Good Day, Saturday

And it wasn’t even the 4th of July. I did have to go into the sun to warm myself to burnish the two bud vases I made from sandstone buff clay.                        

I am hoping I don’t mess up these vases. Liz asked me yesterday how I drew my shapes, and I said I didn't. I merely Googled a search of vase outlines and copied and pasted onto a Microsoft document, playing with the size and dimensions because I can't draw symmetrically, which I then print out to card stock, cut and use as a template. I did glaze two others I made in the opal glaze I spent Friday afternoon sifting crystals and microwaving to melt back into the glaze. I might even adhere the iron oxide decals I have of a narwhal and a mermaid on them because that opal contains such beautiful oceanic colors of surf and sand.                            

After walking the dog, I got ambitious and cooked a Madras style chicken and vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, celery, jalapenos) curry with the purple cauliflower hubs harvested. I browned the chicken thighs in coconut oil while assembling my mise en place.                  

I didn't think the last chicken curry I made was so flavorful even though it contained more curry powder which I think made it a bit too bitter. This time I sautéed the chopped onion a good long time in the coconut and chicken drippings and then added a hefty couple tablespoons of minced garlic and grated ginger. I kept forgetting though to season while I was cooking. I should have salted my chicken before during and after, not much but a little each time to build layers of flavor. I ended up cheating (again!) with soy sauce and Maggi.

I then added my chopped vegetables and then the slurry of flour and water as well as curry powder and vinegar and water and coconut milk. Next time I'm going to add the curry to the aromatics and cook the vegetables down first to drive off as much moisture as possible while still retaining some crunch to the vegetables and then adding a thicker slurry rather than let it get watered down by the vegetables. 

I had also added garam masala to my curry powder. Potatoes and peas would've been delicious too though I'm trying not to do starch upon starch in my dishes, and I even have naan in the freezer in case I run out of basmatic rice. Next time I'm going to maybe try buttermilk instead of coconut milk and add crushed tomatoes and spinach. And make that mint green chile cilantro chutney that I love so much when I hit an Indian buffet.

And now to post this pic of a "make" to my ceramics group on Facebook.

Creative Doldrums

A couple days ago, I emptied the kiln and was so disappointed. My butter dish was cracked in two corners and its knob was askew. I broke it in order to give myself impetus to remake it and not glaze and highlight its flaws even more and thereby look worse. And the oxblood glaze was just ugly on my dark clay. I make the same objects over and over again, and my skills just don’t seem to improve. How do I not make myself insane and do things differently enough to make an impact or show noticeable improvement?                     

I’ve a couple slabs of sandstone buff for clay play today, and the plan is to make another couple of bud vases and succulent pots with what’s left. I do like the Mediterranean glaze on the brown clay as well as all Meral’s pink glazes on the dark body.  If I ever buy another bag of brown clay, I need to remember that those are the glazes I love. I’ve now just left a bag of frost porcelain clay, and so plates! I bought a porcelain white plate from Haand Ceramics in North Carolina, and it’s diameter won’t fit in my cupboard. And so my aim is to re-create it, but in dimensions that will fit in my dish cabinet. 

Zan wants to do a trade, and I said sure and can I then have one of her bisque mugs? She throws such beautiful shapes. Yes, but they’re Cone 10. I’m not sure how soon she’s gonna do a gas firing. If so, I’d like to make some Coleman Porcelain plates and decorate one of those mugs with Opal Coyote glaze and a whale decal.

Another success was the iron oxide decal I made from the printer in my school library that I adhered to the interior bottom of a speckled buff mug that I made. The firing temperature of the kiln to turn greenware into bisque works! Cone 08 is just right. Cone 04 of the decal firing is too low that the iron just turns to powder and rubs off while Cone 5 burns it out. And so I need to experiment again and adhere a decal onto another glazed pot to be sure. I was worried that there wasn't enough iron in the toner of the new school printer, but it ain't so. I'm hoping to put some text and Frida Kahlo pictures on my mugs.

And yeah the crystals that formed in that opal glaze was not what I wanted, and so yesterday I sifted it and microwaved them in a little water. It was messy work, but fingers crossed for a more beautiful outcome.

You can glimpse my ocean waves plate below. I’m glad I played with Sarah Gregory’s technique of outlines with black underglaze and wax resist and using underglazes as if they’re watercolors and gouaches. It’s now in my repertoire. And I adhered bunny rocks to some day leave in the art rock garden.

