There's nothing quite like cooking a meal that you can't wait to eat and then realizing you've just spooned all that splendor onto a chipped plate.
Is it safe? Will I be ingesting commercial pottery glaze components I can't pronounce or glass particles I can't even see? Those aren't the kinds of questions you want to chew on during dinner.
For No-Cook Cooking cooks, reaching a comfort level with your cooking means it's a great time to pay more attention to presentation. And that doesn't mean saving the good stuff only for company. You deserve to have something pleasant and safe to eat from every day, whether you're serving Hamburger Helper or filet mignon, and it's possible to do so without paying prime-rib prices.
Next time you take your daily dinnerware out of the drying rack or dishwasher, spend a few minutes to check every piece for cracks, chips and other signs that you might need to retire your rotation. Next time you are reorganizing your kitchen cabinets, think about what you use, what you don't use and why. Having what you love and loving what you have will keep kitchen stress down, which is important to No-Cook Cooking cooks.
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If you have a particularly powerful dishwasher that's basically a contained tsunami, you may have noticed that it kills more than germs. You will want to glance over your dishes on a regular basis, because tiny cracks can grow over time into bigger cracks and leak pesto onto your tablecloth or aioli onto your favorite pants. Even worse, piling hot food on a cold, compromised plate could cause what the talented bladesmiths on "Forged in Fire" like to call "a catastrophic failure."
There are several ways to go about replacing your kitchen's daily drivers, and none of them requires busting inflation-inflamed grocery budgets on dishes.
Sustainable sets
It's always exciting to treat yourself to something shiny and new without blowing your budget. My parents collected a rock-solid set of stoneware plates one at a time, week after week, as part of a promotion at their favorite grocery store. Decades later, most of those creamy French-white plates lasted long enough to pass down.
Plenty of people receive wedding presents that they never use. If you received a box of plates in a color you don't care for, and the same thing happened to a friend, there's no reason you can't trade. Gifts that get used and loved can make multiple recipients happy.
Many folks make great finds at Goodwill, thrift shops and church and charity sales. Unopened wedding presents, estate-sale treasures, rarely used holiday sets and family hand-me-downs all can save substantial amounts of cash that you could spend on better-quality cooking ingredients.
Get creative
If you love eclectic color combinations, experiment with combining incomplete sets you already own. If sizes don't match, consider using larger plates as chargers. No-Cook Cooking is all about setting your imagination free in the kitchen, so extend that philosophy to the dining room and play with patterns, shapes and colors to your heart's content.
The last orphan from a set that gradually bit the dust may be ready for a useful second act. A chipped saucer or bowl may be just the thing to place under an incontinent houseplant or keep random keys from getting misplaced. And if you can't bear to throw away beautiful broken dishes, there are tutorials online for creating mosaic garden stepping stones and other functional keepsakes from chips, shards and slivers that otherwise would go to waste. Finding a new way to recognize its beauty can honor an object you're reluctant to bid goodbye.
Be true to yourself
Everyone doesn't have the same comfort level with pre-owned kitchen goods, so just be honest with yourself. If you can't stand the idea of eating from someone else's plates, no matter how many times they've been sanitized, don't buy dishes that you'll never use — even if they're beautiful. Someone else may love them.
Just because a set is on sale doesn't mean it's the right buy for you. Sometimes, the best decision is to leave a box of dishes on the shelf unpurchased. It's easy to see trendy new colors and shapes in magazines and on websites and be tempted to buy place settings of everything, but it's important to determine whether those dishes will hold up the way you want them to over time.
Take a close, critical look at the display pieces on the store racks. If you think your dishwasher will mistake them for skeet targets, move on. The set you want is waiting out there somewhere.
Living in Central Virginia means being surrounded by talented artisans who make functional stoneware you'll be proud to own, so mark your calendars for a few upcoming retail therapy opportunities. Buying local also is an easy way to invest in your community and support small businesses. The person who made your new dishes will be happy to recommend pieces that will suit your lifestyle and share instructions for taking care of them.
The Virginia Clay Festival is coming up on Sept. 17 and 18 at William Monroe High School in Stanardsville. Admission and parking are free. Learn about this year's 32 participating potters and clay artists at virginiaclayfestival.com.
The fall edition of the Crozet Arts and Crafts Festival, boasting more than 120 juried vendors, is set for Oct. 8 and 9 in Claudius Crozet Park. Head to crozetfestival.com to get a feel for the wares you'll be browsing.
And if you'd love to see where your new dishes were made, it's not too early to start thinking about the Artisans Studio Tour, which will take place on Nov. 12 and 13 and offer 39 artisans from different disciplines in 21 local studios. Visit artisanstudiotour.com for all the details.
https://dailyprogress.com/no-cook-cooking-the-dish-on-retiring-your-trusty-serving-ware/article_9687e08e-2324-11ed-bb3a-73a6c5b571df.html
2022-08-23 22:00:00Z
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