Trivia!

Last post we told you the saga of cooking for the cover, but there's more to the story. If you look at the far right picture, you'll see The Bag Lady's vegetarian chili. Notice the tureen it's in. The tureen is practically an antique! It's at least as old as The Bag Lady herself! As a little girl, she remembers her mother taking it to "Dime a Dip" dinners at the church. Back in the good old days, the church would get together for fund raising dinners. Everyone would bring a dish and you would go around paying a dime for each scoop of your dinner. Now the tureen has been passed down to The Bag Lady. It's only fitting that it appears in her book. It's a symbol of her heritage. Her food, preparedness, and "other cool stuff your mama never told you" heritage.

Look to the left of the chili, see the hot cereal? Isn't it in a nifty bowl? That bowl, came from China. I know, I know, I'm sure you have lots of dishes that were made in China. That's not what I mean. This bowl literally CAME from China. I spent a brief stint teaching English in China with my best friend. Both of our mothers like dishes, so being dutiful daughters, we set out to bring them home some authentic china. The problem came when we left the school and traveled through the country on our own. We had the option of shipping our bags ahead, but if you think the baggage handlers in America are rough, try a freight train. By the time my shipped suitcase and I reunited, it was missing a handle and several wheels, think what would have happened to dishes. Knowing this, the only logical solution was to pack our dishes across the country, ON OUR BACKS. We had a good 50 lbs of china, easy. By bus, by train, by three wheeled death car we journeyed! Across cities and down country sides we sojourned! Many days and several nights our dishes traveled! Braving jostling crowds of sardine packed people, rocking train cars, squatty potties, and pick pockets we made it to the airport. Where we finally checked our china...as a carry on. Eventually we made it home, unpacked tenderly, and presented our gifts. Every piece was perfectly intact.

Now direct your gaze to the beautiful pink pancake and blue tortilla plates. One can only imagine all that those dishes mean, the places they've been, the people they've seen. You see, we found those beauties at Deseret Industries--our local thrift store. They were the $1 special.