Check your library or book store on collectable dishes. Also check Antique Road show ==they might have something similiar. It seems to me people are not buying dishes much now. I have some cups and saucers that are over 200 years old and cannot sell them.

Oh yuck yuck yuck YUCK! Some of these are so awful! I found a rusty metal and plastic part in a Diet Coke from McDonald's once. It had fallen off of the fountain drink machine. I just brought it up and showed them, and they said "Oh, thanks". I should have swallowed it and sued. ;) I once found a rag baked into an english muffin. Found a stick in a bag of chips. Claude found staples in a hamburger from Harveys. A couple of years ago (I shouldn't admit this), the kids and I were staying in a hotel because Claude was out of town for a few days on a business trip and our house had recently been broken into and I didn't want to stay home alone..... Anyhow, we went out to A&W for supper. It was an A&W and Country Style Donuts all in one. I was eating my burger and I felt something hard on my tongue. I picked it out and it was a piece of bone or tooth or something. I was SO grossed out. I brought it up to the cash and showed the woman working. She was incredibly apologetic, and said she'd send it off to their head office to have it analyzed. She went way over the top sucking up. She refunded our meal and gave us coupons for future meals, brought Sophie for a tour of the back of the restaurant, gave the kids suckers and A&W mugs and stickers, and let Sophie fill up a box of a dozen donuts. I kept saying that all that wasn't nescessary - I just wanted to let her know. But she was very insistant, so I thought "Well hey, why not?" On our way back to the hotel, arms laden with free goodies, I noticed that a big piece of one of my teeth was missing. It had been cracked before (Ben sapped my calcium when I was pregnant, I think), and I had chipped a small piece out already. It's not even like I had chipped it on something I ate - it must have just sort of plopped off while I was eating the burger. I was SO embarrassed when I realized. I should have gone back to tell her, but I just couldn't.

Our dish drainer is out all the time on the counter. It's part of the kitchen landscape and it's an extremely useful tool. It folds up and can be put away--but that really only happens when we're taking pictures :) My mother's drainer is in one sink of her double sink. I find it very awkward. It's difficult to use the sink without splashing or dripping on the dishes that are supposedly drying. It's difficult to pour cooking water out of a pot when one sink is full of sudsy water and the other sink has clean dishes. I prefer the better air circulation on the counter top. I wash quite a few dishes. We're home all day long (dh and I both work from home) so the rack is constantly being used. I like to hand wash easy-to-clean cooking pots (i.e. ones used to steam veggies or cook pasta). I find it easier than loading them into a dw--plus I don't like taking up a lot of space in the dw with bulky items. We also wash all plastic, wood, cast iron and any pots that aren't all stainless steel. I prefer air drying to towel drying. Our dish drainer sits on a sloped drain board built into our stone counter.

If anything has to be mixed in with carrots it would be a huge pot of equal amounts of turnip (rutabaga) and carrot, cooked til done, some brown sugar to taste put in for the last ten minutes or so of cooking. Pour off water and mash with a potato masher until blended. Add some butter to give it a shine, pour in a nice bowl and sprinkle a bit of parsley or fresh parsley to finish the plate. YUM...simple, easy to transport, and can be frozen. This comes out a bit watery when taken from the freezer but don't pour off the liquid. Just heat and stir in. I make a huge pot for two reasons, we like it and would eat it every day, and the cooking time for making enough for one meal takes too long if you are in a hurry and peeling those veggies are a pain lol.