new soup/salad/pasta plates and a tip

Many years ago I purchased pasta plates.  They were a little pricy so I bought one for each member of our family which was five at that time.  Since then our family has changed and now when we are all together we could use seven plates.  Fearing we would be unable to match the same plates my daughter Nikole found new pasta plates and bought me 12 for Christmas this year.  These plates are white so they add to the other white dishes and serving pieces that I have been collecting over the years.  They are a shallow bowl and will work perfectly for many different kinds of first courses--pasta--but also salad or soup.  The past couple of days I have used them for all three.

savory roasted butternut soup

salad- mixed greens from the winter greenhouse

 pasta with creamy carrots and Asian greens

And a tip

A couple days ago a friend sent me a video by email showing Martha Stewart peeling garlic by placing a whole head of garlic in a stainless bowl, inverting another bowl over the top and shaking the garlic.   After just a couple of shakes I could hear that the garlic sounded different, like it was changing from one piece to many pieces and after just a few more shakes this was the result:

It works!

The garlic cloves are separated and peeled and once the peeled cloves are removed from the loose skins they are ready to use, undamaged.

Here is the video:

Thanks Dar for sending the video.

Shared with

Between Naps on the Porch

recipes:

savory butternut squash soup
pasta with creamy carrots and Asian greens
breadsticks

I will be adding links to the homemade fettuccine.

Christmas dishes

Twenty years ago my mom started a collection of Christmas dishes for me and every year she added to the collection.  

Some years there were place settings,

 some years there were serving pieces,

Platter

nesting storage bowls with covers

salt and peppers

and some years there were fun accent pieces.

cookie jars

candles

cookies and milk for Santa

pitcher and candy dishes

The pattern is Happy Holidays by Nikko.

I like the swirled edges on the plates.  I like that each of the pieces has the same Christmas tree on it with the teddy bear and the star on top.

But what I like most are the collector plates.

Beginning in 1993 the Happy Holidays pattern produced a dated collector plate. They all had the same tree.  The first year the tree was the same as the place setting tree.

First Edition

Sometimes the scene was an indoor one 

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree

and sometimes the scene was an outdoor one.

Frosty the Snowman

White Christmas

Always the plates were named for a favorite Christmas carol. 

And then something happened in 2009.  

There was a shortage of plates and we were unable to get one that year.

And so the decision needed to be made.  Do we skip that year and have a hole in the 'complete set' hoping to be able to find one later on?  Or do we stop where we are?  When 2010 rolled around I decided to stop with the plates that I have.  Sixteen is quite a few.  Added to the 12 place settings that I have I could serve 28 people which is much more than I have room for in my little house.  I used to display them on the wall and 16 is even a lot to find room to display.  

I still look every once in a while to see if there is one out there for sale online knowing that if I found 2009 those that came after would be easier to find and I could fill out my set.  Nikko also has another set of Christmas dishes called Christmastime which is an octagonal shaped stoneware with the exact same design on the collector plate and I have thought occasionally about getting the 2009 plate in that pattern but it wouldn't be the same. 

And it is fine.  There are still pieces that I need to fill out my set.  More salad plates, more bread plates and more glasses.  And all the cute serving pieces and accent pieces--new ones every year.  I will be okay.

Here are the dishes out of storage and ready to be washed and used for anther season.

Thanks Mom for the not so small fortune that you have invested in these favorite dishes over the years, usually it was my favorite present under your tree.

I am reprising this post to join Susan for Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps On The Porch