Ravioli PIE, Gary style, and a MYSTERY

Hmm, here I am , holding an apple with a smiley face on it...where am I going, what am I DOING Saturday?  Tis a mystery!  I'll let you know Sunday...comments are wide open for now, get in there, tell me somethin'.... AND MEANWHILE.....



GOOD GOLLY we love ravioli pie.  I had this clipping from some ancient magazine taped to a card and I make so many changes over the years and substitutions I FINALLY got rid of the original clipping and wrote down what I DO. ****
What I do is GOOEY and FLIPPIN' DELICIOUS...as any dog would tell you....






****
Gary's TO DIE FOR ravioli pie

you need a 9 inch pie plate (or 8 x 8 pyrex brownie pan) and:
--approx 13 oz. package frozen vegan ravioli, or any ravioli, actually, cooked per directions
--3/4 cup non-dairy "cheese", or ACTUAL cheese if you insist
--diced bell pepper, a carrot, 1/2 an onion, or any veggies actually, I was gonna add broccoli but realized I did not have any this time
--spoonfuls of hot peppers from a jar if you want plus any other spice you like
--about 16 oz tomato sauce
--2 vegan sausages diced, about 6 oz, or actual sausage DAMN YOU CARNIVORES!

-preheat oven to 375
-cook ravioli per directions
-saute diced veggies several minutes, toss in fake sausage and spice and hot peppers
-cover the pie plate bottom with about 3/4 cup of tomato sauce, then lay out all the ravioli, then dump the veggie-sausage mix on top of that, add the rest of the tomato sauce, GENEROUSLY! then finally top w/ the "cheese"
-if it seems like the pie plate is bursting full of stuff, put a cookie sheet under to catch drips, otherwise, just toss the thing in to bake about 30-40 minutes then EAT
-makes 4 enormous servings :) my version here is half the original recipe, because this is a great dinner for 2 plus lunch the next day, but if there is a big family, double the recipe and use a lasagna pan :)

"he looks like Snuffleuppagus!"

I am out walking Yogi AND Penny Thursday, and the wife had not seen Yogi in awhile and she tells me
"Yogi is such a HUGE puppy now, he is like Snuffleuppagus!"
and Penny, our little beagle who does not like many other dogs, LOVES Yogi the golden doodle...

Later on Yogi and I run into another neighbor who has the little corgi named Soupy, who also happens to be our Penny's friend, BUT Soupy is snapping and growling at sweet Yogi!  SHEESH!  Who would act like that with Yogi, the kindest most fun dog on EARTH????
(Soupy knows better than to snap and growl at Penny...Penny would kick her ass...)

Watching Penny and Yogi play like puppies is awesome...

THE END.....

"There are a lot of people in the graveyard who wish they had your problems"
Billy Connolly.

I am in, as you may recall, training to be a hospice volunteer.  My part, as you will also recall, is to follow my dog around as she jumps into laps and tries to spread some of her abundant love and affection.
I have been warned that, unlike our work at the senior center where everybody signs a release for publication, hospice is, as you might imagine, PRIVATE.  And here is me, as you know, telling everything, everyday!  But I think I can tell stories without touching anybody's or any places' privacy.

One thing I had not realized was that people volunteer to do ANYTHING for hospice patients.  I thought it was going to be all dog people like me. NO!   Instead, people might volunteer to read to people, go to the store, do errands, prepare food, work in the house, massage therapy, etc.  I was blown away:  the OTHER VOLUNTEERS ARE REALLY GIVING SOMETHING AMAZING and I am just FOLLOWING MY DOG!  Everybody else seems truly generous, and I feel like I have an easy gig.

The training goes into all the things I have never thought about and humans avoid looking at.  How do we end our lives with any happiness and dignity, if, as most of us statistically speaking will, we have terminal sickness and some time before the end.

I feel like I have been sent to a great and selective university where suddenly I am learning so much!  Last night we saw TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, about a young writer visiting his professor through his final illness.  My GOODNESS Morrie was living every last second!  The point being, of course, we need to live every second BEFORE we face the end.  We all take life for granted, don't we?  Good health, being able to do what we like?  Or simply being able to fend for ourselves.