I guess my creative rut ain’t so bad. The failures are there to school me on what not to do next time.

Cooking: Shepherd’sPie

My home smells like mutton, but tonight’s shepherd pie was scrumptious and comforting. It started with chopping the onions, garlic, carrots and celery the night before. And setting them out the next day with ground lamb, potatoes, beef broth, tomato paste, and...                              

the dark beer for de-glazing the fond and sipping while I cook. While browning and reserving the ground lamb, I suddenly remembered I needed herbs too for this pie and stepped out to cut some rosemary and thyme.

I sautéed the onions and garlic and added a little of my stout (but not too much or the gravy will be too bitter) to deglaze the fond. I then added the carrots and celery to soften a little and then added the ground lamb as well as a tablespoon or so of tomato paste which thickened and darkened the meat and vegetable mixture on to which I sprinkled a couple tablespoons of flour to further thicken. Taste along the way because I needed to season in layers (I also used a little bit of Maggi to add oomph). And then add beef broth incrementally until it's the amount of gravy or thick sauciness you like. 

I had also peeled and boiled my potatoes and lashed with hot milk, cream and butter--too much milk in my case because my potatoes were rather like wallpaper paste, albeit delicious gluey mashed potatoes. No matter because I could dry it out a bit in the pot on a low heat and further in the oven atop the saucy meat and vegetables. Rather than fancily pipe the mashed potatoes, I just spread over the pie filling and used the tines of a fork to create crags and channels before popping into 375 degree oven. I made another smaller one to give to Cecilia.

The pie ingredients were already hot, but I wanted a beautiful browning on the top and for the juicy filling to ooze up a little on the sides, and so I baked it for 30 minutes or so.

Cecilia was therapizing a patient before her dinner, and so I told her to do the same with her pie and showed her the above pic to say when to remove from the oven.

I think my shepherd's pie would very much taste like one hubs' parents would've eaten back in their mother country. And that's on my travel bucket list--Ireland--hike its green hills and coast, visit a museum and tour some ceramic studios as well as eat some of its iconic dishes and burgeoning cuisine scene.

Ceramics: A Work from Home Collection

It started with this bud vase last Saturday. I had also made some simple plant pots from the same clay body of sandstone buff. And I had previously decorated two bud vases with a motif of herringbone, triangles, diamonds and stripes. And likewise decorated the bud vase with triangles and diamonds and stripes.

The three little succulent pots I made looked naked next to the bud vase. And I so loved the triangles and stripes that I decorated another succulent pot with diamonds and stripes.

I just could not stop and was more in love with the triangles than the diamonds. More triangles and stripes.

And now it's time to subtract. The next pots will just be triangles of this color palette of bright kelp, baby blue, real orange, yellow, chartreuse, sky blue and white. I'm also gonna contrast raw unfinished clay with glossy color when it comes to their final firing.

Cooking: Mezze Monday

I had an eggplant in my fridge that was going a bit soft, and so I grilled it Sunday night along with the hamburgers I made for dinner and it then became baba ghanoush to accompany the hummus I made on Monday. It was more of a chunky salad than a paste, but made with my usual ingredients of tahini, Eureka lemon, ground coriander, ground cumin and garlic--basically the same flavoring ingredients in my hummus.

One can't have Mezze Monday without a Greek salad as well as Mediterranean chicken and Naan (okay that's South Asian bread, but it works as a substitute for pita).

I had managed to be sober curious all last week, nary a glass of wine Sunday through Friday, and then I broke over the weekend. However, those five days of no booze were revelatory. And so I'm looking into just sipping an aperitif when I start social drinking. 

Cooking: Cristina Pizza

Last week I dined outdoors with a friend at Il Fornaio. She ordered the Cristina pizza and split her bottle of Pinot Noir with me. I insisted too that she take home the leftovers because I knew I could re-create it at home. It had been a while since I bought refrigerated pizza dough, but I took it out the night before to thaw and rise on my kitchen counter. I had also bought white button, crimini and Shitake mushrooms.

 

I sliced and sautéed the mushrooms with lots of chopped garlic and thyme in butter and olive oil, and because it was going to be the sauce base for the pizza, I added heavy whipping cream. I spread out the crust on a perforated pizza pan.

