one fact and one dream and a lotta green and we need YOU to check in!

OK, one fact and one dream indeed? GO TO COMMENTS and give me your fact and dream, winner gets a Father's Day card handmade by me! Even if you are NOT a father!!!!!! Here is a total fact: June 1, tomorrow, is my favorite day of the year! Why? Because we get 3 guarenteed beautiful months until September 1. SURE, there will be crummy weather in there, and nice weather before and after, but June 1 makes me sooooo happy :) Dream? Our sickly little tomato plants survive and maybe, if the slugs and bugs don't do what they always do, maybe one tomato will survive????
You go to comments now and tell us yours!

In other news, you will recall that I made avocado pasta last week....this week, I make it again, but I am like, at the store, seeing spinach noodles and thinking "green pasta with green sauce, yum!"....on a green plate too....

  glaze firing yesterday, looking in there now..

You may need this huge beer mug....although certainly you could use it for any of your favorite beverages! For sale now at my etsy shoppe!

4 + = died and gone to heaven.....and gluten free

I had all these pottery photos, but who gives a fork about that???? WE WANNA TALK EASY chocolate PEANUT butter cookies instead!
How about a peanut butter cookie with 4 ingredients....plus 2?  That is what we want!
I am noticing a) that I am a bit sweaty--I was sipping hot tea standing in front of a hot stove, and outside it was nearly 90, and in our house?  Hotter!  The kiln was on out back and b) some people say they are tired of the same old people taking their photo by stretching the arm out and up...but others have said I am a master of the technique.  The tricky part is getting the DOG in the shot...which is not tricky when baking cookies :)  recipe follows, because YOU LOVE CHOCOLATE and PEANUT BUTTER!


We have visitors with dairy allergies, like me, vegan visitors, and gluten free visitors.  This recipe uses an egg, which you know I avoid but use for some baking, but is awesomely gluten free, and the original recipe I saw claimed low calorie at 35 calories a cookie (HAHAHAHA! Right!) here it is from PBS and below is my version which is BETTER.

Gary's 4+ peanut butter cookies

preheat to 350, grease cookie sheet

Mix one cup peanut butter in a large bowl with one cup sugar, add one tsp baking soda and one egg, stir! Then gently stir in 1/2 cup of peanuts and a half cup of chocolate chips.  Spoon big balls onto the cookie sheet, about 15 or 16, bake for 8 minutes! Remove, let cool a minute, then transfer to wire cooling rack, yummo!
(notes--some people like to flatten peanut butter cookies and bake them longer, so as to be crisp...NO.  What I like is soft and chewy, which is what you get here :)

my gal gets a STETSON

The wife and I were out and about this evening getting the burritos from Viva takeout, and, well, we came across this BADASS STETSON. She is a small and unusual size and this...is magnificent. Wouldn't you agree?

twin pies!

 OK, so, I wanted to make something I imagined existed--applesauce pie! Basically, you are thinking, what could be easier than applesauce baked somehow in a pie crust?  IT IS that easy and tasty tasty tasty...would be even easier, but I make my own applesauce and pie crust, even still, sooo easy tasty! Seen here at our breakfast just now with scones, last night making it with pizza--
YES, i sometimes bake with eggs, but never meat or dairy....
Spike got into the cupboard...and was stealing dog treats? Does he need dog treats????

Chat (6)

AND OH YES here are some test tiles of decorating schemes I am working on....

the good, the bad, the lazy, the hard working...

(mugs by Gary Rith) I am pretty excited about decorating like this--there is a lot to learn and figure out, painting a blue figure under a jade glaze, but I am having a blast--makes sense that the handle would be elephant's trunk, ditto the teapot below--although ONE side it is the handle, the other the spout!

(teapot by Gary Rith)
The wife worked Sunday....and weeded the hell out of the garden....you would think i did nothing at'all... happy Memorial Day!

tasty goodness!!!!

(Spike)
You were probably wondering how corn muffins could be more awesome?  Friday I baked them with blueberries, and tried a new recipe for Mexican stuffed shells!!!!! I love stuffed shells.  I use use dairy substitutes, but you would love it:  basically, you stuff pasta shells with a bean mix and use salsa and cheese...oh MY...pics and recipe below...

Michelle with the magic hands clipped both of our hair Friday eve...I am ready for ANYTHING now...including the wedding we attend next week, stay tuned!


Mexican stuffed shells

preheat to 350, boil 12-15 large pasta shells per directions

Prepare 15 oz can refried beans--I make my own, but whatever--in a saucepan to warm them, then add 4 oz cream cheese, stir in, plus any other spice that you wish
Pour one cup salsa on the bottom of a 9 by 13 bake pan, fill the shells with bean mix, lay out in pan. Cover with another cup of salsa.
Cover top with cheese, bake about 30 minutes!!!!!!!!!

the BIG ICK factor.....

Hey, I warned you! I have these nice photos of everything I baked and cooked...but I don't think we want to look at that in this post...someone would puke....
As a married straight male who has never used dregs, gone to Europe or Africa, had socks with men OR prostitutes OR been paid for socks OR contracted hepatitus from Tac0 Bell AND who has O negative blood which EVERYBODY can use in an emergency...you KNOW the red cross never lets me rest.  They are all over me...just for my blood.  I gave the double red yesterday, which means I only go half as often.  It seems a little less traumatic than regular donations....when I finished, the guy with the sign up list pushes it at me ...gently at first...then pushes it at me again, gives me a pen...for the NEXT time I can give and is like "see you in a couple of months"

OK, so I walk out of the blood drive, a little nauseous actually, and feel better in the fresh air.  Return home, grab the beagle and take the walk....and the nausea is BACK! Just up the street "dead skunk in the middle of the road, middle of the road..."

not as dirty as cleaning septic tanks but ICK anyway...

