Mugs with rabbit handles

Hello everyone. I hope you had a good Monday! : )  Mike and I have done lots of clay works lately. We are going to bisque firing this Wednesday, and it would be our last bisque firing of the year with our kiln. We aim to use solar power to fire the kiln. As we live in England, we can't expect sunny days too often from now on. Of course, we will glaze fire after that. That would be the last firing of the year at home.

Last Saturday I had spent about 12 hours making chameleons, one big one and two little ones, on two commissions. As you might remember, my last firing for the little ones didn't go well, so I altered design and made sure that glaze can't pool in the middle of the pieces. They are so intricate, detailed and fragile. One of the three was broken as soon as I finished it. That would have been my insurance.

The deadline for the large one is November. I have also failed on this one once. There is no way I could repair him because sadly one of the legs fell and got smashed! Then a crack appeared between the body and tail during glaze firing. So he is going to be our table mascot. I imagine he would be a good conversation piece!

On Sunday, I put on an apron and cleaned kitchen, cooked meals and did tidy up most of the day. Mike aptly called me 'a part-time domestic goddess'! Hahaha, I like that. When Mike came to the kitchen, I was making disc shaped croquette. I said to him I could make whippet shaped ones, if he wanted. He didn't request it.

Mike made a couple of mugs on a potter's wheel, and I also made a mug and a jug. So this afternoon, I turned their bottoms and attached handles. Mike also did same after work. They are going to be decorated with my Japanese styled rabbits.

I also have made different rabbit mugs last month. (You could tell by now how much I like rabbits.) As usual, My mugs are not gigantic ones, but they will hold about 300 ml, which is 1 1/4 cups. They are kind to ladies'  smaller hands, as they are lightweight. You can make your cuppa a bit more special with these rabbit mugs!

Rabbit mug 1

Rabbit mug 2

Finally here are my croquette. I shaped them as discs for shallow frying. Because I don't cook often, whenever I do, Mike appreciates my effort so much! Here is the secret of successful marriage for you. : )

Pumpkin's egg had rich yellow yoke, so they became yellow too.

Self portrait and Tempura lunch

Hi, everyone. It was a busy day yesterday, After work, I had spent six hours glazing bisque pieces until eleven o'clock at night. Mike started the kiln early this morning for glaze firing. It's a summer day with blue sly without a hint of cloud, today. it was a perfect day for our kiln firing as it is on solar power. It is still about 200 C, so we have to wait until tomorrow morning.

Reconnaissance 

This Kokeshi-like figure is a self portrait. I found an old photo of myself a couple of months ago. It was taken just after starting a postgraduate course here in Kent. This is me who done;t know what will happen in future. I decorated her body with green glazes. They resemble a pair of wings folded, and also two little leaves emerged from a seed. This is me I had forgotten for twenty years. She was fired a week ago, and has been on our bedroom window sill since then. I greet her every morning. I need to communicate with her much more before I let her go. You can see her before firing here.

We had tempura at lunch today. Mike took a day off, so we had plenty time to enjoy our lunch. We always do frying in the garden, I hate frying smell remains indoor. We have plenty of vegetables from the garden. Mike grew them with loving tender care. He is remarkable!

Harvest from the garden

This plant is called Shiso in Japan. It looks very similar to stinging nettle, but it doesn't have stings. It is delicious and very fragrant. Japanese people use it for fish, meat, pickles, sushi and all other cooking. The easiest way to eat is to use large leaves as Nori in sushi. It goes very well with anything fishy. We often use them to roll sardine.  

Shiso, Japanese herb that I grow every year.

Vegetables are cut. They are ready to be battered and fried. The secrets of crispy delicious Tempura are; 1) use flour/potato starch at 50/50, 2) icy clod water (bubbly water is better), 3)  don't stir batter too much.

Runner beans are most delicious when they were tempura-ed in my view. We found it by chance one year. Since then, I refuse to eat any runner beans unless they are tempura-ed!


How to make Tempura batter
Beat an egg lightly in a large measuring cup. Add icy cold water up to 200cc. Add a half cup flour and a half cup potato starch  into the liquid. Lightly quickly mix it. Fry them at 160C for four-six minutes. 
  

Everything is from the garden except for the red pepper.

