This week’s coffee pot is another Manning Bowman Work of Art. This was the first pot that I purchased from ebay. Isn’t it a statuesque beauty? The spout pours as beautifully as it looks – in a long elegant arc. Manufactured in 1933, it also has an extra fuse still attached to the bottom - I expect many years of production! The manufacture year means that it predates my three globe pots shown in the previous post. The handle appears to be made of wood and coated with a black enamel, as opposed to the more commonly used Bakelite. I like to use this one for those special occasions when a friend that I haven’t been able to spend time with for awhile is able to come by for some “coffee and”, as my mother-in-law likes to put it, or for a small gathering, and sometimes I make a pot just for me, indulging in the mesmerizing pleasure of watching it percolate. I love the way the hot brown liquid hits the tip of the globe and then cascades down the sloped sides of the glass with each perk. Somewhere I once read something about how the pottery created by ancient native peoples was imbued with the philosophy that every object of function need also be a work of art for the enhancement of daily life. In this, and in most all of the vintage coffee pots in my keeping, I find such a complementary marriage exists.

I wish I had better skill as a photographer in order to portray the images as I see them. I don’t know anything about speed or exposure settings and the like, but I did find an image setting on my camera that allows for taking several pictures in succession to catch things in motion, so I’m kind of proud of the fact that I have some shots of the coffee as its percolating in the globe. I tried many ways to get these into a slide show of some kind without success. You’re forced to have to page down, but as you will see, it is an action sequence of sorts.

It took many attempts and I went through almost the whole pot of coffee trying to pour with my right hand and take the picture with my left. I overflowed the cup or missed the mark more than once, but am happy to be able to display coffee actually being poured from the pot into a cup as well.

If you look closely you can see that the coffee in the picture below is actually pouring in front of the cup.

And then there was the overflow…

I am proud to say that I bring a dessert recipe offering to this foodie Tuesday post. It’s for a simple cherry cobbler that someone passed along to my mother when I was in high school. We were not a household that regularly had desserts with our suppers. Being a large family, it was enough to get the huge pot of mashed potatoes that was our staple, with whatever meat was for dinner, prepared in between the needs of babies and toddlers. I remember that the fact that this recipe required only having to melt a stick of butter in the same pan in which it would bake and then throwing everything else on top seemed easy in a way that tickled my Mom to no end. The rest of us were pretty pleased too.

Here’s the recipe:

Cherry Cobbler

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In square or round casserole dish, place one stick of butter, place in oven to melt while the oven is preheating.

Mix together:

¾ c sugar

1 c flour

¾ c milk

2 teas baking powder

Dash salt

Pour mixture over melted butter.

Pour 1 can of Cherry pie filling (peach or other works too) on top – do not mix

Sprinkle ¼ c sugar over the top

Bake for one hour.

Serve warm or cold, with or without toppings.

The china cup and saucer pictured here is a garage sale find. I collect them (yes another collection) not for their rarity or high end value, but rather as they appeal to my eye and out of the belief born of my experience that good coffee tastes even better from a china cup. As a result, I have an eclectic mix of pairings that I put out on the table for guests to choose from when I am hosting such things as showers or my annual Oscar Party and that is always a separate little fun all of its own.