The Covered Glass Dish

I knew this was coming.  I knew that, sooner or later this summer (probably sooner), our neighbors -- who have enabled far too many zucchini plants to grow in their garden -- would sneak up to our house in the wee small hours of the morning and leave a brown paper bag on our front doorstep.

(I do understand why the neighbors shared their overabundance.  You have to pick zucchini when it's ripe and still tender.  Otherwise it just keeps growing and you end up with something that looks like you could sell to a baseball team to use in batting practice.)

So, what to do with too many free zucchini?  Cook, of course.  It was a great opportunity to use the Anchor Hocking covered glass baking dish I found at an estate sale last year.

I often see ads for Anchor Hocking glass containers in magazines from the 1950s.  

The Hocking Glass Company was founded in 1905, and merged with the AnchorCap and Closure Corporations in 1937.  It's still in business today (although owned by some other company, I think).  I often see examples of their vintage glass at estate sales.  Some of the most popular are the deep red transparent Royal Ruby and gorgeous emerald transparent Forest Green glass, as well as oven-proof glass with the name Fire-King.

My covered glass baking dish is about 9 inches square and has a matching lid -- perfect for keeping things fresh after they're cooked.  Rather than making a zucchini casserole or regular zucchini bread, I decided to try The Southern Lady Cooks' recipe for chocolate zucchini cake.  It came out quite well. Here's a link to the recipe if you want to try it.  

http://thesouthernladycooks.com/2011/08/02/chocolate-zucchini-cake/

To serve, I recruited the help of the lovely old cake plates my friends Peggy and Jane gave me, from their mom's estate:

I got out the sterling silver cake server I found for $3 at an estate sale, and two forks from the Orphan Flatware collection (remember them?):

Just add vanilla ice cream; instant dessert.

___

If you don't remember the Orphan Flatware, their story is here:  http://estatesalechronicles.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-orphan-flatware.html

One of my vintage tablecloths appears in the background of the pictures of dessert here.  That reminds me that, sometime soon, I'll have to share some pictures of more of the vintage tablecloths I've found.