quilting or that free motion meandering stitch I tried to master from the first time I ever used a long arm machine. And I can see in my second thumbnail, using the orb again for negative space within rather than outside of it. And ugh! I really need to practice making curves look more graceful and sinuous. Our instructor had included in one of his modules, a page from Hamonshu: a Japanese Book of Wave and Ripple Designs (1903). If I'm going to sketch every day by copying, then I need to practice there.

The last 4 thumbnails I sketched were probably where I was able to get looser and more improvisational, probably because I was warmed up from drawing so many different lines. Patrick said he liked the first of these. I'm pondering whether to compose an abstract landscape with sun (hatched curved lines), clouds (concentric curved lines), sky (horizontal lines), rain (hatched vertical lines), mountains (diagonal lines), terrain (more horizontal lines but with end points and of many different lengths, and ocean waves (curved lines, of course). 

And because Patrick is drawn to the first thumbnail sketch, I'm too finding it more visually appealing, mostly because I'm liking how much more graceful my linework is in that sketch than other curved lines I've drawn so far. What's going to be challenging to execute this pattern in a main assignment is drawing and cutting the Japanese waves and ripples before laying them down for gluing on to a white background page. Thick and thin lines, and thin lines are going to be a lot more arduous to cut. I'd also better start practice like right NOW to draw those almost-spirals as well as painting paper to have lines to cut out.

cook: avgolemono

Greek egg lemon chicken rice soup was something I cooked a lot in my 20s, and I think I first tried it at the restaurant La Mediterranee in San Francisco. However, I don’t always cook a lot of soup because I assume that Patrick doesn’t consider soup a proper dinner. However, I saw a recipe online for avgolemono with all the usual ingredients except this one subbed out orzo for rice and added dill. And I happened to have ALL the ingredients of the recipe, even the dill which usually perishes in my fridge before I can use up all the herb.  

Per the recipe, I sautéed the shallot for 2 minutes and then the garlic for a minute, but that was not long enough to soften the aromatics. They were still firm to the teeth when I poured in the chicken bone broth. Also half a quart didn't seem enough, and so I added another quart, which used up all the bone broth in the fridge.

 

Hubs had a meeting at 6:30, and so I needed to get dinner done pronto.

And I quite liked how the soup turned out, and Patrick told me he never had eaten a soup with lemon but that it was good. Okay I'll take it. And it's leftover for this week with the addition of some more chicken thighs that I had overcooked last night. I'm thinking too that I could cook a couple enchiladas with that chicken for Patrick who is not gonna be able to eat my Dan Dan noodles this week as I plan to make them very spicy.

cook: meal prep for the week

Tis Sunday, a day for cooking for the rest of the week. I soaked pinto beans and boiled them with a pork rib bone and some onion ends and a few cloves of garlic plus 3 eggs in their shell, which I removed 10 minutes later to either make into egg salad or for snacking with hot sauce. My morning also was spent slicing and julienning a daikon radish and baby carrots for a pickle to add to some kind of Vietnamese dish. And then I left for swimming.

 

My condo was redolent from the beans when I returned to my kitchen. I decided I was going to cook some of the beans into chili in order to use up ingredients in my fridge: pancetta, half a shallot, and the remains of tomato paste. And I had to cook the pinto beans in lard and add some chipotle pepper to them. I used that moment to chop up the chipotle peppers as I'm more apt to use them if I can just spoon them in bits in their adobo sauce.

And while I was at it, I needed to roast chicken thighs for Sadie's protein to go with her kibble.

And then I got caught up in cooking chili and completing an art assignment and forgot about the chicken in the very hot oven. I pulled them before they burned to a crisp. Yikes. Oh well. Sadie won't notice, and I can add the thighs to the rest of the Greek egg lemon soup that is leftover in the fridge. I did manage to finish pickling the daikon and carrot pickle for bahn mi sandwiches if I ever get to prepping the pork belly that's also in my fridge. I also bought a package of kalbi or Korean beef and a jar of kimchi last week at Costco, and so decided to make a banchan of the bean sprouts to go with them.

