Microwaves and Madness - My Microwave Browning Skillet Collection

I never use the nuke-u-lator, simply because I don't believe in subjecting my food to a form of energy that is blessedly blocked by our sweet Mother Earth.  If anything was suppose to be subjected to microwave energy, then the Magnetic field around the planet would be absent.  It's just darned unnatural.  I'm just sayin'

That, of course, does not stop me from collecting the Corning Ware microwave browning skillets. Thus far, I have been fairly picky about what goes in the collection.  I have a tendency towards the smaller P-series handled MW-8s instead of the larger MW-10s, whenever possible.  Why, you may ask?  It's simple really, the MW-10 pieces will not fit in my Microwave.  So, even though I do not use my Microwave, it just seems silly to collect something that I can never use, even though I will never use it anyway...  Does that make sense?  Probably not.  Aren't you glad you're not inside my head?  It does get quite noisy in there sometimes.

Anyway.........  This is my collection thus far.

It's nice to have records of designs made for specific microwave manufacturers as well as for department stores like Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck & Co.  I am still looking for a J.C. Penney one, but I'm not sure whether it exists or not.

Blue Scroll/Filigree MW-10 (with P-10-C lid) in Blue Filigree Medallion (I have not found an 8 inch skillet in this pattern yet)

Department Store pieces:

Sears, Roebuck & Co. MW-8 with P-9-C lid (also available in MW-10, MW-16 and MW-A-10)

Montgomery Ward MW-8 with P-9-C lid (also available in MW-10 and MW-A-10)...

 Microwave Manufacturer specific pieces:

The Amana Radarange...  MW-10 with P-10-C lid (bottom) and MW-83 with P-83-C lid (top).  This pattern was also available as an A-series piece (MW-A-10)

This pattern was a recurring theme for Amana... Western Stoneware was contracted by Amana to produce a "Country Cooker" earthenware Microwave crock with the same pattern (though in brown)

 EKG or Radio Wave/Microwave design MW-8 (with P-9-C) in both Blue and Black.

Though they simply state "Microwave Brown N' Sear" on the bottom, these were actually made for General Electric.  I assume they were a "free gift with purchase of a microwave" type scenario.

Norelco MW-16 with P-12-C lid (and here I thought Norelco only made Electric Shavers?)
This is the largest patterned piece that I have found so far.  It's equivalent to the P-16-B/P-22 -B Electromatic Skillet.

Litton (I have no idea what the model number is of this piece).  This piece does not appear in the group photo above because they are not actually made by Corning.  The Litton skillet (though made of glass-ceramic) was made by Narumi of Japan out of their Neoceram formula. 

Where is your Corning Ware??
~~

About Town with Corningware - Merry Married Mushroom

When I was a kid, Sears was like this magical place at the end of the Rainbow.  This was primarily due to the fact that shortly before Christmas, the special edition of the catalog would arrive and it was FILLED with toys...  We would sit for hours, pouring over the toy section, with no small amount of drooling, our eyes full of toy lust.  every page seemed to hold something more amazing than the last.  For any younger readers out there, this was LONG before the World Wide Web, where everything you could possibly want to see was a mere click away.  The Christmas Catalogs from Sears, JC Penney and Montgomery Ward (may it rest in peace) were the be-all, end-all of Toy Nirvana, the Holy Grail of playtime fantasy.

If dad had to go to Sears for tires or a battery for the car (cause they did automotive work too) we would begin hopping up and down in anticipation of going there.  We wanted to see all the toys in the catalog, of course, we didn't really care so much about the tires or battery.  Dad would indulge us while the car was being worked on and let us scamper about this Shangri-La of toydom.  There were never as many toys in the actual store as there were in the catalog, but we didn't care.

It was at this time, in the 1970's, that Sears was really good at marrying with other companies to bring product lines to the public.  There was the Winnie the Pooh stuff that my baby brother was smothered in.  EVERYTHING was Winnie the Pooh from Sears.  Curtains, bedding, pajamas, bottles, binki....  You name it, it had a yellow bear on it.  Countless manufacturing companies were all licensed to produce the specific design exclusively for Sears, Roebuck and Co.

There was another design...  I remember the next door neighbor lady was redoing her kitchen with it just before we moved out to the farm.  It was called Merry Mushroom.  Dishes, Sugar Bowls, Pitchers, Canisters, Coffee Pots, Burner Covers, Towels, Place Mats, Throw Rugs, and of course... Corningware.  All made to coordinate together.  Though the "Merry Mushrooms" line was available throughout the 1970s the Corningware pieces were a later arrival and were not available for long.

Merry Mushroom (1975-1977?) is surprisingly rare in it's entirety.  I have seen pieces, but it's usually only the bottom half.

There was something very special about Merry Mushroom.  It wasn't square like all previous patterns had been.  The body of the piece was based on the round Buffet Servers (which originally came in White, Avocado Green and Gold). 

The second thing was the lid.  While the buffet servers had either Pyroceram lids or Centura lids, the Merry Mushroom had a special dimpled Pyrex lid.

(photo courtesy of Coe's Mercantile)

This is why I have never seen a piece in person in it's entirety.  The lids get broken and people marry up the base with any old Pyrex lid that fits, but it really doesn't match the piece.  I see it ALL the time.

So watch those lids folks.  If it ain't got dimples, it's goes from a Merry Mushroom to a "Married" Mushroom.

Where is your Corningware??
~~