Best Vinaigrette

Jim and I are huge salad fans. We're not very talented in the Barbecue Department. We love the smells of ribs and burgers that waft over from our neighbors' yards. We envy their talents. But, at the same time, we're pretty happy with our salads.

One of the most important parts of a salad for me is the dressing.  A lot of people think that it is a lot of work to make a good salad dressing. It certainly takes longer than opening a bottle of prepared dressing. But, all it really takes is 5 or 10 minutes to make a big batch of vinaigrette and then you're set for the week.

Here is my recipe. Give it a try. I hope you'll love it as much as we do.

There are a few options so you can mix it up, week to week.

Moss Street Vinaigrette

Whisk together:

-1/4 cup red wine vinegar OR 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (which will, of course, really change the flavor of the dressing)

-2 T. Dijon mustard

-2 T. chopped shallots OR 4 cloves finely chopped garlic

-1/2 tsp. cumin AND 1 T. crushed oregano  OR, instead of these two herbs, you can use 2 T. crushed dried parsley

Make sure all of this is nicely whisked together.

Then, GRADUALLY, pour in 1 cup plus 2 T. olive oil.

(It's helpful to whisk like crazy while, at the same time, pouring in the olive oil in a thin stream. This will blend it nicely.)

-Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Then, divide into small tupper wares and refrigerate. When your salad is ready, simply take out a tupper ware and set it in

a bowl of hot water so that the dressing can be poured onto the salad. (It will solidify in the refrigerator.)

Enjoy!

Former Employees

For years, we were located just a few blocks from the University of Oregon. This was great for students who wanted to sandwich a work shift in between their classes. And it was great for us because we got to meet all kinds of wonderful young people. Even better, many of them have kept in touch and I still get to see them, from time to time (never as often as I would like).

One of these speical people is Naomi, who now lives in Seattle. Although she has a myriad talents, she earns a living at Jamie Joseph Jewelry. I just checked out their website and, if you click on "Our Story", you get a real cool little video clip of everyone running around making jewelry.

The owners apparently are obsessed with stones. They search out fabulous stones and then combine them with gold, silver, platinum and diamonds to make wearable treasures. You should take a look at their work!

After hours, Naomi runs her own little business called Laurel Tea. Naomi is a certified Naturopath, having graduated a few years back fromBastyr University. Her teas are handcrafted medicinal botanical blends of organically grown and selectively wild-crafted roots, leaves, fruits, flowers, barks and branches. We are not talking Earl Grey here!


Naomi makes custom blends for all kinds of occasions. I was at a wedding last year and the favors were Naomi's teas. Pretty cool and a lot more meaningful than another bottle of wedding bubbles.

So, if you are looking for something that is from the Northwest and will do you a world of good, look no further!

At the Fair!

So what do we do on a really hot day? Well, sometimes we leave those pots of hot, molten pewter and head over to the Lane County Fair - especially if three of our own are on stage there!  Let me present - in concert - COLDFIRE!

When you exclaim over how beautifully your Tin Woodsman order has been packed and shipped, you have Derrik to thank. When you are amazed at the fabulous welding seams on your Measuring Cup Post, you have Adam to thank.  Dan is one of our speediest casters and sanders. You can feel grateful to him for moving your order right along!

It was a great afternoon. (Don't worry....they shifted into 5th gear the next day to get caught back up! That's just how they roll.)

Snowflake Bentley

Earlier this summer, a friend suggested that we make a holiday Cookie Jar. We thought it was a great idea and we immediately thought that a Snowflake would be a great motif for the front of it.

A few years ago I was in Vermont and had the good fortune to visit the Snowflake Bentley Museum in Jericho. William Bentley, who was born in 1865, had a passion for Snowflakes and dedicated his life to the study of them. He wrote: "The average dairy farmer gets up at dawn because he has to go to work in the cow yard. I get up a dawn, too.  (The People) will get their daily quart of milk. Other farmers will attend to that. But I think I am giving them something which is just as important."
His passion was snowflakes. Ours is pewter. We hope you will like how we have brought these two passions together.

Summer Employees

I recently read in the New York Times that college kids are having an especially tough time finding work this summer. Well, out here in Oregon, we are doing our best to put our college kids to work. We feel lucky to have found two wonderful young men who are eager to learn about pewter smithing and are doing a great job of helping us get our orders out promptly!



Here is Ian, who will be a 4th year Architecture student at the University of Oregon this fall. Ian is from the beautiful Oregon Coast. He thinks it's pretty cool that he has learned to cast this summer. I can't help but think that that will come up in some job interview someday - "So, tell me, Ian - you know how to cast pewter?!" Even if it never relates exactly to what we wants to do when he graduates, we're sure it's going to serve him well, at some point.




Here is Evan, who will be a freshman at the University of Oregon this fall. Go Ducks! The other day Evan commented that he thinks it's cool how pewter goes from a solid to a liquid (when we're melting it and preparing to cast) and then back to a solid (when the melting pots are turned off and we're headed home). I'd never even thought of that! That's awesome that Evan has got me thinking about pewter in a new way.

Hot Molten Metal!

Last week the temperature was in the 100's! It was too hot even to sit by the pool.

So how about standing over a pot of molten metal?

Hmmm...that is definitely a bit challenging - especially when you get to work at 8am and it's already in the 80's!



Hats off to our casters, who keep that metal flowing, whether it's 30 or 100!

Thanks, guys - you're the best!