hanging out with the neighbors

Last night we invited our potter friend and neighbor, Phil Pollet (Old Gap Pottery), to join us for dinner. Jeff and I worked together in the kitchen to make a tasty dish of tofu and stir fried veggies, served over udon noodles. We broke opened a bottle of sake and had an enjoyable evening of smart conversation and good food.
We stayed up way too late and slept in. I couldn't resist take a picture of our cup selection washed and drying on the kitchen island this morning...

Starting in the back from left to right, clockwise: Tokkuri (sake server) by Jeff, faceted cup by Jack Troy, shino cup by John Zentner, Pedestal sake cup by Jeff Brown, sake cup by me, sake cup by Phil Rogers, and sort of in the center faceted cup by Jeff.
The flowers are in a hexagonal wood fired fired vase that Jeff made. It was the first pot the I purchased from him nearly ten years ago. It's still one of my favorites.

Evenings like this one really make me feel fortunate to be living in Seagrove.

As for today... we partially unloaded a kiln and I can't wait to share pictures of Jeff's Korean teabowls (chasabal). Hopefully I will have pictures tomorrow.

asian cookin'... southern style

after our big grocery shopping excursion to greensboro on wednesday, we have been enjoying cooking up a storm.  jeff made a fabulous tofu stir fry with ingredients bought at Super G's, the giant asian market.

we usually have rice with stir fry but we opted for fresh udon noodles this time... we cracked open a good bottle of sake that we brought back with us from NH.

we are not usually big on prepared/packaged foods, but we couldn't resist buying some pork & veggie dumplings...

the beautiful table runner is from the Etsy shop of HowlingBaxter in Hawaii, a christmas present to me from jeff.
the Iris Minc platter was a perfect serving choice for the dumplings.  i wish you could see the detail in the picture... it has flower and dragon flies impressed into the surface.

don't you have a craving for asian food now?  hmmmm... i wonder if there are leftovers in the fridge...

raku food

raku food you say???
it all started when i came home from the wine shop with a nice bottle of southern beauty sake. jeff brown and i decided we needed to cook some asian influenced food to go with it. we spent the evening chopping veggies and seasoning chicken. jeff was the chef and i was the assistant (just like when we raku together!) as things were prepared the table filled with bowls of assorted veggies. the table was a visual feast with all the different colors displayed in so many beautiful handmade bowls...

recognize the makers of any of the pots pictured above? represented are john zentner, jeff brown, brian gricus, john glick, kurt heinzmann, dan comte, cornwall bridge pottery.

i likened the experience to raku firing because the prep was so much fun and then throwing it all in the skillet, hearing the sizzle, the steam rising and the scent of the herbs and spices infusing the room....mmmm....and then it was finished and we enjoyed the results immediately! the results were delish...but the prep was the most fun.

...and the sake was great too.