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Happy Halloween

It's Halloween. Pumpkins are everywhere!

Sugar baby variety pumpkins are delicious to bake with. Wash the dirt off, put some knife slits in the skin and pop into a 375 degree oven to bake for an hour.

When cool enough to handle (I can never seem to wait and am constantly uttering ouch, ouch, ouch...), slice down the middle, remove seeds and transfer the pumpkin pulp to a bowl to be mashed.

I have a recipe for sweet bread that is delicious anytime of day and easily frozen.

Food and Pottery Connection:

Food: Laura Moore's Maple Pumpkin Bread - makes 2 loaves

from the Mystic Seaport "A New England Table" Cookbook

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup veg oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 cups pumpkin
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice

1. Combine wet ingredients. Combine dry ingredients. Add wet to dry.
2. Pour batter into 2 buttered loaf pans. Bake at 350 for at least 1 hour.

Pottery: decorated plates with leafy design

Fall Harvest

I know it's fall when mom 
delivers butternut squash.
With soil still clinging to it's skin, it's as fresh as fresh can be.

Fall means winter squashes ~ delicata, acorn and hubbard will take the place of summer squashes ~ zucchini, yellow crookneck and patty pan. Colors at the farm stand will change from cornflower yellow to pumpkin orange. 

Martha Stewart's photo of fall squashes

Food and Pottery Connection:

Food:  Curried Apple Butternut Soup
Mystic Seaport Cookbook
serves 8-10 

1 peeled butternut squash
1 tsp butter
2 onions
1 cup apple cider
1 cup applesauce
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp ginger
2 tsp curry powder

Cut squash and steam til soft. Saute onions in butter til soft. combine all ingredients in a blender and puree. Season with salt and pepper.

Pottery: Spoon rests take care of the messy spoons and keep your counter clean.

fall colors to choose from

 

Please pass the ...

When summer transitions into fall, there are so many more opportunities to reconnect with friends. Art openings, book club gatherings, put lucks of all kinds that have little dishes of this and that to sample from.  The way I think...the friends, the events, they all circle back to pottery and what those tasty tidbits will be served on.

Please pass the.... food: tiny tomato tarts on the pottery: see below 

Dish with Leaf Motif

Please pass the.... 
food: chewy caramel apple cookies on the pottery: see below

"Stripes and Dots" oval plate

 
Please pass the....
food: eggplant, pesto and goat cheese pizza on the pottery: see below 

Square Plate with all over floral design

My Plates (for passing) are one of a kind, dishwasher and microwave safe, and for sale at my guild's gallery: the Dedham Square Artist Guild in Dedham, MA. One could be the perfect piece to serve your favorite food on at your next gathering. (And no one else will have the same one...)

Farmer's Market Sweet Peppers and Pasta

In mid August, I was lucky enough to demonstrate at the Dedham Square Farmers Market under the Community tent.

I brought enough clay to demonstrate a cup, a bowl, a plate, a vase....

It was fun to interact with visitors and "talk shop".  Those who enjoy local food embrace the food and pottery connection.

While speaking to one of the nice folk who stopped to watch and chat under my tent, we decided this collection called for a blue glaze. With the changing season upon us, this dark rich blue won out.

I demonstrated tumblers, but ended up adding handles later in the process at home.

big bowl and little bowl

Food and Pottery Connection:
"There is a shift from tomatoes and peppers to kale and spinach.  The natural transition from summer to fall is marked by the produce we eat and the flavors we crave..." as well as the colors and shapes we choose to serve this new food in.

Food: 
Fettuccine with sweet peppers and pine nuts
 - 4-6 servings

 

Fresh fettuccine pasta (like Contadina)
1/3 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
3-4 sweet bell peppers, cored, seeded and julienned
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
Salt and Pepper

In a large, heavy skillet heat the olive oil. Add garlic and bell peppers, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring continuously. Add pine nuts and cook approximately 4 minutes or until they turn golden brown. Gradually stir in basil. Add olives. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook pasta according to package directions - this will take 2-3 minutes at boil. Drain and mix with sauce.


Pottery: Serve in Big blue bowl (see above) and rest spoon here:

the center spiral acts as a drain

Many of these pieces will soon be for sale at the Dedham Square Artist's Guild in Dedham.

sip and read

The Food and Pottery Connection is about sipping something sweet from a handmade source while exploring NEW cookbooks.

