Earth Day is April 22, and in 2010 celebrates its 40th anniversary. It has expanded to Earth Awareness Week, which we like, because a week gives time to add something new to your “green living” skills and activities at home. In this series, we suggest baking at home as something to do to celebrate Earth [...]

[Read more →]

Bag two birds with one stone: eat at home more, and enjoy an easy to make, moist chocolate cake at the same time. How can you go wrong? Baking at home can help you save money, eat healthier because you control the ingredients, and provide a chance to experiment and tweak recipes to suit your [...]

[Read more →]

One great way to celebrate Earth Day is to enjoy the fruits of the earth. And one of the most hardy of those is rhubarb, or pie plant, which originated in Siberia. Nowadays in the spring we can easily find fresh fruit in the produce markets: baby watermelons from Honduras, grapes from Chile, or pears [...]

[Read more →]

There’s an urban legend among some sellers, that when you handle an item in your inventory, it will sell soon. So I had this Corning Ware casserole in the Spice of Life pattern. I picked it up to give it a home on a shelf. Within an hour, it sold. Spice of Life is a [...]

[Read more →]

It must be the change in weather. When things get cool, we get itchy to bake. We first paired this easy and moist chocolate cake with a simple cooked frosting about 40 years ago. Just learning to cook then, and prowling in mother’s cookbooks for ideas. The combination has become a family favorite. Cockeyed Cake [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday was a good day. Shopped at the Royal Oak Farmer’s Market, where I hadn’t been in a while. Then had my blog changed over to WordPress. I know a lot more about doing something with the veggies from the market. WordPress will be a new adventure. I have a very patient webmaster to rely [...]

[Read more →]

It’s that time of year. Peaches are on. And they’re soooo good from the farmer’s market. You can smell them as you walk the aisles… I have a special casserole dish that I love to use for cobbler – vintage Corning Pyrex, in the distinctive ribbed berries and twining vines of the Gooseberry pattern, in [...]

[Read more →]

This quality pottery is handmade in Zanesville, Ohio, by “the original” Hartstone. This company has roots back to the 1970s. It went through a period of corporate ownership, and was closed. But in a town of 25,000, the loss of 400 jobs was painful, not to mention the loss of a piece of history. Southeastern [...]

[Read more →]

We’d never heard of Merry Mushroom, though we must have walked by pieces in this pattern many, many times. This motif is the height of 1970s kitsch… There are lots and lots of items made in this pattern, right down to the napkin holder, wall clock and dishes for corn on the cob. Many of [...]

[Read more →]