hi!

moi
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery

I'm still here, all is well, I've just been teaching this week. Really, it's only been an hour a day (I'm embarrassed to say that's kept me away), with little boy in tow, and 100 degree days, too, so I've been quiet. Little boy took this picture on Monday. I should have kid-made work to show you, plus some pottery news (perhaps) before Friday.

Hope your week is cooler than ours!!

weekend wrap up

Yesterday was a busy, busy day. I enjoyed spending the morning by myself, running to the farmer's market, target, the grocery, and michael's, hither-and-yon, delivering some figs and lady peas to my friend Rayner (of the chemo socks, which I finished just in time for her last round.

It was also a HOT day. At my house (yours too?) hot=cranky. Before supper, I made a watermelon granita (so simple- smush it up, add lime if you aren't trying to stick-with-local, and stick it in a little ice cream machine) with the huge watermelon we'd picked up at the Wednesday market. We are a small family, and 1 of us won't eat watermelon. As the heat rose (and tempers with it), I took a portion of the granita, added lime and 1 oz each of triple sec and tequila and made the very best mar-granita.

After supper we partook of what is becoming my fail-safe antidote to family crankiness. We loaded up the wagon with little boy's bike, Birdy-dog, water for all, the camera, and bug spray and headed toward the river. Memphis is perched on the bluffs of the Mississippi River and we're fortunate that there's nothing but field and forest on the other side. The park that we go to, the Mud Island Greenbelt park, is 1.5 miles long, beautiful grassy park underneath an alee of towering cottonwood trees. There are families, joggers, couples on dates, a huge cross-section of the city enjoys this free, clean, beautiful area. Birdy swims (on the leash, because the current will carry her down to Mississippi in a blink), boy bikes, and parents chill. We stay past dusk, until well after dark, when we're tired and the bug spray starts to wear off. I love my city- I think this is my favorite spot in it.

one local supper- july 23

one local supper- july 23
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery

This was an almost all-farmers-market meal. Vegetable and venison-summer sausage ragu over hollowed-out baby Japanese eggplants on a bed of goat-cheese stone ground grits. Purple cabbage and julienned yellow zucchini slaw, dressed in homemade yogurt-goat feta dressing. All of the vegetables in the ragu (and the stunning red zinnias!) are from my favorite farmers, Jill and Keith Forrester of Whitton Flower and Produce. Cabbage was from Dodson Farms, also located in East Arkansas. Grits come from the Grit Girl.

This morning I got up with the sun and blew $40 in 10 minutes. 2 dozen eggs, goat feta, and soft goat cheese, 6 lb of ladypeas (more on that later in the week) to share and freeze, more baby eggplants, Arkansas Traveler tomatoes, and a bare-root basil to use, trim, plant, and hope for more.


I told Keith about this meal this morning, and in his honor, I'll share the ragu recipe:

-1 big chopped tomato
-2 small green onions (his are purple and white!), greens and bulb chopped -reserve some greens for garnish
-4 baby eggplant, halved, hollowed, and flesh chopped
-1 yellow zucchini and 1 green zucchini, dice (the squares make a nice texture contrast)
-1 clove garlic
-handful of corn kernels (left over from earlier in the week- these may have come from Whitton Flowers, or from another vendor. I bought them some time ago and forgot about it!)
-diced venison summer sausage (or other smoked sausage- this is what I have from my dad's deer camp- it is both free and local)
-marjoram and basil to taste

Slick a saute pan with olive oil, add tomatoes, eggplant, and onions (garlic, too, if you want) and cook for a bit until they start to break down. Add a bit of water or stock to make it saucy. Add corn, zucchini, and fresh herbs shortly before you're ready to plate everything up and/or bake, so that they're still more firm than soft and the herbs still have a fresh flavor.

I cooked cheese grits with goat cheese, pre-cooked the eggplant shells for a few minutes, then layered grits, eggplant shells, and some of the ragu. Sprinkle with goat cheese, bake at 350 for 10 minutes or so. Sprinkle with reserved green onions before serving.


But wait, you say, isn't this a pottery blog? The casserole dish to the right is one of my first ones, from 2001, I think. I use it all the time- a big deep-dish pie plate. The dish that the saw is in is a vintage pottery piece- a miniature covered casserole decorated with pussy willow stems. I bought it at a garage sale for 50 cents and discovered that my boss at the Brooks has a full set! It's from New England and was mass-produced from the 50s until the 70s, perhaps.

Happy Saturday!

a comedy of errors

Sometimes my life just feels that way. Sometimes ALL of our lives feel this way.

Yesterday I did too much. Vacuumed because the coat of dog hair on my dining room rug was really getting to me. Grass out back is shin-high, so I used the weed eater. We have a tiny back yard, so it took 5-7 minutes, 10 minutes max. Mistake. Most of ya'll (friends, family, other blogger friends) know that I had a cone biopsy two weeks ago monday. It was a good thing- removing some bad bits before they got REALLY bad. Yesterday's activity loosened some clots and I was a mess- put on bedrest for the afternoon and night, up at dawn to make an 8am doctor's appointment way way out east of here. Poor Gary had to drive me. And I'm fine, I just have to not do anything that would break a sweat. No midnight dance party tonight. No more weed-eating. No problem!

Before that happened, the first thing on our schedule was to put our dog down. Luther was crazy from day one. Anecdotal crazy I can deal with. He passed that point. Attacking the mail, biting little boy unprovoked, biting me when I tried to keep him from destroying the mail. I've had labs for 10 years. My dad has had them for 20. I've had 2 besides Luther (thankfully Birdy is still with us), but I've never seen a lab like him. After trying prozac (yes, the people kind) for more than a month, and after our kennel (owned by a wonderful couple who specializes in behavior training and offer classes that didn't put a dent in his brand of insanity) refused to have him back, we realized that there was a single solution. We steeled ourselves to taking him in, because when you start rationalizing that you don't really want to add to your family because of a pet, something is wrong.

