Of Clay Bakers And A Strange Piece Of Furniture

So the other day I went to Goodwill. I don’t tend to find much in this particular one usually since it’s 90 % (questionable) clothing  and the rest is more often than not really poor quality/broken things that are highly overpriced for a thrift store.

Except for when whoever is doing the pricing doesn’t really know what they have there – then you can really get a bargain! Like an almost new Roemertopf (german clay baker) for $7.99 (ususally $50 + for this size) Now I have one for my chicken and one for the bread :)

There are smaller ones available for arounf $30. I saw that IKEA carries them too now!

If you are not familiar with them - clay bakers are really awesome!

Clay pot cookery can be traced back thousands of years, when food in an earthenware pot was put in the glowing ashes of an open fire.

They are unglazed semi porous  clay vessels that have an almost equally sized top and bottom.

You soak the clay baker in water prior to cooking and it makes the most succulent, juicy roast chicken! And it cooks about 1/2 hr faster than in a regular oven too! Or you can use it in the microwave! If you do, I would still crisp it in the oven though – unless you like to “skinless” then you’re good to go!

Soaking the pot makes the clay absorb moisture that changes into steam in the oven keeping the food juicy throughout the cooking.

Dinner is as easy as this: Layer some potato chunks in the bottom, a whole (seasoned) chicken on top. Surround it with some veggies. I usually stuff some lemon and/or onion and herbs in the chicken cavity too, for extra flavor!

Then let it do it’s thing in the oven for 45 minutes . You start with a COLD oven for this baker!

For the last 10-15 minutes, take off the lid, pour off the juices (to make separate gravy if you so desire) and let the chicken crisp and you’re done with dinner. BTW it also cooks pot roasts, lamb, stews, glazed ham, casseroles etc.

AND I use it for my bread baking! I generally make the no-knead sourdough bread, that rises for an initial 18 hrs or so, then after forming the loaf for another 2 hrs before it gets dropped into the preheated Roemertopf. It gives a great oven spring and the size of the Roemertopf allows for larger loaves than my cloche baker!  You can also use a cold oven to bake your bread – works just as well. I just use pre-heated as it works better with the cloche baker and I generally do two loaves per batch  

So, as you can see, I do love clay bakers! I am always surprised that these aren’t better known and used ALL the time :)

 

But I digress! At Goodwill I was in search of things I could use for decorating, a plate or two I could apply some vinyl cut-outs to and some kind of console or bench or low cupboard to go in my office.

It’s meant to house my craft cutter and my ever growing vinyl supply.

I have this brand new office with glorious amount of storage and organization … and then I take up the whole vinyl cutting thing and have no designated space for it Well at least not close enough to the desk! Can’t have USB extension cords running through the room!

 

I found this curious little thing there. I have no idea what it was meant to be originally.

 

 

But I liked the basic shape, it was a little dusty but otherwise in good condition and I had a vision of what it would look like once I was done with it! The table top looked like it would happily accommodate my craft cutter (it does)  and the 12 inches it needed on either side for the sheets to feed through.

And … the top is solid old marble! Yep. It weighs about 3 times as much as the rest of the table does. And they wanted $9 for the whole thing

So, since I am vaguely better today, I have to do some catching up on all I missed around the house and with designing the last couple of days and then I’ll get to work on this strange piece of furniture!

Have a lovely day everyone!