 

Making rose petal jam

Hello, everyone. If you wonder why there are lots of food in this presumably ceramic blog, it's because Mike and I really care about what we eat. I would rather remain hungry than eating something I don't want. I have been adamant with what I choose to eat since I was very young. My mother could tell you so many anecdotes of me refusing what I decided not to eat. But I can enjoy eating the food I really love repepatedly without being tired of it. (I can also enjoy listening to same music repeatedly. My BFs in past used to make music tapes which consists of one song, just repeated over and over, until the end of the tape. I guess some people don't know what the tapes are.)

Rose petals in a pan

I love rose petal jam. I tried it at a breakfast in a back garden of a ground floor flat in Istanbul 23 years ago. It was made by the step-mother of my friend. She picked petals from her rose gardens. She had various colours of roses. There were pink ones, red ones and yellow ones. I liked yellows one best because of strong scent. Scent sounds too weak to express the aroma. It is very strong, and it should be definitely described as 'fragrance'. Since then, the best jam of the world to me has been the rose petal jam I had in her garden.

Breakfast next morning (Notice the Pyrex collecting the petals falling!)

Some days ago, there was a storm. A long branch of one of our yellow roses was bent double. In order to protect the plant from snapping, I cut it. The branch had about 30 flower buds and several flowers. I cut them to shorter pieces and put them into vases. I only grow yellow and gold roses because I love their scent. Some white ones have strong scent, but I found in my gardening mad time, yellows have the best scent. It might be related with the climate here. As I have read reds have strong scent in the Mediterranean.

Close-up of the jam in yogurt and jam jar

I looked at the roes in vases, I decided to try making my own rose petal jam. I did a search for recipe Internet. I found several. In the end, I opted for the one with least sugar per the weight of petal. There was only 75g of petals, so I though we would soon finish it. I also tweaked it a bit. So here is my own version of tose petal jam recipe;

75 g of petals
75 g of sugar
2 tea spoon of orange juice
2 tea spoon of lemon juice

I cooked them until it boiled, and put it into a clean jar.

Whilst cooking very strong fragrance has wafted into the house. It was heavenly. I tasted it. Oh! it was so delicious! Surprisingly petals were chewy. There is no pectin added, so it is more like petals in syrup. So you eat 'fragrance'. It is very strong. It goes very well with yogurt or white bread with butter. We imagine that it would go very well with scones, too. We will try later this week.
 
In fact, it was so lovely that I have already made a second batch today. I told you, I enjoy eating same food I really love, over and over again.     

My second batch of rose petal jam in the making

This week's new pots and easy chicken casserole - I only make easy ones, but, belive me, they are yummy!

Hi everyone! We have had another cold day. The snow hasn't completely melted around us yet. I keep dog walks to minimum. When it is as cold as this, we really look forward to a hot meal after a hard working day. Don't you? Here is my very easy chicken casserole. Meat falls off from bones. Very tender and yummy! After eating all meats and vegetables, we will have soup for a lunch. You need to remove the fat on the top before warming up.

• Heat a large pan.
• Place chicken (thighs, drumsticks etc) skin side down in the pan.
• Peel and cut vegetables into chunks (carrots, potatoes, swedes, onions, mushrooms), and add them on top of the meat.
• Cook them on a gentle heat for about three hours. Add any wine you have got into the pot. (1-2 TBS)
• Season and enjoy.

 

Midori's very simple casserole

Vase inspired by volcano

I made this vase in 2010. I had kept them unglazed for a long time. When I got it glazed, I didn't like the way the glaze behaved, so I got it fired two more times. Finally it became something I expected. The lines on the pot are atrractive and dynamic. I imagine flowers look great in this vase. I can't wait to pick some flowers from the garden in spring!

Volcano vase

Here is Mike's new cup. It is lovely! We really like this combination of glazes. There are more of his cups coming up later. He did some experiment on one of them. We hope it will come out pretty!

Mike's beautiful cup

This little white bowl is our glaze sample. It looks like icing sugar! This glaze usually crackles on any clay containing frits. We used to use German smooth white stoneware with this glaze. It was a perfect match. But the price for Greman clay quadrupled; I had to source another clay locally. So I bought specially this smooth clay to try last summer. It takes us a bit of practise to throw this clay well, but we will get there. I intend to make a rabbit mug, and use this white glaze for it. Watch this space!

