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

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!)

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.

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?

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!

Spring flowers and floating islands

Potters Place, my cooperative studio in Walpole, MA hosts a spring show and sale annually over the weekend preceding Mother's Day.  The members who coordinate the show get to choose the theme.  This year it is “Flora and Fauna”. 

I turned to stamps with images of flowers for my inspiration.

 

I'm using tiles as a way to explore some of my ideas.  I really like the way they are coming out of the kiln.

My Magnolia Flower Tile

This stamp illustrates a flowering tree commonly called the Franklin tree. It is native to Georgia. It has been extinct in the wild since the early 19th century, but survives as a cultivated ornamental tree.

I'm anxiously awaiting the final glaze results of this tile. Using some of the same colors as my Magnolia Flower tile, it will work nicely with my Spring "Flora and Fauna" Collection.

Camellia

As a child, I spent many hours looking at beautiful stamps with my grandmother.  It was where I first learned about art, history, and geography.   
 

It seems fitting that I share a recipe of my grandmother's as it was her love of stamps and flowers that inspired the pottery featured in today's blog post.

Floating Island~ serves 6
A French dessert consisting of Meringue floating on a vanilla custard.


Custard:
2 cups milk
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
3 T flour
1 tsp vanilla

Meringues:
2 cups milk
6 egg whites
1/3 cup sugar
pinch salt

To make the custard: bring the milk to a boil over medium heat, then turn off the heat and let sit.

In a separate saucepan, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until they thicken and lighten, about 3 minutes. Drizzle the just-boiled milk into the pan in a thin stream to temper the egg yolks, whisking all the while. Once the mixture is well-combined, place the pan over a medium-low flame. Continue to stir with a wooden spoon as it heats, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon so that it holds the mark if you draw through it with your finger. Remove the pan from the heat as soon as this happens, and pour the custard through a strainer into a waiting bowl. Stir in the vanilla. Refrigerate until chilled (it will continue to thicken).

To make the meringues and assemble the dessert: Bring the milk to a gentle simmer over medium heat.

While the milk is heating, beat the egg whites, gradually adding the salt and sugar, until they form stiff peaks. Drop rough half-cups of the meringue mixture into the simmering milk. You can form jagged islands, or use two spoons to make somewhat smooth ovals. Let the islands simmer for one minute in the hot milk, then gently turn and simmer for another minute on the second side. Using a slotted spoon, remove the islands from the milk and set to drain on a clean plate. Repeat until all of the meringue is poached. The islands will swell dramatically in their simmer bath, and then shrink disappointingly when they're removed. Serve immediately on a puddle of chilled custard, or place in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours. 

Sign ups for my tile workshop have begun.

Carved Flower Tile

The theme is spring flowers. The class is on Saturday, April 21^st from 9am-12pm at the Dedham Square Artist Guild. Click here to sign up. 

In my tile workshop, students will create a drawing of a spring flower using photos and their imagination. Simplify the design and trace it onto a leather hard tile. There will be different tools to experiment with to create an image that is three dimensional.  When the tiles are dry, they will be bisque fire and then glazed in a solid color. 

2-8 participants. Ages 13 and older.

red velvet cupcakes and mixing bowls

Red Velvet Cupcakes 

(and a bowl for mixing)

I scroll through pictures on foodgawker and epicurious on my iphone when I'm looking for ideas for planning meals.  With Valentine's Day just a few short days away, I've been searching "red velvet cupcake" recipes. My research yielded a lot of recipes that called for buttermilk, but I like to use ingredients that I might have on hand. Let me know if you don't think this one is the best:  

McCormick's recipe makes 30 yummy red velvet cupcakes.  
(Sour cream is their secret ingredient.)

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I like Droste)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 bottle red food coloring
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.

3. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

 

You'll need another bowl for mixing the frosting

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:  

  

Beat 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened, 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened, 2 tablespoons sour cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in 1 box (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar until smooth.

