Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from February 28, 2010

Last chance for Corn Chowder before Spring (served in a transferware tureen of course)

Today, for Foodie Friday , kindly hosted by Michael at Designs by Gollum, I'm making one of our family favorites:  Corn chowder.  In fact, this is Jonah's (my 16 yr. old)  favorite and he requests it each year for his birthday.  My Mother in law gave me the recipe about 20 years ago.  Since Spring is just around the corner (I hope), we wanted to have this chowder one last time this Winter.  CORN CHOWDER: (serves 4-6 .... I always double this for my crew of 8) 1 package smoked sausage cut into bite sized pieces (Eckrich, Hillshire Farm and Johnsonville are good) 1 large yellow onion, chopped 2 med-lg potatoes, peeled and cubed 2 cans creamed corn 1 can chopped, diced and peeled green chilies 1 small jar diced pimientos, drained garlic powder to taste appx. 2 cups 1/2 and 1/2 6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled First take your sausage and onion and cook until onions are limp Add the cubed potatoes: and enough water to cover potatoes:  Turn heat up and boil unt

Blue and Brown Floral Transferware Tablescape

When you're done here hop on over to Tabletop Tuesday & Blue Monday I’ve been playing around this week with some lovely plates I just got in.   I’m excited because I’ve not had this pattern in stock before. It's called Tapestry by Ridgway.  They are a brown floral toile and I’ve mixed them with some blue floral plates by Myott to create this blue and brown tablescape. I set up in our tv/game room/teenagers hang out upstairs because it is decorated in blues and browns. Whoo-wee, didn’t realize I’d have to clean so much for this post…thanks kids! I moved a table in front of the sofa and put two arm chairs at each side leaving the front open for pics of course! I used four blue, gold embroidered organza napkins that I placed at an angle so they would hang over the edge of a table, one at each setting, which makes it appear to be a tablecloth underneath.  I've said it before...I like using things I've already got so, seeing as I didn't have a blue t

Early transferware designs including Blue Willow

Often, transferware is referred to as blue willow and sometimes, simply blue and white.   This is because the very first transfer ware designs were copied from hand painted blue and white Chinese export porcelains which depicted Oriental scenes and motifs.  Blue was the only color available as it was the only color that could withstand the high temperatures of the firing kiln.   Only the most affluent families could afford the imported hand painted wares which were mainly from China.   Hand painting was very time consuming and laborious.    The invention of the transferware process made it possible for the North Staffordshire potteries to be the first to offer full sets of matching dinnerware on a large scale.  For the first time ever, the emerging middle class families were able to purchase beautiful tableware at affordable prices.   It became immediately popular and transformed not only the daily lives of ordinary households in England, but throughout the world.    The popularity