To Sip in Summer:

Watermelon Berry Sparkler 

recipe from Redbook - makes 16

• 2 cup(s) watermelon, cubed and seeded
• 1 container(s) (6 ounces) red raspberries
• 2 tablespoon(s) superfine sugar, use 3 tablespoons if too tart
•  cold brut champagne or prosecco (dry Italian sparkling wine

1. Puree watermelon and raspberries in a blender. Scrape mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl; discard seeds. Stir sugar into puree (adding more if too tart). Puree can be made up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated.
2. For sparklers, pour 2 tbsp puree into each champagne glass and top with 4 oz cold brut champagne or prosecco. For a nonalcoholic version, use club soda or seltzer instead.

To Sip from:

Pretty dishwasher safe tumblers

dedham square artist guild

To Read (while sipping):

1. The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier by Ree Drummond

2. Dinner: A Love Story: It all begins at the family table by Jenny Rosenstrach

3. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman (due out in October!)

Wild Blueberries

Close to one half million pounds of Wild Blueberries are harvested every year in Maine from late July until the end of August. They are different from traditional blueberries as they are smaller and less sweet, richer in color and juicier.

Food and Pottery Connection:

Food: 

Maine Blueberry Muffins - 12

Junior League of Portland, Maine Cookbook

1/2 cup plus 2T butter

1 3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/4 cup plus 1T milk

3/4 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 425. grease muffin tins.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, milk and vanilla. Add flour and baking powder. 

3. Fold in Blueberries.

4. Bake 23-25 minutes

Pottery: 

Square Plate 

with slip-trailing and stamping

(...perfect size for 4 or 5 muffins...)

This plate (and a few other pieces of art from the Dedham Guild) will be for sale at the Dedham Farmer's Market tomorrow on the green from 12-6

Connections

Visit me at the Dedham Farmer's Market on Wednesday, August 15th from 12-2.

I will be demonstrating on my pottery wheel

...a vase, a bowl, a plate and bowl (chip and dip), spoon rest and tumblers!

I'm a Potters Place potter and a Dedham Square Guild Artist.  Ask me about both!

Potters Place is my cooperative pottery studio in Walpole, MA.  I make my work here with 22 other clay artisans.

Dedham Square Artist Guild is my cooperative gallery where I sell my ceramic art with 28 other artists. It's right down the street from the farmer's market at 553 High Street.

Purchase your fruits and veggies, plus a lot of other wonderful fresh options (seafood, bread, ...) at the Dedham Farmer's Market.  Think about serving these items in locally made pottery.  That's the food and pottery connection!

Tomato Tomato

They have finally arrived... TOMATOES!

The Food and Pottery Connection ~

FOOD:

Insalata Caprise

Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4 as a side dish, 2 as a veggie main course. Double, triple, quintuple as you like.

2 large, fresh tomatoes, or about 1 lb total
1 cup fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
1 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
Good olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the tomatoes into slices about 1/4 inch thick. Arrange tomato slices on a platter***. Top each with a piece of mozzarella, and some basil. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve. Gorgeous.

Served up by Tod Dimmick,
AKA "The Foodie" at 1000radishes

POTTERY:
My Lily of the Valley Platter *** will show off the red of the tomatoes and green of the basil and be just the right size for a side dish salad for 4.

Lemon Balm Iced Tea

Lemon balm is a perennial herb from the mint family. I picked some from the Friendship Herb Garden at Powisset Farm this past week.  Rubbing the leaves between my fingers produced a lovely lemony smell.

"Lemon Balm is native to the Mediterranean region, and has been cultivated for more than 2,000 years."

"Lemon balm’s popularity continued throughout the centuries, and it was enjoyed as a tea to combat mental confusion and as an elixir thought to extend lifespan. So widespread was lemon balm’s reputation for promoting longevity and dispelling melancholy that by the 17th century, French Carmelite nuns were dispensing their Carmelite Water to a faithful following. The lemon-balm infused “miracle water” was thought to improve memory and vision and reduce rheumatic pain, fever, melancholy and congestion."

"Introduced into Great Britain by the Romans, lemon balm is now found in both England and North America, brought by colonialists who had come to rely on it for teas and flavoring. American Shakers grew lemon balm as a relief from mild fevers. One of the herbs grown in Thomas Jefferson’s gardens, lemon balm was well established as an important culinary herb, one especially suited to syrups and beverages."

Food and Pottery Connection~

Food:

Honey Lemon Balm Spritzer - Makes 48 ounces.

Adapted from Bon Appetit August 2011.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup lemon juice 
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 cup lemon balm, lightly packed 
• lemon slices
• 2 cups cold sparkling water

Instructions

1. In a large pitcher, mix honey and warm water until honey combined.
2. Add lemon juice, and 1 cup cold water. Mix well.
3. Crush lemon balm and add to mixture. Using a muddle or wooden spoon handle, smash lemon balm in bottom of pitcher. Add lemon slices and refrigerate mixture until chilled
4. Once chilled, add 2 cups of cold sparkling water. Stir.
5. Pour through a strainer into individual tumblers over crushed ice.

