Somebrite test tile

Here's one of the tiles from the last soda firing. It's called Somebrite and  is a well known glaze which is often used only as an accent on soda/salt pots. It contrasts very nicely with flashing slips. I won't bother to post the recipe as it can be easily found by googling the name.This tile was fired to cone 12 at 2 o'clock; but it works just as well at cone 10 and may work at cone 9 as well. This glaze has to be applied quite thin to get this color, otherwise it will comes out a deep green. My test had a hydrometer reading of 51.

Since copper carb is toxic and this one has too much copper in it to be a safe glaze for food, it should only be used on the exterior or any pots that anyone might be included to use for food.

It was snowing lightly again, this morning and at the moment it doesn't look like I'll be venturing to town. The roads look OK but our driveway is too snowy and icy, so I'll wait another day.

I've been feeding a tom cat on the front porch every day for about a week and even left food out overnight since he was making several visits a day. But two nights ago, a possum was on the porch feasting on his food, so now I'm taking it in for the night.

This morning he and Bonnie seemed to be enjoying each others company until he saw us at the window ooing and aaing on how sweet it was that they were becoming friends. I don't know if he's a feral cat or a pet who was dumped (that happens a lot around here); but in any case, he's very wary of us.

After breakfast I got another big seed and garden order written up this morning and have just three more catalogs to peruse; but I think I've ordered all that I need. This afternoon we'll be watching the Olympics while I get my veggies prepped for our roast chicken dinner.

I roast the chicken on a bed of cut up carrots, celery, onion,  apple and orange wedges (I squeeze the juice into the pan and some over the chicken), with some parsley and a small bay leaf added to the mix. I loosely fill the cavity of the seasoned bird with some of the cut up apple, a wedge of the orange which I squeeze as I put it in, a couple of cloves of garlic and a wedge of onion and a sprig of fresh thyme if I have some. Then I pour some pale dry sherry over the chicken and roast it, basting it a couple of times as it roasts. All the fruit, veggies, herbs and sherry make a lovely, simple sauce. While the finished chicken is resting, I put the pan on top of the stove and boil down the juices to thicken a bit and then strain and serve over the cut up chicken. It makes a lovely, light, tasty sauce.