cook + craft: the art of the wrap and a salmon bowl

I’m a huge fan of Kraft or brown paper bag for wrapping presents, but this year I’ve been using butcher paper instead though I used what holiday wrap was in the closet for the presents that my husband is giving to the children in his family. My presents look like branding I'm copying from Crate and Barrel. We only buy Christmas gifts for kids. He gave toys while I gave crafts and books...                 

I took a break from wrapping to watch Odio il Natale...

Coincidentally, the two soon-to-join lovebirds were eating panettone laced with cannabis and I had just sliced myself the Italian buttery yeast bread studded with citron fruit and golden raisins (minus the marijuana) to eat and sip my cuppa.

Yeah my husband bakes himself chocolate concoctions while I buy European commercially baked treats.

Earlier, I made myself a not so simple lunch of a salmon bowl. After ceramics class the previous day, I picked up broiled salmon for half off at the Japanese grocery store and then went to town on chopped vegetables: cucumber, carrots, red cabbage, cilantro, and green leaf lettuce....

....boiled rice vermicelli and mixed boiling water with sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, lime pulp, chopped garlic, Sriracha (because I had no sambal oelek and couldn't dig for the Thai chilies in my freezer)....

which made for a non-oil dressing with bright salty acidity to soak into the rice noodles and lend contrast to the oily fish and crunchy vegetables. A perfect lunch to use up ingredients in my fridge and pantry.

And so I'll be making more of these salad bowls during the winter break ahead.

consumerist consumption: holiday gifting

On Black Friday, I went to my local public library and scored! And then to my favorite boutique gift shop. And then picked up lunch from my favorite Japanese grocery store.                  

I'd been looking for a steamer basket for months! I so didn't want to order one from Amazon. I'm thinking of getting another one and creating a gift basket with chili sauces for my nephew, but could I include a bag of frozen dumplings? Or maybe I just find a small wok from World Market and a cookbook? Wrap it all in cellophane to allow a bit of gawking before opening. I love individualizing gifts.           

 

And the grandnieces who will be getting these plush dolls wore their advent necklaces.

My niece and nephew also messaged me pics of their kids crafting the advent presents I sent.                    

 

I also sent them an Elf on the Shelf, but I didn't send the 2-year-old anything, a major remiss on my part.

 

He doesn't look too left out from my holiday giving thankfully. But yesterday I ordered online a book and a toy. 

On Sunday I went a bit nuts at the discount store on getting these kids crafting kits or games or art supplies. And then to Michael's for even more crafting kits and art supplies for the nephew. Must. stop. shopping. And so the plan for the rest of the week is to wrap these gifts as a craftivity and fuhgettaboutit.                      

And last night I broke open my wedding anniversary gift of a bigass bottle of my favorite wine and ate the rest of the hotpot ingredients in my fridge.

I splurged on another journal. 

Last spring I took a 2-D art class at a community college, and I want to get back into some kind of art practice but not in a college class with deadlines for submission. And so I'm thinking something more self-paced and freewheeling like Sketchbook Skool or online classes from an art museum.

clay: butter box and soap dishes

The butter box I made from my tar paper template is done, and I think this size is gonna work for those supermarket butters that are a short rectangle.           

The clay body is Smooth Red from Clay Planet and the glaze is Gloss White from Laguna. I love the contrast between raw and smooth.

I did have to grind the cover a bit, and the plan this morning is to measure and cut on grid paper another template to trace on to tar paper and make another butter dish that's a bit longer. I also like that the top cover is narrow enough to pick it up with one hand and not need a handle though the butter dish that I'd made from speckled buff had a square handle to lend some visual interest to the pot.

I asked my student aide what they thought these pots were. They answered taco holder? business card holder? spoon rest? That made me chuckle. And I need to find the bisque soap dish in the kiln room that is rectangular and has a raised grid of lines.              

The larger soap dish if I remember correctly is stoneware glazed in Amaco Blue Rutile and Western Celadon. The smaller dish is glazed in Coyote Opal. Tomorrow my plan is to go to World Market and buy citrus-scented (my favorite) soaps to put in them. But maybe the soap dishes I make from now on should be more conventional looking.                                                                   

And here’s the butter box I made yesterday afternoon in the community studio while also under glazing my pear rattle.                             

I wish now in retrospect that I had made a more rounded handle, and I will probably remove it and sand the greenware top and bottom (make those sharp edges bullnosed). I’ve still more of this speckled buff clay, and so the plan next week is to make a round salt crock like the one I sold at the pottery popup.

cook: hotpot for one

Husband and I are STILL working through our Thanksgiving leftovers. I finally made my turkey pot pie with what was left of the carrots and celery, mashed potatoes, and turkey bone broth with some green peas in the freezer as well as turkey. 

