June 13, 2012

Bowl fever | Gardening fever

Lightly-cooked baby kale, cannelini beans, tomatoes, carrots over rice pasta
We used to attend a yearly fundraiser for the local homeless shelter called Super Bowl. It was an event put on by our neighborhood high school in which local potters as well as the high school's pottery classes, donated hand-thrown pots. Soup provided by restaurants was served in the bowls. We'd choose a bowl to purchase, and then have it filled with soup. I have a substantial collection of bowls from many years of attending the event — each one different — that I'm very fond of. I also have a collection of plain white bowls in two sizes, that I love. In addition, I have lots of other miscellaneous bowl collections as well as larger serving bowls in all sizes and designs. Surely, I have enough bowls, but I still look longingly on a certain oval-shaped white bowl from World Market in which I was served a delicious lunch at a tea house in my old neighborhood — more than once. If I could figure out where to keep more bowls, I might buy them.

I was wondering what came first, my obsession with bowls, or my pleasure in eating an entire meal in a bowl. In my last post, there were photos of one-bowl meals that combined both cooked and raw food. Here are examples of cooked food in bowls.

Sweet potato, broccoli, kidney beans over quinoa, with tahini sauce

Tofu, mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes, avocado (raw) over quinoa
Zucchini, chickpeas, tomatoes, mushrooms, olives over quinoa pasta

Taco bowl: chips, black beans, bok choy, tomatoes, creamy chipotle sauce



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Plant-friendly spaces
It's been three years since I've had my own space to garden in, and even now that I finally have space again, it's not a lot of space. I thought I was going to do a lot more landscaping than I did, but I haven't decided just what I want to do to spruce up our small lot. So instead of tackling the real gardening issues, I've been trying to make some of the smaller outdoor spaces more peaceful and inviting. I've added a bunch of plants to the little front porch ...

... along with a couple of chairs and a plant stand borrowed from the dining room. I sewed cushions for the chairs to make them a little more colorful.

On the back deck I've planted various herbs and flowers in pots. (Notice the large bamboo pot in the back? I found it at a garage sale for $1.) We've cleared enough space in the yard to plant an assortment of veggies, and I made a small herb garden around the side of the house.

I want the bench! (And the garden, too.)


I'm still hoping to turn the spaces around our house into pocket gardens, like the one in the photo I took on a recent walk. I would love to come across a bench like this to stash in a side garden! Here's hoping foraging through garage and estate sales, and craigslist, will come through for me. :)

25 comments:

  1. I love bowls--and meals in bowls--too! I have WAY too many and none of them match, lol. I go to an event like that every year too. Ours is called Empty Bowls, but I think your Souper Bowls is a much better name!

    Courtney

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    1. I'm glad I'm not the only one with an excess of unmatched bowls! I also have too many bowls that match.

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  2. oh my gosh! what gorgeous bowl! i especially love the tofu mushroom avocado one....YUM! thanks for sharing!

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    1. I love anything with avocado. It makes things taste so much better.

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  3. I love bowls too! The only thing that has slowed the amount of them that I buy is that I'm taking pottery classes and making my own. Regardless, my cupboard space is dwindling at a record pace! At a recent art fair that I attended, I had the hardest time not buying more bowls. Plus, when you have a blog it's just another excuse for obtaining cute kitchenware. As your meals demonstrate, full meals look so inviting in bowls, so comforting.

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    1. I didn't mention all the bowls I've made in pottery classes. :) Soon you'll need an etsy shop to sell your beautiful bowls — I'll bet a lot of people would be interested. I'm trying to curtail kitchenware purchases for the blog by photographing most things in white dishes. (Of course, it still leaves room for table covers.)

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  4. You sure know how to make a house, a home! Nice to see pics of your Seattle place. And I love "bowl foods" too.

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    1. Well, Claire, I'm trying. If only I could find a way to add some sunshine ...

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    2. I'll give you some of Denver's. I wish it'd go away.

