Please Pass the Tomatoes

Success!

A couple of years ago I bought a cheese making kit to make fresh mozzarella and made several successful batches, even posting pictures here. Then, they changed the temperature of pasteurization. As it turns out, the difference of five or six degrees in that process is the difference between good cheese and a big vat of mess.

I was recently tipped of by a Facebook friend, the milk sold at My Organic Market (MOM) is pasteurized at the lowest possible temperature. We have a new MOM in town so I ventured in there for the first time on Sunday to try their milk. I got a gallon of whole homogenized milk for my test. (You can buy un-homogenized milk, too.)

I gasped at the price of a gallon of organic milk, almost $2 more than grocery store milk per jug. Even though the milk is more expensive, it made more cheese. My directions say one gallon of milk yields ¾ lb of cheese and I found that to be true when commercial milk worked. My Sunday batch with the organic milk yielded almost a 1 ¼ lbs! I guess organic cows have richer milk?

The cheese itself turned out good, but maybe a little stiff, almost 'squeaky.' I don't think I need as much rennet as I used. I'll have to try another batch soon. Anyone have any tomatoes in their gardens yet?


 

A Screw Loose

A week ago Thursday was my last ceramics class of the summer. I really love doing ceramics even though I'm not that good at it yet. There's just something about playing in clay that is satisfying on a visceral level. I want to take another class but I need to study the family schedule first to see if it'll fit in. I have a lot of unfinished pieces from the summer class I want to get done before I call it quits and move on to another hobby/activity.

So, last week at 10:00 pm my cell phone rings, my hands are dirty because I'm trying to finish cleaning up after myself in the studio. Fern is on the other end of the line, very distressed. Very. I'm trying to clean up, I'm trying to calm her down, I'm trying to hold the phone without rendering it unusable from the clay on my fingers. "Something bad has happened."

She is so distraught on the phone, wild thoughts are swirling and I can't help but think the worst: someone is dead, but because she's so distraught, it takes her, what seems like forever, to get the story out. No one is dead. No one is hurt. The computer is broken, she and Kevin were fighting over it.

Evidently, she moved the laptop to the other room so she could hook it up to the printer, but Kevin didn't think it belonged in the other room. He's very OCD like that. He'll get very upset when things are moved to places they don't belong, sometimes he'll be upset enough to become really agitated.

I've learned to bargain with Kevin, I'll explain thing needs to get moved here because reason and he can help me put it back when I'm done. That usually works, he sees an end to the discomfort of change and I've engaged him to help and staved off any aggression. Fern hasn't learned these tricks yet. Maybe this incident will help keep this trick in mind should she need it again.

So now we have a broken laptop. It turns out it's just a broken screen. Dan found a company that sells replacement screens and will even install it for you for $50. When we got our first Mac iBook, the memory upgrade was shipped separately and came with instructions for installation. I've seen the inside of laptops before, I was not afraid.

I took apart the laptop to get to the part number on the back of the broken screen, (I took out 12 minuscule screws to get there!) and ordered a replacement for $109 + shipping. It arrived yesterday and it didn't take me long to get the new one installed. It was quite easy and everything went back together nicely. Except, I had two screws left over. The laptop booted up so I'm not going to worry about it.





PS, I took pictures of the fix, but the camera battery died so you'll get them later.

Putty in My Hands?

I've been taking the summer session of ceramics on Thursday evenings. Last night I took my camera with me and did another time-lapse movie. This movie is a frame taken every 30 seconds for almost 3 hours. My goal this summer was to make a small teapot, but at my current rate of success, my goal really should be to make a lidded vessel and worry about handles and spouts later.



If you're reading this via the FaceBook feed and you can't see the video, it's posted on my blog, you can watch it and comment there.

Wheel Results

Last night was my last ceramics class of the session. I have clay left over so I really want to take another series, but I have to see how the summer plays out to see if it'll fit into the schedule.

