field trip: filoli gardens

Last Monday, I chaperoned the photography students to Filoli. I only briefly walked through the mansion and photographed their homage to Women's History month.

As much as I enjoy looking at all the turn-of-the-century appliances and cooking equipment of the period kitchen of the mansion, I checked in on students and then moved my exploring outdoors.

Beyond the kiosks, where they were selling wine and charcuterie boards, you can unlatch the gate and further explore the estate. Instead of walking the asphalt path that circled around the meadow, I trod on dirt to the giant bay laurel tree past the hay growing field and compost heaps.

I was more interested in seeing how far I could range outside from the main grounds.

 

I appreciate that the museum includes a little geologic history that tells about the San Andreas fault.

Instead of photographing mostly manicured gardens, I aimed my camera lens on forest flowers and foliage like the periwinkle and the Indian Warrior below.

   

The museum grounds also cede a bit of land acknowledgement and information indigenous history.

More interesting California history is the search for water.

  

And here's the creek that I ambled alongside.

I hiked further up and encountered live oaks.

And then the air started to feel cooler and moist.

I love that there is redwood forest in my backyard a short drive away.

   

But it was time to go eat lunch with the high schoolers, and I headed back to the mansion to get a glimpse of the tulip gardens.

Why yes I do love monochromatic palettes.

And I could tell that we're nearing the end of tulip season.

And of course, I had to duck into the gift shop for ceramic inspiration. I liked the color palette of these multiple vases on a base. But for individual stems, I think I prefer white ceramic.

And when I looked more closely at these mini vases. The flowers are adhered with epoxy, which I dislike.

I did like this luster dish.

And these vases weren't even ceramic, but felt like some kind of resin.

And so there were no ceramic forms I wanted to re-make as my own. I arrived home at Patrick's own tulip and spring bulb arrangement.

I've plans over the spring break to transcribe all the ideas in my ceramic journal to one that is more securely bound.

clay, canoe, cook: a weekend for glazing, a second practice and spring meals

I’ve come to accept that my life will be consumed by works in progress. These two wall hanging containers for air plants are kind of too small, but my air plant from Kentucky bore two pups a few months ago, and when I finally snip them from their mother, they’re going into these new homes. I’m also going to string these holed pinch pots into a wind chime soon.

And I love, love, love these abstract wall tile installations I saw on Instagram.

Since birds are not my spirit animal, I suppose I would design a fish swimming underwater. 

However, I do love the eye motif. I think though to make it my own, I would include hand and heart.

Seriously, so fantastic and reminiscent of a fabulous quilt.

I miss playing with pattern from my 2D class and just experimenting with texture on clay in general. And so I’m committing to do just that in my clay journal in my little down time.

Last week was my second outrigger canoe practice for the new season.

I could feel my lats and glutes and strings afterward--but swam a mile later that afternoon so my Sunday could be absolutely free and leisurely. And when I went to Clay Life before my swim, I sighted two of my bisque pieces which needed glazing.

And then left right after stopping by, so I could tend to this soup: cranberry beans and savoy cabbage from the garden; onion, garlic, Italian sausage, chicken bone broth from the pantry.

And we didn't eat the soup because it was steak dinner night. While Patrick grilled the rib eye on the charcoal Weber, I roasted the "cheddar" cauliflower and braised the Savoy cabbage in butter. 

Damn fine dinner.

Consuming too many glasses of wine made for shitty sleep, which was A-Okay because I wasn't working out or having to visit family on the Sunday after a super busy Saturday. At Clay Life, I found even more of my bisque pots that needed glazing.

I suppose I will call these little plates, jewelry or ring holders. and I got experimental with the glazing of this pomegranate by dipping it in Blushing Pink and finger painting a purplish Mayco Stroke & Coat atop with some Teddy Bear brown underglaze inside the calyx.

For my sea mug, there was a woman using this celadon pictured below which I asked if I could use too. I asked also if I could have some of her Seaweed which looks really lovely atop Deep Sea.

I brought in my own celadon of Sky and found Aqua on the shelf at Clay Life.

I brought in my own celadon of Sky and found Aqua on the shelf at Clay Life. I added that too to my frost porcelain sea mug, and it could end up being a hot mess. But the pot could also end up being one of the loveliest cups too. I ended up glazing the little vases with Majolica or gloss white, and they'll likely end up being the little vessels for Ikebana arrangements.

cook: enchiladas

I fondly remember enjoying Taco Bell enchiritos as a young adult and was wanting that same flavor and texture in my own version. Enchilada dinners when scratch-made as possible is pretty time-consuming though, and so this meal would be produced in stages over consecutive nights of eating leftovers for dinner. I started with quick pickling jalapeños on a Saturday morning.

