The Salad Spinner

The other day I said to Ian "Why do I feel like I'm always washing the dishes" to which he replied, "Maybe because you are." And I realized that yes, I do spend a lot of my day washing dishes. We do, of course, have a dishwasher, but I always feel the need to do a pre-wash before anything goes in, and of course, pots and pans always take up so much room and leave very little space for efficient dish stacking. And no, I cannot put that precious Zyliss Salad spinner in there either. Afraid of it melting. For some reason I hate washing that thing the most of all. Maybe it's all the nooks and crannies, and how it just never seems to dry...

There's a story to that Salad Spinner. It made its way into our household all the way from Barcelona, Spain. Yes, that's right, my husband found that lovely kitchen item during a business trip there over a year ago, bought it for the amazing deal of about 35 Euros (gasp!). Couldn't pack it so of course took it through customs, had to declare it ... his work buddies thought it was quite amusing, to say the least. I suppose I should be proud of my husband that he's so confident in his own skin (he may have been the first metrosexual in his day, but you'd never know it) that he could take all the barbs and the teasing about this kitchen gadget without a second thought. And that spinner does do wonders with our greens. Who would have thought Spain should be famous for their spinners?

Oh well, at least he got me a beautiful silk pashmina the last time he was in Italy. I guess there are some fringe benefits to his work travel, if not just to keep our kitchen well- equipped.