Stiffling the Souffles

D and I went to an auction this past weekend. The owner of the local antique emporium is terminally ill (colon cancer) and has decided to auction off the entire contents of her store to provide for her family after she is gone. I wish her peace.

Saturday was such a crappy day. Hrothgar has really angered the Godzilla this summer as we have had some ten straight days of thunder, lightning and heavy rains. There was no way we could make it into the garden to plant the vegetables without risking slomping (a new word)through the mud and squishing the squashes. As such, we walked down to the antiques store and sat in on the auction.

It was all very exciting with so many lovely and historical pieces being sold off. I couldn't help but remark that it was like watching an episode of Antiques Roadshow. We bid on a number of items that would add some nice accesory to our house including an old china closet with serpentine glass in front. It ended up selling for $750 - which was far beyond our means. We ended up succesfully bidding on a very large Chinese glazed pot, decorated with goldfish. Indeed it would be large enough to contain goldfish had we a pump. I briefly toyed with the idea then remembered that Mom and Dad have had a lot of problems with racoons fishing in their pond. Our lot also came with a very large china bowl, gold trimmed and decorated neatly. I am very pleased.

We also bid on another china closet, this one solid mahogany and in very good shape. We managed to win it for $200.00 and I am very, very pleased as I will have a place to put my Grandmas silver. Its hue matches perfectly the surrounding millwork and the justices podium we have in the dining room.

Our final bid is among the most exciting and difficult. I saw a dutch oven that I wanted to double as a dutch oven and a donabe. I think I am going to make Bamberger Krautbraten in it to please D. He loves German food so very much.

Sounds cool right? Except that I forgot to mention that the dutch oven was part of a lot of items that were shelved on a bookcase. We bought the bookcase and the entire lot of whiteware for $5. The bookcase is now in the hall as the perfect place to put shoes (great idea A!) and the dutch oven will be used, but the lot also contained:

4 large souffle dishes
2 ramekins
2 apple crisp dishes
4 other glazed stonewear pieces that I could make frittata or such with
4 miscellaneous casseroles
8 white restaurant style dinner plates (in use now)
4 other white plates
Some other stuff.

I have no idea what I am going to do with everything. While mismatched it is still quality! What I don't keep, I will take down to good will.

I am thinking of redoing my day to day dishes to be all patterns in white. Mismatched and what not. What do you think?