Happy Hanukah

I never know how to correctly spell the name of that holiday. But I do like to celebrate it: it has the best food! Doughnuts, latkes, cheese pancakes...


I made the "Chardonukiyah", as Mark named it :)

The doughnut was made by my aunt. It was very good and filled with strawberry jam. I wanted to make something with sweet potatoes, but I didn't want to make the regular latkes, so I decided to use this recipe, substituting the pumpkin with sweet potatoes.


I made some with white sweet potato, and they were slightly sweeter.

Don't they look nice? They're also easy to make, make very little mess, and are healthy - a good addition a night filled with deep-fried goods.

More Ceramics

Our second ceramics technique was coiling. The instructor wanted us to build something big, so we'll get enough coiling experience, but I'm sure she didn't envision something quite as big as my toucan...



It was intended to be a pitcher, but no one can lift this thing with one hand. I think I will use it as an umbrella holder - it rains a lot here in the desert! We do need to get an umbrella!

Mark wanted to make an eyeball.



Ask anyone who ever tried their hands in coiling and they will tell you - it's hard to bring the clay to go in - but Mark did it. The pupil can be removed and the rest of the eyeball can serve as a pot, but I think we'll just keep it as an eyeball. We'll see ;)

Playing with mud and muffins

I know that they're not edible, but still they are baked goods. I'm talking about ceramics, of course! Mark and I are taking a ceramics survey course (a.k.a a beginners class), and this is our first batch - the technique was pinch-potting - the very simple technique that kids use in 3rd grade. It was fun, nonetheless! Then we glazed our pieces, which gave some very surprising results - that stuff drips a lot more than you'd expect!
Well, here are our masterpieces:


We brought them home on Tuesday. Then Mark baked his staple muffins: banana-walnut-butterscotch muffins - yum!
They are so moist and good (the addition of butterscotch chips was my idea!) that the muffins I made for today's lab meeting (healthy low-fat banana-granola muffins) seemed, well, not-so-good. My muffins did get a good score by the food critics Dani and Rebecca, but that's only because they never had the banana-walnut-butterscotch muffins :)



No, they're not as good as they look - they're better!