… mug? Or teacup? Or your preferred container for hot beverages? This is my favorite. Some of you may remember that I have a habit of over-buying mugs/cups. I don’t know what it is. But I have found my favorite and I think my mug-buying days are over. (Unless this one breaks. But I know where to get another one of them.) I love the size of this, the weight of it, the feel of it, and the colors. (Mine came from here. I love their work and have purchased several things from them.) Since I’m so attached to this mug, it made me wonder if others of you have a favorite? Tell us about it in the comments below for this month’s blog contest. We’ll randomly draw the winners from the comments and will announce them next Friday.
Today’s recipe is one of those comfort food types of things. (Good taste plus pasta = comfort.) It makes a lot and there are all kinds of things in there. Just add some fresh fruit or a big salad to the menu and you have a meal.
Pasta and Cabbage Casserole
1 pound spaghetti noodles, cooked al dente
3 cups shredded frozen hash browns, thawed
1 lb. sausage (or 3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed)
2 Tbl. olive oil
1 bag of shredded cabbage slaw (or 1/2 head cabbage, shredded)
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup (or can) of chicken broth
4 Tbl. butter
2 cups Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, shredded
1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
(Want more color? Add broccoli to the recipe. Yum!)
Brown sausage in skillet and drain. Add olive oil to the pan and stir in onion, garlic and cabbage, cooking until tender (about 10 minutes). Add chicken broth and heat through.
In large bowl, combine cooked noodles, hash browns, butter, 1 cup cheddar, 1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, and cabbage/sausage mixture and mix well. Turn into a 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Add the last cup of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese to the top and bake for 5 more minutes.
Because I don’t have quite enough knitting projects “in progress”, I picked up a book last night and have decided to make a Noro Chevron Sleeve Cardigan from Knitting Noro. Just for fun. (Although I’m not sure why I just admitted that to you. I ought to have kept quiet about it until I was almost finished. One day I’ll learn.)
People were eating chocolate here today. How do I know? There’s evidence on the floor. And just because there were kisses by my favorite mug in the photo, don’t be fooled. It was totally for eating scale so that you could get an idea of the mug size. (The carpeting looks a little ugly close up, don’t you think? It’s a good thing that there is a lot of beautiful yarn and chocolate around here to distract people from looking down.)
Sheri whoadvisesyoutostartanewprojectsothatI’mnotaloneinthisWIPabundance
It’s so hard to say which one is my favorite since I’m a mug collector too..but this is one I go to very often (http://knittincoop.blogspot.com/2007/11/warmth.html) I bought it at Alewine Pottery in Gatlinburg, TN.
My favorite is a blue and white mug from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But if it’s close to the Holidays, then I’d have to same some Lennox porcelain mugs with Santa on them.
We have a bunch of mugs, but I like the freebie mug we got at the Hilo Hattie store in Hawaii. It brings back warm weather memories while sipping hot tea!
My favorite mug is a Christmas mug that I use year-round because it is the perfect size and holds the heat so my tea stays hot for a nice amount of time. Now I am in search of the perfect small electric tea kettle! Any suggestions?
my favorite mug was purchased from the arts and crafts section at the fall fair 2 years ago. It is handmade in blues, purples type wash with a gecko crawling up the side and peeking over the edge. I had the same fav mug for 13 years that had fish painted all over it, it was a good 20 ouncer with ice. It fell one day and lost the handle but i still used it…tried everything to put the handle back on but….oh well. A good chunky mug feels so good in the hand when filled with a tea or coffee beverage!
My favorite mug is a chunky cup – fire engine red, trimmed in olive and gold, and it has two large sunflowers painted on either side of it. It was a going away present when I left my job a few years ago. I’ve never seen anything like it-and since red is my favorite color, it’s the top of my list!
My favorite mug is one that my husband got as a give away at work. There is nothing special about it except it is big and that my fingers fit perfectly in the handles. It is white with the name of the business in blue.
My favorite mug is a tinkerbell mug I bought when we went to Disney World a few years ago on vacation.
My favorite mug is any that are BIG! I allow myself only one cup of coffee a day no matter what size the mug is so the bigger the better…
Let’s see…I have a tie for my favorite mug because they are the same but different. They are Cedar Point and Kings Island mugs that have a landscape of the parks’ rides with Charlie Brown and Snoopy (Cedar Point’s)/Shaggy and Scooby (Kings Island’s) watching fireworks. They remind me of the fun (and experience for Cedar Point) I’ve had.
My favorite is from starbucks. It’s a stainless steel mug inside and out with a lid. keeps thing hot or cold and I can throw it in the dishwasher.
