As a child, we ate dinner in the dining room every night. My mother liked to set a formal table, with a tablecloth, place mats, china, nice silverware and nice glasses. We also had a set of fine china, silver place settings and serving ware, and crystal. That was used for holidays and special occasions. I remember washing up after the formal dinners and my mother would count every piece of silver to make sure that it was all there. One time we were missing a fork and she went nuts – sending us all looking throughout the house and dumping out the trash to find the missing fork. It turned up in one of the bathrooms – and up to this day I have no idea why the fork would have been taken into the bathroom!
I like nice dishes and silverware, and although my dinner time is a little less formal than what my mother liked, I still appreciate a nicely set table. One of my little quirks is that I do not like to drink out of plastic, and I try to use the proper utensils. I prefer to use a dinner fork to eat something from my dinner plate and don’t like to use salad forks unless I am eating a salad. Since I almost never eat salad at home, I think my salad forks are the most under utilized silverware in my kitchen.
Last night I had friends over for a last minute dinner invitation and went to set the table when I realized there are only 6 forks in the kitchen drawer. The silverware set that I bought was an 8-piece place setting, so there should have been 8 forks in the drawer. After I cleaned up the dishes and kitchen and my guests went home, I looked everyone for two forks and cannot find them. What on earth happened to those two forks? I would not have knowingly thrown them out in the trash. I am really puzzled over this!!
