Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Cool Contraption

Recently I discovered a newfangled use for an ordinary, everyday dish I have just lying around in my cupboard, and I thought I would share it with you. In fact, I have several of them around somewhere. These little handy-dandy utensils are plastic drinking cups with a pop off lid that has a covered hole for a straw and a small compartment to open for drinking. It is meant for kids to use as a step up from sippy cups, because they are small, durable, easy to use, and (almost) spill-proof.
I like to use this to mix small quantities of a few ingredients together, such as spice mixtures for a spice rub, oil and vinegar for a dressing, and graham cracker crumbs with butter and sugar for a graham crust. Just throw all of the ingredients in, pop on the lid, and shake it, shake it, shake it! My absolute favorite use for this however, is to make cinnamon sugar coatings, toppings, and streusels. The cinnamon and sugar incorporate beautifully in this cup. For a cinnamon-sugar topping I recently used on a cake, I mixed it up in this cup, then opened the little compartment in the lid. This made the perfect size opening for the cinnamon sugar to sprinkle evenly over the cake, much like using a salt or pepper shaker. So there you have it, an ordinary item that collected dust is now being used as a nifty tool in the kitchen! Now, I must go examine all of my other cupboards...

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