Eddie Ross Recap Part 2: The Loot

I don't host dinner parties all that often (hard to fit more than four people at my dinner table!) but when I do, I am always sheepishly serving things with the wooden spoon I used to cook with or the blah stainless sering spoon that came with my silverware. Just as all food looks better when served on china, all food also looks best when plated with lovely serving pieces! Thus, I decided that Saturday's excursion to the DC Big Flea would be a great opportunity for me to track down some reasonably priced silver serving pieces.

When I got home from the market on Saturday, I was not the only one anxious to check out my purchases! Here's a quick look at my new silver items that I am thrilled with. And I got everything on here for a grand total of about $75!

PBB makes a preliminary inspection of the loot...

To me there is nothing more satisfying than rooting around in three big boxes of "grab bag" sterling, which is how I got my sterling carving set and meat fork. I tried my hardest to limit myself to sterling pieces that I truly liked rather than just buying pieces simply because of their bargain pricetag. And I think I came away with a well-edited selection- a sterling carving set and meat fork, all three items for $50!

Neither the vendor nor I could figure out the monogram on the carving set- anyone care to venture a guess? Every time I look at it I think it's something different. Right now it looks like an "E" or "F". Thoughts??

This sterling meat fork has a lovely pattern and is very heavy. When it comes to silver I love the more deco-inspired patterns and shy away from the overwrought floral patterns.

This serving spoon is not sterling (hence the $2.50 price tag). You can get a TON of silver plate practically for free at flea markets, but as Eddie would agree, not all silver plate is created equal. I looked through probably 30 spoons before deciding on this one. It has good heft, the plate was in good condition, and I enjoyed the pattern.

My toast rack that I mentioned on Tuesday- I cannot wait to put it to use.

This is a lovely little sterling spreader, which I direly needed the other night when I had a guest over and was serving a some cheese! I found this in a jumbled pile of jewelry and whatnot. Upon asking the vendor what the price was, and he said "well, that has a sterling handle" so I immediately expected him to say it was pricey. When he said "so that will be $3.00" I said "SOLD!"

Please note that these pictures were taken before my flurry of silver-polishing on Sunday night! Now with all these serving pieces, I may just have to have some company over in the next few weeks!