With no pizza oven to crank up to 700 degrees, I know to parbake my supermarket dough in my home oven which can only go as high as 480 degrees for 5 minutes or so, but next time I need to remember to parbake the crust longer.

While my pizza crust was prebaking, I set out the other ingredients of cheeses, prosciutto, and arugula.

Since I can't achieve that light and golden brown crust of an Italian pizzeria, I make up for it by heaping on the toppings. First a layer of the provolone cheese in my drawer after trimming off tiny moldy edges and then a layer of the creamy mushrooms and then more provolone and mushrooms and then sprinklings of grated Italian cheeses (mozzarella, provolone, fontina and parmesan). I popped the pizza into my oven to as hot as it can possibly get for maybe 12 minutes or more minutes or until the cheese is hot and bubbly and brown as you like it.

While my pizza was baking, I suddenly remembered that Il Fornaio also puts shaved Parmesan on top with the arugula after the pizza is baked. I then layered the whole package of cool prosciutto on top of the hot pizza.

 

Next came the layer of arugula.

I know hubs finds Parmesan a bit overwhelming, and so I reserved the shavings for my own slice.

Also I love fresh citrus squeezed on top of my food whether it be steak or tacos or posole or pizza. Hubs liked it too because I noticed he ate a second slice even though I’ve made this pizza before albeit without the mushrooms.

I also decided to finally make ambrosia salad, and I don't know why it's called salad when there aren't vegetables in and not even fresh fruit because I was using a can of mandarin oranges, a can of pineapple chunks, and Amarena cherries. I deviated from the usual recipe by omitting the sour cream (maybe to cut down on all the sugar from the Cool Whip?) and the marshmallows (I don’t dig their soft texture).

I would've loved to have included some bright green cubes of lime Jello, but opted instead for toasted pistachios. I do love toasted coconut chips instead of chewy and overly sweetened coconut flakes. I studied the package label of the Cool Whip. Who knew you could eat it like ice cream?

I thought my ambrosia was the perfect level of sweetness though I had wished I had added instead my bigger can of crushed pineapple.

I opened that can of crushed pineapple and put part of it into ambrosia, but ugh it was way too sweet. Although I hate to waste, I have no hesitation when it comes to dumping a failed dessert. This weekend’s aim is to make a pina colada of some sort.

March is the Month of Expectation

March is the Month of Expectation

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March is the Month of Expectation.

The things we do not know—

The Persons of prognostication

Are coming now—

We try to show becoming firmness—

But pompous Joy

Betrays us, as his first Betrothal

Betrays a Boy.

I never fully understand the metaphors of Emily Dickinson’s poetry on first reading, but always her language rivets me. I'm guessing her poem presages March weather as not fully winter, but not wholly spring either. I know this fickleness of Nature firsthand because we wait almost the whole month, nurturing baby starter plants before planting them in our community garden plot once we know frost won’t kill them.

March is also Women’s History Month, and so I pay tribute to Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman in Congress (1968) and the first African American woman to run for President (1972). Chisolm paved the way for the likes of Kamala Harris with her saying below.

I also finally used up the rest of the Asian barbecued pork that Cecilia gave me by turning it into fried rice. I was going to stir fry vegetables separately, but decided nah, just integrate it all with the protein and starch.

I had the ingredients all prepped and ready: pork, more pork (i.e., Spam), Napa cabbage, sugar snap peas, heirloom baby carrots, bamboo shoots, jasmine rice, scallions, red onion, garlic, ginger and a sauce or slurry of soy sauce, Maggi, oyster sauce, chicken broth and corn starch. Unfortunately I burned the peanut oil in my wok when I was preheating it and filled my condo with smoke. I spent part of making dinner just scraping and rinsing my wok before finally cooking the rice which I hurriedly set out for serving and ran a huge serving to my neighbor, who said she loved the crunch of the vegetables and the moisture level of the rice (hmmm, I thought it a bit too soppy).

However, unlike kimchi fried rice, hubs ate my Chinese fried rice, and we finished dinner when I finally remembered to take a pic of the final dish or rather what was leftover.

And I had half a can of Spam, which I love simply sliced, pan fried and then sandwiched between a soft potato or white bread. Even the low sodium version is deliciously salty.

Seriously, my favorite lunch, which I'm having multiple days this week. I like to cook it ahead of time (yeah I know it's already cooked) with that slight brown crust and then reheat it in the toaster oven before making a sandwich.