FLAMEWARE!

Here it comes, new CERAMIC FLAMEWARE from Clay Coyote Pottery. It's ceramic cookware for stovetop cooking! We've spent nearly 2 years working on this to get it right...

It started a couple of years ago as Paula Wolfert was looking for a source for pots to emulate some of the indigenous cookware traditionally used over open fires and charcoal. trouble is, our modern stoves have much higher heat.

A few potters have made stoneware flameware over the years, but conventional wisdom was that it was risky and devilishly difficult.

Well, we can attest that it's difficult, but after cooking with a number of pieces over the last 6 months, and recruiting a number of our friends to do the same, it's ready for you.

The first piece is this skillet...

about 10 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep. Fry, saute, bake, roast...do just about anything. Good in the microwave, cleanup easily in the sink or dishwasher. Tom's used it for eggs almost every morning for 5 months and finds it has much less of a tendency to burn food, and the eggs are more tender that in metal cookware.

Betsy's been doing the same with oatmeal every morning in a small saucepan and with the same result.

Paula's been doing a lot of work on cooking in clay, as she has for years, and has decided that it's the way to go. "These are absolutely fabulous" she says.

Next was a cazuela, about 11 inches in diameter that Paula needed for gratins and some other dishes started on the stovetop, and finished in the oven. This one's got a smaller 'trumpet' handle with a small 'hot-pad tab' on the other side for easy handling in and out of the oven. Betsy just used one to make an apple tarte tatin.

We've done a couple of saucepans but are just finalizing sizes and shapes. Finally, we did a 3 qt. casserole for Paula, and she found it made the best daube ever and that it cooked simmered dishes better on the stovetop than any crockpot does.

casserole photo by: ed anderson photography 1105 thompson lane petaluma, california 94952 707 981 7957 office http://www.edandersonphoto.com

We aren't sure why these ceramic pots cook so well (and clean up even better). After a lot of testing, we think that it's because the ceramic is an insulator, heat comes through more gently, so food has much less tendency to burn, even slightly. The secret, though, is to slow down, put the heat where you'll need it eventually, and then wait for the pot to warm up. If you punch in high heat initially, the heat keeps coming through and can overcook the food. You also have to learn to either turn the heat down or off earlier, or remove the food as soon as it's done. But these pots go from stove to table so beautifully that the turn down early is the way to go.

Right now glazes are limited to the one blue-gray shown. We'll have more later, but never the same as our regular glazes. The clay that makes these pots possible limits the glaze possibilities.
As we get them ready, we'll post them on the website for sale.

GLAZE NAMING CONTEST

Earlier this year, Betsy developed a new green/black glaze combination. It was a hit at summer art fairs. Food looks fabulous on it....but it doesn't have a name! That's up to you. It combines the rich warm black of Old Black Magic and a new kind of celery green...very like old celadons of ancient China and Korea.

As a starter, some of our other glaze names are, Old Black Magic, Midnight Garden, Tequila Sunrise, Todd Lake, Old Celadon, etc. There could be $25 bucks in it for you. Just click on the 'comments' section below and let us know your idea. Enter as many as you wish per comment.

We'll make our decision (over a couple of glasses of wine down at Zella's (Hutchinson's spiffy new restaurant)) by December 15th.

HERE WE GO AGAIN

Here we go for the next 6 months. This morning we woke up to a good 4" of fresh new snow. Not too much shovelling thought as the ground's still too warm.

The back porch (above)...the view from the kitchen below.

But looking north off the back porch, it's really beautiful (in a masochistic way).

The jeep and plow are ready....the tractor isn't.

The pond has almost gone dry this fall with the lack of rain, but strangely there's still a lot of corn in the fields. Farmers are trying to get it to dry naturally rather than by using gas dryers.