That's our sugar bowl. We bought it in Minorca, Spain twenty years ago. It's a piece of Mediterranean sunshine in our kitchen and it serves us well. Ironically, I rarely use sugar these days for a year ago, I began to use artificial sweeteners in tea and coffee. Most days I drink five mugs of tea and one mug of coffee so in the last year consuming yet another small mountain of sugar has been avoided.
Below there's our butter dish. We bought it in Portugal in 2004 so for eleven years it has been another friendly and treasured kitchen item. It cost us the equivalent of £18 but we were attracted by the naive pastoral design that speaks of summer meadows and simplicity. I have never been a fan of margarine or olive spreads in plastic tubs and have always been sceptical about the health benefits of these butter substitutes.
I use both butter and sugar. For me it's more a matter of using small quantities than avoiding either one entirely! I love that sugar bowl.
ReplyDeleteYou love our sugar bowl? You Steve are a man of discerning taste!
DeleteI think the dish is very whimsical, it's great. I too use butter. Even the easy spread stuff has oil init and tastes funny and not nice funny.
ReplyDeleteYes - whimsical - that is a good word to describe it Adrian.
DeleteI switched away from sugar many years ago. It hasn't made me any thinner and I do wonder at the harm the sweeteners might be doing. I've tried to swing away from the chemical sweeteners and use "Splenda" but I don't really know if it is better. Wish I could do without in my tea and coffee but I would rather not drink it then and I do love my breakfast cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteAs for margarine, I've decided it is poison and we only have butter here though once again it is mixed with marge I think, to make it spreadable.
Love the dishes. I'm drinking my evening cuppa from my Scotland mug.
Your Scotland mug? I bet it has a dash of scotch in it! Glen McHelen!
DeleteI've been waiting to see if my Scotland mug bought forth a remark as to the name of the mug being Tony ??Be careful what you say about Scotland YP, remember I am a titled Scottish lass (remember http://helsieshappenings.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/this-photo-was-taken-couple-of-years.html)
DeleteI am astonished that the mug thought crossed your mind Helen! Tony is my role model and I would never poke fun at him in that juvenile manner. I went back to the post you reminded me of and I was again impressed by Tony's manliness - standing there in his tartan skirt.
Deletelovely artefacts of your travels YP
ReplyDeleteI would be very miserable if either of those objects were broken Carol.
DeleteIt does look lovely. And I try to stay away from butter, as it causes my skin to breakout. Greetings!
ReplyDeleteMakes your skin break out? Let your skin free Blogoratti! God almighty - free at last!
DeleteIt's interesting that here , very little butter is used on the table. I don't have butter or margarine on toast or anything else. I never use sugar in coffee or tea. You get used to it and would never go back to using sugar. It's interesting that butter is getting better PR lately.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise that you are a healthy eating freak Red! Your body is a temple.
DeleteI am relived to see that you have clean grout
ReplyDeleteWhen I tiled the kitchen*, experience told me to choose grey grout rather than white. It hides muck when white always seems to show it.
Delete*= I am lying. A professional did it.
I use both butter and sugar in large quantities. Butter is part of my staple food (cheese sandwiches), and sugar (lots of it, plus lots of fat) is part of my other staple food (chocolate).
ReplyDeleteBut - and this sounds very illogical, I know - I do not use sugar "as such", i.e. I don't put it in my coffee or tea. Decades ago, during my years at Librarian School, I got into the habit of using artificial sweeteners. I am so used to the taste that I really don't like the sugary drinks (hot or cold) anymore, only the ones with sweetener in them.
They have certainly not made me ill; I feel as fine as I look (figure-wise, of course; not talking about my face here) and am the living proof of how all those studies about sugar & fat and all that more or less silly dietary advice in books and magazines is rubbish.
German butter manufacturers and artificial sweetener companies should consider using you in their advertising! Oh and I should just like to point out that as a mature woman you have a pretty and youthful face - unless of course you wear a rubber mask when posting your fashion pictures!
DeleteWhy hasn't somebody invented white grout that isn't porous and therefore doeasn't stain?
