ceramics + canoe + cook: summer break

I entertained the possibility of traveling to Mexico City this summer, but then decided to stay home and find pleasure in ceramics, canoeing, cooking, and just chilling. My days are somewhat structured and a prelude of what my retirement will look like. Canoe practice on Monday and Wednesday late afternoons...

Monday and Wednesday mornings spent at Clay Life...

(I really love the teeny, tiny vases I've been throwing for the air plants)

...Tuesdays and Thursdays, cLaY cLuB at College of San Mateo with Zan and Jeff and sometimes Meral or Sara followed by lap swimming at its athletic center.

I started a couple of candelabras at the community college 3D studio with Sculpture Mix, but didn't extrude enough coils and so got rid of the scraps of cone 10 clay I had and threw these 6 bowls to put in the 10,000 hours to acquire the skill of throwing. The 2 dark gray bowls I'm sure are Black Mountain that got mixed with a bit of the red clay and the other tannish bowls are the same mixture but with more of the cone 6 clay. I'm hydrating some Coleman porcelain in the sink and will maybe purchase a bag of Black Mountain at CSM too.

On the house chores front, I finally was able to separate this orchid--which we received a year ago from neighbors when Sadie died, and gawd do I miss that little girl--from the two houseplants that were in the same pot.

However, I think one of these houseplants needs to be trimmed, so I can get it bushier. I transplanted them from the orchid pot into these super cheap pots from Michaels in Pasadena, but I still love the look of these $2 pots.

Some day, I will host a sale of pots and plants and call it Roots and Shoots: Plants + Ceramics for Sale.

I don't cook very many dinners because of Patrick's broth nights or my evenings at canoe practice or in the ceramics studio, but I manage to cook favorite meals for lunch like this Tuscan salmon and fettucine Alfredo with English peas.

And because I was on summer break, I drank Chardonnay midday.

I'm embarrassed that I ate the whole salmon and pasta dish all on my own. But then again, fish is not Patrick's favorite, so more for me. 

I volunteered to cook ribs for a neighborhood dinner even though I was exhausted from a regatta the day before. But I enjoyed firing up the grill even if I did most of the work for the meal.

 

I dry rubbed Montreal seasoning on the rack of the ribs and then roasted them low and slow in a 200 degree oven all Sunday morning. I slathered them with a bottle of barbecue sauce for the last hour and finished them off on the grill. I enjoined another neighbor to bring ears of fresh corn, which was added to the grill.

I think the ladies liked the ribs because all went for second helpings. I was just too tired to eat much. 

While cleaning for the cleaning lady, I gilded the star on a Christmas tree ceramic, which I can now store in the holiday wares box. I am SO NOT digging that blue tea light inside it. I also pickled a cucumber in the fridge as well as these jalapeno and serrano peppers left from the taco party I was invited to.

Holy crap were my fingers burning throughout the night and the next morning even after ceramics throwing because I didn't wear rubber gloves while prepping and chopping those peppers. 

July is nigh, which means only another month and a half of summer break left. Last night, I picked up 5 pounds of ahi tuna and hamachi from friends of friends of the canoe club, who drove to San Diego to pick up part of the haul of 300 pounds of fishing in Mexico. I'm thinking poke, grilled zucchini and Korean corn. And this Saturday is my last regatta, which means training for long distance races the rest of the season, which means canoeing in Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and Sausalito. Unfortunately, I missed out on the long distance race in Monterey though I get to paddle there this Saturday for the regatta.