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The Everlasting Mystery Of Teaspoons

I also have only done it the once, as with Mythopoeika a foil container was the cause (a moments distraction)

I felt too sheepish to admit to just why it had stopped working. ''Bloody modern appliances not build to last'' <whistle>

Mind you it was kinda interesting and a little bit scarey!

Sollywos x
 
It just occurred to me this morning looking at the cream of wheat in the microwave. How come the microwave can be made of metal?
 
Lb8535 said:
It just occurred to me this morning looking at the cream of wheat in the microwave. How come the microwave can be made of metal?
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The internal surfaces of a microwave are smooth, so the microwaves find it hard to interact.
Any metal objects (particularly spiky or irregular objects) placed within act as antennas. These antennas concentrate the flow of microwaves, heating them up and then causing sparks.
 
I may have mentioned this incident before on this board, so my apologies if I'm repeating myself.

In the early years of the microwave oven's popularity, my brother-in-law managed to unintentionally destroy one by overheating it. (To say that he isn't the most technologically-minded individual would be a mastery of understatement). One day he tried to heat up a piece of meat by putting it in the microwave and setting the timer for about an hour. Not surprisingly, well before that time had elapsed the microwave's door blew off and bits of meat splattered all over everything and everyone in the kitchen. The dog narrowly avoided getting hit but the bipeds in the house weren't so lucky. My sister was not amused.
 
GingerTabby said:
The dog narrowly avoided getting hit but the bipeds in the house weren't so lucky. My sister was not amused.
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I have no room to mock anyone who is not tech savvy however I did actually LOL at that. Wouldn't have found it so funny if the dog had been hit! I hope your sister is able to find it funny in retrospect. :)

Sollywos x
 
Sollywos said:
I have no room to mock anyone who is not tech savvy however I did actually LOL at that. Wouldn't have found it so funny if the dog had been hit! I hope your sister is able to find it funny in retrospect. :)

Sollywos x
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Their children certainly found the incident funny -- one of my nephews still laughs uproariously about it -- but I'm not so sure about my sister. I think she put the incident in the context of my brother-in-law's long-held aversion to new technology. As an example, for many years he used a manual lawn mower to cut the grass despite owning an electronic one because he claimed the physical exertion helped him keep fit. While there was some truth to that, it's likely that he could never work out how to turn on the electric one and simply opted for the manual one instead.
 
GingerTabby said:
Their children certainly found the incident funny -- one of my nephews still laughs uproariously about it -- but I'm not so sure about my sister. I think she put the incident in the context of my brother-in-law's long-held aversion to new technology. As an example, for many years he used a manual lawn mower to cut the grass despite owning an electronic one because he claimed the physical exertion helped him keep fit. While there was some truth to that, it's likely that he could never work out how to turn on the electric one and simply opted for the manual one instead.
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I don't think I'm quite as 'challenged' as your bro in law but I'm gadget averse so I do have empathy with him! I actually keep the grass in check with one handed shears rather than get the strimmer out!
Of course my lawn is never all cut at once and is a constant work in progress, Forth Bridge style, during the summer months. 'sides I prefer the shaggy look, short grass is rather sad. :)

Sollywos x
 
Sollywos said:
I don't think I'm quite as 'challenged' as your bro in law but I'm gadget averse so I do have empathy with him! I actually keep the grass in check with one handed shears rather than get the strimmer out!
Of course my lawn is never all cut at once and is a constant work in progress, Forth Bridge style, during the summer months. 'sides I prefer the shaggy look, short grass is rather sad. :)

Sollywos x
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I know what you mean.
 
GingerTabby said:
I may have mentioned this incident before on this board, so my apologies if I'm repeating myself.

In the early years of the microwave oven's popularity, my brother-in-law managed to unintentionally destroy one by overheating it. (To say that he isn't the most technologically-minded individual would be a mastery of understatement). One day he tried to heat up a piece of meat by putting it in the microwave and setting the timer for about an hour. Not surprisingly, well before that time had elapsed the microwave's door blew off and bits of meat splattered all over everything and everyone in the kitchen. The dog narrowly avoided getting hit but the bipeds in the house weren't so lucky. My sister was not amused.
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Someone I knew through work burned their kitchen out by heating porridge in the microwave and forgetting about it. The crucial mistake was sprinkling sugar on top first.
 
Related to the teaspoons, perhaps vacationing with them, I live alone and have a small kitchen. Over the past three months of isolation, I have lost my only serrated bread knife and the 1/4 tsp spoon of a four-spoon set, bright red plastic. There is only one utility stuff drawer. They're not there. So if anyone sees these in their spoon-holder, please advise.
 
Lb8535 said:
Related to the teaspoons, perhaps vacationing with them, I live alone and have a small kitchen. Over the past three months of isolation, I have lost my only serrated bread knife and the 1/4 tsp spoon of a four-spoon set, bright red plastic. There is only one utility stuff drawer. They're not there. So if anyone sees these in their spoon-holder, please advise.
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Perhaps the bread knife committed plasticide and, realising what it had done, decided to end it all.
 