My favorite “mug” is less mug and more thermos. I have 2, actually, that I got at Starbucks a couple years ago – it’s grande size, stainless steel, I have one in pink and one in purple, has a rubber sleeve round the middle and keeps my coffee hot for hours (which is great when I drink it slow, doesn’t matter so much if I drink it fast). LOVE those mugs. 🙂
My favorite mug is of Winnie the Pooh, mom used back at home in Puerto Rico, she bought it with her when she came to visit me in NY and left it here. She always has her spoon, her fork, her plate her glass and her mug… either home or whereever she goes – she’s picky like that.
I love to drink coffe in the mornings, and when I do I think of her. It brings a pause to the busy life NYC and takes me back to a laid back morning back in PR…at least for a few minutes… with a smile in my facer ready to face the day in NYC 🙂
I have three favorites, actually. There’s a china tea cup that I love to use on slow, lazy days when I can actually sip. It’s old Bavarian china, and I got a set of two of them at a resale shop for next to nothing, but it makes me feel special. Then, there’s this large, roundish mug with snowflakes on it that we got at Cracker Barrel on sale. I have a small tea pot, and this mug holds exactly half of it. It’s perfect on cold winter mornings, and a good shape to cup cold hands around, too. Then, there’s my regular mug, which holds just over 1/3 of my tea pot. It’s got lady bugs on it, but otherwise it’s just a normal mug.
And Sheri, don’t worry about WIPs. The puppy keeps eating my winter hats, so I’ve constantly got a new one starting. He’s eaten four so far this winter. Oh, yes, and then there are the baby things for a couple of friends…. Lots of WIPs. 🙂
I’d love to say that the mug I use most often is one I made myself, but truthfully, I use a spill-proof travel mug most of the time. But I love any hand-thrown mug, made by me or not =). My favorite for teas are ones with a built in tea strainer and a lid.
My favorite mug is a giant blue mug with white snowflakes on it. It was a gift during graduate school from one of the professors for whom I was the graduate assistant. I’ve had it 5 years now? Always my go to cup when it’s clean…and when it’s not, it must be time to do dishes, right?
My favorite is a mug I got from a certain popular cosmetic company. It’s cute with bees and butterflies, with a pretty flared top. It’s just curvy enough to be comfortable in my hand. I love me some cappuccino in that mug!
My favorite mug is bright pink with a flamingo head as the handle. It has palm trees and hibiscus. It’s a very silly mug but it makes me smile, especially when it’s -5 degrees outside in the middle of winter.
My favorite mug was given to me by my DH. It has jaunty roosters on it, many orange flowers and sits on a pedestal. Kind of a folk art look. Love it because of who gave it to me.
My favorite mug is the knit/cabled one from Starbucks. I received it for Xmas this year. I wish I had more of them. I just love it.
This is a tougher question than it should be. Looks? I love to gaze upon a pretty china teacup and its mated saucer. My favorite is one a friend recently found for me in a pattern of hers I admired. However, my life just isn’t china-friendly. So, I most often reach for a certain tall, thick-ish blue mug with TLE logo on it…
Mug or teacup? It depends how I feel that morning, but usually I reserve the teacups for weekend mornings. DH uses the mugs the came with our current stoneware set for his coffee. I have several mugs and they are all favorites — a blue and white Japanese patterned mug, a Starbucks mug that is pink and white with a big yellow tulip on each side, my big blue Loopy Ewe mug and a big clear Teavana mug that was a gift from my best friend and SIL.
Now, my most special mug is one I have at work. My mom, who passed away in 1996, gave it to me when I got my first job after graduating from college so I would have a mug for work. It was from a Hallmark store, a thick, handmade clay mug that is blue near the top and bottom and off white in the middle with my name on it. It was made by a company called “Clay in Mind”. I’ve had it for 23 years now.
My favorite mug is a tan and brown stoneware mug I bought when at a conference in Albuquerque. It is nice and big, with a fat handle, and has a gecko on it. However, I only use it for coffee. For tea I’m still looking!
I swear I’m not sucking up, but my favorite mug is my Loopy Ewe mug. Actually, I have 2 favorites. I have a purple one with Eeyore on it that’s the same shape and size. I love that shape because its easy for me to hold in one hand ( I have very small hands) but holds enough coffee to keep me civil and the shape keeps it hot longer. 🙂
Strangely enough,I have a mug that looks almost like yours. I bought it about
20 years ago in Sugarloaf at their artist’s colony. Being a handthrown pottery nut
I love it so much. The store where I purchased it is no longer in business,but now I
will no longer live in terror that if I break mine I can’t replace it with a mug that is
almost just like it.