And dang it, I've a lot of protein in my fridge. There's ground pork I had intended to make into an instant Dan Dan mixture as well as ground beef I didn't use in the chili for dinner to turn into hamburgers for the brioche buns I bought yesterday after clay class. And yikes I had bought on a previous Costco run, porchetta. I had tried to invite Rosanne and her family to dinner, but she had to return home to San Francisco. Our dining table is no longer able to host guests for meals because it's turned into our greenhouse to grow tomato seedlings, and so I'll put the Italian pork roast (it's already cooked and merely needs to be broiled to crisp the fat) in the freezer to reheat and serve later maybe for Easter. Hamburgers will be easy, and I'll prepare the ground pork for my Sichuan meal later this week when I've a night free from working out.

cook + clay: bao buns + a trophy

Yesterday I finally got some lap swim into my schedule, and since I was at the community college, I stopped at the farmers market. And the Chairman Bao food truck was there! This time I chose the Spicy Chicken (toasted sesame puree, panchan pickled carrots and cucumber, cilantro) and Miso Tofu (tofu mayo--making it vegan--and baby choy sum).                    

 

I know I can re-make these! They were delicious, but I think I can make them even tastier. And because I brought the Pork Belly and the Coca Cola Pork bao buns to her, Cecilia made me a decaf oat milk latte to which I, of course, added almond syrup and almond extract.

While at Saturday clay, I managed to sandpaper my butter box and put it on the greenware shelf for firing; glazed two pots with gloss white--a planter and a cup; and painted underglaze on a greenware cup; rolled out reclaimed white slabs and impressed them with ocean waves--they'll be leather hard next Saturday for building into cups. Before all that, I impulsively started AND FINISHED building a trophy. 

The shape of the body of the pot to me conveys exasperated triumph; the handles look like arms on the hips. The greenware trophy is giving me more ideas for more trophies: YOU TRIED (AND THAT IS OKAY); PICKED MY BATTLES/KUDOS; DEALT WITH IT/1ST PRIZE; GAVE MY LAST FUCK/HONORABLE MENTION; PURE AWESOMENESS/CHAMPION. Okay these aren't my ideas but were adapted from bravery enamel pins designed by Emily McDowell.

cook + book: asian cuisine, sketching, bookmaking, and slow sewing

My week started with a lovely Sunday longsilog of longaniza, rice with spicy vinegar, and a fried egg (and the key to a perfectly fried egg with firm whites and runny yolk is to put a lid over the frying pan while cooking).

 

Nothing like a Filipino breakfast to start a week of yummy Asian meals.

It was a busy and hectic week where I had no time for clay club after school neither Tuesday nor Thursday because of teaching and hosting slow sewcial night. And art school. Okay I'm just a beginning art major enrolled in one class at community college, but still. I saw the instruction to not sketch in our Bristol or mixed media pad, and instead sketch on less expensive paper. Rather than buy a sketch book at Michaels or Hobby Lobby, I decided to make my own chap books to bind later with needle and thread into volumes. One type of homemade book will be my notebook and sketches for my 2-Design class, and the other my pottery journal.

What I learned at Arrowmont in a book binding workshop 3 years ago is coming back to me.

I also organized my linens of the top of a hall closet after Patrick destroyed its bottom that housed his tools. I've a collection of linen and cotton napkins, which I ironed as I was fuming over the destruction wreaked by my husband. We argued and then apologized to each other and have resolved to buy a cabinet from IKEA to replace the ghetto-looking cabinet.

I love that these napkins feature botanical drawings, but one is missing. Aaargh.  

 

At least this set is complete.

And so I want to make 3 more vegetable-themed linen lunch napkins to coordinate with them. 

Then I had to attend to tasks like gassing up my car and grocery shopping. 

 

And one fabulous Japanese dinner before social sewing of wasabi poke, miso-dressed salad and kimchi--all thanks to Costco.

I was late to the club house because of my poke dinner, but I did manage to do a little stitching on this lockdown embroidery sampler.

And the finale to my work week was a night out with Cecilia and Chia to Seapot. I'd never eaten before at a hotpot restaurant. First we went to the condiments bar where I loaded up on dipping sauces of chili oil, Sichuan peppercorns, chopped garlic and and a dish of soy and peanut pastes with scallions and cilantro. Where Cecilia and Chia chose miso broth, I chose the spicy house soup with red chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and other spices. 