To help pay for the glaze and gas to fire the pieces, the arts center charges 2¢ per cubic inch for your high-fired glazed pieces. Fair enough. For bowls and all things round, you have to resurrect your memory of the formula for volume of a cylinder: πr²h

These are seven of the nine pieces I picked up. One bowl is in the dishwasher and the other item is a pinch pot Kevin made and I forgot to collect it for the picture. The total for the nine was about 500 inches³ for $10. I only had a $20 and eight $1s. The guy at the desk took the $8. He didn't ask for it, but I'll have to remember to give them $2 next time I'm in.



Overall I had a good time in class. I've taken the stance to try to be patient and just enjoy, not to worry about not being able to create every piece perfectly.

Centering the clay is the hardest part, it takes firm hands and leverage. I think one of problems I've been having was I was trying to center hunks of clay which were too large for me to handle before my skills were ready. I was able to work with smaller hunks towards the end, but that doesn't help create larger pieces.

The other step I had trouble with was pulling up the sides without pulling the piece out of balance. I would try to pull too much too quickly and the thin area wouldn't be able to support the thick walls above. I was able to create a decent cylinder last night that was about 7" high after more practice. I hope it will be a nice mug when it's done. Even though the class series is over I'll be able to go back in and finish the pieces later.

Another thing that is hard to get used to is how much the clay shrinks in the firings. That 7" mug will end up between 4 and 5" high, the cups in the picture above started out over 4" tall and now they are pretty small for tea or coffee.

When I brought home the box of pieces from the last firing, Dan wondered about where it all would go, our cabinets are full enough. I bet my mom would love to have some of my pieces. Anyone else?

Almost Done

Quilters [generally] love tote bags. Our quilt guild is doing a tote bag exchange at our next meeting. Several months ago everyone who wanted to participate filled out a slip identifying preferences. The slips were put into cheap plain canvas tote bags and we each got one. Our goal was to create a bag for that person.

The person's bag I drew likes blues, purples, the beach and quilting (of course). I was stumped with what to do for a long time. I even sat near my recipient at guild meetings trying to glean helpful information and got nothing.

Then, a couple weeks ago during my morning walk, L and I were talking about our bags and that I had had no inspiration yet and it hit me. I'd hand-dye my bag blue and decorate it with a beach theme. Then I remembered the famous 1820's woodblock print by Hokusai Katsushika, The Great Wave. I used that for inspiration to hand bead the bag.



I have a few more sprays of water to add, but this is the current state of the bag. I'm rather pleased with the way it's turning out.

Here's the inspiration:



I had printed out the picture in the beginning for guidance but lost misplaced it after the first week and beaded the rest, making it up as I went along. The exchange takes place at the guild's anniversary dinner next Wednesday. I hope my recipient likes it!

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I've been taking a ceramics class on Tuesday nights. After I took that parent-child class with Fern in February I decided I wanted to do more ceramics work. The class is eight weeks long and we are half-way through now. I love to work on the wheel but since my skills have not been used on a regular basis for a long time I'm having a hard time creating pieces my mind thinks I should be able to do.

I took ceramics classes when I was a kid, like 5th and 6th grades. My instructor was Bill Meadows. He taught at the art gallery in town, He also taught the ceramics part of shop to the boys in junior high. This was before girls were allowed to take shop. I'm still bitter about that. Anyway, Mr. Meadows taught us to center the clay his way. There are lots of ways to do it, but even all these years later, my inclination is to start centering clay the way I first learned.

Now it's not working for me and I have to try different methods, different hand positions to get the clay centered. We used kick wheels when I was a kid and I'm thinking I had the wheel spinning clock-wise back then. The electric wheels I use now spin counter-clock-wise so maybe that's why I'm having trouble, the force is going the other way, that whole physics thing.

OK, enough of that. If you've stuck with me this far, here is one of the bowls I managed not to ruin. I love this glaze. I love how it's a forest green where it's thin and Caribbean blue where it's thick.





