cook: green chile pork pepper jack hand pies

I liked my Hatch Chile Granny Smith Cheddar hand pies, but I wanted my pies even more savory. And so added a can of Hatch chilies, drained, to a mixture of sauteed ground pork, onion, garlic, adobo sauce, cumin, oregano, jalapeno, and cilantro. I then stuffed the meat and herbs and spices with slices of pepper jack into pie crust, which I brushed with an egg wash and baked for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. 

I loved them, and so did my neighbors Cecilia and Nancy. I aim to make them again but with carnitas and chipotle peppers and spiced pear butter.

clay: urn vase

Clay Body: Laguna's Bmix 10 (Smooth)

Glaze: Marshmallow or studio white matte cone 10 glaze

Method/Firing: Coil built/Cone 10 Reduction

The vase is not wobbly! Despite it's narrow base. I'm bringing it home today ready for Patrick's floral arrangements. Summer dahlias to come.

cook: rainbow chard

These days I eat more for nourishment than to tantalize my palate. See my Sunday breakfast and Monday lunch.

 

And always always always a vegetable side like the rainbow chard that Patrick harvests from our garden. I prepare it simply. I chop the stems, leafy tops, and a few cloves of garlic and cook all separately in stages. Sauté the stems first in a little olive oil.

 

The green vegetable doesn't fit into the cast iron all at once. Gradually I add the leaves, let it cook down and then add the rest with just a little bit of broth.

 

Try not to cook the vegetable so much so that all the color is leached out. When there's a bumper crop of Swiss chard, I cook it like pictured above as a vegetable side for a steak or salmon dinner or add it to soup or as a layer in lasagna.

cloth: long arm basting

A quilting shop where I learned to quilt and use the long arm machine is closing. And so I called in sick to work to rent the long arm and baste a work in progress that had been in my closet for over a decade. I took 3 hours instead of 6 for stitching because I just stitched in the ditch and basted horizontally. It's sandwiched enough for me to both stitch by hand and on my domestic more detailed texturing.

 

I thought this would be my last time using this Handi Quilter Amara as Katrina told me that someone had already purchased it.

To my surprise and delight, I've discovered that the person who bought the long arm is the owner of Coastside Quilt Studio in Pacifica. I can get re-certified (and this time really remember which rollers on which to pin the three layers)and then use the remaining time to quilt another large quilt. Or maybe even bring back my "aquarius" quilt and finish sandwiching. I noticed these vintage 1970s portable Singers on the shelf in the room where I was long arming. I like its grooviness, but not enough to buy it....

....because I need another sewing machine like I need another ear piercing. And afterward, I wandered around and admired these quilts which a class was teaching.

And I really liked this quilt for sale (everything in the store is for sale at best offer).

But as a quilter, I can't justify buying a quilt when I have got a huge stash of fabric to use up.

host + clay + cook: pi day potluck

Evite has some of the best designs for invitations, and this "card" inspired the party I coordinated last Saturday because the date coincided with 3.14.

 

 

With the ribbon awards done, I made party decor.

 

Instead of gingham red tablecloths, I covered the tables with kraft paper on which the guest could set their pie and write down what kind of pie it was. And look at what one can do with toilet paper cardboard tubes.

That crafting turned into more banners of pi spelled out to 10 digits and an "In Pi Crust We Trust" as well as these signs.

 

I had Jamaica juice I had made for last Sunday's baby shower to serve as a beverage...

....and cooked a cottage pie the evening before.

 

I skimmed off some of the gravy for guests to pour over their serving of cottage pie. And my friend, Cybil showed me a pic of her Hatch chile cheddar apple pie.

 

Turnout for my pie potluck was about 20 people, and there were too many Costco pizzas.

 

But I loved the cuteness of my decorations, and that apple chile cheddar pie as well as a banana cream pie from my favorite diner, Heidi's was delicious. I am grateful to everyone who came with pie and partook, but I am pooped on party hosting for 2026.

clay: pi day blue prize ribbon refrigerator magnet awards and other w-i-p

Clay Body: Laguna Frost Porcelain

Glaze: Amaco black velvet underglaze, Amaco downpour + sky celadons

Method/Firing: Slab built/Cone 5

I've still Frost porcelain:). And this time, I had made Pi Day blue prize ribbon refrigerator magnet awards for a potluck contest party. The slabs took ever so long to cut out and impress, and I made the ribbons in two clay studio sessions. I started these in February and a few weeks later managed to get both sets of ribbons glazed and fired and then epoxied magnets to the back of them.

 

And as much as I loved them in their leather hardness, I don't mind these ceramics in their finished glaze. 

But wait there's more. I spent an afternoon hour at the high school pinch potting which turned into these spoons.

And now I wanna just make more spoons...

clay: urn vase in progress

I hand built a cone 10 urn vase with coils and then slabs for the pedestal at the high school. 

The clay was so wet that I had to store it upside down for the pot to dry out a bit more because it was sinking into its pedestal.

 

And oh my, I poked a hole while digging out a groove. But I've refined it enough methinks and the pot is finally on the greenware shelf for biscuit firing. 

At the community studio, I've either got to grind down drippy glazed mug I made or toss it and then re-make, gather my biscuit clay stamps and finish glazing a milagro glazed heart. But my refrigerator magnet blue prize ribbon awards for Pi Day potluck and contest are done. That though is another post.