clay: xmas trees

I've heard two people now say that my modern Xmas trees look like wizard hats. Sigh. And so I saw these trees from a home furnishings retailer (West Elm? Pottery Barn? Crate & Barrel? Not sure) and decided I like it better than the stacked cones ceramic trees I've been seeing from other ceramicists, both handmade and mass manufactured.                                 

This morning after canoe paddling, I picked up a fallen branch long pine needles and tiny cones, which was my inspiration for the morning in the ceramics studio. I cut petals from the slab that somewhat resembled those of the photo reference, but I used the pine needles branch I found to impress the clay.           

And so sometime this week, I want to make my way into the studio and loop tool off crumbs and edges that could possibly be too sharp. Maybe I should have flared up the petals, but that's okay. I'll totally make these trees again, one at a time, because it was very tedious to cut, impress and score and slip the petals on to a narrow cone.

clay: teapot

I bought templates from Pottery to the People. The mugs are tiny! And so at my pottery party, we used a template of just an 8.5” x 11” paper cut in half, hotdog-style, and I made a bunch of handles with a Kemper tool. But this past weekend, I used the grounded teapot template.             

The spout seems so ginormous and the handle too delicate in comparison. And maybe my next knob on the lid will just be a circle with a depression for fingers. What's great about the template is thinking more about surface decoration though at some point, I will alter the dimensions and shape to make it my own. I can continue to use the template as is for now though I will alter the spout (a bit smaller) and handle (using my Diamond Core handle puller). Nevertheless, the teapot was a very fun Saturday of hand building.

celebrate: thanksgiving break

For the annual holiday of eating turkey, I made my way down to Temecula, which I had not realized was not in San Diego County, but is actually in Riverside County. Before making that 8-hour drive, I got a little of making done. I painted a pumpkin for a thanksgiving tablescape...       

...I glazed porcelain bisque.

 

And then a race from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 to get to my sister-in-law's father's house in the desert where we were celebrating Thanksgiving. I'm glad I made the trip. The next day's temperature made my bones less stiff and body more supple. I had the whole day to prep the food.

The pan was a bit too narrow for my liking, but crammed the spatchcocked bird atop the Stove Top stuffing. Note to self, no need to moisten the stuffing with chicken broth beforehand.

 

On Black Friday, my sister-in-law, brothers and I walked Old Town Temecula, I didn't buy much. Just this watercolor exercise book and a bunch of stickers and vintage-looking bluetooth speaker from an independent romance bookstore. The tote below made me think of my misspent 20s.

Another loooong drive to return to San Mateo and picked up my final fired ornaments and found these trees on the bisque shelves. I glazed 2 of the trees in my tried and true formulation that I use on my botanical leaves pressed mugs.

But for the other 4 trees, I decided to test other green formulas.

And my evenings have been spent before the Christmas holidays on sipping wine and brie and pate and crackers and stringing frost porcelain ornaments with jute and twine and hot gluing their knots.

 

It feels good to be back to brainstorming and making.

cook: smothered chicken drumsticks

Winter has commenced here in Northern California preceded by a short, kind of summery fall, where even the air conditioner blasted on here and there. This past Wednesday was marked by steady patters of rain and gray skies. I had chicken drumsticks, white potatoes, half a head of cabbage, and a massive craving for comfort food. Hence, Craig Clairborne's Smothered Chicken recipe in the New York Times. I'm guessing this is an old Southern (but new to me)technique of pan frying a chicken, where a whole chicken is spatchcocked and cooked in butter on low heat with a plate on top and a heavy weight of canned goods weighing the plate in a cast iron pan. My large Dutch oven, which I found at a thrift shop is cast iron, but is oval instead of round, and so I used a salad plate and my tea kettle filled with water to weigh down the chicken.                        

I salted and fried the chicken drumsticks in 2 tablespoons of melted butter on an electric stovetop setting of 4 for 25 minutes. I then turned the drumsticks over. The fat that was in the drumsticks' skin rendered nicely and turned a lovely golden brown as well as smelled delicious in that browning butter. Back went the plate and weighted tea kettle over the chicken to cook another 15 minutes.

Next but not pictured, I removed the chicken and left all the drippings and butter in the pot to brown a little less than 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour to which I then added a bit of water and a leftover jar of canned chicken broth and a heaping teaspoon of Better than Bouillon chicken stock and generous sprinkling of ground black pepper to whisk into a gravy. I returned the chicken drumsticks to the pot to simmer in the gravy on medium (or a setting of 6 on my electric stove) for 15 more minutes--that's less time than the recipe called for because I was using drumsticks instead of a whole chicken. In the meantime, I was also cooking mashed potatoes and sautéing cabbage in another tablespoon of butter.

Onto my favorite salad bowl plate or blate as I call it went the mashed potatoes, cabbage and a chicken drumstick with that tasty gravy poured over protein, carbs, and vegetable.

This weeknight dinner is today's leftover lunch, and again I can't wait to tuck into this meal on a November cloudy wet day with a possible high of 63 degrees in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula.

clay: windowsill or wall vase

Clay Body: Bmix

Glazes: ?

