fried pizza versus porkchops....

The mugs up there?  Awesomeness.  If I may say....they have a cat on there that I have been drawing lately, and these are the first mugs with him.

I made fried pizza again this week.  You will recall exactly a week ago I made it the first time, after the NY Times did an article on fried pizzas at restaurants.  We are not talking deep fried southern, but Italian:  a little olive oil in the pan and a couple minutes crisped each side  to give a nice rich crust on there.  Somebody commented recently that it is excessive and fatening.  WELL, maybe deep fried pizza at the state fair, but a couple spoons of olive oil?  And havn't we buried the myth about carbs being evil?  I mean, keep in mind, for example, in our house as a vegan, I have to eat something (not just twigs and lawn clippings).  And splitting an 8 inch pizza topped with soy cheese and veggies with the wife...are you trying to tell me a pork chop would be healthier? (that was a joke a few years ago in a Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum book--her sidekick Lula was on a no carb diet and packed her purse with healthy pork chops instead :)

You will recall that there is a cute little corgi across the street named Soupy...Penny's good friend. They have a ball...well, Penny races around and Soupy kinda enjoys the spirit of the game....

COOP!

You will recall that I said yesterday I was on my way to Cooperstown Art Association, where I also happen to display year 'round in their gallery, to submit an entry in their Essential Art Show.  There were, no kidding, hundreds of entries there, but in the sculpture category, where I compete?  Just a few :)  Maybe I'll win a prize! I have to be accepted first....

Cooperstown is in mountains (little mountains, big hills, whatever) with Glimmerglass Lake.  The town is head to toe with beautiful old mansions, I swear, every street has beautiful homes, inns, stores.  The baseball thing is only a small part of it all, and oh my, the gardens too....
Happy Sunday!

hope springs eternal...

This guy just below, Godzilla walking down a city street, eating somebody and stomping on a car? It is my personal winner: I have made a lot of possibilities in the last 2 months, but this one is the one I like most to submit to a fine art show and competition in Cooperstown today. I am headed there after I walk the pup, have the toast and finish a bunch of cat mugs and bowls....anyway, I LOVE this piece, I am proud of it, it hangs on the wall or sits on a table, and it is being submitted to the sculpture category (no pots allowed!). I hope that it gets accepted, then, heck, maybe even wins a prize like at the state fair! Hope springs eternal...
Cooperstown might be the PRETTIEST town in the world....maybe the prettiest in New York state, anyway. The whole baseball thing is only part of the town, it is in mountains with a lake a lot of arts....and a lot of money....(there is a second item just below it, Godzilla chewing on a house)
 

SPEAKING of monsters chewing on things:
Believe me when I say it, I may be the world's best BAKER, potters often like to bake, it is similar, you know? The dough, the forming, the mixing, the baking, anyway, but every year, as longtime readers know, I DO TRY to plant some things...I usually fail miserably, but my cosmos and marigolds may have a small chance, they sometimes grow for me...hope SPRINGS eternal!

badazz with a bale of straw...and a winner!

I did the eeny meeny miney moe thang and came up with CLAUDIA for our winner! Claudia wins a ...Mother's Day card.  Won't her husband and cats be impressed?  I am sure her cats, um, think of her as their mother :) You should visit Claudia's blog, Idiot's Kitchen.  She may be a concert muscian and cat wrangler, but she is also a food writer!!!!

In other news, let's just say that I was playing up the Ralph Lauren cowboy thang on Thursday....I bought a bale of hay! Or straw?  I have never bought hay, or straw, before.  I have all this grass to seed in my yard plus a big hump of dirt we have not yet decided what to do with, so I was like "what can my lazy self toss onto that hump so it is not all weeds in a week?" and I got 2 bags of clover at Agway with my grass seed.  The bags say something cover with blahblah blah, and I don't know what that is, and the helpful agway person (I love agway! they always have cats from the shelter there for adoption :) shows me this 50 dollar bag of pellets, to cover grass seed or clover seed.  She says "cover with this...or straw" (or did she say hay?) And a bale of hay OR straw is merely 5 bucks! I am like "wow, i have never bought straw OR hay before!" and it fits into the little car trunk and smells GREAT, like horses.

I don't own a cowboy hat.  But I look pretty flippin' rugged here on my bale of straw, don't I????


Below is the yard BEFORE the hay..or straw...



Don't you love these mugs I made?  I do! Have a great weekend!

one fact and one dream: we need YOU...to win a prize!

Hey, you can go to comments and leave your fact and dream for all to see, and win a PRIZE! 2 weeks ago Smartcat and Corinne won my May Day art cards....one of a kind artwork by ME sent via the post office, and you, whoever you are, can win a Mother's Day art card from me! Just comment today and I will randomly choose a winner.

 OK, my fact and dream? It is a fact that I ordered some groovy bamboo teapot handles this week...oh how I LOVE bamboo handles, and they can be hard to find, and therefore, another fact, I am making a boatload of teapots to go with them! Another fact, the photo below is not mine. I put it up because although I could tell you I dream of winning a spot in the show I am entering Saturday in Cooperstown (see yesterday's blog post with monster eating a car, etc), and I also dream that one of my teapots makes it into Lark Books 500 Teapots book, it is also true that I am shaken by a dream I had last night.