There was very little glaze in the bucket the night I glazed this so I didn't get it glazed evenly. I'm happy with it anyway. Click the photo to enlarge so you can see the detail. Maybe I'll ask my instructor to teach me how to mix up a batch of this glaze on Tuesday.

This will make a good cereal bowl and cereal doesn't complain about uneven glaze.


 

When Government Bakes Cookies

It's no secret I work for a US government agency. I'm not telling which one.

I found this in my "food" file, where I keep take-out menus and recipes, and thought it was time to share. It was originally in the Washington Post over 20 years ago.

A Bureaucrat's Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies

For those government employees and bureaucrats who have problems with standard recipes, here's one that should make the grade—a classic version of the chocolate chip cookies translated for easy reading.

Total Lead Time: 35 minutes.

Input:
1 cup packed brown sugar
.5 cup granulated sugar
.5 cup softened butter
.5 cup shortening (really? do people still bake with shortening?)
2 eggs
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
.5 teaspoon salt
12 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate pieces
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Guidance:
After procurement actions, decontainerize inputs. Perform measurement tasks on a case-by-case basis. In a mixing type bowl, impact heavily on brown sugar, granulated sugar, softened butter and shortening. Coordinate the interface of eggs and vanilla, avoiding an overrun scenario to the best of your skills and abilities.

At this point in time, leverage flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl and aggregate. Equalize with prior mixture and develop intense and continuous liaison among inputs until well coordinated. Associate key chocolate pieces and nuts and execute stirring operations.

Within this time frame, take action to prepare the heating environment for throughput by manually setting the oven baking unit by hand to a temperature of 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius). Drop mixture in an ongoing fashion from a teaspoon implement onto an ungreased cookies sheet at intervals sufficient enough apart to permit total and permanent separation of throughputs to the maximum extent practicable under operating conditions.

Position cookie sheet in a bake situation and surveil for 8 to 10 minutes or until cooking action has terminated (and before burning action commences). Initiate coordination of outputs withing the cooling rack function. Containerize, wrap in red tape, and disseminate to authorized staff personnel in a timely and expeditious basis.

Output:
Six dozen official government chocolate-chip cookie units.

From the Washington Post by Susan Russ

My comments are in red.
I've never actually tried this recipe. Maybe someday when I'm not on a diet. If you try it, let me know how the "cookie units" turn out.
 

When I Retire

When some people hear I'm a quilter, I often hear them say, "I want to quilt when I retire." I always think why wait? Sure you have more (theoretical) time when you retire, but it's a great stress reliever and you'd benefit from quilting now.

Over the last 40 years I've taken ceramics classes, a couple when I was a kid at the Huntington Gallery of Art, then one as an elective in college, and a few more at the local community college.

It's one of those loves I keep on the back burner, my dream is to have my own wheel and kiln one day and space enough for it all. I really really don't need another hobby, but I just love to play in the clay. I was never really good at it, I mean, good enough to enjoy it, but not good enough to pursue it as a primary livelihood. Now, I'm telling myself "...when I retire...."

Fern took ceramics classes at summer camps and enjoyed them a lot as well. So when I found out about a family ceramics class at the local park service art center, I signed us up. It's a short class, only three weeks, but long enough to try out the facility, meet the faculty, and see if I'd want to go back for a longer series of classes.

Yesterday was our first class. Fern harassed me for bringing my own bucket of tools I'd accumulated over the years, (you're a dork, Mom) but then found them useful when the time came. We made the traditional "pinch pot" first, then used the slab roller to create another piece. These are my pieces, I'm not sure what I'll use them for, tea cups or flower vases, but I had fun. It was so good to get my hands dirty again like that. Next week we will try out the wheel and the last week will be painting/glazing.

I found it interesting Fern told me she was telling herself not to compare her work with mine because I was older. She wanted to do well on her pieces on her own. I'm proud of her.

I already want to sign up for the adult class series which starts tomorrow, and there's even a space available in the class. But that means I'll be out every night of the week. Sigh. Maybe next time when I quit taking water aerobics...