Have you ever looked through your home and wondered where your things have come from? And where your furniture, appliances, kitchenware, and other household products are made?  Many of us have no clue!  We are so busy, as a society, it is something we just don’t think about very much!

ABC News did an entire series of special reports devoted to made in the USA called: Made in America.  In one report, they removed ALL items from a typical, middle class family’s home that were not made in the USA.  It was shocking to see how few things were left!

Here are some stats I read in the article ‘Made in America’ series begins on ABC News

• Today, more than half of everything Americans buy is made overseas.
• If every American spent an extra 1 percent on U.S. products – JUST 18 cents per day – we could create 200,000 U.S. jobs, according to Moody’s Analytics.
• In an ABC7/Survey USA poll, 66 percent of L.A. and Southern California residents check products to see if they are made in America. Trouble is, 66 percent also said they’d likely buy foreign-made products when cheaper.

We are proud to be a company that sells 100% USA made products. When you buy from Crosby & Taylor, you are supporting the American economy and local artisans – so THANK YOU to our customers!   Here are some tips on how you can help support and rebuild the U.S. economy:

Limited Time Offer: Buy One Crosby & Taylor Heart Spoon Rest Get a Second One Free!

Pair of Heart Spoon Rests

Everyone knows two is better than one – right?  Through the end of May, you can get two Heart Spoon Rests for the price of one!

Here is the background on this special….Through the years I have taken home nearly one of everything we make (that is a heck of  a lot of pewter!).   However, I have a terrible confession to make: I have never taken home a Spoon Rest for myself!

I know – SHOCKING!  Spoon Rests are one of my favorite things to give as gifts – so why don’t I even have one myself? I thought I didn’t really need one. I’m not the tidiest person in the kitchen and I guess I tend to just set my wooden spoons and spatulas down wherever they end up.

When I was in Portland recently making dinner for one of my daughters and my son-in-law, I couldn’t help but notice how SPOTLESS their kitchen is! There was NO way I was going to be sloppy in that pristine place. So, of course, I used their Spoon Rest. Now, granted, they have a small one. But, still, it was quite large enough and I was surprised how good it made me feel to set my messy spoon on that tidy little Spoon Rest.

I now see how great it is to have a lovely pewter Spoon Rest! So, through the end of May, you can get a pair of our Heart Spoon Rests - for the price of one! You get our smaller, original one along with our newer, larger one!

The question for me is now which one will I take home for myself? Fleur de Lys….Dragonfly…Fish….Bird….Heart…??

Small Heart Spoon Rest in a tidy kitchen!

In my last posting, I talked about making Pirate Cupcakes with my grandson in Switerland. My daughter and I doubled the recipe – thinking that it would make 24 cupcakes. Well….we learned a little about portion size. Our American recipe said it would make 24 – but we soon found out that our batter just kept going and going and going until we had filled up 36 Swiss muffin liners! Everything there is SO much smaller.

Check out your basic sugar and flour bags from the local Swiss grocery store – compared to American bags:

American flour and sugar with our Bird One Cup

Swiss baking ingredients

And how about a “jug” of Swiss milk!

A "jug" of Swiss milk

American jug of milk and our Bird Teaspoon

Since everything is so delicious and amazing in Switzerland, I guess they just don’t need much of it to be satisfied!

Now you may have noticed that my daughter’s Bird Measuring Cup and Bird Tablespoon is not as shiny as our new ones. She loves them that way! Some people prefer to keep them shiny – like they are when you first get them. In my next posting, I will talk about our “Spa Treatment” option for your Spoons and Cups!

A few months ago we contacted all of the wonderful shops and galleries that carry our products and asked what they would like us to make for Mother’s Day. From all of the entries, we chose Karen Monte’s from KaDee Kay Gourmet Kitchen Products in Mount Dora, Florida.

KaDee Kay Gourmet Kitchen Products is a retail store selling unique kitchen items in Mount Dora Florida in the beautiful The Arbors & Eyebrows complex.