Pottery:
Colorful Tumblers

wheel thrown tumbler soon to be trimmed, fired and glazed in blues and whites

Stir fry Season

Bok choi, garlic scapies, onions, peppers, ... the list goes on for local veggies to toss into a stir fry. Serve with a brown or jasmine rice to complete the meal.

What is Bok Choi? (BAHK-choy)  

Bok choy has crunchy stems and crinkled, spinach-like leaves.  It's usually stir-fried with other ingredients, but it can also be steamed or sautéed and served as a side dish.  Small heads of bok choy are called baby bok choy (so cute!) 

Stir fried Bok Choi - serves 4

 

1 large Bok Choi
1 tbsp. oil
Pinch baking soda
3 garlic scapies - sliced like a scallion

1/2 yellow pepper - chopped

Broccoli - cut into bite-size pieces
3 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. salt 

1/4 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. roasted sesame oil 

 

Wash Bok Choi well and cut into 1 inch pieces. Heat a wok or large, heavy skillet until hot; add oil and heat a second. Throw in garlic scapies, add Bok Choi, broccoli, yellow pepper, stir until green color of cabbage brightens. Add salt, sugar, cook until slightly crunchy. Drizzle with roasted sesame oil.

 

THE CONNECTION ~

Food:

Stir fry with local veggies

Pottery:

Bowls for serving. Bowls for eating.

I'm thinking of glazing these in butter yellow or a baby blue.  

What do you think would work better for this recipe?

Stawberry Season

My CSA is open for the season and the strawberries are abundant! 

strawberries picked fresh from the field.

 The Food and Pottery Connection:

FOOD:

Strawberry Shortcake 

(a Walker family favorite)

Biscuits - I usually pick up a batch at Roche Bros in Westwood

strawberries - hand picked, washed (see below**), hulled and sliced

sugar - sprinkle over cut strawberries and toss

whipped cream - Cabot's

strawberry jam - I love Fisher Brook Farm Strawberry Jam!

Slice biscuit and toast. Spread one half biscuit with jam. Add strawberries, whipped cream next... top with or without second biscuit half. yum.

AND POTTERY:

A Berry Bowl** for washing your strawberries

wheel thrown berry bowl with drain dish

Memorial Day Weekend - what to bring?

Memorial Day Weekend in New England means jumping in the car and heading to the beach. That's what I plan to do because I hear the weather is going to clear up and be beautiful...yeah!

Votive with leaf decoration. (Dedham Square Artist Guild).

 Arriving with a hostess gift is a great way to make a good impression.  Whether it is family or friend, my colorful votives make a nice affordable gift.  Stop by the Dedham Guild to see the other colors.

Candles aglow in wheel thrown hand stamped and decorated votives.

Food and Pottery Connection:

Easy-Peasy for a weekend of fun in the sun New England style

Make this:

Shrimp Salad - 

Heart of the Home Cookbook by Susan Branch (Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen)

Large size cooked shrimp, chopped

Avocado

Fresh Pink grapefruit sections

mayonnaise

orange juice

Put an equal amount of chopped shrimp, cubed avocado and pink grapefruit sections into a (handmade) bowl.  Dress with a little mayonnaise sweetened and thinned with orange juice. 

Serve Chilled In this:

wheel thrown hand trimmed bowl in dark green/blue glossy glaze

If you really had a nice time, wash the bowl and leave it for your host... I'm sure you'll be invited again.

One of a kind dark green/blue glossy bowl is available at the Dedham Square Artist Guild at 553 High Street in Dedham, MA.

Join me at the Farm on Saturday

Powisset Farm Spring Festival is Saturday, May 19th, 10-3. 

It is the start of a great season of CSA in Dover at a Trustees of the Reservation gem.

Powisset Farm Fall Fest Pottery Tent

The Food and Pottery Connection:

The "Food" comes from Powisset Farm Blog:

Click the link for a recipe for Roasted Rosemary Radishes!

The "Pottery" is my wheel thrown, hand trimmed stoneware bowl. Durable for a season of cooking; yet, delicate in color with warm pinks bringing out a cascade of speckles.

A blend of clays create a speckling under a pinky rutile glaze. A green sprig adds detail.

What is CSA?

"CSA is a worldwide movements, called Community Supported Agriculture.  It honors a commitment between growers and consumers in which consumers pay up front for a weekly share of the harvest.  Bypassing distributors and supermarkets gives farmers financial support ... to continue farming.  In turn, the consumers, often known as shareholders, receive regular boxes or baskets of fresh, local and often organically raised produce, from a source they know and trust."  except from Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables

Miss you, Molly!