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    3. Be careful what you wish for. :)

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  5. I love eating out of bowls! When my and I got our new dinnerware, I added shallow bowls to the set. We have three sets of bowls, one set of plates. So, as you can imagine, we like eating out of bowls over here, too :) Such beautiful meals! And I'm envious of the hand spun pottery in your collection.

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    1. I love it when others make me feel that my excesses are perfectly normal. Here's to bowl collectors — may we find our next set of perfect bowls just around the corner!

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  6. I'm really hoping to start an herb garden myself. My good friend has one set up in such an ideal spot that by mid-summer, they look like shrubs!

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    1. Unlike the gardens I used to have in Madison, I'm not sure my current herbs will reach shrub proportions or even grow. This is our first spring in the house, and the only things I've seen growing here are weeds. The soil needs amendment, and I was so anxious to plant I kind of skipped over the first rule of gardening — good soil. Next year! Remember, add lots of compost!

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  7. I wish I had a well-planned and thought out garden! One with good soil. That's my goal. I love the bench and wish it were mine.

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  8. Yummy looking bowl food! I kinda thought you were going to show more of your bowl collection. I would love to see that. I just have white ones and one black shiny one that's a pain to photograph with all the reflections so I don't use it. :-) Oh, and I'm totally jealous of that bench.

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    1. Many of my bowls are in Wisconsin but I plan to bring them here this summer. Food really photographs best in the white ones.

      I'm jealous of the bench, too, and wish it were mine.

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  9. There's a similar event here where you can purchase a bowl made by a local artist & eat all the chili you want out of it. We've yet to go because I keep failing to find out if they offer vegan chili.

    All of the meals look so colorful and good. I love eating out of bowls! Do you have a bowl from Vegan Dish, by chance?

    What you've done with your porch looks very nice and I love the little gate (and the color of it!).

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    1. There was vegan soup at our event but never vegan dessert! The soup was pretty bland — nothing like homemade soup — but we liked supporting the cause, and we liked the bowls!

      I don't have any dishes from vegan dish, but I admire them. Do you have some?

      Thanks for the porch compliments. I really tried to make it cozy so we'd want to sit out there. I like the idea of traditional front porches.

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    2. We do have two bowls from Vegan Dish and love them. Definitely our favorite bowls and they've held up so well.

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  10. Your bowls of food have bowled me over! :-) They all look delicious, but I would happily take a dozen bowls of the tofu/mushroom/avocado melange into a corner and eat the entire contents all by myself. Without utensils. Or one iota of shame. :-)

    I love your sweet porch and garden pictures! That green plant stand you borrowed from the dining room it utterly charming, and that little corner of your porch most inviting. Lovely cushions! I love the gate on your back deck, and what a great find on your $1 bamboo planter!

    Wishing you ever so much luck on your quest for a metal bench like the one in that photo. I'd covet it too! It's unusual and winsome. Perfect for sitting on whilst eating bowls of delicious vegan foodstuffs! :-)

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    1. Ha! I can see you crouching in the corner with your stash. I'd be in the other corner with my sweet potato and broccoli. :)

      The porch is much improved over what it was but it needs some sun and heat to reach its full potential. (And a more-frequent sweeping with the broom.)

      I'm probably too cheap to ever be able to acquire the bench I covet, but I can dream.

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    2. I'm able to picture us hunkered down and ravenously devouring our bowls of food in our opposite porch corners FAR too easily! :-)

      Not cheap - frugal! Thrifty! Economical! But even so, a girl needs to enjoy a little splurge on a special treasure now and then, and a bench like that one would be much used, loved and enjoyed. So I hope you find one, and for a price that makes your thrifty heart sing!

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  11. Thx for connecting with me on foodbuzz. I just subscribed to your blog feed and can't wait to see what your next post will be!

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  12. I love how you can catch my eyes with these Scrumptious bowls! Gotta try them somehow!

    How bout get more tips at the Culinary Schools

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