I’ve now made three batches of muffin(tops) in my muffintop pan, and the verdict is a solid ‘meh’. The first time, as reported earlier, I had to use cream instead of milk in the muffins which resulted in a pretty dry end product. The second and most recent efforts had no substitutions. The muffins were as good as but not better than regular muffins, just larger and flatter, but definitely not like just-the-top-muffins. Since they’re substantially of greater diameter, the top portion is definitely bigger than a regular muffin, but they’re also twice the size.
Since it doesn’t take up much storage space, I’ll probably keep the pan. It may come in handy for scones or something else. I doubt I’ll use it to make muffins more than once every couple of years.
Got a chance to nose around my local charity shop after a long time. It usually takes me just 5 minutes to see if there is anything I’m interested in. Today, a set of small glasses in the locked cabinet caught my eye - I asked to see them and saw they were tequila shot glasses each set in a decorative holder made of thin silverware. The silver is stamped ‘Hecho en Mexico 925’ on the inside. The silver is slightly warped with some of the engraving wearing away but they were in unusual enough for me to buy the entire set for £6.50 per glass. I pointed out that the set of 5 had 2 of one design and 3 of a slightly different design. The shop assistant said they came from the same donor to the shop.
I would invite friends over to “break them in” with a bottle of good tequila. And after a couple shots each of you invent an imaginary backstory for them.
Good idea! I think these might have been a relative bargain. I had a little search online just now and similar glasses are selling for 5 times or more than what I just paid.
I have a small collection of similar work - mostly coffee jars, sugar jars, etc. I keep (part of) my sea glass collection in them. You definitely paid under-market for them - great find!
I thought this was a knife at first, but it’s a letter opener. I thought it was a bit expensive at £8, but it was nice and I thought it would be useful for me to open letters with, so I bought it.
I took a closeup photo of the engraving (Stainless, Pinder Bros Ltd, Sheffield) did some online searching after I went home and figured out this is a silver-handled stainless steel letter opener either circa early 1900s or 1950-60s. Most of them sell online for around £50-£75.
Nope. Might have been a house clearance item? I like thinking about who might have used it before. I once bought a battered old sewing box for peanuts at the local dump. It contained a treasure trove of old sewing accessories like a very heavy pair of scissors, a tape measure in a leather and brass cover, a handmade needle book made of felt, lots of different threads, etc. There were some faint annotations in pencil on the inside of the box. All very interesting for imagining its past life.