I feel like I touch God every time I make something beautiful, it is a gift being able to follow my imagination and make those things come alive.  I am lucky also to be nearing 50 in extraordinaryily good health and circumstances.  Do I truly really understand that?  That is the question for me.

How about you, are you able to deeply enjoy and experience your time here on planet Earth....? It is hard...

speaking of cats....and blueberry muffins...

You know my pal Vegan Mother Hubbard, right?  She finds, develops, adapts, invents vegan cooking recipes.  She had an unusual blueberry muffin recipe with poppy seeds, magnificent!  I topped them with a sugar-nutmeg mix, but followed the easy directions...so delish and easy and healthy!  Check out her blog!



In other news, this fine cat and kitten cookie jar came out of the kiln, mmm mmm good!  Have a great Wednesday!
 

Time warp Tuesday: ancient birthday edition!

You know Jen runs Time Warp Tuesday, right? A chance to look back at your old photos?
 It was my birthday week last week, as you will recall, and it is always a SHOCK when it is NOT your birthday anymore!  You are no longer special...do I sound childish? ;)

These photos are from my birthday in 1992.  I was a teacher in Chicago and flew to far northern Minnesota to see my sister's family.  Friday evening I arrived and it was 60+ degrees.  Woke up Saturday to 16 degrees and a boatload of snow...that is Minnesota, eh?
 My niece's birthday is just before mine and she had just turned 2 and she certainly was an adorable kid.  People love their family and brag about them, in this case one sentence sums her up:  she got a full scholarship to Harvard and graduated last spring....

feeding the BEAST....

I was out running with Ray and Stev0 Sunday afternoon and it was a LONG AND WINDING road, believe me (have you ever been running up a big hill into the wind and wanted to puke?  NO?  WUSS!).
As we neared the end of THAT ordeal I tantalize my 2 pals
"when I get home, I shall slice and roast 2 sweet potatoes, mash up some guac, then me and the wife will make tortillas"
Stev0 and Raymundo are like "oh geez, that sounds GOOD" and I continue
"The wife and I like to make tortillas together.  One person can make them, of course, but with 2 people I get to operate the hot pan and she has the rolling pin, forming and flattening the dough....mostly I get to sip wine and make sure they aren't burning...."
and Ray and Stev0 are like
"OH GOSH now you're making us hungry!" and I go on
"well, have you got an avocado at home?" and Stev0 did but Raymundo is like
"NO, It's just me and Scoop the cat....I wonder what we will have for dinner....and we already had tuna for lunch...."  I doubt if Scoop the cat would mind tuna again....

Next time Raymundo or YOU can make your own tortillas too! ***


Speaking of feeding the BEAST, the wife and I continue to cat sit sweet little Puffy...who is lonely, poor thing... I play with her until she is panting with exhaustion and boredom and climbs up on the table to stare out the window and relax....





***
Homemade tortillas, again!
--we diced 2 small sweet potatoes, put them into a pyrex dish with a little hot oil and spice and roasted them about 40 minutes
--the guac is the usual--mash an avocado with lime juice and MY SECRET INGREDIENT or if you do not know what that is, various spices and hot sauces....add diced tomato

those were the only 2 fillings needed for this yummy yummy big pair of burritos

--tortillas:  4 good sized ones
--stir in a bowl 1.5 cup flour, 2 TBS oil, dash of salt and 1/2 cup of water, then knead it on the counter, making sure it is not too sticky or too hard, divide into 4
--warm up a fry pan to medium high--no oil or anything needed
--with your hands and rolling pin, flatten out a tortilla, place carefully into the hot pan--flip every 30 seconds or so, letting it get crisp and seared on each side with awesome toasted bits, then fold a towel over it and start the next!

a CELEBRITY chef...

Helen was over Saturday.  You live in a small town or city like ours and you know people for a variety of reasons, multiple connections and all the rest!  Helen's cousins live next door to us BUT more importantly, she has known Penny the beagle longer than us---she has worked in the office of the SPCA for many years, and was one of the people who cared for Penny at the shelter before we adopted her.  Isn't that neato? Penny remembers....