Method/Firing: Hand built/Cone 5; texture mat               

I made this vase when I first joined Clay Life and was marveling at the texture tools and glazes new to me at the studio. I didn't make notes of what glazes I used, but I'm guessing it's the studio's Peppermint Creme added to a Floating Blue or Ghost Blue, something blue, but not Blurple or Whoopsie Blue. I'm using these vessels to be propagation pots in a sunny windowsill.

clay: twee teacup

Clay Body: Speckled Buff

Glazes: Majolica (gloss white

Method/Firing: Thrown/Cone 6; commercial decal/cone 018-016

I've now a bag of Bmix with speckles leftover from teaching pottery, and so the plan is to make more teacups though not in any uniform sizes because I haven't that skillset of consistency.

create: a birthday party

I decided to host my birthday party for my 60th year, and at first, I thought I would have it at my brother's home in American Canyon in order for his wife who had cancer to attend and for just close family with a chef to cook our favorite Filipino dishes. Instead spring and summer were seasons spent visiting various cancer hospitals and then a funeral. After such a sad summer, I was then back to work. 

And so change of plan for my October 5th big day--a pottery party day of, but a Filipino food party in the club house with both family, neighbors and co-worker friends the day before.  I knew I wanted lots of good food, wine and beer, lovely floral decor, and a convivial atmosphere from the right guest list, where everyone knew at least one other person at the party to have something in common that they could talk about while sipping a beverage. I wanted friends and co-workers and family to all be able to mingle.              

And I'm really fortunate that most of my friends and neighbors and family are able to talk to anybody. 

I was also lucky to have the space or access to a club house with ample seating, dining tables, kitchen and restrooms and even indoor and outdoor pools, if kids wanted to swim, for a comfortable and relaxed setting. I decided on buffet style serving in the kitchen for all the Filipino food platters and brought more chairs and small tray tables to place in little nooks. I had too many buffet tables and should've put the halo halo and dessert bar where I had too much space for food trays. It was okay as the kids said their favorite was the snow cone machine and making their own tropical sundaes.

This was the largest party I ever threw, where I had invited 36 people.

I also started the party early in order to not end so late for the sake of kids and bedtimes. There was still light out on this early fall afternoon. 

My niece's and nephew's kids or my brother's grandchildren were very well-behaved.

Their church, I think, makes them used to crowds and new faces. I love that they just plopped themselves where they wanted.

I liked that my co-workers had familiar faces to socialize with,

 for my family to meet my orbits of people,

and for my family to come together for a celebration.

I was so pleased that my nephew and his wife were able trundle 5 kids into a car trip across the bay.

My niece likewise trotted her 3 kids and brother's brother-in-law brought his family from far away...

...and as I mentioned before, these kids were a delight to be around with...

...and my favorite goofballs.

This birthday party though a lot of work gave me a lot of joy, so much so that I'll likely be hosting another large gathering to celebrate my retirement in 5 years.

consume: house of prime rib

I’d never gone to House of Prime Rib, and honestly it’s not the meal I’d opt for when going to a restaurant although I will avow in my 30s I enjoyed a medium rare rib eye steak dinner at a Black Angus when I didn't want to cook. However, the old school restaurant is my sister’s favorite, and she invited me to dinner with my brother too, and time with family is priceless. The thrill really was my first time riding Waymo. I hate driving and even more so on the busy streets of San Francisco. This drive was better than a taxi. No having to make conversation with a cab driver and no tipping.        

 

Within a short ride later, we were at the restaurant. No having to deal with valet parking either.

I’ll do Waymo anytime. My sister managed to change her 9:30 p.m. reservation to 6:30, which is how I came to change my mind about coming to a dinner about the meat sweats.                   

Our table was near a carving station. I changed my mind about ordering a cut a la carte because I wanted salad.

 

The salad after that display was nothing special and just okay. Honestly, the meal was meh.  The baked potato needed more butter, the sourdough bread and Yorkshire pudding added unnecessary carbs. I should have ordered just the meat and creamed spinach. Like I mentioned, I was glad to have spent time with my family, and next time, I'm just inviting them over for me to serve a Sunday roast.

cook: homemade tortillas for brisket tacos

I love the breakfast tacos at Aptos St BBQ, and I had leftover brisket and pickled jalapenos and an unwillingness to run to the store to buy just flour tortillas. But I did save to my camera roll this recipe for homemade flour tortillas.

 

It was a pretty easy recipe though I wasn't sure if I got the mixture crumbly or sandy enough.

And maybe I should have kneaded the dough a bit more to be smoother. I chopped up the brisket and folded it in more hickory barbecue sauce and Valentina hot sauce.

 

I do have a large cast iron pizza pan that could have worked as a comal, but I opted instead to use my medium cast iron and got it ripping hot. I used a rolling pin and floured my counter in order to make the tortillas as thin as I could. The first tortilla, thank goodness, bubbled.

I think though I would have liked more bubbles and maybe a more hydrated dough, and so I started adding butter to the cooking tortillas in order to melt and make them more toothsome.

Not bad. I did halve the recipe to make 6 tortillas rather than 12.

Since we were eating brisket tacos for dinner instead of breakfast, I omitted the fried egg and opted to melt cheese before adding the brisket. And I added besides the pickled jalapenos, pickled radish as well as chopped red onion and cilantro. 

   

Hubs wanted cheddar while I wanted melted pepper jack. 

A runny fried egg would have been delicious, but I liked all the vegetables I added to a Mexican American taco dinner.