Food memories

The unexpected pleasures of mismatched crockery

I’ve long subscribed to the notion that kitchen utensils, pots and pans, and various items of crockery hold their own particular magic. They can be things passed down to us: rolling pins, chopping boards, a battered colander. Maybe a treasured bowl or jug purchased from a special trip somewhere.

Recipe books, those of the handwritten variety, have long been valued as family heirlooms. They might contain scraps torn from newspapers or magazines; they’ll most definitely be scribbled in with additional notes and observations, the pages dog-eared, stained and splashed.

I got to thinking recently.