Garlic Sprouts and Maple Syrup

Here's a little picture (not great quality - sorry) of the garlic sprouts that are coming up from the garlic cloves I planted and covered up with lots of leaves last fall in a corner of the garden. We had an unseasonably warm day here yesterday - 84 degrees was the high according to my thermometer, and it made me think of gardening, even tho here in Michigan we can have hard freezes up through the middle of May.

The warmth made the bees really active. I have been feeding them sugar water. Yesterday they went through a whole pint of 1:1 sugar water, so I gave them more this morning. I want to make sure we get some honey this year.

Actually, I have been thinking of gardening already, and have already bought a lot of seeds. I will plant some peas today, and maybe put out a few potato sets, just in case we have one of those rare springs where we do not get a late freeze. I looked for any hints of asparagus, but saw none yet. Out in the woods, I do see the infamous garlic mustard popping up. I'll go pick some and put it in the salad greens for dinner tomorrow night.

I did get the maple syrup canned over the weekend. We ended up with just over 6 gallons, which is pretty good considering it was far from an excellent year for sap collection. Too cold, then too warm all of a sudden. It tastes great. :-)

Poppy seed Almond Shortbread, the best cookie ever

Just got home from holding the final for my Developmental Psychology Class, grading the tests, reviewing the students performance and attendance, and submitting the final grades for the class. Now I will treat myself by making some easy yummy cookies as follows:

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup butter - one stick, cool room temperature
2. 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed in the cup
3. 2 cups unbleached white flour
4. 1 tsp almond extract
5. 1 egg white, separated from the yolk. Reserve the yolk for something else.
6. 1 TBL poppyseeds, more or less

Makeing the cookies:

1. Heat the oven to 400 F. Wipe off a very clean sturdy cookie sheet and have ready.

2. Beat the egg white with 1 tsp cold water until it is frothy and the protein mass has broken down, and set aside.

3. Cream the butter with a wooden spoon in large heavy ceramic bowl. When softened, stir in brown sugar until well incorporated. Work quickly, you don't want the mixture to get very warm.

4. Stir in almond extract. Add 1 cup of flour, stir well. Add second cup of flour and mix with your hands to the texture of cornmeal. It will be dry, and just barely stick together when you squeeze a handfull in your fist.

5. Turn the cookie mixture out onto the cookie sheet. Shape it into a circle, about 5-6 inches in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick, by pressing it together with the sides and palms of your hands. You will be able to compress it to where it holds it's shape, but it will be fragile and easily crumble, which is why you want your pan to be sturdy, without any flex in it.

6. Brush the top of the cookie with the egg white (this will make the top of the cookie shiny when it comes out of the oven and help the seeds stick). Sprinkle generously with poppy seeds.

7. Turn the heat down in the oven to 350 F, and put the cookie sheet in the middle of the oven. Bake until the top looks set and it is just starting to brown around the edges, maybe 10 minutes. Once it starts to brown at all it will get over done rapidly, so watch it like a hawk and start checking it early until you know what your oven does.

8. Remove from oven, set on a stable surface and cut the hot cookie into 1 1/2 inch squares (it is very rich). A pizza cutter will work well for this - make four cuts one way, and then four cut at an angle. The cookie will seem very soft at this point. Move the cookie sheet onto a cooling rack and let sit at least 10 minutes for the cookie to cool off and firm up.

9. When cool enough to handle, break the cookie up - it will probably have stuck back together a little bit, and cool completely. Except for the piece you eat right there with a little glass of really cold milk. MMmmmm!

10. Store cookies at room temperature in an air tight container, like tupperware. If you have any left. These freeze well. You can substitute other flavorings for the almond - vanilla, lemon, etc. You can sprinkle it with slivered almonds or sesame seeds or cinnamon sugar or a dusting of nutmeg or cardamom instead of the poppy seeds. You can add texture and change the flavor by substituting 1/2 cup whole wheat flour for some of the regular flour, or mix some of seeds or a TBL of coarse cornmeal into the cookie, or some oat bran, or rice or soy flour or whatever you want to try.

All right, I've talked about it, Now I am going to make some.

What is important?

Spring is time for cleaning out the closets, the garage, the garden, the corrals, and that corner between the shop and the driveway where inconveniently shaped, un-splittable and therefore un-burnable tree stumps and broken pieces of unidentified equipment seem to accumulate. This is also a good time to sweep away the mental cobwebs and detritus of broken commitments, stymied and never to be completed projects, sidetracked plans and those ideas and goals that once attracted my attention but are no longer shiny or important, and are a drain on my energy.