Because I took our beloved 15 year-old chocolate lab, Pete, down last year, Gary offered to do this one. But his car wouldn't start. Wouldn't jump. Little boy is at a friend's house, we both go to the vet's, go get new spark plugs, blah, blah, pick up the boy. Change it all out, car still won't start, won't jump. So Gary takes my car to work, I call the repair shop and the tow guy. Tow guy comes, starts the car with his big 'ole battery magic thing, says that I can either give him $35 and get a new battery, or he'll tow it and I can have a $200 battery. Here I heave a big sigh. I can't drive a stick. And I've been ordered off my feet for the day. We have a $200 battery (-Edit-and another $170 in new belts, which we found out were falling apart. So I guess it's a good thing the car got towed?). And I'm going to re-learn how to drive a stick (last time, in 1994, at 18, sliding backward down an ice-covered hill in Winston-Salem, NC)

So please, laugh with me. And please don't think that I'm feeling sorry for myself, because I'm not, especially since I just read my friend Molly's essay on mothering during difficulty. My child is a trooper. Today's payday, and I've got the battery covered in this week's pottery sales. We made the right decision for our family, I learned what exactly my limits are, and that my friend Michelle, an OB/GYN nurse in SC, is a fabulous friend to have on call. It's so much nicer to call a friend to find out what to do than to a) bother your doctor if you don't need to (I did), or b) go directly to the ER (I didn't). Here's to the weekend, some nice wine, someone else's cooking, and a fresh batch of kid videos from our neighborhood video store. No pottery news, I'll get back on that next week. Oh! And, this picture is me in 2001, I think. I was 26 and sassy. Short hair did that to me.

echoes

I've been having fun with the echoes group on flickr. I don't post every day, but I do try to create a little something in a special little sketchbook every day. This is my entry for today.
Early this afternoon we went to the mid-week farmers market and were happy to find honeycomb for sale. Our favorite honey people "grow" organic honey, and little boy has been asking about honeycomb since sometime in May. We bought some opened it as soon as we got home. He was so surprised by the texture and has been clamoring for more. But still, honey is sugar, and one big hunk of honeycomb a day is more than enough for any little going-on-five year old. I haven't had any since I was a child- and I'm thinking about saving the wax for some apothecary-type crafting.

finished martyrs icon

Finally, the finished icon. I brought it home on July 9, but our scanner was acting up so much, and not printing properly, either, that we broke down and bought a new one. It scans beautifully!

This is reverse-painted on glass. The white highlights and black lines were the first things to go down. The solid backgrounds were the last, then after they dried, the gold leaf went on.

The image is reversed, but that doesn't matter much to me. I'm pleased with it, even though I erased one of the nun's faces with too-wet paint. If I ever did this style again (I might), the image will be much much more simple. 'Cause this was HARD. But worth it.


See the process here.

summer obsession

This time of year, I get a little obsessed with the fig tree in my back yard. I go back, look at it, peer under the leaves, squeeze fruit, chase away birds. In 2004, when we were house-hunting, I peeked over the back gate of this house, saw the fig tree, which was roughly the size of a barn silo (okay, maybe not quite, but at least swimming pool size), and knew that, even though I didn't particularly like the looks of this house, this was the one. Yes, really. Four years later the house is finally starting to look how I'd like, and I'm still in deep smit with my fig tree.

We picked a few precious fruits from it on Thursday, several more on Friday, Saturday, and then on Sunday, I had enough to make this gorgeous, easy, and delicious fig tart for my friend Lisa's final going-away reception at the Cathedral. Today I'll start gathering figs to turn into fig butter to take with me to my upcoming girls' weekend in DC- our hostess dreams of the stuff, which I haven't made in several years.

Every year I do something different with the figs. The first year, it was the butter- we had just moved in at the start of the season, so I unpacked my cuisinart, bought several pounds of butter and little 1/4 c containers to store them in, and went to town. The second year, I dried them all. The third year, I saved them up for my aunt to make preserves out of (WAY too sweet for my taste, but it was the best birthday gift I could have given her). Last year we had a late freeze then drought, so I let the birds eat what we didn't eat out of hand. The crop was pretty measly. This year, I'm going back to the butter. Oh, and this fig ice cream! Recipes, you say?

Fig Tart
1 sheet puff pastry (like peppridge farm)
1/2 brick cream cheese (or goat cheese would be so divine)
a squirt of honey (maybe 1-2 tsp)
1T fresh minced rosemary
quartered fresh figs (I used maybe 20)

-Mix the cheese, honey, and rosemary. You can also add chopped dried figs if you have them to increase the fig flavor. I keep the home-dried figs in the freezer and use them on lots of things. They keep for years.
-Spread the square of pastry on a baking sheet (use a silpat or parchment liner because it leaks!), score a square inside the pastry (1/2 inch from the edge).
-Spread the cheese mixture over the pastry up to the score line and arrange fig quarters over the cheese mixture in a pretty pattern.
-Drizzle with honey (but not much, just a few thin ribbons over the top)
-Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Cut in squares after it cools with a serrated knife. Cut carefully and you won't mar the figs!

Fig butter

1 lb butter, salted or not, softened ( I like salty with my sweet)
1-2 c fresh figs
1-2 T honey, to taste

Whirl around in a food processor until the figs are completely broken up and everything is nicely blended. Pack into 1/4 c containers and freeze until you need them. This is SO good on hot french bread. I stole this idea from some caterer friends in Oxford, MS.