just one pretty piece....

I throw a lot of stuff at you, dear readers, today just the one pretty piece...there is some patterning under the glaze which you can just see, the whole thing looks mighty good I think.

Here is a good joke, speaking of elephants:

Q-If you are riding a zebra next to an elephant and being chased by a lion, what do you do?
(see below!)
  (new pottery by Gary Rith)

A-When the music stops and you're not going up and down anymore, get off the merry go round!

another deep dark secret....

 OH ALRIGHT.... I can share...

and I am not sharing those fuzzy little legs, I mean, share my cookie secret today...
OK, the secret of this dark deliciousness?  Make your oatmeall cookie recipe, but rather than use the spice like cinnamon, add 1/4 cup of baking cocoa, and rather than your raisins, use chocolate chips and nuts!!!!!!

and BTW, here is version 2.0 of dragon or Godzilla huge beer mugs..or coffee...in red and purple! For sale now at my etsy gallery!

do I dare share a deep and dark secret?

It is not deep dish at all, its thin crust! My pizza crust, the one I use most of the time?  The wife tells me three things:  first, that it is the best pizza I make.  Second, that it is like a thin cracker crust and third that I can indeed share it with you.  OK, here it is then, from Bob's Red Mill.  Tasty whole grain goodness!
Here are a couple nice items out of the kiln Saturday morning, looking very bright and cheerful....

"slow and steady wins the race" -Tortoise

(turtle butter dish by Gary Rith)
Jacci runs a gallery and wanted to make sure I brought up a turtle butter dish...had not made one in awhile, you know?  If you cut your butter stick in half it fits in there just right.  Also, you know those cute little red cheeses, the sort of flying saucer covered with red wax, GOUDA?  Fit in there beautifully...

The wife asked for tall cylindrical flower pots for her new basil plants...I made one with a frog, one with a dog and cat....have an awesome weekend you all!

a whole lotta green

OK, so above?  You will recall I mentioned finding a squirrel skull...such a tempting photo subject! With some fossils I found around our house....upstate NY was once a massive ocean...
Below?  Penny and I were at Cornell's wildflower garden....the huge leafed thing seems to be called GREEN DRAGON...and makes my beagle look SMALL! The sign does not warn that the plant will eat small animals and children....


This rather extravagant bench, sculpture and sundial is outside the wife's office, we had a picnic there Thursday...


Pretty teapot with a bamboo handle, hmm? The wife told me "you got it all right here!"


You may need a pretty frog mug, on sale now at my etsy gallery!

such beauty in nature!

Yesterday afternoon I needed to pick up the wife but had a few minutes on the way, so Penny and I stopped at Cornell Plantations...as we so often do!  I found this little squirrel skull just lying there (or is it a bunny?) It has these tiny little teeth on there....found 2 four leaf clovers too....
below you can see Penny at the pond...we saw at least 3 goose families with their babies.  Canadian geese are really vigilant parents!  The little babies are usually between the 2 parents who are busy looking all over...in case a beagle is coming....



(ginger jars drying in the sun above--Barbara gor me thinking ginger jars this week! Also Godzilla mugs, version 2.0 in progress...)
One day last week I was thinking about it and decided to make a mug that is, well, Godzilla.  Tail is the handle and such, enormous size for your pint of beer...this is the first version below, on sale now at my etsy gallery!

friends don't let friends garden like ME

Tales from a black thumb could be the title of this post.  I TRY every spring, as many of you know, to start some cosmos, marigolds, herbs, tomatoes, and it rarely works well.  The weeds in my yard THRIVE.  I'd love a nice garden, but I don't like to garden, you know?  So, I get the ball rolling and hope for the best.  I only spent a few dollars on seeds, but ironically, the sunflowers I got for FREE are doing the very best of the whole mess.


Somebody took my spot in the bed....hmmmmm...she looks comfy, eh wot?  And there is the delightful BEFORE and after of a glaze firing yesterday, cooling now.  There is a pair of flower pots on top in back that wife asked for.... mmmmm....she is better at gardening and has some herbs to plant....


Nice stuff available at my etsy gallery, check them out!

you always wondered how to make that awesome Thai peanut noodle sauce....here TIS!

My pal Claudia shared this peanut sauce last week and I was like "!!!!!" I looooove making peanut sauce and they always leave me wondering what  is missing or they are heavy and gut busting...and her recipe is just like the Thai restaurants! BUT SO EASY.  We had it for dinner Monday, will have it for lunch Tuesday, and a fresh and LARGER batch will be made Tuesday evening...with some for lunch Weds.  It is so good it is all we are eating for like, a billion meals in a row.

how Gary adapted Claudia's peanut sauce with lime and coconut

--boil 6-8 oz of noodles--we used rice noodles, or simply one cup dry rice with 2 cups water

--in fry pan, saute 1/2 bell pepper, 1/2 onion, 3 cloves garlic, TBS fresh ginger and one carrot for 5-10 minutes

--chop up a bag of fake chicken strips..."morning something" makes them, they are are in the freezer section, toss in fry pan

--add tbs soy sauce and 2 tbs lime juice and bl. pepper to fry pan, toss stuff for a few minutes on low

--microwave 1 1/2 cups frozen broccoli one-two minute, then add to fry pan, stir around

--drain noodles, or if rice simply top with yummy veg. and fake chicken mix, cover let it sit there a couple minutes

--in medium mix bowl, combine 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup coconut milk, and one tbs lime juice and 2 tbs soy sauce and one teas spicy chili-garlic sauce or tabasco or something like that, stir well------this is where I sorta added a little extra of ALL of those ingredients because it  smelled good

--microwave 1-2 minutes then stir one more time then top veggie and noodle or rice mixture, oh GOODNESS.

In other news, Katie and her sister Maggie came over for the cookies and afternoon tea and to SPOIL MY BEAGLE...... and you can see Spike has a thing for afternoon tea also...have a great Tuesday!

oh happy Monday!

I had talked about this teaset in the last two weeks, turned out well, then I added cream and sugar...I didn't get a good photo, but you get the idea.  Turquoise with blue checkerboard! Maybe the closeup below shows the color better....


The wife is like "that pizza is beautiful!" and grabs the camera....happy MONDAY ALL!

the boy who kicked the hornet's nest....

Me and the wife went to see THE ARTIST last night, and good golly, it is tremendous! And the dog, oh my, where is his little Oscar?????? We got these pics of ourselves on the way over to Cornell Cinema (seeing a movie about the 1920s and 30s in a cinema built in the 1920s, a fancy old fashioned cinema = PRICELESS.)
Yesterday was gorgeous and hot, and I watched with alarm as wasps built a nest on our front porch.  I woke up this am very early, thanks to the wee beagle who sees daylight and hears birds and is READY TO GO!  I was gonna go back to bed, but you know I wanted to kill those wasps, and so I did...out front, cars driving past, me in my jammies killing wasps (who were, in the cool temps, quite sluggish, which was the plan)
Happy Mother's Day to you all!