Measure for measure
February 5, 2010
I think it says something about my family and their attitude to food and cooking that I consider my old Tala measuring cone to be something of an heirloom.
It was pretty ancient even when my mum owned it, and I remember clearly her forbidding us to wash it or – god forbid – put it in the dishwasher if it was only being used for dry goods, just in case the measuring marks started to wear off.
For a long time, it was the only measuring device I owned – no glass jug with millilitres marked up the side, or even a pair of scales to weight out grams and ounces. Just my trusty Tala.
And, even now, when I have everything from the tiny shot-glass sized measurer pictured here (another weeny gift from my sister. Hmm, I’m beginning to see a pattern here…) to a trusty 2-litre Oxo Grips jug, my Tala is often the first thing I reach for.
Hopefully, one day, it’ll be passed on to another generation of foodies.
And the cupboard was bare… 
February 5, 2010 at 3:04 pm
My question is, is your cupboard going to be bare by tonight? 🙂 I love keeping things that have been handed down. One of the finger foods that was very popular here back in the day was celery with peanut butter (I still love it) anywho, I have a dish that looks like a bunch of celery that it used to be served in. It was my great aunt’s and I’m not really sure how long she had it. I love the fact that you still have this. Like they say, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”.
February 5, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Hehe, actually I do have a couple of things left in my fridge today. A large dark green Savoy cabbage (which luckily keeps really well, so I’ll probably start on that over the weekend), some cauliflower, a sweet potato and a leek. All of them are still eminently edible, so I’ll try and use up as much as I can tonight, and just buy less tomorrow.
I was looking at all my pots, pans and utensils the other day, and realised that I’d actually bought very few of them. I inherited some great stuff when my grandmother died, and my mum gave me a lot of her things when she and my dad downsized a few years ago. I even have a wooden spoon that is older than I am! (And that’s getting on for half a century!)
February 5, 2010 at 4:18 pm
I’m sure you’ll have those veggies gone in no time. 🙂 What I need to start doing is planning my meals. I will never have an empty freezer, I’ve already resigned myself to that, but I would love to just go buy what I need for the weeks meals and nothing else. I’m in the bad habit of saying “Oh, that’s on sale and I’ll use it sometime” and then it sits in the cabinet (if you didn’t know better you’d think I was around in the Depression). I love getting things handed down to me. It just makes it that much better when you use it. Have a great weekend and can’t wait for the next update.