clay: functional food art (waffle and berries tic-tac-toe)

Clay Body: Laguna's Bmix 10 (Smooth)

Underglazes/Glaze: Amaco Yellow; Western Pumpkin; Amaco Red + Coyote Blush; Leslie Marine Blue + Leslie Deep Purple; Satin Clear

Method/Firing: Hand build/slab/Cone 5-6

I consider this pot functional as it is not just for looking, but also a game for preschoolers.

I haven't been cooking much and am trying to eat breakfast in addition to lunch.

Less time cooking has meant more time for making. The tic-tac-toe game with waffle and berries was a lot of fun. And I was happy to dig into my box of neglected underglazes.

 

I thought I was not going to overglaze and fire this cone 10 clay in the gas kiln, but a too full kiln and a looming deadline made me resort to an electric kiln firing. And all the little playing pieces, because I decided to adhere a clear satin glaze, necessitated stilts. Luckily, I got to fussily place my tic-tac-toe bits onto stilts on a top kiln shelf.

The moment of truth....

 

At work the next day, I unloaded the electric kiln and you see my success at the top of this page though I had to use a Dremel tool to grind off sharp poking bits and touch up with acrylic paint. In the meantime, Zan unloaded the gas kiln. I made the plaster mold for this casserole dish, and she and a student burnished and added handles and used a combination of Cone 10 glazes of Coleman Red and Dark Blue. 

 

I fell in love with May's cups of Coleman porcelain with celadon glaze. And so summer, if I throw Cone 10 clay, pretty much by myself at the wheel, just practicing without observation even peripherally.

cook: potato leek soup

I'm still eating for fuel more than for fun. My lunch below is what I call a California Niçoise: a Yukon potato and celery and scallion salad dressed with just mayonnaise, lemon juice and a bit of Dijon mustard; edamame; Castelvetrano olives; boiled green beans; leftover broiled salmon with herbs; and a hard boiled egg.

I think my palate quickly became accustomed to simpler flavors, and cooking sure became easier.

Recently, hubs came home with a huge crop of leeks. What he thought were garlic shoots turned into 10 pounds of leeks. He said he wanted me to cook a potato leek soup instead of Colcannon. And so I obliged. I rinsed a lot of dirt from the leeks, the green leafy tops of which I boiled for 30 minutes with a tablespoon of salt, a huge bunch of lemon and English thyme, garlic cloves, and pepper. That was it! And the scent fragranced my condo as I was chopping the white and light green roots, the garlic, and the white potatoes. With the stove turned off and the broth cooling, I sauteed the chopped leeks in more than the 3 tablespoons of butter called for in the recipe. Once the leeks softened, I poured in the strained leek broth, garlic and potatoes and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

I had leek broth leftover. I borrowed Cecilia's immersion blender to puree the soup and unfortunately burned myself as well as drop a glass jar of the soup I was giving to Cecilia. I kind of gave up at that point.

The soup, however, was fucking delicious and because I used a lot of butter, no need to add heavy cream or even milk, nor the lemon juice called for in the recipe. So delicious that I plan on cooking the rest of the leeks for more soup with the pound of potatoes I have left.