In my previous post, I featured a potted poinsettia that came free as a supermarket bonus. Another freebie obtained the same way a couple of years ago, was a set of oven-safe glass containers, as seen in the photo above. The brand was the well-known Libbey™, founded in the USA in 1818. I was a little puzzled by the design, which reminded me of modern Mexican glass kitchenware, especially the ramekins:
Upon chequing the information on the box, I learned that indeed, the products had been made in Mexico. The explanation comes from a purchase by Libbey, of 49% of Mexican glass brand Crisa™ in 1997, from Vidriera Monterrey (Vitro™), which still is the largest glass company in Mexico. Later on, in 2006, Libbey purchased the other 51% of the Crisa brand. Now sometimes labelled as Libbey Mexico, Crisa produces and exports over 1000 products, including glass tableware, blender jars, and of course, baking pieces such as the ones featured in this post.
In addition to the ramekins, the other pieces included a square pan:
A beautiful pie plate:
And the ever-useful rectangular pan:
I have already used some of these baking pieces in my posts; the cute ramekins were begging to be used in a traditional Mexican custard (click highlighted text for full stories and recipes) in my post “Jericallas, a Custardy Treat from Jalisco” (photo below, left), and the 8×8 inch square pan was the perfect size for a corn bread in “An Herb for Canadian Thanksgiving – Maritime Summer Savoury” (photo below, right):
Stay tuned for my next post, in which I will be cooking using other pieces from the box.
For your convenience, click on the highlighted text below for products available on Amazon™. DISCLAIMER: Any reviews included in this post are my own; as an Amazon Associates Program affiliate, I might receive a commission for any purchases originated from the links below, at no extra cost to you (thank you to readers who have bought any products starting with a click from my links!):
I could not believe that Amazon™ carries the exact same baking set, and also that it is listed at the extravagant price of $126.95 CAD! At the time I got the free package, just a couple of years ago, bonus items were usually around $30 CAD. Inflation is scary! I also saw two reviews of people reporting that their large dish exploded in the oven! I have used mine and they did not break, no problems at all, but I cannot endorse a product with such bad reviews. Instead, the small ramekins got excellent reviews:
My Slice of Mexico 