Gary's Third Pottery Blog

When the going gets tough, dragons gonna get going....

Gary's third pottery blog

WRITE TO ME! garyrith@yahoo.com Come see me! Open studio HERE! November 25-26 (11-4 each day); Aurora Art and Design, daily until 12/24; Cooperstown Art Assoc. daily until 12/24; Ellis Hollow Community Fair, 12/10; December 10, Little Red Wagon at the Space at Greenstar. All material on this blog unless stated otherwise is copyright Gary Edward Rith 2016

Monday, September 30, 2013

life is not a beauty contest but big, beautiful and bodacious bagels are a bonus



You will recall that I tried making gluten-free bagels last week, the first time!  I used Nicole Hunn's GLUTEN-FREE ON A SHOESTRING recipe book.

I had only made a half recipe, and like I said, the first ones were a little ugly and a little little, so I knew I would nail it when I made them again and I DID!  So pretty, so tasty!  I added poppy and caraway seeds, and you can see they puff up and get big and lovely...and YES!  You get to boil them....the whole thing is easier than you think, wicked fun....
have a great MONDAY!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

snow patrol....



I was dreaming last night that I was member of a mountain snow patrol.  It feels sometimes like my dreams are truly psychically looking through somebody else's eyes, that I am in somebody else's head.

In this dream, and I have NO experience with this, none, I was part of a crew in midwinter that operates big snow machines in the Rockies to save people if needed, but more importantly we are the ones who make the avalanches happen in a controlled fashion.  Wheel up to a mountain and shoot cannon at a big mass of snow, so that it slides where and when we can control it.  Where did THIS come from?

Anyway, you see above what is definately the last Saturday in September eating out back.  It was so warm and pleasant, what a thrill.  The first week of October for us is often very cold and wet, soooo.... you love the last sunny warm days! And the colors are starting to get perfect!

I made a new pizza recipe yesterday--chickpea crust!  It is SO easy and healthy, impossibly good...gonna make it again today!

Below-before and after with a glaze firing...looks good, there are a lot of orders in there...have a great SUNDAY!

Saturday, September 28, 2013

I was expecting better....



Ever have that sinking feeling?  You're working away, decorating the pots with little bunnies, and your nose turns into a faucet?  Scratchy eyes, sneezes?
I got a lot done yesterday morning, had a last second dog walking gig at noon with my box of tissues, and then crawled into bed around one thirty and stayed there till this morning.
I planned to feel better this am, and I can say I AM RESTED.
You know how some colds linger?  This one is not done with me yet, I was expecting better...maybe I will glaze this morning then crawl back into bed....
No doubt there was a careless person who had this cold last week and used the ATM just before I got there (or the person at the post office sneezing all over or ...or...or...you know what I mean).

Doesn't matter.  By the time you read this I will be in perfect good health again I am sure.

ANYWAY, I was dreaming just now that I was hosting a big party.   I seemed to be single and living in the sort of built in the 70s 2 story apartment bldg that are everywhere.... so many people were at my party you could hardly move, all over the lawn, everywhere!  I knew just a few people, all the rest were strangers who had come....just before I awoke I grabbed the camera and my beagle and a big plate of muffins so that I could pass out muffins and get pictures of the dog lunging at people to try and steal them so I could blog all that the next day....
(new bottles by Gary Rith)

Friday, September 27, 2013

McD0nalds, mashed potato, keys and FLIES

I was asleep dreaming a minute ago that I was back in my classroom in the early 90s.  Many of you remember I was a special education teacher in Chicago, blind multi-handicapped kids.  It was one of those jobs that changes you.  If you wonder what it is like to be that poor, and with handicaps also...anyway....
I dream about the classroom often.  In this dream, which was quite happy and lighthearted, all the kids had come on the bus, as they did, but each had stopped at McD0nalds on the way in to school.  All of the kids were sitting in a circle around me on a gym mat with the other teachers, and the kids were enjoying a day's break from the usual cafeteria food.  There were happy meals everywhere and happy smiling kids!  One of our main tasks was to teach little kids how to eat...pretty challenging when you may not have physical ability and you definately can't see.... so our cafeteria meals all included some mashed potato, which helped in learning to use a spoon to scoop food.
In the case of this dream, everybody just had a chance to reach into the bag and pig out :)

I had in mind to make a FROG.  A friend of mine has a frog outside with a key inside, and I wanted one.  Mine can eat keys, flies, anything...have a great Friday!