Karen from KaDee Kay Gourmet Kitchen Products

She suggested that we make double-ended Measuring Spoons. We thought it was brilliant and a perfect addition to our product line. We awarded her with $350 in merchandise and she also got 3 pairs of these new spoons.

Double-ended Measuring Spoons

I have never been to Mount Dora but I will definitely have to stop in next time I’m in Florida – and I hope you will, too – because this looks like a really fun place to shop.

Thank you, Karen, for entering our contest – and for submitting this great idea!

Here’s what 55,000 miles and $50 got me last week – a quick trip to Geneva, Switzerland for my oldest grandson’s 5th birthday! Thank goodness my oldest daughter has one of our Bird Super Post sets with our Measuring Spoons and Cups so that we could make Pirate Cupcakes for the big day.

My grandson and I preparing for the Big Pirate Party!

We found an incredible recipe online but when we didn’t have any sour cream, we found we had to improvise. This improvisation was so successful that I must share the recipe! They were the BEST cupcakes ever!

Now, admittedly, we were using European butter which is pretty much to die for but I’m sure they will still be yummy with our American butter – ha!

Amazing Yellow Cupcakes

• Beat at medium speed: 1 1/3 cups butter
• Add and beat well:2 cups sugar
• Add and beat well: 2 large eggs PLUS 4 large egg yolks 3 tsp. vanilla
• Add and beat well: 1/2 cup Mascarpone 1 container hazlenut yogurt (This was where we improvised. You could use any kind of appropriately-flavored yogurt…like vanilla or nut, etc.)

Mix dry ingredients together and then add to batter:

• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• Just for fun – since it was a kid’s party, after all, we mixed in some colorful star shaped sprinkles.

Drop 1/4 batter into each muffin liner. Bake at 350 degrees for 18- 25 minutes.  Makes 24 cupcakes.

Then, here is where we improvised again:

As soon as the cupcakes came out, I dropped in a chunk of Swiss semi-sweet chocolate. If I may say so myself, this was brilliant! Again, you don’t need Swiss – just use your most amazing, richest block chocolate. (The crazy thing is that, although everything in Switzerland is crazy expensive, this was regular old cooking chocolate – the equivalent of just one dollar!)

Swiss chocolate

Cupcake - yum!

Cupcake with gooey chocolate center - amazing!

We then frosted them with :

-1/2 cup mascarpone to which we had added 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

Pirate Cupcake on the Pirate Hat - perfect!

All of us at Crosby & Taylor send warm Mother’s Day wishes to all of those special Mothers and Grandmothers out there! Enjoy!

What an exciting weekend for Crosby & Taylor! Jim traveled from our studio in Eugene, Oregon to Atlanta, GA to participate in The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show at the Cobb Galleria Center.   This is one of the biggest “foodie” events for cooking & entertaining enthusiasts, so we could not pass up the opportunity!

The event featured Food Network celebrity chefs (including Georgia native and Crosby & Taylor favorite: Paula Deen), hundreds of food and entertaining exhibitors, cooking demonstrations, hands on workshops, cooking for kids, and beer, wine & spirits tastings.

Here are some of the photos from the event! We want to thank everyone who took the time to stop by our exhibit and learn more about our special Pewter and Stoneware Collections!

There was no shortage of visitors to the Crosby & Taylor booth!

Jim helps another happy customer!

Jim posed proudly by his wonderful display!

I hope that everyone who attended this fun show in Atlanta over the week-end had a great time! Visitors to our booth were able to register to win pieces from our new Made for Mothers Collection.

Jim has just called me from his hotel room in Atlanta, where he randomly selected 3 winners.

Drum roll, please!

Here they are:

Sue Heddon – Mother Measuring  Cups on Pewter Post

Cindy Anderson – Mother Measuring Spoons on Pewter Post

Lynn Quick – a pair of our Double-ended Measuring Spoons

If you are Sue, Cindy, or Lynn…we hope you will e-mail us as soon as possible, so that we can send out your prizes.

Thank you to all who stopped in to see Jim – and our line of products.