canoe + clay: stressful week = weekend warrior

I was burned out by my job and menopausal malaise before the Covid pandemic that I almost quit to run away. I also didn’t do much pottery though I was running and not eating a lot. I then came to my senses because my teaching comes with this great promise and perk of a comfortable retirement income if I can do it with some longevity. I've stuck it out. Four years has elapsed, and I’ve since gone through both a full evaluation and an expedited evaluation. I was lucky to realize the need to not muck it up and the need to just suck it up and power through. It’s stress time again, and so I’ve been working out and doing a lot of pottery to offset the anxiety and worry.  I’m still a little sore from this past Saturday’s ocean paddling. 

You can’t see me in this clip because my steers person and coach, Bel is wearing the Go Pro camera on top of her head—that’s Bessie in front of her, and in front of Bess is Gary, and I’m in front of Gary. I’m in the 3rd seat! I’m always in the 5th seat in practices and competition, and so this time I’m behind the iako within the ama, which meant I had to call. Hut! I was shouting at every 13th stroke to which there was the response of hoo! Practice was different, and I loved it. 

I also got busy in the clay studio. One of my former students reached out to me to donate pottery to her reunion fundraiser, and so I hand built this sushi platter. There's an inscription at the bottom, Miss Lapid says hello.                             

And during that stressful last week, I went into Clay Life and made this air plant manse.It was tottering a bit, and so I took it outside yesterday, and ground the bottom on concrete surface, which righted it nicely.

I set the air plant mansion on the greenware shelf for candling, and since I had scraps from the sea platter, I made a sea mug too.

It's got an Isak Dinesen paraphrase about salt water as the cure for anything: sweat, tears, or the sea. Gotta love that ball point stylus for punctuation marking. And because Patrick was laid up from his knee replacement, I went into his garden and harvested all these tomatoes and boiled sauce and made marinara with lots of onion and garlic in order to empty out the fridge a little.

The refrigerator and freezer are over full again because I bought chicken thighs and ground beef and a steelhead trout (it had a styrofoam tray which was the form for my platter), and so the plan this week is to cook chicken karaage and kabocha and sweet potato and eggplant and summer squash (which I'll have to procure from the produce store because the summer garden has none) as well make an instant Dan Dan noodle sauce. I'd also like to go the clay studio and make some text mugs that say, solve the problem; carry on; don't be a rat bastard. Those were things I used to say in my English class that I don't know if my former students will remember. Hopefully all the busyness will temper a very stressful observation and evaluation meeting over the course of the week.

cook: deux petits cochons bahn mi, part trois

I've been making bahn mi for a few years now, and I take lots of shortcuts. I don't bake. The French-Asian baguettes with a crispy flaky rice flour crust can't be baked in the dry air of California, nor do I make my own Vietnamese pork sausage or pate though I do roast pork with Asian ingredients and make the Vietnamese pickle of daikon radish and carrots.  For this weekend's sandwiches, I bought bread and pate.  I’ve been liking Trader Joe’s baguettes which are only 2 bucks a loaf and turn out very crusty when reheated in a 400 degree oven.                                       

And while buying whatever pork is on sale at the supermarket, I picked up my favorite brand of pate, of which there was only one left of the non-country style along with pork loin chops (alas no pork shoulder country ribs).

And so this afternoon when I got home from the grocery store, I rubbed the pork loin chops with Sichuan salt and then poured a garlic and lemongrass marinade before slow baking in a 350 degree oven the next day.                         

Cecilia baked petite baguettes when I told her I was making Vietnamese sandwiches. We made a bahn mi each for us and Patrick and the neighbors, which got rave reviews. Here is the last of these sandwiches I've been eating for weekday dinners. Yes, I like it overloaded with cucumbers, jalapenos and cilantro besides the two porks and do chua and Kewpie mayo and hoisin sauce.

Bonus! I've got leftover pork and pickle for rice noodle bowls, and I made a pork bone broth for noodle soups.

clay: air plant mansions

Last year I admired the shelves Zan built with scraps from her slab plates. And I'd been wanting to make similar ones. I made a white one which fit the one air plant I made, but then ordered more air plants and en masse, they were a lot. I've so far made 2 of what I call their mini manse. For air flow, I started using the mini cookie cutters at the studio to make decorative vent holes. And they're a fun palette on which to test glazes. The one below is my favorite so far.

  

I installed its first "resident" earlier this week. I'm pleased. I like the contrast of the tips of the Tillandsia Red Abdita with the glassy turquoise.

I faced the plant outward to get more sunlight, and so I'm glad I made the shelf vented in order to peek at the plant from the outside.

I hadn't anticipated the darkness of the following combination of the glazes below, but I like it! The green of the air plant contrasts more with its new home.

 

Meral commented that she liked the blobby run of the glazes. Thankfully I didn't not put too much glaze to ruin a kiln shelf.