 

My soup was a bit too spicy that I was coughing. I was almost gonna ask for sugar to temper the heat. Luckily there was sweet Chinese sausage plus all the green vegetables to tame the fieriness.

The conveyor belts slid by with other proteins, mostly seafood besides the small platters of lamb we all chose. Cecilia grabbed prawns (delicious!) and miniature-lobster (spiny?) tails (not my favorite because the shell was very difficult to peel for meat that was not worth the reward). The octopus was also not my favorite, and I wished I had gone for fish and calamari instead. Lotus root was also not a favorite, but I had 3 plates of some green leafy vegetable (not gai lan because the stem was more tender) including baby bok choi. I loved also the fish balls and the dumplings.

  

Besides lamb, the other protein choices included chicken breast, pork belly, kurobuto pork, beef toro, rib eye, and Angus prime.

I left my first thinly sliced lamb too long in the boiling broth and almost couldn't find it. Still delicious even when overdone. You can see in the pic above how much it shrank.

  

But omigosh I wanted to and did try almost everything on that conveyor belt though I did pass on the spam, tofu and desserts of fruit and cake slices. I could not believe all the different kinds of mushrooms--shitake, enoki, woodear, maitake, oyster and couple of other fungi I didn't recognize. And shellfish galore like razor clams, mussels, manila clams, scallops, and sea snails. The restaurant adds 10% to your bill if you leave behind a lot of unfinished plates and to prevent food waste. I wanted to finish my spinach noodles I really did, but my broth was pretty much gone and too salty to finish cooking them. And my soup pot couldn’t be refilled because our 90 minutes were up (we were there for an hour and forty minutes) and there were diners waiting for an available table. So fun. I would totally do hot pot again.

cook: bao buns

Last night I kicked off cooking practice for the lunar new year with Chinese-style bao buns because the readymade buns from the Asian supermarket are Chinese, but the pickle is Danmuji or Korean Pickled Daikon Radish and the salad more American slaw than Asian while the Charsiu pork seems a mashup of whatever flavors I think go into Chinese barbecued meat minus the red food coloring. It started over the weekend by making a pickling brine of water, unseasoned rice vinegar, sugar, kosher salt (next time just use seasoned vinegar), cloves of garlic sliced lengthwise, turmeric, peppercorns, bay leaves and sliced daikon radish.                  

I sliced the pork shoulder off rib bone and cut into chunks and concocted a marinade. I did not have Chinese 5-spice powder, and so I ground in a mortar and pestle: star anise, clove, Sichuan peppercorns, fennel and sprinkled cinnamon into the mixture. 

I had simmered the pickling liquid to dissolve the sugar and salt and then let it cool a bit before adding the sliced daikon. I put into a bowl: sugar, salt, my 5-spice powder, and I forgot to add white pepper, sesame oil, Shaoxing rice wine (which was fermenting in the bottle, and so I used a teaspoon and tossed the rest out), hoisin sauce, soy sauce, hot honey, and finely minced garlic. I just read that I can substitute for the Chinese cooking wine, dry sherry and mirin. Good to know. But the marinade looked and smelled like Chinese bbq sauce, and so I put the pork shoulder into the bowl to tenderize and absorb the flavors.

Into the refrigerator the ingredients went until weeknight cooking.

On Monday evening I looked at the instructions for the Mantou or Chinese burger buns. Oh hey. I could just microwave them.

But I jimmied my colander into a stockpot and cut parchment paper for the bottoms of the bun, so they wouldn't get soggy as I steamed them. While the pork was roasting in the oven (I put the excess marinade into a simmer pot and laid the pork atop a baking rack atop the baking sheet filled halfway to the rim with water so the drippings wouldn't burn in a 475 degree oven, later turned down to 375 after 10 minutes), I made a Savoy cabbage salad from a Martha Stewart recipe. I riffed of course. I sliced the cabbage thinly, chopped cilantro and green onion, and then put into a bowl: seasoned rice vinegar, sugar, lime juice and a bit of Kewpie mayonnaise. The mayo was my addition, and I omitted matchstick chopped carrots.

And then I set up dinner as a bao bar, and it's giving me ideas of bao bar dinners for a small group in the future.

OH yeah. I don't have to just resort to the Chairman Bao food truck for this fix because really you can put anything you can imagine into a Chinese slider.