Only instead of using puff pastry for a crust, I used the leftover mashed potatoes. I suppose what I made for dinner was really a turkey cottage pie.

And I suppose I could use the rest of those frozen peas to make mushy peas and use that instead of mashed potatoes of which I ran out as a "crust" for the remaining turkey filling. And Christmas jazz has me humming along as I cook and sew in this chilly, rainy, and foggy month.

 

I visited a friend in South San Francisco on Sunday, and while picking up groceries for her, I also stopped for me at the Pacific, an Asian grocery store and went a bit bonkers over finding chrysanthemum greens, oyster mushrooms, pickled mustard greens and dwarf bananas. Finally, I had the makings for what I really have been longing to eat which is my own Chinese soup. Turkey bone broth with the addition of the Sichuan chili paste or hot pot base, crushed garlic, sesame paste, soy sauce, and bit of sesame oil make a delicious vehicle for protein and vegetables.               

 

As with all Asian cooking, a mise en place is de rigueuer. I had bought fried tofu and hard boiled eggs over the weekend.

I remembered the chicken and cilantro wontons I still had in the freezer and decided to slice up Chinese sausage for additional meat protein as well as scallions for garnish.

Into the broth all went followed by the chrysanthemum greens, bok choi, oyster and beech mushrooms that I'd also prepped.

And ready to eat after 5 minutes of simmering!

My meal was actually hot pot rather than soup, and I kept the leftover broth which had now been flavored by all the ingredients for a Moroheiya noodle soup later on in the week. My meal like a French village's stone soup just keeps on giving.

cook: posole

A few nights ago, I invited a couple friends to go to a speakeasy at one of my favorite eateries in San Mateo. Unbeknownst to many entering Wursthall, there's a secret bar below the stairs to the restrooms of the restaurant which also includes the entrance to Wunderbar. You follow the painted white rabbits along the baseboard to an entrance with a red velvet curtain to lead you to this hidden door. As with a speakeasy or to be in the know about a hidden bar, you have to make reservations. And we were told by the maître d' to rub the belly of the white rabbit. And really it's a motion detector which I loved for its cleverness of design.

And just like a speakeasy in the 1920s, the bar is not just hidden, but dimly-lit and unidentifiable except for the mirror with the restaurant's logo and through which you can glimpse from the outside the mixologist moving about behind the bar and you're able to hold a conversation inside unlike the very noisy and chaotic hubbub of the restaurant upstairs. I only ordered one drink, and I'm just noticing now that the orange peel is cut in shape to look like the head of a snake.

My cocktail was delicious, and I want to return to sip a cocktail called Lost at Sea.

Because of the pork broth, I'd boiled last weekend, I was inspired to cook posole which I’d hadn’t cooked in a few years. I think I can cook it now from memory. I denuded two arbol and two guajillo chiles of their membranes, seeds, and stems and poured boiling hot water in my blender. While they were soaking and getting soft, I chopped cabbage, radishes, jalapeno, white onion, cilantro, and lime into wedges.

I had leftover spare ribs from my sinigang and started browning them with a few cloves of garlic. I then added the pork broth and the pulverized chiles.

 

I didn't add any tomatoes either and relied on the chilies to make the soup red. After an hour of boiling and then simmering, I added the can of hominy to also soften in the broth for another hour.

 

While the broth was simmering, I had exactly one corn tortilla left, which I sliced into thin strips and then fried to be another garnish for the soup.

The soup was as delicious as when I had cooked it about 3 years ago. And maybe my next chili will be something similar with those chilies and ground pork and Gordo beans for my version of Chili Colorado.

clay: pottery popup + a pear

Yesterday I tried to sell my pots to little avail. I told Patrick though I used to sell a lot of my pottery one-offs because they were priced either five or ten dollars, I now sell handmade at handmade prices.          

It wasn't much consolation that the other potters likewise didn't sell many ceramic pieces.

Patrick said we’ll figure it out. However, I don’t want an Etsy shop, and so I looked for a consignment shop yesterday (the woman-owned and women artists storefront was empty and out of business) and then talked to a friend at the arboretum society. Next year, I’ll organize my own holiday market. I had despaired and entertained thoughts of no longer doing ceramics, but I love making with clay. And in the late afternoon while manning my pottery popup table, I joined two pinch pots and formed a pear and then started underglazing it chartreuse.  

I like my pear a lot, and so did others. I won't stop making pottery. And I need to get back to art too. While exploring the Designing Peace exhibit at the Museum of Craft and Design and the galleries at the Minnesota Street Project, I bought these souvenirs.              

I was looking more closely at the logo, and I really love how it was imagined. And so I think my next make will be my signature stamp in clay in negative relief, so that it's raised rather than incised in my pots.