(frog sculpture by Gary Rith)

Thursday, September 26, 2013

put a hole in it!

I seem to be sensitive enough to  wheat that I told the wife, who had just brought 2 beautiful bagels home:
"Sorry!  I think these are your last wheat bagels or bread in this kitchen!
I'll make it up to you though :)"
and YES, Wednesday I made bagels...

You think "OHMYGOD, so complicated!" but I make our bread and tortillas, you just have to get used to the process.  Secondly?  The were totally awkward ugly ducklings...until they baked into beautiful swans.  Next time I will be practiced and they won't look so ugly along the way...

I use Nicole Hunn's cookbook Gluten-free on a shoestring, she blogs almost daily, she is AWESOME.  Sassy, smart, affordable and the recipes are easy and they WORK.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

going handle-LESS is not quite like going t0pless...

(a cute little Audi TT convertible...T0PLESS!)

I have never seen the reason why:  I mean, we have civilization, right?  We can eat with a spoon and knife. We have indoor plumbing.  We also have HANDLES on cups!

I eat nearly everything at home with chopsticks.  So you would think I would be hip to eastern practices around the kitchen.  But I have never fully understood WHY YOU WOULD drink tea from a HANLDE-LESS cup!  One term for them, it may be Japanese, is "unomi" or something like that.

WELL, Barb shows me a pic of some small tea mugs without handles, and wonders could I, would I?

 And I like her (ordering from me usually depends on whether I like you or not...what kind of businessman am I??  A sh!tty one.....) so I look at these cups somebody else made and I am like
"Those are cute, but I can make them a million times cuter, piece of CAKE" and I do.  Of course, 2 things occur to me:

1)  you have GOT to get dogs on there, they are BEGGING for it, even if Barbara is NOT and
2)  it is so flippin' cold these days, 30s overnight, and I finally GET IT:  the reason a tea cup may not have a handle.  It is to warm your hands if it needs it, and my hands NEED WARMING (beagles are not always available) and ALSO, get this, here is the brilliant theory of cups without handles:  if you can hold the cup, the tea has cooled enough to sip!!!!!!  All those years, all those millions of people who burn their tongues, DUH!

(cups by Gary Rith)

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

postures....

"I can't believe he did a whole post, just the cat and dog!"

Monday, September 23, 2013

what is better than a beagle with bug breath?

The wife takes the wee beagle out for one last tinkle last night.  Then she jumps into bed with me, her head on my pillow, adoring ME.  This dog is VERY affectionate.
The wife tells me "she was out there dawdling for quite a while, eating bugs before she peed..." and I am like
"great, that explains her horrible breath".

Well, what is better than beagle breath?  APPLE JAM!

Trevor across the street, as you know, has a gazillion apples on their tree.  Tasty! Useful!  Enough for a thousand pies....what I love about apple jam is that it turns all your sandwiches into apple pie (with peanut butter...).  Recipe follows...it is a crock pot recipe but if you don't mind watching the stove top you can simmer it like soup for an hour or so....and OH man, the house smells swell!

In case you were wondering, the beagle LOVES apples too....



making crock pot apple jam

-chop and core about 10-11 apples, whatever fits into your crock pot
-add 2 cups sugar
-sprinkle on lots of various spices, like nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, allspice
-pour on top 3/4 cups water then stir around
-cover the crock pot and cook on low 10 or so hours, stirring from time to time if you can
-if it gets to be late in the day and it still looks like a lot of water, turn up to high and cook uncovered, stirring frequently
-I use a potato masher to make it more jam like
-put in either properly sterilized jars with tight lids (or other container when it cools, keeping it in the fridge for up to a few weeks!)
makes 4-6 cups!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

3 random lazy-azz things...