Lb8535 said:
Related to the teaspoons, perhaps vacationing with them, I live alone and have a small kitchen. Over the past three months of isolation, I have lost my only serrated bread knife and the 1/4 tsp spoon of a four-spoon set, bright red plastic. There is only one utility stuff drawer. They're not there. So if anyone sees these in their spoon-holder, please advise.
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Pull your drawer right out and look down the back. :twothumbs:
 
Re foil, microwaves etc etc, now we have gone down that particular wormhole...

why is most butter these days packed in foil? My butter used to come in a greaseproof type jacket, which was perfect for popping into the microwave for a ten second soften-up. Nowadays I have to decide how much butter I want, carve it from the solid block (even left out of the fridge it gets hard), put it in a bowl and try to calculate how long at 'defrost' will get it just soft enough to spread but not enough to melt or be too runny to get on my bread.

Only the v v expensive stuff seems to come in microwave friendly wrappers these days. <takes self off to 'Whinge' thread>
 
catseye said:
why is most butter these days packed in foil?
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You do realise that you could easily just repack the whole thing from foil into a container of your choice upon getting home, don't you?
Something like.....ooooh I dunno.....a butter dish maybe???
 
I should elaborate on my butter dish. It's insulated, so that the butter (allegedly) doesn't freeze rock solid or become totally liquid in summer. Seems to work.

But butter used to come in greaseproof packets. My mum used to save them up for lining pudding basins. When did it stop?
 
catseye said:
I should elaborate on my butter dish. It's insulated, so that the butter (allegedly) doesn't freeze rock solid or become totally liquid in summer. Seems to work.

But butter used to come in greaseproof packets. My mum used to save them up for lining pudding basins. When did it stop?
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Here it still does - four sticks packed in a light cardboard box. Come to think of it, the only butter wrapped in foil that I've ever seen at the supermarket (remember those?) was Irish butter and I've never understood why it was necessary to import butter from Ireland. I live in dairy country.
 
Lb8535 said:
Here it still does - four sticks packed in a light cardboard box. Come to think of it, the only butter wrapped in foil that I've ever seen at the supermarket (remember those?) was Irish butter and I've never understood why it was necessary to import butter from Ireland. I live in dairy country.
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Are you in the US, Lb? Because our butter is sold by the half pound, all wrapped in something, and it's usually foil. I think the very expensive, Cornish Salt butter may come in paper... I work in a supermarket and ALL our butter is foil wrapped.
 
catseye said:
When did it stop
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June 3rd, 1983, about a quarter past 10 in the morning (Sheila forgot to reorder the greaseproof paper so they just used the bacofoil instead, and VIOLA!)
However, I remember Lurpak as always being in a foil wrapper.
 
If I produced my own butter I would wrap it in one sheet of A4 paper, carefully folded.
That way, after you've finished the butter, you can use it print something on.
 
catseye said:
I should elaborate on my butter dish. It's insulated, so that the butter (allegedly) doesn't freeze rock solid or become totally liquid in summer. Seems to work.

But butter used to come in greaseproof packets. My mum used to save them up for lining pudding basins. When did it stop?
Click to expand...

Because you'd mentioned 'greaseproof packets' in my minds eye the butter in my fridge got wrapped in it. I was already to tell you that Aldi's butter was indeed thus wrapped!. Doubts had set in as I couldn't also picture the stash of used wrappers ready for cake tin lining. mmmmmm when exactly did I last have such a pile? So I checked ..... of course it's in foil!

All the same the image won't quite fade ......... ha!ha!

Sollywos x
 
catseye said:
Are you in the US, Lb? Because our butter is sold by the half pound, all wrapped in something, and it's usually foil. I think the very expensive, Cornish Salt butter may come in paper... I work in a supermarket and ALL our butter is foil wrapped.
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It may be a health requirement in the UK. But the wax paper around the one-cup sticks all neatly fit into a small carton works fine. You can freeze the sticks as they are. For maniac serious cooks it also comes in half-pounds, still in paper.
 
Do you have parchment paper (for cooking, not for illuminating manuscripts) in Britain? Unwrap the foil and replace with parchment.
If you have no parchment paper, maybe you could try 3-ply toilet paper. (Unused.)
 
IbisNibs said:
Do you have parchment paper (for cooking, not for illuminating manuscripts) in Britain? Unwrap the foil and replace with parchment.
If you have no parchment paper, maybe you could try 3-ply toilet paper. (Unused.)
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No room in the freezer for freezing butter! Plus - I work in a shop...

I know I could unwrap the butter, rewrap it in something more suitable (but parchment is horrible for just coming undone it never bends in the right places to stay tucked in) or just put it in a bowl without any wrapping on for microwaving purposes.

But my point was really that butter used to come in paper you could put direct in the microwave. And now it doesn't And that annoys me.

Now, while I've been distracting you all with this talk of microwaves and foil - your spoons have been busy escaping.
 
catseye said:
But my point was really that butter used to come in paper you could put direct in the microwave. And now it doesn't. And that annoys me.
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There is one solution for you, dear Catseye, and just one: emigrate to America. About the only butter in foil over here is, as Lb8535 said, IRISH butter! (It's good, too!)

And yes, how many other teaspoons have gone feral now?
 
I passed the College Refectory this morning - it's been shut since last March and it's been even longer since I last attended a Staff coffee morning - but the lights were on. Peering round the door, I saw the chief Teaching Technician and her colleague had somehow gained access to the cutlery drawers. 200 teaspoons were on the counter and they were scutinising each one until with a triumphant yell they found the missing one with the pertinent initials carved on it. That is impressive spoon devotion.
 
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