I was dreaming just now, REALLY!, that I was a celebrity chef running a competition amongst 3 up and coming chefs.  The one guy I remember most was the one who had to serve a small monkey.  He had made some soup and salad which was a good start, with some carefully selected wine for the monkey, but the mistake he made was then planning to serve a lasagna.  Those things take forever, right?  The monkey was getting really restless, all the other chefs were serving dinner to their guests and the monkey was bouncing around....the chef was unrepentent:  he knew his lasagna would be good (due to his secret ingredient:  nutmeg in the ricotta) but it would be quite awhile before anything was served....
probably better to have that thing baking long before dinner, hmm?

I was talking with the wife the other day about PINEAPPLE PANCAKES.
I was saying "you know, like when you are a kid?  You put a pineapple ring in each pancake?  Holy CATS it is yummy!!!!" and she had no idea what I was describing, so I made them Saturday*** and the way the pineapple gets crisp and carmelized in there, then you put syrup on that whole thing....you may love blueberry pancakes but these are SPECIAL....


***Gary's recipe for 6 small vegan pancakes
--Fill a half cup measure with mostly white flour, plus some whole wheat flour and quick oats so that it totals... a half cup!
--dump that in a bowl, add 1 1/4 TBS baking powder, 3/4 TBS sugar and a dash of salt
--add 1 1/4 TBS canola oil and a little more than 1/2 cup of soy milk---the batter can be really thick as you stir, and you want it thick but not impossible, right?
--add blueberries as you stir if you want OR
--pour batter into 2 hot frying pans, and after a minute or 2 you can place a pineapple ring on each, frying each pancake on medium a few minutes, flipping, etc, until it looks done----
THE EASIEST AND HEALTHIEST pancakes you have ever made!  They are not heavy at all, quite fluffy and tasty!

now don't get all preachy on us....

OK!  But this is that rare, one in million post with GOD in it.
DOG too!

Some friends shared this poem with me this week, and the part in the middle I am underlining is quite affecting:

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.
—Rilke’s Book of Hours, I, 59

Go to your limits?  Let everything happen to you?  Just keep going? Life takes some courage, doesn't it?

And then the wife and I were walking yesterday in glorious spring sunshine and came across a favorite spot of ours WHAT BEAUTY HATH GOD WROUGHT.
... have an awesome weekend :)

birthday week = NEW TOYS!

I have WANTED IT ALL winter and knew that I would get it on my birthday week:  a new weed whacker OH YES.
It is well known that I am the WORST gardener ever, so my new gardening philosophy shall be:  kill them all! Hahaha...ha.  Also useful it there was a zombie attack, right?  Shred!

In other news, I made a house number plaque for Nook's family.  It is just this little clay doodle but when I saw it in the kiln I was like "OH!  It turned out so well!"
Have a great weekend...



Speaking of NEW TOYs...

 

HUGE chunks or why does everybody want to get in bed with me...

I think the answer is perfectly obvious!  In a chilly climate, cats and dogs don't mess around.  They find the warm guy in bed and jump right in....

But more importantly:  Why not make huge cookies? I baked vegan chocolate chip cookies Wednesday and brought one up to my buddy Kerry's office. You can see she did not waste time getting into it... although all of us potters SNIFF at her manufactured cup and saucer....take my word for it:  Kerry has plenty of my pots, ANYWAY!

If you are vegan, meaning no meat and not even butter or eggs, you wonder if you will ever eat anything but twigs and lawn clippings.
AH HA! OH HO!
Of course not.  There are zillions of tasty recipes for vegans, like these enormous wicked delicious cookies*** that WOULD FOOL YOUR FOOLISH CARNIVORE FRIENDS....tell me you are not drooling when you see these...


That is the calzone for my lunch to warm up in the hot oven...I made 8 of them Monday and HOLY CATS what great and perfect leftovers they make (filled with potato, mushroom, spinach, "cheese" and hot peppers OH BOY)
(this is where my friends of all stripe are like "that dude sure does EAT A LOT, especially them evil CARBS" but keep in mind, most of what I eat is lo-cal twigs and lawn clippings...)


