Busy, but lovely Sunday

We're having a lovely Sunday, starting with a great, rich brunch of Eggs Benedict at the Tin Lizard in Spruce Pine, followed by some productive time in the garden doing more pruning and cleanup. I didn't get enough garden cleanup in the fall, so I'm hoping we'll get more mild weather before planting time to get this garden in shape.

I made a cavatelli, cauliflower, pancetta, chicken broth and onion pasta dish for dinner which was intriguingly different and very tasty. Even Jim enjoyed it and he doesn't like cauliflower! Thank you Lidida Bastianich for another lovely recipe!

Tomorrow I'll be in the studio all day, mixing flashing and decorating slips and starting decorating, which I had hoped to start earlier in the week. I want to get a firing next onth so I need to get more studio time in the next two weeks to finish these pots and maybe do a few more slab pieces.

Now I'm going to watch the rest of our taped Australian open men's final, and do some more of the never ending computer file sorting and cleanup.

More great pots from the Spruce Pine Potters show

Here are a couple of shots of Suze Lindsay and Kent McLaughlin's booth. They always have so many new and wonderful pots.

I managed a half a day in the studio till my back gave out after bending over for 4 hours at the wheel touching up some of the slipped pots, scraping slip drips, etc., so I came in and spent time making some decorating notes and then got started on an early, pasta dinner. The gardening that  I thought I'd do today has been put off since I really want to focus on the pots for the next few days, as well as doing the last bit of cooking for a while.

Tomorrow I'll use the mushrooms and steak and make a beef stroganoff. After that it will be some leftovers for two days and a couple of dinners out later in the week.

The pasta sauce I made tonight was interesting. It's a Giada de Laurentis recipe. The sauce is basically a couple of cups of cherry tomatoes mixed with 1/4 c washed and rinser capers and 1T olive oil,  a teaspoon and a half of kosher salt and about 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper (I also added a pinch of pepperonici (dried red chili flakes).tossed well, then  topped with about a a cup and a quarter or so, of Italian bread crumbs and  olive oil drizzled on top and baked in about an 8" square baking dish, at about a 350 -375F oven for about  30-25 minutes till the bread crumbs turn golden. After resting 5 minutest the whole thing in put on a pound of cooked tubular pasta, like ziti or rigatoni,  mixed well, then tossed with 1 1/4 cups of fresh ground pecorino romano cheese, and the cooked pasta, and topped with some fine chopped fresh Italian parsley It was easy and tasty and made good use of all these cherry tomatoes we have. If you don't like the stronger taste of pecorino romano, you can use all parmesan or  half parmesan and half pecorino romano.

I'm always looking for some new and interesting, and fairly quick and easy vegetarian recipes to add to our weekly menu and this one is a good choice. The capers and cheese give it a bit of a kick which is often lacking in vegetarian recipes; and pasta is always a comfort food for me.

Foggy morning garden view

I took this photo on a foggy morning a few days ago. My garden is at it's peak right now after the abundant rain fall we've had all spring and summer.

Got some planting in yesterday morning - a rose, a couple of crocosmias and a few annuals, as well as pulling some weeds. I took kitty, Bonnie Lass out with me and we had a hard time catching her when it was time to go back in the house. I had to lure her with her squeaky mouse toy. In another month or so she'll be big enough to stay out on her own a bit more.

There was no time for the studio yesterday because of visiting with relatives; but I will get in there today at some point. First I want to check the garden and harvest what's ready. I'm making a bolognese sauce for pasta tonight and want to use my fresh tomatoes. Hopefully there are enough ripe ones ready, to add to the ones I've been saving the past few days. After that I'll get started on planting a few more things.

Aaron may be coming back to finish up some house hold projects; but first, I'd like to get him to get a few more studio shelves up so I can get all the containers and jars off the bench I used for them. That bench is now relocated between both wheels to be used to hold freshly thrown pots. If he's a no show, I'll do the shelving myself and get Jim to help me hold up the 6 footer; but I'd rather use today's studio time to finish getting all those throwing and other tools hung up and put away before I have to start dinner.

Soda fired mug

This was one of my favorite mugs from the firing. The picture doesn't do justice to the depth of color. It was one I was going to keep for myself but an early tour customer bought it and another one of my favorites before I even got to take more pictures.

Yesterday I got all my test tiles marked and made my assessment and follow up notes. I also got in some gardening time and dead headed several roses and perennials and of course, pulled more weeds. I also worked on the video I made unloading the kiln and have to work on that some more. If it looks OK, I'll put it on you tube tonight. My movie maker software doesn't seem to allow me to adjust text size on the title and closing pages, or maybe I'm just not finding the right button.

Have an osteopathic treatment late this morning, so there won't be any studio or garden time and by the time I do some pick up a few groceries, there won't be much of the afternoon left to start anything but dinner (pasta bolognese tonight).