Quick and easy.

Shiny copper pots for the holidays.

Maybe you use your copper pots every day, as I do, or you like to have them sparkle for the holidays. 

There is a painless and quick way to make them shine. 

All you need is CLR (available in every hardware store) 
coarse salt, a lemon, a sponge and gloves. 

No need to scrub,

just glide a corner of your CLR soaked sponge over pot.

Dip a lemon, cut in half, in coarse salt and rub.  

Let rest a minute. 

Wash with soap and water.  

Dry immediately or it leaves streaks. 

One more pot to go. 

Caution: do not let CLR stand on natural stone surfaces.

Unlike copper polish,  
CLR rinses clean and does not leave a residue. 

(CLR meets U.S. EPA Safer Product Standards).

I use my copper pots every day. 

They hang from bicycle hooks. 
More friendly than metal hooks. 

Wishing you a happy week.

Gina  

Beets are in the news these days.

BECAUSE THEY DESERVE TO BE.

A real taste treat,  beet crisps (recipe follows).

This is how they grow in my garden.  
Did you notice something unusual about them?
They are cylindrical and not round in shape. 

How many children, would you say, would recognize the lowly beet and know how and where they grow? 

Perfect for slicing evenly sized beet thins. 

Which when baked make the most delicious treat, 
the new beet sensation, the beet crispy chip. 

Normally I like to bake my beets and many are still growing in my garden,  waiting to be preserved for winter meals. 

Beets provide health benefits not readily available from other food families. 

Scrub beets, thinly slice with mandolin (or sharp knife) leaving skin on.  Place on lightly sprayed, with olive oil, cookie sheet. 
Sprinkle with bits of Rosemary, Sage, or Thyme. and 
Real Salt (from the Redmond Salt Mine).
Lightly spray again with olive oil.

Bake in oven @375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.  

Isn't this the perfect time to harvest a garden you planted in April. 

Have a lovely weekend my dear friends. 

Gina 

CONTEST

There are at least 10 easily identifiable flowers/plants blooming in my greenhouse as of this morning.

The first three readers who can identify at least 10 flowers/plants will win.

Send answers to my Etsy Shop
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Maiolica
Go to "Request Custom Item"

A sack of "Redmond Real Salt".
http://ginaceramics.blogspot.com/2012/02/have-you-tasted-redmond-sea-salt.html

Redmond Table Salt in one of my hand printed cotton sacks


OR

I will send you one of my baby cacti.

When all grown up will look like this.
(Only takes 6 months)



So, get your thinking caps on my dear Blogging Friends
and have fun. 

Send answers to my Etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Maiolica
Go to "Request Custom Item"

I will show you the winners after everybody has had a chance to enter.


Gina

Yay, we have Winner No. 1
And yes, we haveWinner No. 2

Important Notice:  Sorry, I can not send overseas.


Today I'm linking to  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
I'm alos joining  http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com/

Have you tasted Redmond Sea Salt?

Salt that is actually good for you!

Redmond Salt is found in a large vein 400 feet below the surface, where the air is sweet and cool, in the small town of  Redmond, south central Utah.

Redmond Salt is marketed under the name of "Real Salt",

by Redmond Heritage Farms, LLC.

Images from the Redmond Salt Museum

An ancient sea covered North America. Over millions of years the waters of this sea evaporated leaving the salt in undisturbed deposits.

During the Jurassic period,  volcanoes erupted around the sea beds, sealing the salt with thick layers of volcanic ash, protecting the salt deposits from pollution "that man would eventually introduce into the environment".

See the large pink rock?  It is a block of salt, just as it is mined, beneficial to animals because of its rich mineral content.

Redmond Salt is unrefined, without additives, chemicals or heat processing. The dark flecks you see represent a full compliment of trace minerals. 

There are several grades of Redmond Salt,  all found within the same mine, but at different locations within the mine.  The salt is taken as found and ground, that's it. 







Some of the mined salt is not table salt.  It is used on highways to melt the ice for safer driving. 

Redmond Salt is shipped all over the world and is easily available. 

Or you can drive by my house and I will point to the road to Redmond, Utah.

by Ann Torrence Photography

And after our visit to Redmond Salt we can go to the Country Auction in Salina and have a bowl of chili at the auction cafe.
But only if its Tuesday.

Of course, while there, you can always buy a handsome herd of Black Angus.

Have a great week my dear Blogging Friends.

Gina