Family, Food, Uncategorized

Sentimental Attachments

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Husband has a sentimental attachment to the old wooden spoons he likes to use for cooking. I think they are filthy havens for germs and bacteria. He thinks I am cold hearted and unreasonable. I have tried enticing him with attractive, laminated bamboo ones. He likes them, sort of, but we can’t find them in just the right size to replace his smallest wooden spoon. The same goes for the silicon spoons- they are just not the right size.

I suppose I have sentimental attachments to silly things, too, like my mother’s old costume jewelry that I never wear, or my father’s china pug figurine. I would think Husband cold hearted and unreasonable if he wanted me to get rid of them. There was a very funny article in the New Yorker this week by Patricia Marx about ways to get rid of your possessions. She laments all the possessions we Boomers have, and how our children don’t want them. I do hope my children don’t have a sentimental attachment to the wooden spoons just because their dad did, and they toss them when we are gone if I haven’t managed to toss them out first. That pug figurine, now, is something special!

What silly things so you have sentimental attachments to. What do you look for in a kitchen spoon? What is your favorite kitchen spoon?

28 thoughts on “Sentimental Attachments”

  1. If you take away the silicon spoons and some of the redundancy of the wooden ones, my spoon array looks similar. I have the red Betty Crocker spoon, though I use it more for serving than cooking, and a similar black plastic runcible spoon that I use for, well, runcing. My son-in-law is a spoon carver, so some of the spoons are hand carved, including one carved from a tree in our yard.

    But my habitual spoon isn’t a spoon at all. It’s a short, flat-bladed wooden spatula, carved out of olive wood, the blade end worn smooth and rounded. There’s nothing sentimental about my preference—it’s simply comfortable and versatile—but it would be difficult to precisely replace.

    It’s approaching Spring, and Robin has begun talking about getting rid of things. I have no objection to clearing out clutter if it has become an impediment or an eyesore but otherwise I am inclined to leave well enough alone. It’s true that our kids don’t want most of our stuff. No problem. When we’re gone, there are companies happy to deal with that.

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  4. Well, Renee! I’m with your husband. I absolutely love my wooden and bamboo spoons, spatulas and other kitchen implements. I have a crock where they reside right next to the stove top. I also have wooden and bamboo cutting boards. I would feel helpless without these tools in the kitchen. They’re not really sentimental but they are what I prefer to use. There is a very old wooden spoon that has been worn down to an edge on the tip that I like to use for mixing doughy things. There is also an old, flat, slotted, wooden spatula that I always use for stir fries or sautéing things. I actually have two of these but I reach for the old one. It has even cracked with time and use, and every time I use I think to myself that I really should throw it out but I don’t. I’m glad I have a back-up for it. I will really miss it when it’s gone. There’s something not quite right about silicone that I can’t quite make that leap yet.

    I’m very glad to see the study Bill posted above. I haven’t gotten sick from my old wooden kitchen tools and I really don’t want to part with them. I find the plastic and glass cutting boards dull my knives and just seem less satisfying. I do use different cutting boards for certain things. If I make something with chicken (not often these days), I use a glass one. If I chop onions or garlic I use the small glass one. I slice cheese on a flat plate and use the small bamboo cutting board for veggies. I usually only cook for myself but I have cooked for others and no one has been sick, as far as I know.

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  5. My favorite spoon is quite old. It was initially one of a set of three; the other two died long ago. This spoon has lost a chunk of it’s handle (garbage disposal mishap) and has two burn marks – from sitting on the side of a pan on the gas stovetop. YA routinely moves this spoon from the spoon/spatula/whisk container on the counter to a drawer. And then I move it back.

    My second favorite is just like Bill describes his… not really a spoon. It also has signs of being over-loved in my kitchen!

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  6. There is something about the handle that has to feel right to me, also the way the spoon part goes across the pan. We also got rid of the wood handled spatulas, and now have solid silicon ones. They can go in the dishwasher.

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  7. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    Entertaining discussion, folks. I especially enjoyed Renee’s response to Bill’s research. It echoes some of my responses–don’t bother me with the facts! I love some of the wooden spoons that are made as art objects. They are wildly imaginative.

    https://mymodernmet.com/giles-newman-wood-carved-spoons/

    I had one of these in the past, but I cannot remember what happened to it. I supposed it got broken or lost somewhere.

    One of my kitchen sentimental attachments is to my grandmothers’ kitchenware. These things remind me how easy I have it. There are Grandma Hess’s butter crock and spoon from the butter churning days, Grandma Stratton’s crockery bowls and cookie jar, and the 1879 blue canning jar from a great grandmother that must have come from the beginning of the food preservation technology that allowed a constant source of food (Renee, this is for you) by eliminating germs through sterilization and vacuum packing! They are all high on a shelf where I can see them but not break them.

    Man, I have it easy.

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  8. I’m afraid I’m with the wood spoon crew, Renee – have never felt queasy about using wood, though my sister is, and she gave me bamboo cutting boards because she was concerned about my old wood ones. (Can’t wait to send her Bill’s article. : ) My spoon collection includes a wood slotted spoon, a stainless steel ladle, and a largish Rubbermaid spatula * with a dip in it that can hold a little liquid for tasting as you cook.

    I’m sure I’ll think of something silly I’m attached to, and I hope it’s today.

    * mini-rant – how die rubber scraper and pancake turner both end up being called spatula?

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  9. I am with those who like/still use wooden spoons in the kitchen. Mine are quite old but I love using them.
    I am very sentimental about a brown, floppy stuffed dog I received as a gift from a great aunt and uncle when I was about a year old. I never decided if it was a girl or boy (anatomically I guess it’s a girl) so it never had a name except “Brown Dog”. It’s about 12 inches long from nose to tail, always lies on its tummy with legs splayed out, has black rickrack for eyes, a red felt tongue, a rattle in its bobbed tail, and a small round black metal nose that has been reattached several times. Most of the fur has rubbed off. It’s perfect for cuddling with but these days it just lays on the end of my bed. It’s in no shape to donate nor can I toss it out. I do have young great nephews and a niece but they won’t treat it with the respect it deserves. I’ve told my sisters that when I die, the dog needs to be cremated with my remains. Silly, I know, but that’s just the way I feel.

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  10. Hi- I have a flat wooden thing, I guess it would be a spatula, and I use that for 90% of my stuff.
    I have a hard enough time just trying to keep the spoons in one crock on the left side of the stove and the whisks and spatula in the crock on the other side of the stove. There’s almost too many to make them fit and then someone else might put dishes away and they get mixed up and I give up for a while and then I saw him out again. But leave me my wooden spatula.

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  11. The thing that strikes me about the photo of your various cooking tools is that they all seem to have the same shape. Some a little larger, some a little smaller, but all similarly shaped. I like spoons and other tools to have different shapes. Some pointy, some rounded, some with an edge, some flexible, some not. My favorite tool, and by favorite I mean the one utensil I use most frequently, not that I’m emotionally attached to it, is a bamboo spatula. Husband’s favorite is a plastic spatula I rarely use. As far as I’ \m concerned, the only thing it can be used for is flipping over a fried egg, and who flips over a fried egg?

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        1. People are mighty persnickety about how their eggs are done. This is my experience. So much so that my husband must do his own eggs.

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  12. I guess this would be my favorite spoon, given to me by a friend some forty years ago. It’s hard to get a good picture, but it is a carved wooden spoon with a little chamber in its handle, and inside the chamber a small wooden ball. The carver somehow patiently carved the ball within its chamber.

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  13. I am enormously sentimental. My folks have downsized twice now, as they’ve moved to progressively smaller places to live. My basement is full of boxes.

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