1. Tonight will be pottery class number three. This is an exciting thing, and I will tell you why. After the first class, I knew I had a lot of room for improvement. This was expected. But somehow, in the second class, after coming away with zip in the first class, I immediately made three different pots. Bowls. Cups. Whatever. Suddenly, I was exponentially better than I had been the week before with absolutely no extra practice. It felt great! So I became a member of the Visual Arts Center for $50, which means I can go in to the studio and practice whenever they're not having classes. After I made my three pots, I went in on my own time to trim them before they dried out too much. It was just the instructor and me in the studio, and he had Pandora on (sounded like a John Mayer station), and it was very relaxing. I like this a lot. And I feel good making things.
2. Speaking of making things, I've made a lot of things recently. First off: soft pretzels. I made them last weekend, and they were the first thing I made in my mixer! I've had Bobby Flay's soft pretzel recipe in my inbox (foodnetwork.com recipe of the day) for months, waiting for a time such as this. Not only did they turn out really well... I also made a queso poblano dipping sauce. This involved roasting poblano peppers myself - which I had never done before. That was fun. Then when I was chopping said roasted peppers, they squirted pepper juice in my eye. Not fun. But the queso sauce turned out to be delicious. Second new thing I've made: Pizza dough. This was the second thing I made in my mixer, and it was delicious. It was very thick, almost like focaccia, and yummy. Third new thing: Bolognese sauce. I'm reading a book right now that is not a cookbook but has a few recipes in it, and one of them is a delicious-looking bolognese. So I made it. It was delicious - and I shared it - but we left it sitting out all night and I had to throw it away. It looked like vomit/poop/dog food the following day. Fourth new thing: pot roast. A few months ago I visited a farm that sells grass-fed beef and bought two steaks and a roast. Haven't cooked the steaks yet, but I used the roast yesterday to make pot roast in my slow cooker, and it was quite tasty. I did not leave that out all night, so we still have leftovers.
3. I am "currently reading" five different books. I am actually, for real, every day, reading one of them: The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. Remember above how I said I was reading a book that wasn't a cookbook but has recipes in it? That's this book. My mom saw it in the book store and bout it for me. It is one woman's story of her journey through the basic, intermediate, and superior cuisine programs at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. I love it. And it feels good to read a book that I love. It feels good to want to read every day. And P.S. the title refers to onions.
4. I am sincerely humbled by the amount of outreach that stemmed from my previous post, "To Stop Hiding." It feels great to know how many people care about me. But you know what else I realized? I didn't need all the people who came out of the woodwork to support me (though, of course, I am sincerely appreciative). I realized that I am totally comfortable with the support system I have in place already. And that feels good. So things have been really good recently - mostly due to said support system and each point listed previously in this post. So thanks. ;)
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