 

Last night, I finished building one with 3 shelves that can house even more plants. If I've time, I may return to the studio to sand the rough edges, but will be okay with glaze to cover over the clumsy attachments. I also attached lugs so that it can hang. I've already dreams of what glazes would look good on these kinds of shelves. I will probably glaze the big shelf with Coyote Fire Opal.

canoe + clay: huli practice + bowls

I've had weekends of firsts in the past couple months. I paddled in races in the San Francisco Bay, first around Alcatraz and then again around Angel Island. I learned sea kayaking rescue in Richardson Bay in Sausalito, which was very hard, so hard that huli practice in the bay off Coyote Point in my hometown this past Sunday was easy. Or rather easier. 

And I'm hooked on open ocean activities. My friend, Nicole with whom I learned to sea kayak is deciding our next sea kayaking trip. 

I've also spent Sundays in August and September learning to throw. This past weekend, the kiln gods delivered our first efforts at bowls. This one might have been my least favorite. I think I wished I had put my fingers in the glaze bucket and just splashed on the second glaze rather than dip and then drip. It's okay. 

The bowl now contains all the stampers at the library.

I was also meh about this deep blue. Again I'll try the finger splashing the next time I layer on another glaze on to a dark blue.

It's holding rubber bands at the library.

On this next bowl, I had letter pressed, Waiter, there is a fly in my soup, so I knew I wanted glaze with transparency.

It's my favorite bowl, and I can't wait to adhere an iron oxide decal of a fly on it.

I might donate this bowl to the Vallejo High School Class of 2005 Reunion's fundraiser.

This bowl was another favorite of the bunch.

I do love the turquoise glazes.

The Blushing Pink instead of looking pink on top of the Teal Appeal adds a depth that's giving me ocean vibes. I'll repeat these glazes again because there are more bowls to come. I threw 2 plus a vase this past Sunday. 

The other first this past weekend was the first time I ever solved my favorite New York Times puzzle, Letter Boxed.

It was only recently when looking at the "Yesterday" solutions that I knew these puzzles could be solved in 2 words rather than the 6, 5, or 4 words suggested. Such a good end to a very fun weekend.

clay: votive candle holders

I used a template from Sunshine Cobb’s book on hand building, and I like them. In the bisque, I noticed hairline cracks and decided to let glaze ooze into those defects.           

I dithered for a long while on which glazes, and uncharacteristically went with black on one and caramel on the other. And thought it interesting that a blue green glaze just made each dominant glaze just mottled.                 

I like the masculinity of the Black Pearl and the Teal Appeal is more subtle than I had hoped for.              

And I love the warmth of the Goldrush and could not be happier about the toffee color rendered by the Teal Appeal. I may put it on the Friendsgiving table.

cook: chicken al pastor & chicken karaage

I instructed my husband to buy chicken at Costco, and instead of the chicken thighs I was expecting, he brought home chicken breasts. Sigh. I always end up cooking breasts too long and too hot, so that they end up dry. But at least I made my loaded (onions, garlic, jalapeno, tomato, oregano, cilantro)frijoles de la olla to counteract dry, boring chicken. I remember adding those same alliums and herbs and a little cumin and chipotle chilies in adobo sauce as well as orange and lemon and lime juices to the marinating chicken.

 

I also tried to make Mexican rice with leftover rice. No bueno to my palate on this meal, and the only component I enjoyed were the beans.

 

After my underwhelming Mexican dinner, we managed to finish the chicken in burritos. I surveyed next what I wanted to cook to redeem myself of such a lackluster meal. I guess my cooking during a busy workweek has become a lot more streamlined like my skin care: just soap and sunscreen along with my other grocery items. Patrick did remind me that I have 5 kabocha squash that he harvested.

 

I also baked a failed dessert from another online recipe: peach (extra) crisp. I coated the peaches in sugar and let them soak and toasted the oats and brown sugar and corn starch with ground cinnamon and grated ginger.

 

I liked eating the peaches, but not the dry, almost sawdust-like crumb topping. Sigh. At least my lunches have been nutritious and tasty. I've been packing my rogue Niçoise salad. Instead of the authentic salted tomatoes and anchovies and olive oil, I bring a tomato, basil, salt, Kalamata olives, a hard boiled egg, tuna salad, and boiled green beans. Optimally nutritious. I've red potatoes that Patrick recently harvested too, and I should boil them and make an aioli to dip them in for my no lettuce salad.

Once again I brought out chicken breasts from the freezer to thaw, but this time, I'm gonna cook it Japanese style. I've a recipe for the chicken breast. I've a recipe for the tempura-battered vegetables, which will be kabocha, sweet potato, and zucchini.

clay: candy bowl

I had just enough B3 Brown to make a small bowl, a clay body that mid fires to black rather than brown, and so used a glaze that I hoped would make the bowl brown rather than black and occasionally break into a sandy light brown.

And it did.                              

Oof, the bowl is more oblong than round….but I love this glaze on the dark clay body. So much so that it became my new candy dish.            

I’m not a truffle fan, but I do like chocolate now and then with fruit, especially citrus. And so I couldn’t resist these Lindt blood orange chocolates, whose wrappers contrast so beautifully with brown.