***vegan chocolate chip cookies, so easy and yummy!

(dry)
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp bake powder
1 tsp bake soda
1 cup chocolate chips (we have them here without milk)
(wet)
2/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp. dark molasses

-preheat oven to 350, grease 2 cookie sheets
-In large bowl, stir together dry ingredients
-in second bowl, whisk together wet ingredients
-add wet to dry, using a spoon and your hands too
-roll dough into nice balls, place onto cookie sheets--they spread!
-bake 8-10 minutes until they look BEAUTIFUL, let cool a couple of minutes, then use spatula to remove to a wire rack for cooling

photo DUMP

OI, so busy, eh wot?  I got all these groovy items out of the kiln last week and photographed them, but what with PUFFY THE PSYCHO CAT pics and OPEN GRAVES I have not been able to post them yet.  Here they are, lucky you!  I am trying out, btw, vertical squiggly textures and you see some of that here, plus also, because I think it is amusing, a shot of the untidy mess that surrounds every nice studio shot of pots.  Have an awesome Wednesday!

(pottery by Gary Rith)

Time Warp Tuesday: Tomb Raider Time!!!!

You know Jen runs Time Warp Tuesday, right?  A chance to look back at your old photos?
I am taking poetic license with this AGAIN.
I am writing about photos of old things!
I am walking Nook the other day through one of the cemeteries in Ithaca and see next to a tombstone....


A BIG HOLE leading into a grave!
On the one hand, you want to get closer and LOOK INSIDE.
On the other, you know that ZOMBIES, SPOOKS OR VAMPIRES might be nearby!
I did get close.
There is an OLD BOTTLE in there.
I tell the wife "It is probably full of GOLD COINS, but I am NOT touching it...that is like, vampire bait for humans:  you grab for the bottle of gold coins and THEY GRAB YOU!  Probably suck your blood then let their zombie friends eat your flesh..."

Puff piece, Puffy the cat and Puff pancakes...

It is a WELL-KNOWN FACT that this is my BIRTHDAY WEEK and what with Easter and being who I am, you KNOW that one week is not enough (surely a DAY is not enough) therefore I plan to celebrate getting older, perhaps, all month....

My big present??????? Penny and I made the cover of the newspaper, like I told you last week, we were interviewed about volunteering with senior citizens and hospice with her as a therapy dog.
Ever heard the expression "PUFF PIECE"?  It means something like "nice little story in the newspaper".  Penny and I were the subject of a puff piece, a nice present today :)



You will recall, how can you not? that I am a professional dog walker.  I was relieved this week to find that with kids' school vacations I had no dog to walk but my own, and could therefore get some, um, er, POTTERY done, aside from enjoying my birthday week.
It was not to be.  A friend of a friend contacts me.  Puffy the cat, HER cat, needs a babysitter, can I do it?  I am like OF COURSE knowing that caring for a cat in their own home is a piece of cake compared to dog walking....

EXCEPT I get a message from the friend who suggested me who is a PSYCHOLOGIST I kid you not who says
"Watch out for Puffy.  She is a PSYCHO KITTY!!!!!!"
You imagine that if a PSYCHOLOGIST calls a cat psycho, you are NOT BEING PAID ENOUGH.

The reality is, of course, that Puffy is my new best friend...we get along GREAT.
She doesn't like the wife though...the wife keeps her distance....
I made this journal for the family, I am a very chatty notetaker when I care for pets....



They have 2 fish also, one black and one white.  They have no names.  I call them chocolate and vanilla.  I was very careful to count the number of fish in the tank.  When you babysit fish, you want to, ahem, try to be certain that the number of fish does NOT go down while the family is gone....


LIKE THEY WERE SAYING "psycho kitty"??????  Actually she is a sweetie :)
But you do wonder, ahem, if bored psycho kitties might spend the week UNdecorating the fine Easter egg tree....


Finally, speaking of today's theme of PUFF, I made PUFF PANCAKES for Easter breakfast!  Those things sure bake up huge...and DELISH!  Have an awesome day!

have a peaceful Easter....

I had the idea, as a beagle owner in spring might, to make this Easter card.  You have the innocent and sweet bunny on the front....


..and then you open the card to see a beagle at the end of her leash going bananas to get at the bunny....
Happy Easter :)