Love your recipe!
My favorite mug varies. During the week, when I’m having that first cup of coffee while I get ready to work, it doesn’t really matter which one I use out of the wide variety that I have. Since I got my Keurig brewer, I look for the mugs that will easily hold the 9.5 oz brew size and I have two that I got while on visits to Hawaii that I enjoy using (one a rather typical ‘tiki’ style with my name in Hawaiian on it–Ku– and another with one of my favorite tropical flowers, a Protea). On the weekends, when I know I’ll be home for awhile and drinking more coffee, on my favorite mugs to use is my Loopy Ewe mug from (I believe) last years Birthday kit. It’s just the right size and I can easily add more coffee to it from the Keurig without worrying about overflowing.
I have a 20oz Nightmare Before Christmas tumbler. I use it for hot and cold drinks. It has Jack Skelington on it.
oooooo I love that mug! My husband doesn’t “get” why we have an abundance of mugs. My reasoning with 4 kids who like to drink hot cocoa after playing outside in the winter we need lots of mugs! *L*
Anyway, I have one of the starbucks cabley mugs that where out last winter love that one but the mouth is really wide (not good for in the car), I love my sheep mug from Jennie the potter http://www.jenniethepotter.com/products/3_knitting_mug.htm it holds a lot of coffee!
and my other fav is from Misspottery http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5158060 I love the “thumb rest” on the top of the handle, its heavy but not too heavy and the designs are so pretty too!
I prefer mugs, especially big ones. I had a nice big one, like the large loopy mugs, but one of my roommates broke it.
I am mug-kinda person 😉 My fave mug is a “monster-mug”. It’s HUGE – big enough to use as a soup-bowl. Only cost me $2 and has a picture of a lazy panda in front of it. It’s been through a lot of wear and dropped it a few times but its so sturdy that it hasn’t broken. It’s got a cracked at the side from all the (ab)use but I love it too much to throw it away. I use it as a gauge to make sure that I drink enough water for the day 😀
My two favorites, both bought for me by my mom: the first is blue with tiny crowns all over it, and a little frog prince in the middle. He’s also at the bottom of the cup. We found it while visiting Oxford, England, so it’s also a reminder of the indoor market there. I love the frog prince story! The second says: COFFEE: do stupid things faster with more energy! And that pretty much describes my love affair with coffee. Which I am drinking right now.
I’m a mug-kinda person. My fave is a “monster-mug”. It’s HUGE – big enough to be a soup-bowl (which I love to have) and only cost me $2. Its been through a lot of (ab)use, dropped it a few times and hasn’t broken yet 😀 Though it has a crack running through the side, I can’t bear to throw it away since I can’t find anything else that size to replace as the store has closed down. Mainly, I use it to make sure that I drink enough water daily 😉
I’m a mug-kinda person (broken too my cups already and so I’ll stick to mugs, TKVM). My fave is a “monster-mug”. It’s HUGE – big enough to be a soup-bowl (which I love to have) and only cost me $2. Its been through a lot of (ab)use, dropped it a few times and hasn’t broken yet 😀 Though it has a crack running through the side, I can’t bear to throw it away since I can’t find anything else that size to replace as the store has closed down. I use it to gauge that I drink enough water daily 😉
In 1996 while visiting Philadelphia, I went to the annual juried Crafts show. I felt as if I were in a museum, and almost everything I saw and coveted was beyond my means. I still remember beautiful earrings made from antique gold Roman coins. But one artisan from Florida had gorgeous pottery including a few mugs, and my favorite, to this day, is the one thing I COULD afford that evening. A speckled jade green, the mug has lines that are beautifully rounded and just enough detail at the lip and handle to be unique. I take special care of it so it will last forever….
I like mugs, personally. I’ve only recently begun to drink tea and while I appreciate the delicateness of a beautiful tea cup, I like the solid, earthy comfort of a plain old mug.
My favorite mug is my Loopy Ewe mug !! :))
My favorite mug is from a set I bought in Jackson Hole, WY at a touristy shop there. We went in the winter to visit friends one year, and went back in the summer to go to Yellowstone. It is a set that stacks. Nice big size, nice heft to it. When it gets warm, it holds the heat for a bit!
nancy
I have a weakness for mugs as well! I totally over-buy in the mug department and my husband thinks I a bit crazy for it. I actually have 2 favorites – one was made by me many years ago before kids when I made that kind of thing and the other is a Japanese made mug that I just love the color of. Those are my current favorites – though they do change from time to time!