DeleteSorry - wrong thread... Don't attempt to put grout anywhere near butter or marge.....
DeleteI use butter not spreads and I haven't taken sugar (or milk) in coffee or tea for 30 or more years. The butter was a 'healthy preference' decision but I just don't like sweet tea or coffee. Your butter dish certainly has a certain whimsy about it.
ReplyDeleteOkay on the butter and sugar front Graham but the council in Stornoway will soon discuss the increasing problem of bottle collections from Chez Edwards in Eagleton. Hic!
DeleteYour sugar and butter containers are lovely...bright and cheerful to make each day a pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI only use butter, and have never used margarine...give me butter any day of the week! No restaurant kitchen would use margarine, either.
As for sugar, I never add it to coffee or tea...I only have one coffee a day...sometimes I go crazy and I might have two! Although, I'm not one of the anti-sugar brigade I still use it when necessary and I've never used substitutes. 1kg of raw sugar lasts me for a year or more. And woe behold anyone who tries to stop me from enjoy a Peters Chocolate and nut ice cream drumstick!!
I take little notice of the "experts"...one day they're lecturing that something is bad for us, and the next it's not. They never can make up their minds...I guess it's because those "experts" are getting paid well to do their researches.
A few weeks ago on the same page in a magazine were two articles...each contradicted the other about a similar food. One article said it was bad for us; and the other article on the same page said same food was good for us!!! Toss the coin in the air. Wet your finger to tell which way the wind is blowing!
As with everything...moderation is the key; and there are exceptions when splurging is allowed! :)
Lee, I couldn't agree more with you. The "well-researched studies" the so-called experts come up with are nearly always biased, and their results are tweaked until they fit the bill of whoever has been funding it in the first place.
DeleteAs you say, moderation is the key, and a healthy adult person can very well decide for her/himself what (and how much) they eat to enjoy their food, and how much exercise they need to stay healthy.
Splurging is nice but hand over that Peters coco-nut ice cream drumstick immediately or there will be trouble!... Ouch! Aaargh! You didn't have to belt me Lee...and please take your foot off my head!
ReplyDeleteChocolate, Yorkie...chocolate! Certainly...you can have the coconut one...I have the chocolate one! :)
DeleteAnd there was no need to let everyone know I resorted to violence!!!!!!!
Butter is delicious. Pasteurized butter can stay on the counter at room temperature easily for a few days - spreadable and tasty that way - no need to refrigerate. When we had a milk cow we made our own, but nowadays we hit Costco up for it. We only use butter or olive oil as I think margarine and shortening are poisonous.
ReplyDeleteArtificial is the key word - we use real raw sugar, honey or molasses here at home. That does not slow down my chocolate consumption, however. I readily eat store-bought sugar-filled chocolates. Feel free to mail foreign chocolate to me and I shall happily indulge. And probably bulge, as well....
You're a chocoholic Hilly! I hope that this will not come as a shock but I need to tell you that there are other things in life apart from chocolate!
DeleteDuh. Of course there is! It's called C O F F E E.
DeleteSilly man, I knew that.
The butter dish is lovely.I belong to the butter brigade and quit margarine some years back. I think it is poison too.
ReplyDeleteMs Soup
Margarine may have been a commercial plot - discrediting butter and making millions on the back of an artificial substitute.
DeleteBy 'slightly salted' do you mean Lurpak? Nothing beats it on toast, on vegetables, in cakes, the list is endless.
ReplyDeleteI avoid sugar though, or so I tell myself. A teaspoonful of clear honey in my tea sounds much healthier, but I'm sure it isn't.
Do they still eat bread and dripping, tripe, black pudding and liver over in Cheese Grater Manchester?
Deletenot actually say anything.Can certainly Monster Muscle X a person explain what the author meant in his final paragraph? He makes an amazing start but lost me halfway from the post. I had a tough time following what the author is endeavoring to say. Very first was fantastic but.For more ==== >>>>>> http://guidemesupplements.com/monster-muscle-x/
ReplyDelete