 I do not usually have anything but lollypops and puppydog tails to write about in my charmed life, but do you believe in dreams? Do you believe in a sixth sense? I think things can drift in on the tide, like stoppered bottles washing up on a beach. I had the most horrific dream last night where I was a child in a prison camp for children. You will recall of course that Charles Dickens was placed in debtors prison as a child along with his family, and, of course, events of 1939-1945 in Europe and, well, many orphanages over time. I dreamt I was in a horror factory like that, very realistic, very detailed in the dream, but at least I had a friend or 2 to try to cope with it. Where did that come from? I am not reading anything about the subject, and it does not represent my own childhood, so I wonder if it is a fragment of somebody else's memory or experience (come to think of it, although I read Elie Wiesel's NIGHT 15-20 years ago, my dream was like his his story....sigh....). Anyway, you have a dream like that and you find yourself quite shaken in the morning and hope that because of it you can make somebody's life a little better today, and I hope you have a great day yourself!

Now go to comments and give your fact and dream!

why be DULL?

You were probably thinking today "good GOLLY my life is boring!" and here
is exactly what you need:  a shark chasing a croc around the rim of a bowl, it could be yours! Then you would be a whole lot cooler :)  For sale now at my etsy shoppe.....

I taunt you and I tease you then I finally give it up for you....

You will recall that the last couple of days I have taunted you with the green blob going into the kiln the other day to be glaze fired, then again, a pic at the top of the kiln, where I tell you it is this amazing sculpture I made of Godzilla eating a car. Here tis, the teasing is over! I made it as a possible submission to a fine art show I am entering this week (it can hang on the wall or sit on a pedestal). Anyway, got us thinking about Blondie's tune RAPTURE with the line "....Man from Mars.....eatin' cars, Cadillac and Subaru" The little car was made on the pottery wheel, and I think they are cute and wonder if maybe a little car should go atop a teapot.... (sculpture by Gary Rith)

"we're not laughing AT you Spike, we're laughing WITH you"

Mother nature was laughing at us Monday, surprise! Half foot of snow! More elsewhere. Trees and power lines down all over, flowers suffering.....some people from the south or even relatives down in NY city say "I can't believe you could have snow in late April!". Snow is April is the NORM. The 86 degrees we had last week is unusual!

Spike was grooming himself and being cute on the couch. Like people say, THAT IS A BIG CAT. he is so sweet natured and friendly though......

KILN just opened, NOW! Cooling indeed, and like I said yesterday, check out Godzilla in the upper right, eating a car!

fried pizza!!!!!!!

I was reading the NY Times the other day, and among other delights was an article on fried pizza...not deep fried, but a European approach to making cute little pizzas. The idea, of course, is to give the thick little pie a richer and crisper crust. I have always preheated my pizza dough in a hot oven for a few minutes before topping so I was like, to the wife "I wanna figure this out!". It was not a recipe article, but it is not hard to figure out how to fry pizza dough, and my recipe and instructions from Sunday follow the pics.....totally worthwhile, amazingly good pizza :)
The wife was my sous chef...and photographer....

Fried pizza, Gary style

-into one cup warm water, add one teaspoon yeast, one tablespoon sugar, let sit 5 mins, until foamy
-add 2 tbs oil, like olive, some shakes of oregano, basil, dried hot pepper flakes
-stir in 2.5 cups white flour, adding more flour if needed, so it is not sticky, then turn out onto floured board
-knead a few minutes until lovely and elastic, place into oiled bowl to rise covered with a tea towel, about one hour
-preheat oven to 400 and if you have a pizza stone, get it in there (if you don't have a stone, rather than doing 2 small pizzas in a row seperately, you can prepare them both at once and bake together on a cookie sheet)
-punch dough down, divide in half, and knead one of the halves leaving the second aside for now--put some oil, like olive oil, into fry pan (ours is iron and what, about ten inches wide?) and turn the pan to high at first...when the oil is shimmery and hot, turn back to medium, pat and push and pull the dough into a thick round that fits your fry pan, so like, 8-10 inches wide, and place into hot pan, frying each side about 2-3 minutes until there is a nice crisp bit of crust developing on each side, then remove from pan (turn stove top off) with spatula and place onto paddle (or if frying 2 at once and using a cookie sheet, add a little more oil again and fry the second dough and set them side by side)
-coat the dough with a little tomato sauce and some things like some chopped bell pepper, olives, cheese, onion, (soy for us) sausage, (vegan) cheese over the top of it all, then slide it into the oven, bake until the crust is browning nicely and top looks good, 15-19 minutes
-pull that one out, set it on a rack to cool, start the next half of dough, etc

Goodness its tasty!

In other news, I am firing many things today, including this Godzilla eating a car sculpture, which I LOVE...happy Monday!

2 little pigs.....

You will recall C. recently ordered a new elephant bank for her soon-to-arrive grandkid, and I made a bunch of banks, including my first Godzilla or dinosaur bank, plus a different kind of elephant bank. They are all down there.....well, anyway, the wife was going to a twins baby shower yesterday and asked for 2 of the piggies. EXCELLENT idea. The sitting piggy I make here is my own design, whereas the standing one is a very common item with potters, and my bigger ones will have a cork in the snout. Anyway, I had a ball wrapping the piggies and made the card down there also, with some eurotrash change which looks pretty, for good luck. I retaped the coins after that pic, tape on BACK looks better....have an awesome Sunday!


(new pottery and artwork by Gary Rith)

Oh gosh, here is a favorite. I remember during our honeymoon in '93, me and the wife were staying in a castle on the Maine coast and there was a billiard room and she was always beating me at pool and we had MTV on...not having a TV of our own...and loving this video.....