I tend to have a hard time giving myself permission to move on. So, while I conduct the recurring battle that is the end of every semester (a project in itself that is loosing it's appeal), I think about what is most important and what I really want to do. I love teaching Ceramics in the studio. I am no longer entertained by teaching students psychology, and I really don't like the on-line Art History classes I am doing. I love being out in the woods at Maple Knoll, but I am really really tired of not having enough money to go around.

How can I arrange my life so that I make enough money doing what I really like to do to keep doing it, rather than doing things I don't like to make money to try to do what I like in my spare time? My next project is to figure this out.

Planning the pit firing

Adorable hubby wants to cook a bunch of clay chunks and use it as grog in some of the soggy spots in our road, since we have lots of clay and lots of wood. I am escalating this plan to a regular pit firing of some pottery, which I will invite my pottery friends to, with the goal of getting some pieces that look like This!

Here is a nice link that gave me lots of ideas, and here is another one with great pictures.

Ceramics Monthly also posted this very concise summary of what to do:

1. Dig a pit of the appropriate size, depending on the amount of work to be fired.

2. Place a bed of dry leaves and twigs and possibly coal, which will burn slowly, at the bottom of the pit

3. Place the pottery on top of this.

4. Carefully sprinkle oxides and carbonates around the pieces (particularly copper carbonate), which volatilize and result in flashes of color appearing on the fired work.

5. Cover the work with more leaves, twigs and dung (if available), building up a mound over the pieces.

6. Once the stacking process is finished, light the pile around the edges and leave to smolder for several hours, or until the next day.

7. Towards the end of the burning process, bury the pit in earth or sand, which will cut off the oxygen supply and create a strong reducing atmosphere inside the mound.

8. Allow the kiln to cool overnight and open the next day.

9. Remove excess scum with a wire brush under a running tap.

Tips:

1. Additions of grog or volcanic ash 'open up' the clay and make it more resistant to heat shock.

2. The best color results can be achieved with iron bearing, or red clays.

3. Bisque firing the work first helps to prevent shattering and cracking.

Not hard at all! I've done this with just a few pots in a garbage can. Maybe I'll do a little experimental hole in the ground the first part of May, before I invite a bunch of people over for a party.

Spring agitation

Seems like everyone I know is experiencing some sort of obstacle right now. My impulse is always to back up to when my life seemed obstacle free. So, here is a little painting I did several years ago, before I moved to Michigan, during an obstacle 'lite' time. Ladies Who Lunch was done from a snapshot I took of cows at a branding. In the spring time, I seem to miss Wyoming the most. And, the anniversary of my father's death is just a few days away. I feel like giving myself a little break, but everyone around me seems to be experiencing overwhelming pressures of some sort.

When I painted this picture, I had a structured and reasonably rewarding job, and a stable living situation, so I was painting a couple hours a day.

Design and sequence

Here are some very interesting images curated by some people who collect the work of self-taught photographers and artists.

While the images are fascinating in themselves, the best aspect of this page is the design - a successful sequence of images that led me to cycle through the set several times in a row - seeing different aspects of each image as a result of looking at the other ones.

This reminds me of Christopher Alexander's new work on sequences.  I wonder if the people who made the webpage here know his work?  I'll have to post something about him later.

Pruning the Grapes

Pruning the blueberries was so satisfying, I went out late yesterday, and pruned grapes for a while before I went to pick up Adorable Hubby at the Park and Ride, and take him over to pick up the small blue car, which got shiny new brakes and a shiny new part for the clutch so that it can start and stop on demand, rather than randomly or not at all.
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Ah, the grapes. So I whacked at the grapes, which I started to prune up last year. I read some different advice on-line about pruning grapes, so I cut them back severely again. I plan on removing more leaves after they start to make fruit. The vines make fruit, but then get various diseases of the fruit, and we have yet to eat a grape. But, one of the extensions sites I read said to take away leaves that cover the fruit to ensure good air flow, and that will cut down on some of the fungal diseases! Since my vines get extremely leafy, I will try that.
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Also, checked the garlic I planted in the garden last fall. I planted 24 cloves, and it looks like about 8 of them have come up so far. I put a lot of mulch down, so I disturbed the mulch a little, to give them more of a head start.
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Speaking of garlic, I read some Greek recipes the other day that also involved grape leaves, so I want to find out how to process the grape leaves so that we can eat them! So many projects, so little time.

Pruning the Blueberries

This weekend I pruned my poor neglected blueberries. Above are a couple of unpruned bushes - they crank out the berries like heroes, but I haven't pruned them in years, so they need a little grooming. This weekend, while adorable hubby worked on the fences to keep Cesar, Prince of Ponies, where we want him to be - for instance: not in the blueberries - I gave the blueberry bushes a little manicure and haircut.