Glaze Sample

Mike is making a cake for our parrots and our polenta muffins, right now. The casserole is on the hob. I can smell it. I am getting hungry. See you tomorrow!

Nightmare and bargains

Mochachino, our youngest owl finch, on Mike's head

I had bad sleep two nights continuously. Last night I also had a nightmare, in which Mochachino, out last surviving owl finch whom I helped hatching by cracking his egg after his parents abandoned the egg, became ill in my hand. I was so upset. When I woke up I had to go to check on him. He was ok, but I found him on the cage bottom. Older birds often do that because they become weaker.

Late Couscous and late Coco, our first babies on my head.

Thanet Earth

Mike's trip to Sainsbury's at the weekend brought some good buys. First Tomatoes. They are from local Thanet Earth, and surprisingly they are sweet. Really sweet. We haven't had bought tomatoes this sweet during this winter. £2.50 for 2 was a bargain.

Lettuce bag

This is the bag for lettuce. I like it! It is a strong, simple and good design. 

Our chicken casserole, Rachel and Enzos' bread

 He also got a bargain for a pack of chicken thighs and drumsticks, three of each for £2.00! I cooked casserole with those. They are really tender and lovely. Mike bought a chunk of artisan Italian bread from Rachel at the University at lunch time.

This wine was so delicious. very fruity with a green note. Majestic wine

I recommend this wine. It is fruity taste with a green note, but not too light. We got a couple of them from Majestic Wine. It went very well with the casserole, but also fine as aperitif.

Busy weekend and the memory of rubbery beef in Moscow

My pork stew

Hello. How was your weekend? Ours passed quickly. I cooked pork stew for six servings and chicken soup for two servings, cabbage salad for six servings and pickled turnips. Mike baked his bread, and cooked my Pacific salmon and his breaded (unknown white!) fish for two servings each. You may think they are enough for whole week for us. Alas non! Mikes comes home at lunch time. So we often have proper meals twice a day. So it only lasts to Wednesday lunch time, I guess.

From right, Pearl's blizzard coat, Pearl's winter coat, Pearls raincoat and her teddy's jumper!  

We also did two laundry. One for dogs and one for humans.

Yesterday I trained dogs to walk together twice. Topaz had to wear a muzzle, as she has bitten Pearl when they found a cat and overexcited.

I also tidied up two drawers of my filing cabinet and found 7 expired credit/shop cards!! I also scanned my last year's planner. Mike contributed some vacuuming.  

We went a department store to collect an Iron ordered on Internet this afternoon. Delivery person seemed to have smashed previous order, which was a French skillet, (it looked like eclipsed moon!)  so we decided to collect it this time.

Mike also did grocery in Saturday morning. Well, I offered to do it in Friday afternoon, as I had spare time. But he insisted he would go. The reason? He said 'You would not buy things I like to buy!'. I said, 'Oh common, I usually grit teeth, and live with what you have bought.' But I had the second thought, and declared, 'As far as you buy, cook, and wash up, I will not complain.' Status quo was restored. It is a cheap price to pay, huh?

Topaz has new ears!

We also did several throwing. I like to make glazing sample with new clay, porcelain white stoneware. I bought 10KG bag, But, Geee, I found it difficult to throw. It is a bit like rubber. This clay reminds me of beef served in Moscow in 1980's. It was soooo tough that I could not chew it properly. How many times ever I chewed, my teethe never met. In the end, I gave up and classified as an 'inedible object'. There was also a small roundish green thing was served. I thought it was a kind of plum, but at close inspection, I recognised as an apple. Very tiny green one with no hint of redness. I often lament that apples in UK are so small, but no apples in UK are as small as that one. I felt depressed, and decided to skip this one too. I had a small chunk hard dry bread and tea. That was my dinner on that night, and thought about Russian people. It was years before The Wall fell.

So, getting back to the clay, I throw a thin tea cup, and waited until it became dry enough to turn it. But when I tried to turn, I crashed the lip of the cup... tears... I was dispirited. I invited Miked to try. He threw a small bowl that is going to be finally a glaze sample. Phew.

I am expecting this week will be less busy than last week. I guess I overdid this weekend. Now I need a day to recover from the weekend activities. See you!