Anthony Mattox

Ramen party! Made a big batch of fresh noodles, two stocks, two tares, lots of pickle-y things to go on top. Bring pink pickled turnips and crispy fried garlic with douchi steal the show, as they should.

What's a normal number of jars to have in your fridge? ... asking for a friend

I'm normally lazy and just season my ramen broth directly. But, stepping up my game to cook for a crowd and made a couple tares. Obviously gotta test as I go and throw a bowl together. Not using home made noodles with the excuse that I wanted to test some dry noodles as a backup.

Kofta, chicken kebabs, home made pita, hummus, a bunch of good sauces. I'm enjoying this new dimension of cooking: pairing dishes with just the right bowl. This bright red chili sauce in seafoam satin is doing something for me. I'm feeling inspired to make a lot more bowls.

Guys I caught myself weighing a bowl of marinade after taring my scale with another of the same bowl and then weighing an egg just to see if it would all fit in a certain size jar and I have to be honest I'm a huge nerd.

Little weeknight laser cutter project to get back in the swing of it — a little stand for this heavy die I was genuinely worried would put a dent in my floor.

Hear, hear. Make something real. Value something without scarcity. "Don't buy this poser shit."

Did some good cooking this weekend: Jumping the gun on stew season a little but love a short rib stew, dan dan noodles, mapo tofu, and of course ramen is always in the rotation.

I'm so excited to see what people do with what's in this box.

Pork and beef ssam. One of my favorite meals to cook for a group. All day roasted pork shoulder and grilled marinated beef with lots of little dishes, wrapped in lettuce with rice and punchy sauces.

One more much bigger batch of soy sauce started. 2 gallons of salty, moldy beans! Last big fermentation project for at least a couple months. Probably. Maybe.

Sushi night! Far from perfect, but every time I make maki rolls it goes a little quicker and less clumsily.

Why do I still get nervous every time starting a new batch of koji even though it literally always works?

Pretty good braised chicken with sichuan inspired flavors. Love using my growing collection of my hand made bowls too.

The fermentation station expands! But somehow is still full? Time to start a few more batches of soy sauce.

Trying my hand at vegan ramen. Vegetable based miso broth. Maybe too many pickle-y toppings. I was really happy with how this salted / purged / broiled zucchini came out, and crispy fried garlic with chilis and douchi.

The suggested prompt at the studio is "chia pet." I'm taking a more austere interpretation, but came so much closer to what I envisioned than I hoped. The best one started cracking after I finished, but 2/7 isn't too bad for a much more extreme shape than I'm used to.

Really an excellent interview touching on so many things I've been thinking about a lot: games, art, intentional outdoor activities, and most importantly "values" in a very big sense. Straight to the top of my reading list. Sincere apologies, as usual, to The Power Broker.

I'm really happy with these little vases / pitchers. In particular, the shape of the feet and the glazing is a huge improvement for me. A clean edge makes them look so much more polished. But, now I just want to go back and remake my sets of ramen and rice bowls which feel very sloppy by comparison

Kinda hard to beat a dog on a toasted bun with mayo, topped with a freshly cracked batch of home made sauerkraut

Gotta keep the big jars occupied! Pressed a big batch of "barley sake" last night. I'm not sure that's a thing, and I'm not sure it'll be drinkable, but plan to use it to make vinegar and mirin, maybe other projects. We can keep pushing "from scratch" further in the fermentation lab.

New work from the spring session at the Potter's Guild. I feel like I'm improving a lot. Lots of flaws to work on but I think I have a clear sense of what they are which is honestly a satisfying place to be.

If you hate that feeling you get when you realize how long ago something happened, may I recommend getting into fermentation?

More ramen. As usual home made noodles and broth. Working on my noodle fold for presentation. I'm excited next week to have home made shoyu. One degree further from scratch. Honestly I'm not sure what's next on that journey that doesn't involve quitting my job and buying a farm.

Year two attempting to make mulberry wine from local trees. This time, I smashed most of them and let them start fermenting in a loosely sealed jar for a week. Then pressed and sealed with an airlock. Hopefully we wont end up with vinegar this year. Although thats not a terrible outcome.

New bowl! Gotta put it through the paces with miso ramen with fried tofu, cabbage, and turnip pickles.

Help. My fermentation log has exceeded the capacity of the notes app.

Landing on a shape I like enough, switching to production mode. A lot of these will get culled but hoping for a consistent set of 6-10 sauce dishes.

I love a lunch of little dishes and I love my growing set of hand made little bowls.

My most beautiful batch of koji to date! And god the smell! Time to do some brewing.

Spent a while throwing tiny sauce dishes, just experimenting with different shapes to figure out what I want to make a set of.

After a mere year I'm really excited about how my first batch of shoyu is tasting. I think I'll press and bottle it on its birthday.

Started my first larger batch of miso after making a lot of little test batches over the last year and a half. I'm excited to see how it goes and to have a volume I don't feel I need to be precious with. The fermentation station's looking cozy.

Sometimes the smell of koji gets stuck in my head like a song

Wednesday night pottery party at the guild. Back to one of my potluck go to's to fit the "garden party" theme. Experimenting with some bottle shapes.

Made an amazake with purple sweet potatoes. I love the color of it so much. What should I do with it? It's pretty sweet on its own but could make some beautiful cocktails.

I started my second large batch of shoyu (with some smaller experiments along the way). It's cool to compare this to my first that's been aging for about 10 months. The first batch is coming along well and I'll probably press it in a couple months. But optimistic the next will be even better.

Steak dinner from a couple nights ago. Still feeling satisfied with this meal. Did a good job on the ribeye, and also made fresh bread, braised leeks, smashed potatoes, and a salad with fun pickles.

Second year trying my hand at wax resist egg dying. Lots of room for improvement but I don't hate it!

Checking in on my first batch of shoyu. The flavor is really starting to develop! I think I'll let it go a full year at this point I hadn't stirred it for a couple weeks and the frothy surface looks like an obscure moon of Jupiter. A few days after stirring it separated showing how dark it's gotten

And after a couple months, hand made sake and cups to serve! Gonna call it a good first attempt. I learned a lot on both sides. Looking forward to brewing another batch next winter. I still have another gallon to bottle too.

I knew I was a cube sicko, but wow, seeing it in writing hits differently. 38 unique cubes drafted and 11 trophies at events run with Hedron Network. hedron.network/leaderboard

Nice little dinner of chicken stir fry, veggies, and dumplings. It's satisfying slowly replacing the table with hand made dishes. I guess I need to learn to make plates. Tasted some home made sake too!

We finally have a long awaited update to the Cube Map! Check out how the map has changed in the last year. Explore new features that have emerged and shifted. Find where your own new cubes fall in the Cube landscape! luckypaper.co/resources/cu...

Valentine's dinner: many dishes! Highlights were the beef tartar and pickled shrimp. I also made a cheesecake but forgot to take a picture.

As a byproduct of making sake, I have a lot of lees, so experimenting with some ways to use it. Kasujiru: a soup of lees, stock, pork, and root veggies. Kasuzuke: essentially using salted lees as a brine to pickle vegetables. The next stage of fermentation seems to be going well too!