The proverbial wooden spoon!  It is a tool is it a weapon?  Ask a mother!

Wooden spoons have been a staple in the arsenal of kitchen tools since the days of cavemen.  Wilma, the original cavewoman according Hanna Barbera, certainly 

had one to stir Fred’s Brontosaurus BBQ sauce.  And Betty had one to chase Bam Bam out from under her feet.  See it is a tool and a weapon.  I don’t know of any mother that didn’t resort to the wooden spoon as a method of discipline.  After all, it’s so convenient when in the kitchen.  My mom was always stirring something and that spoon could come whipping out of the pot so fast, flinging sauce around the room which made her even more mad for the mess she had to clean up because my brother, never me, made her angry.

Wooden spoons are classic.  They are the original non stick cookware safe tool.  They come in a zillion sizes and shapes that get into corners, have holes or slots for blending, different lengths accommodate different size pots and pans.  My favorite is the tasting spoon that has a bowl at both ends with a trough down the middle of the shaft.  One end dips into the hot sauce, tip it so the liquid slides down the trough cooling on the way so the chef will have a comfortable taste of his recipe in the works.

The down side of wooden spoons is that they are all brown, some more textured than others but brown.  Wooden spoons burn. You really do have to keep it away from the heating element or you’ve got a disaster on your hands.  Lastly, you really shouldn’t put them in the dishwasher.  We all do but we shouldn’t.  It shortens their life.

Silicone is the new thing.  It comes in colors, doesn’t burn and they’re dishwasher safe.  Silicone spoons do everything a wooden spoon does but prettier, less dangerous and cleaner.  It’s a short list of improvements but each is very significant.  I love my wooden spoons and cherish the one I got from my ex- husband’s grandmother.  It is a tool, it was a weapon, and now a keepsake.