Tuesday 3 August 2010

Three cheers...

...for traditional enamel bakeware.

There is something so wonderfully nostalgic about enamel kitchenware. Lakeland have a 3 for 2 offer on them at the moment and Mr M very kindly indulged me. We've been using them whenever we can and they are an absolute delight to wash up (this is a HUGE plus in my books as we don't have space for a dishwasher and I can get quite potty-mouthed when cleaning my Le Creuset and other crusted on dishes).

And yes, those are Mr M's vegetables in the dishes. Want a closer peek?
Our Sunday roast included Mr M's butternut squash which had started to turn, his courgettes including a brilliant one shaped like a yellow tennis ball and his marvellous potatoes.
We followed it up with a cherry clafoutis (note the dish...) which had an improvised dash of ground almonds thrown in - yum! You see, we just happened to be passing our local PYO on Sunday morning and managed to pick our weight in cherries (turns out we're more competitive than we thought) and sugar snaps. And a punnet of blackcurrants. I just love PYO. I really do. Picking the blackcurrants took me back to when we were little and my parents had various fruit bushes at the end of the garden. That wonderful hot, jam-in-the-making smell of the blackcurrants as they were plucked from their branches. We picked about 200g which is probably just enough for 1 jar of jam? Who knows. As a fully fledged member of the WI it would be wrong not to attempt jam in my first year.

Speaking of the WI - we've got our first craft group tonight, organised by yours truly. Wish me luck. I really hope I'm not the only in the pub with my knitting...

9 comments:

  1. Those dishes do look good - I'm intrigued to hear they clean easily too, as I don't have a dishwasher either. Hope you enjoy your WI meeting - I am going to my first one next week and am looking forward to seeing what goes on. I've been told not to sign up to be in any calendars, if you know what I mean!

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  2. Our village craft group just got going and it has been sensational- from 30 to 90 years of age, everyone has been totally inspired! Good luck, sure it'll be fantastic! x

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  3. Mr P says that the two enamel plates we have were the best thing he inherited from his parents! It's about the only thing that he inherited that gets used practically every day! He says they're fantastic for pies (not to suggest that we have pies every day - shame :0( )

    Hope the craft group went well. Do let us know how you got on! I'm sure it was a great success. x

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  4. Your clafoutis looks delicious - I've always meant to make one and never yet got round to it - perhaps an enamel dish would spur me on.
    And lucky you, I've really missed PYO since I moved to Ireland, it seems all the PYOs closed down here years ago. Can't wait to move back to the motherland!

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  5. I love enamel bakeware--so nostalgic. And the cups and plates always make me think of picnics and campfires!

    The craft group sounds super. I hope it went well.

    K x

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  6. Love Garsons...went for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Couldnt quite believe the array of products available....amazing.

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  7. Love that bakeware! It's made me feel all sentimental - my Grandma used to have loads of it. And what's it like being a WI member? I was going to look into joining locally, but I've never met anyone who's been a member and so I'd love to know what it's really like, as opposed to what people tell me it's going to be like!

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  8. Oh I bet you'll be in fab compnay. My good friend (who is a wonderful knitter) is the chair of her village WI - at 33!

    She's truly licked them into shape and has belly dancing on the calendar for an evening next year.

    What a delicious looking meal. I've got several old enamel dishes just like yours, that came to me via my grandma. They're the bets thing to cook with aren't they and I used one of the bowls today to warm a bottle for nephew, my gran's great grandson.

    Must go and pick a few of our courgettes and get roating. Thanks for the idea.
    Stephx

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  9. Hi,

    Thank you very much for leaving such a kind comment on my blog. I enjoyed scrolling through yours too! Your dishes look delicious!

    Wish you a happy evening!

    Lieve groet, Madelief

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