Weekend Cooking or....Unblocking My Creative Rut

I've been depressed and in a midlife crisis for the past year and half that I haven't wanted to quilt, hand build, weave or embroider.  I have crafted a little, but not my usual extensive whirlwind of making with clay and textiles.  However, those creative muscles are slowly getting flexed, and I've been getting back into crafting, especially with the help of cooking.  This weekend, I marinated chicken thighs in buttermilk, salt and hot sauce...

 ...simmered legumes and beans, roasted an eggplant, squeezed lemons, decanted jars of tahini, mixed and sipped a lime rickey...

 ...which turned into a tasty lunch of bread, dolmas and hummus until I had a hangry and menopausal temper flare up...

 ...but then calmed down enough to finish lunch and make the baba ghanoush and the 5-bean salad and then go do ceramics the next day with a friend to later return home to start supper by making a simple tomato salad with just heirlooms, salt, balsamic and basil...

 ...and dredging the buttermilk-brined chicken thighs in a flour mixture of chopped fresh rosemary, thyme, poultry seasoning for the sage, a little salt and lots of coarse ground black pepper before frying it...

...and while the fried chicken finished cooking in the oven, I peeled potatoes and boiled them with garlic before mashing them with heavy whipping cream, butter and lots of chopped scallions because I make mashed allium potatoes...

...and it was a very pleasing dinner because of a super crispy fried chicken skin which the hubs also complimented me on...

...however, I was still fervently wanting to create culinarily and while drinking my wine with a neighbor, mentioned an overwhelming wish to cook a fish stew but didn't think I could the next evening because I had a late afternoon meeting to which she suggested that I prep the ingredients the night before--genius--and so I chopped fennel, celery, and leeks and mentally planned a trip to the gourmet grocery shop for seafood broth before going to bed...

...but like an idiot, while grocery shopping before my meeting, I didn't sensibly look for the box of seafood broth at the seafood counter and instead was in the canned fish aisle, grabbing bottles of clam broth.  No matter, I got to caramelizing the aromatics in butter and olive oil and pureeing tomatoes and garlic in my blender before combining with the clam broth and the wine I was sipping and letting it simmer on my stove for a good hour and a half before adding a combination of frozen shellfish (mussels, shrimp, octopus, calamari) and Pacific rockfish...

 ...which made for a beautiful tasting dinner of bouillabaisse, lavishly buttered artichoke bread and lots more glasses of Albariño.  Of course, I shared my seafood meal with my neighbor who proclaimed it "so good."

Ceramics: Kimono Commercial-Decal Mug

I made this mug from reclaimed dark clay and am infatuated with the color of this clay body.  I had painted with white underglaze a dot on which I knew I wanted to affix a decal.  I've also been playing with different handles and made this one to resemble brass knuckles....there's text on the other side saying, Oh I fancy!

Ceramics: Chevron-stenciled mug

Another pot from the kiln yesterday is this mug on which I used a mylar stencil to pounce underglaze in a chevron pattern on a Bmix clay body slab, which I later constructed into the mug.  I was so pleased with this piece that I stencil under glazed red polka dots onto another Bmix clay slab.  

Ceramics: Butter Dish

I finally made a butter dish to hold the blocks of Kerrygold butter I love so much.  It's a teeny bit wonky, and I wish I had gotten bolder with the glazing.  However, it'll do until I make that better butter dish.  What I love most is the ease of a handle to remove the cover.

For shits and giggle I had glazed the interior of the butter lid in Stormy Blue and Jim Bob blue on the exterior.  My husband said it would've been more visually interesting to see more interaction between the two glazes, and I agree.  Next time.

Salade Niçoise

Salade niçoise is such a great way to use up the bounty of a garden in summer.  Start with a can of beautiful Italian tuna, preferably packed in olive oil.

Then emulsify anchovies, Dijon mustard, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, shallots, fresh thyme, fresh basil, sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar, a little balsamic, and some lemon juice to taste.

 Boil up some red new potatoes.

 Hard boil eggs.

 Chop up tomatoes, in this case, Martha Washington.

Find Niçoise olives in the deli aisle of the supermarket.  I also keep Kalamata olives in the pantry when I want a salty bite.

Blanch some green beans or haricot vert (these beans turned from purple to green).

Lastly compose all the vegetables and protein onto a plate, drizzle with dressing and pour a glass of a chilled white wine.  I also added the remains of a carton of spring greens, but I would've preferred Bibb lettuce.

Preserving: Pickle Relish

Much to my chagrin, I had used the last of our homemade pickle relish by adding it to the potato salad that I had none left for my hotdog.  As a kid I used to put ketchup on my hotdog, but now I love only mustard, onions and pickle relish.  And so yesterday morning, I minced 3 large cucumbers from our garden along with green bell pepper, red bell pepper, white onion, and garlic.  I then sprinkled two teaspoons of salt and added water to cover, stirred and then set it aside overnight (you can do just 6 hours). I then poured the minced vegetables into a colander and rinsed them well.

This morning, I got to pickling.  I turned on the stove to get the water in my canner boiling and to sterilize my pint jars.  I poured 3 cups of vinegar and a half cup of sugar into a big pot along with two teaspoons of dill weed (I only had dried but otherwise, I'd leave a sprig in the jar before processing), 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds, 2 teaspoons celery seeds, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and 2 bay leaves.

Boil and then reduce to a medium low simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the drained vegetables and return to a boil.  Then reduce to medium low and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. 

 

I then poured the relish into my canning jars.  I was only able to fill two, and had only enough left to fill a quarter of a jar.  The first jar to the left, I put a plastic lid on and straight into the fridge and processed the other two jars in the canner for 10 minutes.  I've made enough relish to last for the year or until the next cucumber harvest.

Cooking: How I Do Lunch on Summer Vacation

Avocado toast is my standard for breakfast.  However, tomatoes are in season, and my friend, Bob tore the baguette he bought at Acme Bakery in half and gave it to me.  Chopped Black Krim tomatoes and mashed avocados atop slices of baguette with sprinklings of sea salt and Aleppo pepper make for a tasty open-faced sandwich.

I also know I'm on vacation when I can imbibe wine with lunch.  I fried a whole package of bacon the evening before for BLTs, which also topped my deviled eggs.

Cobb salad is my favorite, and I'm trying to use things up in my pantry and fridge and prevent food waste and not grocery shop only to discover I already had the ingredient.  However, I did not have blue cheese, and it's de rigueur for this salad along with all the bacon I fried and eggs I soft boiled and rotisserie chicken I thawed prior.

I actually cooked this for dinner to use up frozen Udon noodles and prepackaged broccoli beef in my freezer and baby bok choy in my vegetable bin.

And then I was on a lox bagel kick because there's no better combination than a fresh baked bagel, whipped cream cheese, red onion, capers and soft unctuous smoked salmon.