Actually, I like the carpeting.
My favorite mug is from O’Reilly’s Rainforest Guesthouse at the entrance to Lamington National Park near Brisbane, Australia. The trees there are so old that some of them have rotted away in the center, but are still growing on the outside. The spaces are large enough for people to see the tree from the inside out. The mug is designed like those trees, with a face in the bark. It has a very flat bottom, good for a warming unit. I can’t use it now, because it has a crack, and I don’t want it to break any further, but I still look at it on the shelf and remember my trip.
My favorite mug is my Yoga Mug. I drink one cup of coffee in the morning, plenty of green tea and ice tea throughout the day. I am attached to this mug. It has yoga poses on the outside. I like the weight, the lip thickness, and I’m not sure what else draws me to this mug but ….. It’s mine.
I don’t have a favorite mug. If it holds coffee I like it!
At first I thought the bottom photo was your new knitting project and I thought, “Oh Sheri, no! It looks just like CARPET!” 😉
My favorite mug is 23 years old. (That can’t be because i’m really not that old!) It’s a pink Marimekko mug I got in grad school. It’s so unlike my personality, not what you’d expect.
My very favorite mug is a mug I got at “Top of the Rock” which is an observation deck on top of Rockefeller center in NYC. I co-coordinate and chaperone the 8th grade Honors Trip each year to NYC. I’ve only been doing it for about 3 years now. When I drink out of the mug I am reminded of the fun I have and the memories I help the teenagers to create. It’s the perfect shape and bigger than your average mug. That’s perfect for a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning!
I have two favourite mugs; one for home and one at my boyfriend’s place that we picked out specially. The former is giant (about 2.5 actual cups) and necessarily so as that mug of coffee gets me through the day. The latter is about half the size and a lovely glazed green. It can afford to be half the size as when I am able to be at his place it means a leisurely morning where I can pour myself another.
I’m a big fan of collecting funky and eclectic dishes/mugs rather than buying a boring set all the same.
On most mornings (the ones that start well, anyway) I drink coffee and knit while I wake up for about half an hour. My favorite mug is one from a cherised family vacation spot; Betty’s Pies in northern MN. We always go out of our way to stop for our favorite piece of pie on our way to (and from!) our destination on the Gunflint Trail. The coffee mugs are so great – huge, thick ceramic so the coffee stays hot and you don’t have to stop knitting very often – that we finally bought a set last year when we came home.
And Sheri – just so that you’d have company, I cast on 2 more things this weekend even though I have three wips going!
I have a favorite coffee/hot chocolate mug that I absolutely adore!
This mug I purchased in Little Tokyo last Spring in LA. I went there with my boyfriend and a few of his friends. The shop had so many different cute items and kitchenware from spoons, glasses, plates, decorations, etc. The selection of hand crafted mugs/cups were outstanding! I wish I had my own kitchen to purchase all of them and use them every day! I still remember exactly where that store is and am of course going to stop by next time I go there.
What really attracted me to this mug was the groove along the handle and how it changed. But especially the texture of the roughness at the bottom of the mug and then the smoothness due to the paint and glaze on the top of it. I liked how it was ‘in my mind’ dipped in color and smoothness at the top. I love this mug so much~ I get nervous when anyone else uses it in my house… my brother has used it several times… oh I stress. I don’t want it broken! xD Not until I buy a million more once I go back to that shop! ;D
Here is a photo of my mug:
(If the html does not work, here is a link to the photo)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21150936@N08/3357738345/
My favorite mug was made for me my best friend’s brother, who is a potter. I now have four, and they are all just a little bit different, because they’re handmade. They are a wonderful chocolate brown with honey colored tops. But those mugs are only for coffee. (I know, I’m weird!)
My favorite mug for tea is an only child. It is tan with a blue glaze inside, and has no handle, but is almost triangular in shape. Made by the same potter. Beautiful.
My favorite mug is a hand thrown one I bought from a potter at a small craft fair. It has a beautiful blue and green glaze and is the perfect size for my morning coffee.
My favorite tea-drinking mug is my VS Pink mug. It’s huge, and it holds literally 3 cups of tea. It’s white with pink dogs on it.
My fave mug was one I bought in Sonoma with my own money ($4!) in 1979. I was 12, it was brown and white stonewear with a mushroom motif, very 1970s. I used it almost exclusively until just a few years ago when I dropped a glass jar of basil on it. I saved and glued it and I think there is a plant in it right now.