A Better Attitude a Jerry Rothman Plate and a Healthy Good Lunch.

A good handmade lunch on a plate designed by Jerry Rothman in the 70's.

It helps when the sun comes out. It is a new week. The day is warm and I had to go weigh in at Weight Watchers. I take a couple sips of black coffee and hope it does not make me weigh .4 more. I got on the scale a few minutes later and had lost 3 pounds. Not bad.

And the good news was my attitude improved. I saw two good friends there and one had lost 60 pounds since August and the other 40 pounds in the same amount of time. That is a whole skinny person. And I know they have the same zest for life, food and cooking I do so...if they can do it I hope I can too. They told me I am in the best group to be in, they like the leader and enjoy the others there as well too. I'll have or "not have" what they are not having. Butter, I guess.

So I decided to come home and make something good and within healthy diet vibes. Not oatmeal!

I sprayed to small corn tortillas with pam and stuck them in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes to fake a chip. Then added home cooked pinto beans and 1 oz of low fat mozzerella and 1 Tbs of low fat sour cream. Added a delicious salad to the side and put it on a dinnerware plate designed by the potter Jerry Rothman in the 70's.

When I got married 35 years ago I was told by my Mother in law to go pick out some dinnerware for her friends to buy me. Being a potter in the making I could not make myself by china. It was the 70's you know. So I found the Maderia pattern by Franciscanware and registered it. Later I saw the same dinnerware in my ceramic text book "Ceramics" by Nelson. It varified to me that I might know what I was doing. I was thrilled to see what I chose in my college textbook.

I still have the dinnerware and of course they don't make it anymore and every now and then I see a piece in an an antique store and I buy it. I would rather use my own but I am kind of stuck with it because I have so many pieces and I don't have the nerve to sell it. It is a piece of my history.

I do keep pieces of dinnerware sets I make for other as a reminder of what I have made. Over the years I have given a lot of those pieces to my son and so I have less. Usually we reach for the handmade bowls first. And we have a coffee cup collection from everywhere and we can tell what mood we are in by what cup we reach for.

I remember when my son was in junior high and went to a friends house. He came home with a look of dismay. "Their dishes, Mom. They are so boring. They are all the same and match. How can they stand it? Where was the handmade stuff?" It was his first awareness of the joy of individually crafted dinnerware and not to take it for granted.

There is a joy in making utilitarian things as well as sculpture and you don't have to choose.

And yes, seeing the sun and being warm makes me smile more and think clear thoughts.