The Ohio extension site has nice suggested before and after pictures, which look a lot like my before and after bushes, but I can't get them loaded up here.

The photos make the after bushes look more thin and scraggley, instead of tidy.  I followed their simple directions. It's hard cutting away anything growing, but I hope to have many more blueberries from my sturdy healthy bushes this year.

Tsunami Art

Here is just one of a striking series of images made in response to the tsunami. A variety of media and styles. Well worth going to the PAGE HERE and looking at the rest of them.

Sundial Birdbath with Dragonflies

So, here is a fun thing! Seems like I have had a hard time getting to my own work in the ceramics studio this semester, but finally, here is a completed piece to show. This is a birdbath with a decorative sundial to put in the garden - not sure it

will really work to tell the time, but I thought the little birdies might like to perch on it.

This birdbath about 13 inches in diameter. I drew the dragonflies in brown engobe, and it is glazed with celadon and tenmoku glazes. It was a drape project demonstration for my beginning ceramics class at the community college, but it turned out so nicely, I think I'll make some more.

This one will just have to sit on a table of some sort.I think I'll put some reinforced holes in the rim of the next one I make, so that it can be hung from a tree limb.

Homemade Vanilla Extract - a True DIY Luxury!

Here's my recipe for homemade vanilla extract. They charge an astounding amount for the nice organic stuff at Whole Foods, or the People's Coop, or anywhere, when you can easily make some that is so much yummier! It's a little bit of an initial investment, but once you have the ingredients, it is very easy to do. In the long run you will be saving money, and this is so much better than anything you can buy.

Here's what you need to make your own vanilla extract:

2 empty 12 oz. Jones Soda bottles, rinsed out with very hot water. (These are just what I had that had caps that make a good seal. Any well washed small bottle with a really tight sealing screw cap will work - the point is to have a good seal, and still be able to open it up regularly.)

4 whole vanilla beans - if you have a choice, pick the ones that smell the best to you. (But, I got mine at the grocery store and they are fine.)

1 bottle cream sherry - the least expensive one that tastes good to you. I have a $5.00 bottle I got at the grocery store, and it is intriguing in the cherry sauce that goes with a nicely roasted duck -another recipe for another time- and improved by close contact with the vanilla beans. (Other people use vodka, bourbon, etc. If sherry doesn't rock your tastebuds, you can use something else. I spent time around Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, which is the heart of the sherry making world, and became fond of cream sherry's sophisticated sweet smoothness.)

Here's what you do:

1. Make sure your bottles hold a good seal, and are very clean and totally dry.

2. Put two vanilla beans into each bottle. You can slice them to let the seeds out if you like, which many recipes suggest, but I just put mine in the bottle whole and the final product is very satisfactory.

3. Fill the bottles up with your cream sherry, or other liquor of choice.

4. Label and date the bottles, and put them in a dark kitchen cabinet. Every day for a week, shake the bottles. If one the bottle caps has a tiny little leak, you will start to notice that it is getting sticky, and you can replace the cap. After a week, you can put your bottles of "vanilla extract to be" in the back of the cabinet, and make a note to shake it once a week. If you forget to shake, no problem, it will still taste just fine after a while.

5. You can smell and taste the vanilla after about two months, and start using one bottle! When you have used up the first bottle, you can fill it back up with more sherry (the vanilla beans will flavor 5 or 6 batches before it starts to fade) and start in on the second bottle, which will be even better since it will have sat with the beans longer than the first bottle.

6. This is great in coffee - 1 tsp. per cup for flavor, not an alcohol buzz! This is also the "secret ingredient" that makes my chocolate chip cookies taste better than anyone else's...and blueberry buckle, and pound cake. And, if you add a little to the egg mix that you dip bread in when making French toast - sooooo good! And of course, you can go get some little 2 or 3 oz. pretty bottles and make nice labels and give this stuff as Christmas gifts to everyone on your list who cooks, or drinks coffee....

Boiling the Sap

This weekend we cooked a lot of maple sap - close to 100 gallons of sap, which will be turned into about two gallons of syrup after I get done processing it. This is a picture of the stove Adorable Hubby welded together, after we both got really tired of working over an open fire. After the syrup season is done, I'll move the little hoop house we have covering the stove over to the south side of the house, and use it to start my garden! But, I can't let myself get distracted by all those lovely seed catalogs - today day I am going to can some syrup! And write lessons for the on-line Art History classes I am teaching. And feed the ponies hay, and the little birdies millet and sunflower seeds, and the bees some strong sugar water. It's good to have lots to do - I would hate to be bored and lazy...

