10 Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway

We have a winner! Dale S. of Alberta, Canada; happy baking!!!

This is my 10 year blog anniversary and we’re celebrating with a giveaway, a Polish pottery giveaway at that.

It’s been 10 years since I published my first food blog post. It was a Chocolate Malted Milk Ball Cake that I made for my mother’s birthday. I’ll save you the trouble of looking; you’ll find it here.

I’d like to think my food photography has improved over the years. At least I lost the time and date stamp along the way!

I’ve certainly learned more about websites, social media, marketing, and this hobby blog has turned into a business that provides a small income for our family.

The good news is that there is always more to learn. I think it would be a sad thing to feel like you were done, there was nothing new under the sun.

One area where I still have room for growth is learning to brush off unkind remarks. I confessed to a co-worker (who happens to also be a playwright) that insults on my Facebook page will sideline me for a week or two. He understood and said when the New York Times slammed his play, he didn’t write for five years.

It’s something for me to work on, and now I have all of you as accountability partners! On to the giveaway. 🙂

The Polish pottery pie plate that I’ll send to one lucky ready is a sunflower pattern. Do you know about Polish Pottery? I’ll bet many of you do. I knew nothing about it until we were on our way to Poland.

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Polish Pottery

Polish pottery is made from clay mined near Bolesławiec in the Silesia Region of southwest Poland. We visited Bolesławiec and had a tour of the clay mine. My husband, Ed, had played golf with the owners a few times. They were gracious hosts, inviting us to their home for dinner on no notice when they heard we were in town. Polish hospitality at its best.

The clay they mine is strong and dense; it’s fired at a very high temp and produces stoneware, a durable finished product, on par with the finest European brands. There are multiple manufacturers producing pottery in Bolesławiec.

The designs are often repetitive floral and geometric patterns that are stamped on the clay. The most famous being a peacock pattern, simulating the concentric circles in a peacock’s tail feathers.

Manufacturers also have artists who hand-paint designs, some floral, but increasingly they are offering simple, modern, elegant designs. The more labor that goes into a piece, the more expensive it will be.

It’s nice that there are pieces at a range of price points and to appeal to a range of tastes. There are endless patterns for those of us who like the colorful, folk-art sorts of patterns and now, there are also pieces for those who prefer something more understated and sophisticated.

As stoneware, Polish pottery is very durable. It’s freezer-safe, oven-safe, and dishwasher-safe making it very practical to use day to day in your kitchen.

That being said, I should warn you not to expose your pottery to sudden changes in temperature, such as going straight from the freezer to oven or adding cold liquid to a hot dish. Uneven heat, such as a stove-top burner is also a no-no.

Because the stoneware absorbs heat and retains it, things cook evenly in Polish pottery; there are no hot-spots, and I’ve found that the glaze cleans up nicely. It’s a real joy for baking.

Giveaway

If you receive my newsletter, you are already entered! Good luck! If you don’t fall into this category, subscribe to my newsletter above, at the top of this page.

You only need to supply your first name and your email address (info which I will never share with others) and you’ll receive a newsletter from me which is no more than monthly at the moment. In exchange, I’ll send you an infographic to inspire you to make a trip to PL.

I will select a winner at random at 8:00 AM MST on Friday, June 21, 2019. I’ll email the winner to get their mailing address. If there is no response, I’ll select another name 48 hours later.

Best of luck!

Lois