The wife is snapping away at the breakfast table, as you see here....yesterday I was fooling around with soy milk and figured out how I can make SOY CAPPUCINOs! SO, i had to give US these 2 awesome cups I showed you earlier in the week, seen here with the St Lucia's cats I baked and told you you about also earlier this week...sorry, 3 pics of self at the table?  Well, I thought they were funny...

These came outta the kiln looking AMAZING I am so pleased. A color scheme I have not used in years, my baby blue with swirls, my ice blue with swirls....

OK, not as dirty as cleaning septic tanks, but I really think it is filthy and horrible, esp. since it involves my 150 year old basement. I am lucky to have this basement, where I store my glaze mixing supplies, I can make a big mess, then use the hose out back to clean up. Here is the stair down from the studio, down in the basement, then out the little door from the basement to the back door...its a good system....it does feel like a work out, the buckets get so heavy, and it does NOT feel like work. I mean, making a pot feels like work. Mixing glaze feels like...sweeping the floor? Emptying smelly trash? Something you just have to do...but my jade glaze was nearly empty and I saw that my spring green and turquoise were empty too, my 3 favorite glazes. here are secrets: the jade and spring green each began life as 2 seperate glazes, all four of which were "meh". OK. But I asked self "what happens if I pour A and B glazes together to make a NEW glaze, C???" and it was BRILLIANT and beautiful, like adding 1 +1 = 75. So then I was like "OK, let's put together d and e glazes to make F!" and that was amazing. Each of the final glazes go from having 8 ingredients to 16...it takes a long time to mix these....but, before you get lost here, then I said "well, this spring green and this jade are both so pretty as double glazes, what if I added THEM together?" and I got my best glaze yet, TURQUOISE! Made from 4 glaze recipes originally...so it is made of about 28 different ingredients in the end.....

Its not easy being Green Days, Sam I am..... ;)

(new mug by Gary Rith)
SO, like I was saying yesterday, trying a new decorating scheme under my jade glaze, eh?  Gonna run with it, looks so FUN!!!
Speaking of green...I have been trying to think of clever "green eggs and ham", "its not easy being green" and all that....you can see below, aside from cats and pasta, my green shirt which matches that mug up there...the wife made me that awesome shirt from scratch!  My neighbor paul was going past yesterday and he is like "GREAT SHIRT!"  it is.
So is this pasta, green green green!  Apparently last summer this avocado pasta recipe was floating around the internets getting raves...oh my, it is so tasty---you will wonder why you EVER ate anything else at all. Basically a wonderful mix of guac and pesto, sort of.  I baked bread to go with it. Recipe follows.....


I make it a little different from the original.

Ingredients: for 2 people

• 1 medium sized ripe Avocado, pitted
• 1/2 lemon, juiced + lemon zest to garnish
• 3 garlic cloves
• ~1/4 cup Fresh Basil
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• one cup  dry pasta 
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• several grape tomatos and olives for topping

Directions:  

1. Bring  a couple of cups of water to a boil in a medium sized pot. Add in your pasta (I use less than the original recipe, because I am dding tomato and olives), reduce heat to medium, and cook until Al Dente, about 8-10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, make the sauce by placing the garlic cloves, lemon juice, and olive oil into a food processor. Process until smooth. Now add in the pitted avocado, basil, and salt. Process until smooth and creamy.

3. When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse in a strainer and place pasta into a large bowl. Pour on sauce and toss until fully combined, top with tomato and olive. Garnish with lemon zest and black pepper. Serve immediately, can't save leftovers. Makes 2 servings.

late-breaking AWEsomeness :)

I am working on some new ideas, using the jade glaze over images.....version 1.0 here has me super duper excited, JUST outta the kiln!


(new mug by Gary Rith)

beautiful food

Years ago when I was wooing the wife, I made a breakfast roll that a neighbor had shared with me, I called him Mosshead.  Mosshead had a lot of great qualities although he was a weirdo too, a hoarder before there were hoarders.  But he taught me to make a Scandanavian breakfast roll that could charm the pants off any lady, and naturally,  I used them to do just that ;)


I think the whole idea of making little cat pastries is hilarious too, here is the background:


"A Swedish Tradition On 13 December the Swedes celebrate the Italian Saint Lucia with a remarkable enthusiasm, surpassing any Italian festivities devoted to the same lady. One mandatory constituent in the celebrations is a saffron-flavoured bun, in Swedish called a lussekatt, a "Lucia cat". The shape of this bun might vary somewhat, but is always based on bread designs dating back to earlier Christmas celebrations in Sweden. 
Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/saint-lucia-buns-lussekatter-saffron-buns-43784#ixzz1vgcbqJdC"

There are different recipes for St Lucia's Cats but this one is pretty good and pretty close to what I do, and simple too! I sometimes bake with eggs, but they are easily made vegan and with a cinnamon sugar coating rather than egg white.


another version of the recipe, maybe easier to understand, very close to what I make http://www.writingatthekitchentable.com/2007/12/st-lucia-day.html

In other news, me and the pup had the hike late Tuesday...oh gosh, it was glorious out before the thunder and lightening and all!