Stick a Scalloped Sugar Spoon In Me, I’m Done
Joelle said at some point on August 10, 2007
I think it’s high time I bought new flatware . Forks and knives are not usually something I think about and it’s really not the kind of thing anyone really think about replacing all that often, do they? At least I haven’t. The set of flatware have in my drawer I got in 1991 as a gift. It’s Pfaltzgraff, so it’s not like it’s bendy, but after (quick math in my head) almost 17 years, I think it’s time to bid it farewell. Those spoons fed ice cream to soothe many broken hearts, the knives moonlighted as screwdrivers, putting together more crappy furniture than I care to count… this flatware has seen a lot.
Wait a minute. I’ve had my flatware for almost seventeen years? I don’t think I’ve had anything seventeen years besides my jaded perspective. Things like yearbooks or family photos, your baby shoes… things like that, sure. Those are things you expect to have seventeen years, but forks you got when you were 18? Not so much…
Anyway.
I realized this morning that I needed new flatware when I reached for something to stir my coffee with and grabbed the butter spreader. You know, the little one with the beveled edge that you use with fancy-shaped balls of butter at restaurants. I chose it because I realized I was down to only two spoons left in my set, the rest victims of the garbage disposal or the former office desk. I figured I should use the scalloped sugar spoon or the fancy butter spreader before I wasted my only two spoons. How ever would I eat my sorbet later? I wouldn’t want to do anything extreme like dishes.
Do you ever hang on to a piece of silverware even though you hate it? I have a fork that has a bent tine. No matter how I try I can’t get that tine bent back into place, but do I throw the fork away? No! I curse at it and throw it back in the drawer and pick a different one. Why do I do that? It must be the same gene that makes me keep pens with no ink.
Moxie Design Studios™
from West Palm Beach, FL • Cocktail: Champagne Bellini
Luckily I inherited my mothers “throw everything away” gene. If something in my kitchen even looks at me funny, it meets its destiny in the garbage can.
May it rest in smelly chaos for all eternity.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Kathy: I’m like that with tupperware. I have no mercy. I don’t care if it’s $40 tupperware. If it’s got fur, it doesn’t even get opened. it’s straight to the curb with it!
from Chicago
I have my Corelle dishes (with the crappy light blue flowers on the border) since 1986!!! And my flatware from the same era. Somehow I can’t bring myself to get new just because these are old. And hideous. And the kids are still in the destructo phase of their lives (teenagers). Maybe when Hubs and I are older and greyer we will treat ourselves to some “nice” dishes.
Just, when you buy it, buy all-metal only. Don’t buy anything with a non-metal handle. And the closer to high-grade steel you can get, the better. It’s worth it to spend some extra money and get good flatware, imho.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Deltus: I will. I have good flatware now… which is why it’s lasted me 17 years. haha. It’s full-metal Pfaltzgraff. I’m no fool!
Something tells me you’ll be flatware shopping this weekend…
from Maryland
17 years isn’t so bad for silverware! At least it isn’t edible. I recently discovered a bottle of mustard that I’ve had for SEVEN years! I now consider it just part of the family.
(of course this discovery deserved a write up on my blog, here. )
We have our nice Oneida “wedding set” (which is gold and silver entwined and makes me shudder now because it is SO 90s) and this hideous wooden-handled set that Todd will not let go of. His mom had it from the 70s and gave it to him when he went to college and he’s had it ever since. It’s all he will eat off of, even when the nice stuff is clean in the drawer next to it. He’s hauled that crap ‘cross-country and we’ve had it together 11+ years and counting and no matter how I try to lose it, he always finds it. I think that silverware set will outlast the cockroaches in the event of a nuclear blast.
from 7th Circle of Hell
Hah. My husband brought some what I refer to as “picnic style” flatware to the marriage. They have cute little colored handles on them. I really, really loathe them. There are far too many crevices and nooks that, you know, can gather all manner of microorganisms? Yeech. I have tried and tried to get rid of them. Something stops me. Oh yeah, the fact that we never - I mean NEVER - have enough teaspoons in the house. I could buy a 55 gallon drum of “normal” teaspoons at Costco and we would have none left in the drawer by sundown.
But we’ll have those nasty picnic ones, for sure.
*sigh*
Someday I shall have a wedding and flatware will be on my register. Until then, everything is doomed to be mismatched and wonky.
I just checked out the prices at Pfaltzgraff and others. The stainless steel flatware can be had (a really good, 18/10 quality set) for a reasonable price. The sterling silver prices? HOLY FUCKBALLS, I don’t have a FEW GRAND to spend on utensils!!!
Seriously, dude, sterling silver ain’t worth it. Good, high-grade stainless.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Deltus: oh, yeah. Screw sterling silver. You have to polish that stuff! Yuck-o.
@Margi: I NEVER have teaspoons. Ever. Where do they go? Are they hangin’ out with the missing socks?
from Aurora, CO • Cocktail: Strawberry Daquiri
I’ve got you beat...my set has been around since 1984. It was a gift from my grandmother. I know what you mean about missing utensils. I happen to lose forks. I realized as I was setting out the flatware at an Independence Day gathering that I don’t even have enough left for one meal with 8 guests. I had to use a small salad for to eat with. I need new ones, too, but I just can’t bear to part with these.
from LA
Its is said to date back as early as 1625 and is made from teak with a lead inlay. A picture of the mythical sea-creature the “Kracken” is etched into the handle and it is believed the spoon was a lucky charm carried by a sailor in the early 17th century.