Soy-Braised Kabocha and Lemon Wasabi Tuna

Back in the fall I attempted to turn this into...


This: First, you give your self a MAJOR upper arm workout. This baby is not easy to cut. If you are working as a team, give this job to someone else.

Get the freshest of the fresh for the best flavor. None of that pre-cut ginger for us! (In a beautiful Mel Jacobson bowl.)
Saute in a nice castiron pan. Be careful not to burn it.
Add the soy mixture and the Kabocha to the pan. Simmer and try not to eat it all before dinner.
We served it with a tuna steak grilled and topped with store bought Lemon Wasabi sauce (really, I am nly willing to be "risky" with one dish per meal.)
Grilled tuna. The final product. I think it looks mighty close! Note the great colors and the complementary Clay Coyote Pottery (glaze 17) Enjoy!

Philly with my mom

Mom and I went on our annual trip to Philly for the Buyers Market of American Craft. We were placing orders for the Clay Coyote Gallery in Hutchinson, MN. It is one of the best times of the year.

Here is our view from the Lowes.
At night on Valentine's Day.
The city welcomed us!
This is the convention center where it all takes place.
My good friend Anne came down from NYC to be Mom and my Valentine!!!! We had a great Thai dinner in Chinatown and got to catch up. It was fantastic.
More soon!

Too throws a soup bowl

Amazing, they are going all high-tech up there in Minnesota!

Austin Empty Bowl, and how to get some bowls for Christamas!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I participated in the Austin Empty Bowl Project put on by the Austin Food Bank. It was an amazing project and it let me do some of my favorite things:

1. I got to volunteer to help fight hunger in America.
2. I got to eat great soup and bread from good restaurants around Austin.
   
3. I got to meet new, cool people.
4. And here is the BIG one, I got to shop for pottery.

Not only did I get two little bowls that were made by Art Students at the Austin Museum of Art, I also was the winning silent bid on a great set of bowls by a local Austin potter.

The line around the building snaked. Some people waited in line for more than two hours.
But, the "Bowl" doesn't happen for another year. So if you want to shop for great pottery this year. I have some recommendations.

1. As always, I am shamelessly promoting Mom and Tom's pottery, the Clay Coyote. See a great post on their blog about what they have available for the holidays.
   
2. But, let me let you in on a couple of other amazing potters that you can order in the Gallery:
   
1. Crystal Pottery: I would go for this bowl. It is perfect for stews and soups this holiday season and it will be great for mixing things (like cookie/bread dough) later in the year. I could have really used a bowl this big last week at Thanksgiving when I was mixing up the stuffing.
   
2. Hank Goodman: I consider myself a "Hank girl." I love this guy, I love his pots and I really love his blue and brown glazes. Just take a look at all the serving pieces he has. I am telling you, bake some cookies, put them on a Hank tray and wrap it up for your favorite person...you will be loved!
   
3. Last bit of fun, this year you have another fun reason to come out to the Clay Coyote and shop! I will be there working in the Gallery for three weeks. Starting December 17th, going until the 4th of January you can come visit with me. I will have cookies, wine, witty conversation and ISSB and Sarge the Wonder Dog will be there too! (Heck if you are lucky you can see my brother, my nephew, and my sister-in-law.)
   

So really, after this post, how can you not want to come out to the Gallery to see me later this month? And, if you can come - visit them online (one last shameless plug!).

Last weekend in April: MinneSNOWta?

Last week in April, flowers blooming, spring showers, 94 degrees in Sunny Austin (a little too hot for me, donchaknow)…and we were making our way to the Spring Open House at the Clay Coyote.

My mom actually told us NOT to pack coats. Please take a moment to take in the photos below:

Yes, folks, that is a blizzard in April. FYI: ISSB is NEVER going to want to move here.

We still had the Open House albeit a bit slower than usual. So all you Minnesotans out there, if you didn’t make it (1) no one blames you the weather was crap, and (2) all will be forgiven if you pop over to the Clay Coyote’s brand new website and rack up a hefty order. I highly recommend the new Dessert Heart jewelry and any pottery in this section.

The visiting artists for the weekend were:

Don Cherney from Clayton WI will bring his cast pewter jewelry and his lovely wife, Sharon Cherney with her leather bags and purses.
See Sarge the Gallery Dog in the back, lapping up the free scratches? He was, as always, a hit!
Patti Berg, from Embarrass, MN and her really cool hats.
Clay Coyote Open House, long-timer, goldsmith Patty Conlin. And Hutch local, Tom Soucek and his watercolors.
Here are Rachel and Mom (the one that looks like me) taking a hug break in the packing and shipping department. Open House weekend always calls for more hugs.Over all, although a bit chilly, it was a lovely trip to see Mom, Too, and the rest of the Clay Coyote family.!!!

Texas Clay Festival (Part 2 4 2)

We enjoyed the festival, albeit crowded. Out of the 50 potters, there were only 2-3 that were not well done for their genre (wood fire, high fire, low fire, salts, sculpture, hand built, Asian, traditional, etc).

We picked up a couple cards for you guys to check out:

• Diana Seidel
• Hodgson and Hodgson
• Jason Hooper
• Texas Medicine Pottery

There is also a CCP-like studio and gallery in Gruene all the time, Buck Pottery, which I really really liked.

I met your friend David and chatted with him for a moment. And we didn't buy anything for ourselves, but we did find a good little birthday present for Mom before hitting the road.