New focus this spring

The last post was a month ago, wherein I mentioned not loving the sinus infection? Well, I didn't love it, but I harbored it for many many days! Ugh. Now, I am finally feeling better, and so I have the impulse to improved my life. Eating better, fixing and finishing projects, doing the most important thing - this is my focus over then next little while.

Recovering

Love is the answer - hard to love my sinus infection tho!

-2 F in the Woods

"Baby, it's cold outside!"

That song was written for today. It's 8 in the morning and it's colder now than when I got up at 5:45! Winter is upon us! I will stop feeling like a slacker for not getting the sugar maples tapped last weekend.

I taught the Ceramics students how to glaze last night. I glazed the two little vases and bowl I made with some of the new glazes in the studio, but I don't like these glazes much - too much bentonite in them - they get all gluey and puddley. I should suspend judgment until I see how they look after firing - they could work beautifully.

We are planning on doing a real pit firing - dig a hole in the ground, start a fire to make a bed of coals, throw on sawdust, put on the pots, metal oxides for color, more sawdust, manure and newspaper for heat, lots more wood, let it burn down, cover it up to let it cool slowly and then retrieve lovely pots from ashes pit firing. This will happen the week after Fourth of July.

But, I need to focus on teaching the other classes I have right now. And go give the thirsty ponies some liquid water - I expect their tank is an icecube.

Snow time like the present...

Well, what a week.

My sweet old horse Candy died of the strange horse digestive problem known as twisted gut. This leaves Cesar an orphan and Sheba, now in charge, is taking care of him but seems anxious and worried. So sad.

Then, the "record breaking winter storm" hit the next night. This storm, here at Maple Knoll, gave us about 8 inches of fairly heavy non-drifting snow and one night where the low was 2 degrees. We've had much worse, although I think further east and south they are still having big problems. Adorable hubby spent most of Wednesday plowing the driveway - the Kubota tractor is one of the best investments we've made since moving here!

Now the sun is shining, and I need to catch up with all the things on my list that I have been distracted from by these unusual events. Catch up on my classes, mainly. Spend more time with my ponies. Get focused on my consulting business - need to start bringing in some more money. Make some pottery and sell it. That's what I really want to do, I suppose.

So, I spent a lot of time yesterday designing the template for a little slab teapot. I will cut the template pieces out of cardboard after I get my classes caught up and make this teapot and some matching cups Saturday morning.

I also designed and drew up a materials list for the chicken coop we are going to build this spring. Although I should be focusing more on more immediate project, maple sugaring time is almost upon us.

Ah, so many things, so little time. More later.

Thoughts on Beauty and Function

Fixing things is something I seem to do a lot. I have this little plan for how to live well:

Maintain a baseline of functional beauty.

Something that is broken is seldom beautiful and never functional, so fix what's broken immediately.

Make routine maintenance efficient and fun!

Real improvements increase beauty (and free time!) by simplifying function.

Chocolate Truffles

Elegant, easy and so yummy! This is a luxurious treat that is delicious far beyond its simple ingredients and preparation.

2/3 cup heavy cream
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, the best you can afford, chopped very small
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or kirsch or Kalua or Grand Marnier or what have you.
1/3 cup cocoa, again the high end stuff will make it taste even better..

Heat the heavy cream just to a boil in a small sauce pan over low heat. Move off heat and add chopped chocolate and flavorings. Stir vigorously until the chocolate is all melted and everything is blended together.

Chill this mixture until it is firm but still workable. Put cocoa powder into a soup bowl. Scoop out a heaping teaspoon of the chilled truffle mix and quickly roll into a ball. Roll the ball in the cocoa powder and set onto waxed paper in the frig to chill.

For variations, you can roll the candy in chopped nuts or coconut or if you are really ambitious, dip them into more melted chocolate....

Ceramics class met for the third time last night

The students worked on coil projects, and a couple of the advanced people did some throwing, and I gave a brief demonstration about how to make slab boxes. The got the take home assignment of designing their Treasure Box, which will be the first major project of the semester. Great group - they work hard and share and are doing a good job of being open to struggling with the process of learning new things. I trimmed up the little vases and bowl I made on Saturday. Hopefully a bisque firing will happen this weekend so that we can do some glazing next week. So much fun - I like this a lot better than teaching psychology classes! Sorta amazing - how much I have moved away from that.

2011 A Brand New Year

This semester I am teaching Ceramics, again, finally, as well as Art History and Developmental Psychology. I feel really really busy!