Because I can only dream ... about actually reaching the front of the line at Magnolia's Bakery for one of their red velvet cupcakes, I'll have one of my own instead.

For more food and pottery ideas, follow me on Pinterest.

  

Last Farm Stand Sale of the Season

To get ready for the next distribution, I was cooking up all my winter squashes last night.

"Summer squash swell from blossoms to fruit in a matter of days, while winter varieties absorb energy from the sun and soil for months on their way to harvest - no wonder they are such a good comfort food.  The dense, sweet flesh of winter squash brings the light and warmth of the whole summer to your winter table." Farmer John's Cookbook

The three squash I have on hand are Buttercup, a red kuri variety; a Butternut, an all purpose favorite; and a sweet dumpling. 

Peel, remove seeds, cut and cook in a 1/4" of water to steam in a 350 oven.

Bake 45 minutes or so, then drain.

Mash each type of squash and set aside to cool overnight.

When mashed and cool, I will freeze squash for easy cooking with breads, soups or just a warm puree.

Sweet or savory winter squash puree
Joy of cooking

for a sweet puree... add for every 1 cup puree
1 T butter
1 tsp brown sugar or maple syrup
1/4 tsp ground ginger
salt and pepper

for a savory puree...add for every 1 cup puree
1 T butter or olive oil
1 small garlic, minced
1 T choped fresh parsley or sage
salt and pepper

Beat in warm heavy cream or orange juice to sweet or savory mix.

Serve plain or:
top with sauteed onions, zest of lemon, marscapone or sour cream, Parmesan or Gruyere cheese.

While I was baking, I was thinking back to the soda firing I did this past summer at Harvard.  The process creates such beautiful orange colors when the fire and soda connect with an unglazed surface.  I'm already looking forward to the next summer workshop. A group from my cooperative studio, Potters Place plan to attend this friday's ceramic show at Harvard.  I'm looking forward to spending time with them.

my soda fired vases from summer workshop

I was also thinking about the new friendships I'm developing at the Dedham Square Artist Guild, ...after a great Saturday shift, I went home with a homemade mini pumpkin pie made from buttercup squash.

The reason for all this late night baking is to make room for more veggies. This Saturday, December 10th is the last farm stand sale of the year.  It is the second of two winter share distributions and the last pottery sale at Powessit in 2011.  Stop by from 11-4 to pick up your local veggies and check out my handmade pottery.  The two go together so well.

In the garden and beyond

This coming weekend, I've been invited to join a group of Westwood friends to sell our wares at Jane's Beyond the Garden Gate Sale.  The sale takes place on Sunday, December 4th from 12 noon until 4pm at 52 Wildwood Drive in Westwood.  There will be jewelry, pottery (mine!), soaps, ornaments, live wreaths, as well as greens, candles, lanterns, fleece, furniture, etc. Bring your friends!

What's in the garden and how does it inspire?  Last night I washed, peeled and cut up leeks and radishes from my November Powessit Farm Winter share.  My favorite way to eat these veggies is to saute them in some butter, then add water, cover and steam until done.  They are soft and comforting and delicious topped with feta or goat cheese.

sliced raw radishes

I am not a fan of raw radishes, but my family likes them raw with a little cream cheese.

Red radishes and Watermelon radishes

The color combinations in the Watermelon variety are a wonderful surprise to behold when you slice through a seemingly pale white exterior.  Radishes are high in vitamin c and have a healthy dose of potassium.  Great for lowering blood pressure too!

Daikon radishes

I've also got some daikon radishes to eat.  These can be quite large.  They are delicious in any Asian style recipe whether it is a stir-fry (that's how I'll eat mine) or shredded in a salad or even pickled.  You'll find them quite mild compared to other radish varieties.

How does the food influence the pottery?  The light green and neutral colors of these root veggies is something I've enjoyed playing around with.  Of course, when you are coking, you need bowls, bowls and bowls!

crisscross bowls

For more radish recipes, click here