Zucchini bread and slip tests

Had my zucchini bread for breakfast and used great restraint in not buttering it! This morning is for making a batch of 20 double margaritas for tonight's barbecue at our sons place.  Right now I'm waiting for the lemons to come to room temperature since I read that they release more juice that way. 

As soon as I get those squeezed, I'll head to the studio for the day. Yesterday I got about 5 hours of studio time weighing, mixing and applying a couple of white slips to over 40 test tiles. Today I need to weigh out the Linda Arbuckle slip. That will take care of the white slip tests; and then I'll use the rest of the tile for a couple of the colored slip tests. Both slips made and applied (Ayumi's and Pete's forgiving), seemed to dip nicely. The Pete's forgiving slip didn't have an opacifier and it's grey, so it will be interesting to see what it looks like under some clear glazes. If I get time, I may weigh out another version of Pete's with some zircopax.

This batching and testing is going to go on for a while, in between all the household and garden chores that I have to deal with until after the first frost and all the contractors are finished with all the fixes in the house.

Now that I took care of some of the over abundance of zucchini, I have to deal with the over abundance of eggplant. I see more roasted eggplant appetizers as well as eggplant parmesan in our near future.

Chris Staley video on creativity

Here's a short, very nice video with Chris Staley doing a bit of demoing and sharing his insights on "can you teach creativity".

It's been another busy, at home morning. Last night, after dinner we drove to our sons place and I harvested some zucchini and since I was running out of fridge space for all this abundance, I figured that this had to be the morning for making zucchini bread.

I just took two loaves out of the oven and as soon as they cool a bit, one will go in the freezer and one will stay out for this week. We love it with boiled eggs. The whole house smells cinnamon delicious at the moment!

A couple of Facebook friends gave me some other easy and good ideas for cooking zucchini. I used to make a veggie casserole with zucchini slices, sliced onion, chopped tomato, oregano, basil, salt and pepper, a little sprinkling of olive oil between the layers and topped with a parmesan bread crumb mixture (about 2/3d bread crumbs, 1/3 grated parmesan) that I lightly drizzle with olive oil. It's a nice side dish. It could easily be a main course if you added some sauteed ground beef or chicken. I'll have to try that some time.

There will be a few hours of studio time as soon as I get the bread put away. Since I have leftovers from last nights Thai veggie, soba noodle dish and only have to cook a bit more soda noodles to stretch it a bit, I'll be able to work until 5. These last two Thai dishes, the pork omelette and the veggie soba noodle salad about both keepers.  I also like them because I can do most of the prep in the morning when my energy is high and the actually cooking or putting the salad together at  the end of the day is quick and super easy.

The day's plan

Today's plan - after a boiled eggs and zucchini bread breakfast, prepped everything for tonight's roast beef hash (they're on now), feed my other sourdough starter, then head to the studio to the studio to continue decorating the last few pots.

After that I'll try to throw a few requested items. I thought I'd be able to get more pickles made this morning, but found that I need fresh dill, so Jim will get to Spruce Pine after breakfast to get some. I'll work till 4 then come in and start on the pickles and dinner.

This garden/harvest, cook, studio juggling act continues for another six weeks or till the first hard frost when I can put the garden to bed.