Ever wake up, yawn, feel too lazy to upload photos so you blog post 3 random lazy-ass things instead? Like the haiku you wrote about your toe?

The eggplant colored toe haiku, by me:

The toe I stubbed
Yesterday was black but now
A pretty purple

Or even that with what, 3 years and 1 1/2 months until the next presidential election, you just clicked "LIKE" Hillary for 2016?  That woman sure as heck is experienced and TOUGH, there is a lot I like about her.  Now people are gonna be bugging me for donations every week.

And finally LLOYD Dobler!  We just saw SAY ANYTHING for the first time.  It seemed like a dumb movie at first, but John Cusack and his character are very good.  And you see the uptight girl mellow out a bit and the VERY uptight father go to jail YAY!

The wife met John Cusack at a party right around the time he did this movie (I swear TO GOD).  She was friends with the Malkovichs (think: John Malkovich's family) and they were friends with the Cusacks and Laurie Metcalfe (the sister in the Roseanne show).  Anyway, I am name dropping here, although it is all true.  
My wife met John Cusack at a party in the 80s and he said he was an actor and she said "Oh, have you done anything I might have seen???" and he already had several famous movies under his belt by then....
I asked "is he tall?" and the wife reassured me "He IS, but I love YOUR dark and curly looks".
John Cusack has those puppy dog eyes, no question....

Saturday, September 21, 2013

not just raw fish!

I adore Japanese culture.  I was trained in pottery with a heavy influence on Japanese traditions.  Hello KITTY!  My Fuji camera, what's not to love?
last night we went out with the young cousin to Sushi O' Sake which is excellllllllllent Japanese food.  I had this salad and the wife and I split some veg sushi rolls, something done with asparagus and avocado and the young cousin got this thing with crab and caviar, and there were dumplings and veggie tempura MMMM.


You probably need a new SOMETHING from me, check out awesome items at my etsy gallery!
bunny mugcat mugdog cat mouse mug

Friday, September 20, 2013

annual apple crisp post....


(laundry and pottery drying outside the studio.....just in case you thought all I do is play with dogs and cook!)

OK, so I am babysitting Yogi Thursday, and those guys, as you know, have a fine apple tree.  THOUSANDS of apples, and Yogi can't eat them all!  I made a double batch of apple crisp (recipe below) and just ate some...mmmmm! So easy and tasty, even if you don't pick your neighbors' apples...

Two notes:  1)  Yogi's family had him shorn like a sheep, but not on purpose....they had provided handsome and cute photos of the desired trim (you know Yogi looks RASTA, right?) but the clipper went all Marine Corps on them and poor Yogi has a bizarre buzz cut!  I was told "NO PHOTOS of Yogi until it grows out" and I am, well, showing only a little of him.... and
2)  this apple crisp recipe?  A person I did not like at all let me have some of this apple crisp and it was yummy tasting and they gave me the recipe.... so, I guess that makes them only 99 percent loathsome....






Thursday, September 19, 2013

a little more green and green....

 
 
(new bowls and pitchers by Gary Rith)

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

moon OVER....



Tuesdays, as I have said, we do THE WALK.  It is an Ithaca event that my buddy Steven organizes along the Cayuga Lakefront every Tuesday eve in nice weather.  The wife and I had a picnic at Stewart park first...amongst the sailboats....good GOLLY September is beautiful and you want it to last forever...


As THE WALK finished around 7ish, there was an extraordinary nearly full moon rising over Cornell University, WOW. have a great Wednesday :)

Top pottery blog 2015

2014 winner

Me and Missus Tastycakes

Me and Missus Tastycakes

garyrith.com

ME, the TV interview :)

my etsy gallery

my second blog, 2008-2009

my first blog, 2006-2008

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
I am a full-time studio potter, sculptor, and dog walker, married to superhawt Missus Tastycake.