Happiness is in the bowl.

This last Christmas my husband gave me another gorgous piece of Polish pottery. A beautiful bowl, in a style which I call a Balti Bowl. I see them all over refered to as handled bowls. My Indian neighbors cooked the best curries and baltis in this shaped cooking vessels, which is how I came to know the shape as a Balti Bowl. Now, an actual Balti pot is placed directly upon a high heat source during the final stage of cooking. We can not do that with our beautiful Polish pottery. So, oven cooked curries are going to be the best choice for Indian cuisine in this style pot. If you like Slavic food, a nice goulash slow roasted would be a feast in this bowl. I see in this bowl an oven simmered gumbo or jumbalya, if you have the taste buds for the Creole Fare. I have in the works a fancy chicken coq au vin from my French cookbook. Just as soon as I break down and buy a chicken. I have food dreams, not all come true, but a few do. 

The very first day, the very first use of my handled bowl was to stick a whole Honeybaked Ham in there, and pop it in the oven. No lie! I squealed with delight upon opening this present. Honestly, I was not sure how I was going to cook that holiday ham. I got up from all the carefully wrapped gifts, ran downstairs, washed it real quick, and cooked in it. I do believe my husband was real proud of himself. My reaction to the pretty bowl was exactly what he wanted see. I don’t know about my bailing on the presents part though? He was extremely pleased with our Christmas dinner, so any dismay was relieved over a delicious meal. I am truly blessed that my husband loves to give me nice things, to make him wonderful meals in. He is an enabler for my addiction to Polish pottery. Just don’t tell him that! 

In between cooking sessions, my bowl generally sits in my kitchen, on the sad tiles of my rental countertops, storing delicious fresh fruits. Occasionally, I find root vegitables and squash sharing a home in there but not as often. I like having fresh fruit around for a quick on the go snack. The larger the bowl, the more fruits you can have on hand. The larger the bowl, the less of my pitiful kitchen I see. The beautiful pattern on my handled bowl really is a delightful thing. When you get sad looking at your kitchen, Polish Pottery really does make you happy.