We had to get back by 7 so that we could hot foot it over to the Tavern for the game. Sox won it 10-5 but don't let the score confuse you, it was a nail bitter to the very very end.

Saturday: Texas Clay Festival

Ian and I were a little blue about not being back in Hutchinson, MN this weekend for the big Clay Coyote Fall Open House, but we quenched our pottery thirst with an afternoon trip to the Texas Clay Festival. It is held in Historic Gruene, TX which is a pretty cute little town 45 minutes south of Austin. I forgot my camera, but here are some shots off the internet of the neat little town.

We both want to go back. Try the little winery, picnic by the river, or maybe kick up our heals at the oldest dance hall in TX.

That time of year...Fall Open House

I love Minnesota in the fall. Leaves turn colors there, unlike Texas, where the choices are green or brown. Heck, it is still over 90F. How can I even be thinking about Fall? Well, I can because I just saw the blog post over at the Clay Coyote Gallery telling me it is that time of year, time for the Fall Open House. (Unfortunately, I am not going to get to go this year -- so won't you go for me?)

Ah, fall. I really miss the other seasons. Ian and I got in to this discussion recently (pre-coffee on the way in to work - so don't hold me accountable for accuracy). Anyways, he is a summer man, I am a four seasons kind of girl - makes you appreciate the rest of them. And my argument is you can always put more cloths on and stoke a fire. There comes a point in the Texas heat where you are just naked and there is nothing you can do about it because even the pools and lakes are 85F. My logic is sound.

ACL 2007

First, before I even start this post, I have to say that we almost did not go to ACL this year, but lots of friends told us they were coming to town and wanted to stay with us so we decided to stay in town. If that had not been the case we would have been in Berkeley, CA for the wedding of the year. Congrats Ben and Viv! We were sending love and cheers your way!!!

Because of my trip west the group went with out me on Friday and Saturday we took our time getting over there. We saw a ton of great bands and we got to spend time with out friends who recently moved to Chicago. It was a nice weekend and it was a good pick me up to a rather not so good week.

Here are the shots from the two days. The highlights for me was Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (we saw them open for Toots and the Maytals at the 9:30 club in DC two years ago on our anniversary). I got there early and got a place in the second row. Everyone else sat off to the side and watched me rock out. Another highlight was the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah show; we have wanted to see them for a long time. They are a rockin' good time. And, Damien Rice and Bob Dylan were both fantastic, although they both played some sad songs about loss, death and dying which had me crying all over again.

Damien Rice


The crowd for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
I wove my way up.

On Saturday night the White Stripes canceled so they bumped Muse to the closing show. Here they are with the Austin-scape behind. Grace Potter front and center. Since I really love these guys I got a lot of great shots!

They were awesome!
ACL Sunday crowd
This is the crowd for the hidden gem, an Austin original, Ghostland Observatory. They had the whole place going wild. Being a good Minnesotan they reminded me a little of Prince. The link goes to their myspace page that has all their songs up for free.
They had an amazing light show.
This year's closer was Bob Dylan. We were pretty far back because all 75K people wanted to see him so it was hard to get a seat, let alone a photo. He played some crowd favorites and had me and Erica dancing to the very end.

All in all it was a good year. They are having the $50 ACL '08 raffle next week so all you friends go to the site and sign up (one mailing list that it has paid to be on, we got alerted to discounted tickets this year and saved almost $100 on our admission) to see if you are the lucky winners. You know you have a free place to stay!

Flug What? Flugtag!

Yesterday Ian and I went to Flugtag 2007. This is the second time it has come to Austin, TX and boy does it draw a huge crowd – this year it brought in 60,000 people. But what is it? (Remember to rally see the photos click on them and they will open up much bigger.)

Flugtag is "is an event in which competitors attempt to fly in homemade flying machines." The first Flugtag was held in Austria in 1991. It has become very popular. And the teams enter because (1) they actually think their contraption will fly, (2) they want to do a dance rendition in front of 60K people, or (3) they want to get hammered and jump off a 30t pier in to the water.

The event opened with sky-diving-acrobats! It was sooooooo cool!


Our friend, French, sponsored the Congress Bridge Bats Team. The team was made up of a bunch of engineers and was there to remind everyone that next week is the annual Bat Fest. Here is the bridge going up the launch...
About to take off...
And then in the water...
Teams come from all around; this one "Karl Sucks" is a team of five Minnesotan women who tried to fly a vacuum.
It is important to note, no offense to the Minnesotans, but if you really want it to fly, wings are necessary.
But, not a guarantee:
Overall, the day was wonderful (even if it was 100F). There was a great breeze and beautiful sun set.
The Bat Bridge won the People’s Choice Award.

And it was a great people watching event. Here are a few more shots:

A triple story stacker to get the best view!

To tell the teams that the water was all clear a funny little dude waved the Rastafarian flag which apparently means: "smoke um if you got um!"
Some teams were just in it to have fun, these three guys "Rock, Paper and Scissors" played the game to see who would jump first and then they just ran off the edge.
The pirates were awesome!
But, nothing topped the Irish "Get Lucky" team. They used a rope tied around the base to make the shamrock spin and then pushed it off the pier while it was going round and round (it was like an Irish spaceship!)
The judges loved it.
There was even a special appearance by Leslie (you all remember him!!!).
Here is Leslie going overboard!
Seriously, this is a flying fish taco. Fish tacos are VERY popular in Austin. (They are normally served with a cabbage slaw and mango salsa).
Next time Flugtag comes to town I am going to convince ISSB to rent a canoe and watch from the water.