VeganMoFo 14: My Favorites: Dishes!

Today begins week 3 of MoFo, which means "Week of My Favorites!"

Today, I will share with you my favorite dishes! (by which I mean actual dishes, not meals) Mostly we have a crazy selection of random plates and glasses and cutlery and so on. I suppose this is why some people actually get married, for the matching dishes. I think we have 5 matching plates... and probably 5 matching forks and knives, and rest is mostly from the thrift store. Most of our selection is fairly utilitarian, but I do have some real favorites:

First and Foremost, My Treasured Pyrex dishes. I love Pyrex: pretty, cheery, functional. These aren't my whole collection, but they are my favorites. I especially love the red square serving bowl. I used to have two, but dropped one. Let us all bow our heads in silence, in remembrance of that difficult time. Also, I love the stack of medium-sized bowls on the right. You can see that the yellow one is currently in use holding (what else!?) cherry tomatoes. I use these bowls all the time. Just opening my cupboard and looking at them makes me happy. Function and beauty together is just irresistible. The blue one in the way back is all solid light blue, and is a bit bigger.

I also have a nice collection of metal bowls. Those big bowls are pretty good sized - the one on the left has about 8 big apples in it, for reference. My mom has a big mushroom bowl just like this, and it was in the kitchen for as long as I could remember. So, when I found a matching mushroom bowl set at the Goodwill, I grabbed it up fast! Like Mother, like daughter! These mushroom bowls are probably one of my earliest kitchen acquisitions - I bought them in Seattle, when I was living there after college. Hmmm... stirring up life memories via dish acquisitions! The colorful veggie bowl was from a local thrift store find. I'm pretty sure my mom got this one for me. She is a serious thrift store QUEEN. (mad props to mom!)

Some of my favorite glasses. I featured my favorite mugs back in my hot cocoa review post, but I don't often feature my glasses. I have some great glasses with doggies on them: in big pint glasses and in little juice glasses. They are from a local shop called "Blast Glass!" and my mom got them for me as a housewarming present when I moved into my first place. (heart!) Also, I love these fun Frank's Grill glasses that my aunt L. got me. They are curvy and I love their retro styling. They are usually the glass I reach for unless I'm super thirsty and preparing to guzzle some serious liquid. They've got good mouth feel, if you know what I mean. In the very back you can see my metal drinking cups that I brought home from India. Just drinking out of a metal cup really takes me right back to India. Also, they are swoopy in a pleasing way.

Along the lines of my doggie glasses are these wonderful doggie dessert plates. They are black glass, and they have dogs running around the edges. As if it weren't enough to have dogs running around the kitchen, and as if it weren't enough to already have dog hair on whatever I'm eating, now I can also have dogs running around my plate! Perfect! All kidding aside, I love these beautiful and fun plates.

These are my favorite spoons. Obviously, these are special occasion spoons, not everyday cereal spoons. The long ones were a gift from my mom (I'm sensing a theme!), and I love them for ice cream and smoothies and special treats like that. They are elegant and shiny and perfectly comfy to hold. That little tiny spoon is one I use for super special little treats like a small bowl of pudding or a little cup of yogurt... I like its tiny simplicity. It makes eating fun, even if I'm just eating plain soy yogurt. Also, its tiny size encourages me to slow down and savor my snack.

Our small and tiny bowls. The stack of rainbow bowls on the right are so super beautiful. Unfortunately the blue one broke, and I repaired it in a sort of cloodgy way. I have been looking for a replacement, but haven't seen them anywhere since then. They are big enough for a scoop of ice cream, but I mostly use them for mise en place food prep. That's true for all these little beauties. The two tiny and super pretty ones were from my parents' recent trip to Turkey. I love them!

Well, we have a lot of cereal bowls... and I like most of them. We have more of the doggie glass theme in bowls, some locally made ceramic bowls, a few pretty Japantown bowls... but I picked out these for my photo feature: A few pyrex bowls in orange and white, and my special Kellogg's bowls. I got those Kelloggs bowls for free by sending in a couple UPC symbols. I got them a long time ago, back when free was even more exciting than it is today. I couldn't believe my good luck. I think it was the 100th anniversary of Kelloggs or something. They are simple little beat-up plastic bowls, but they have a special place in my heart.

Speaking of plastic dinnerware, here is part of our beloved collection of Make-A-Plate plates! I think we probably have 7 or 8 of these. The top one was done by my nephew CW last year or the year before at our annual Christmas Craft Party. I don't remember the whole story, but it has something to do with Santa and an Elf watching TV with a remote control and the Christmas tree with the Christmas balls being numbered. I think the elf is also holding a Coke. On the bottom right is a plate I did many years ago for Mr. VE&Ts. The theme was of his choosing. It is a T-Rex saying "Time for some MORE!" On the left is Mr. VE&Ts' creation: a fantasy "All You Can Eat" menu - it has "all you can eat" written all around the edges and in the inside are all his favorite foods from that time. I think he made this 8 or 9 years ago.

Lastly, lest you think we only eat off plastic, I'll bump up the classy-ness a bit and share my most favorite serving platter. I have some pretty serving dishes, but this one is my mostest favoritest. I think I got it from Anthropologie, many years ago, on sale. It's a cheese plate, technically, but let's just keep that between you and me. The mice are so cute and really are life sized!

Here's a mousey close up! Pretty much every time we have a party, I try to come up with an excuse to use this platter. Unfortunately my little mousey friends both have some chips off their ears, but I love them just the same.

Hope you've enjoyed this tour through my kitchen cupboards... next time you come over, you will know your way around. More favorites coming tomorrow!