Spooning

I'm choosy about tools - aka my kitchen accoutrements, as I like to think of them (I like the "warbly" feel of that word, accoutrement, no?). I don't know what it is, really, but I almost have to find them somehow attractive. What is that? Partly, I suppose, it's the design I might like - just the pure, utter, sculptural shape of something that is also useful. Other times, it might be the sound something makes - for example, I'm mesmerized by the sound of my Global knife against my well-worn, lovingly-slash-marked, gorgeously and personally distressed (but not emotionally) wooden cutting board (sidebar: when I walk by the cutting board, I sometimes unconsciously just run my hand over it and I catch Tony giving me that *you freak* look, so I just give him the *I know* look - I mean, I do know).

I love oddly shaped bowls (see eggplant dip bowl), perhaps because their more natural edge and shape reminds me of the more natural state of the food I'm starting with. I like wooden spoons that show their age, their scars, their chars - I love their different shapes and grains. I have little wooden trays that must be out with something upon them at all times (garlic or what not), just so they have a reason to be out. My Mexican molcajete is just so appealing, that it too must be out at all times - though is seldom used, pobrecita. And don't even get me started on all my cooking tools that hang above the stove, gasp, waiting to be plucked from their stations - so they can use what their Mommas gave 'em. Oh my. (*I know*)

Sigh. Gaze off into yonder. Wistful smile. But really, I'd have to say that perhaps the darling of my kitchen - my petite coquette - is probably my set of little white measuring spoons. That's right. Look upon them now.






















Aren't they adorable? Now, I know they are not a whoa-stop-me-in-my-tracks kind of thing. I get that. They used to live in one of my drawers; recently, I pulled them out and let them live on the counter - as you see them here, in their current existence. It changed everything. I am inspired by their new visibility - each day, I see them and think "what shall I make today? what needs to be measured? what could Tony and I make this weekend? just look at that little, enthralling still-life-with-spoons!" - ridiculous as it sounds, these freakin' spoons inspire me! And, they are high on the accoutrement food-chain too, let me tell you - they are almost never relegated to the dishwasher. These babies are hand washed, dried and placed back in their still-life as soon as possible. And the whole inspiration process begins again. Sitting just behind the spoons in position, literally and figuratively, is my milk-white-glass liquid measuring pitcher - about which I could also go on and on - it is so lusciously retro and modern all at the same time, and that duality - for me - harnesses power akin to nothing short of a Dyson vacuum. Man, I love that stinkin' little pitcher.

It's the little things, people. They all add up to the big thing, I suppose. Now, what is the big thing again?