And from there started grating carrots and slicing a jalapeño and red onion and half a head of white cabbage to make curtido.

This recipe called for pouring boiling water over the cabbage before adding the salt and sugar and white vinegar.

The refrigerator was crammed because of this head of savoy cabbage.

I’ve been cooking this cabbage with numerous dishes: cranberry bean and Italian sausage soup, pasta bake with cauliflower and broccoli (yet more harvesting from the garden) and braised with butter as a vegetable side for Friday night steak date at home dinner.

Instead of opening a can for Mexican dinner night, I toasted dried chile peppers in the cast iron: pasilla, guajillo, and New Mexican or arbol on a Saturday afternoon after canoe paddling. While the toasted peppers were soaking in hot water, I also grilled an onion, garlic cloves and Kumamoto tomatoes.

I also needed a spice and herb in this enchilada sauce: cumin and oregano. After grinding the cumin seeds, in it went with oregano, the grilled aromatics and tomatoes, and the softened chilies with their soaking water into the blender.

 

I skipped the step of simmering the enchiladas sauce in a slick of oil in the cast iron and instead simmered and then added a can of tomato sauce to the decanted jar to go into the fridge. And in a flurry on a Sunday early evening, I fried the corn tortillas until soft but not crispy and browned ground beef in taco seasoning. Next step was to slather scratch-made refried beans on the softened tortillas and then stuff with ground beef before rolling and pressing seam side down into enchilada sauce poured into a glass casserole dish and finally sprinkling lots of grated cheese, black olives and pickled jalapeños on top and baking in a 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cheese is melted and slightly browned. Before serving, I scattered chopped cilantro and white onion atop.

 

T’was a delicious Mexican dinner night with leftovers for busy weeknights and no time to cook.

clay: candelabra

 

Clay body: Laguna Speckled Buff

Glaze: Gloss White fired to Cone 6

Methods/Technique: Hand built

cook: guinness chocolate cake with bailey’s irish cream frosting

My neighbors wanted to eat corned beef for St. Patrick's Day a day earlier on a Sunday, and I volunteered to bake a cake, specifically a chocolate Guinness cake with Bailey's cream cheese frosting. I baked it a couple years ago, which another neighbor thought my husband with his sweet tooth had baked, but nope t'was me who baked the Nigella Lawson recipe published in the New York Times. It's an easy bake. I buttered my largest spring form pan, 11" in diameter and then lined the bottom with parchment paper. In my medium saucepan, I melted 10 tablespoons of butter (basically a stick + 2 tablespoons) with a 1 cup of Guinness stout and 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used Hershey's special dark) and 2 cups superfine sugar (I merely ground 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar in the Vitamix blender).

In a large mixing bowl, I whipped 3/4 cup sour cream, 2 large eggs and a tablespoon of Mexican vanilla.

I then poured the slightly cooled chocolate stout butter mixture into the sour cream and eggs and vanilla, constantly beating so as not to let the eggs get too cooked from the heat.

I then added 2 cups of all-purpose flour and 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda into the mixing bowl and continued beating with a whisk. I then poured the batter into the springform pan and popped it into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, which I probably should have baked longer because it can go for an hour, but I surmised with a larger springform pan, there'd be more surface area for evaporation. In the meantime, I brought out an 8 ounce block of cream cheese to room temperature, the Bailey's Irish cream, and powdered sugar.

Miss Lawson's recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of heavy cream added to the cream cheese and 1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar. However, I used 1/4 cup of Bailey's and 1/4 heavy whipping cream instead. I also kept adding more than the recipe's powdered sugar as the frosting was kind of runny, probably because of the alcohol. The cake was beautiful though and did resemble a glass of the dark stout with a frothy, creamy head.

I walked my cake over to the club house and had to say it looked like a fetching dessert.

The neighbors raved over the chocolate cake, and I sent just about everyone a slice for home. Yesterday was the actual St. Patrick's holiday, and I gave the last slice to our neighbor, Dave. Success! And so I'm chuffed to want to make more chocolate desserts because I've still some Bailey's cream cheese frosting in the refrigerator and itching to make a mini chocolate cake that Patrick can say is not underbaked.