Bamboo: Not your mother's wooden spoon

Remember that greyed wooden spoon in your mother's kitchen? You should have dreaded it more for its color than its sting on your leg!

Wooden spoons are inherently prone to growing bacteria. The grey color that they each turn is actually a colony of mildew growing in the spoon. Bleaching will not remove it, and soaking it makes it worse. So what choice have you with your expensive cookware (besides plastic) when you don't want to scratch its non-stick surface?

Pampered Chef introduced a line of bamboo spoons in the late 1990s. Unlike old fashioned wooden spoon, these spoons are made up of a different plant family-grass. Since the woody portion of bamboo is similar in structure to the blades of grass in your yard, it has different qualities than wood. The most notable quality is the near impervious nature of its surface.

These spoons and spatulas are kind to your cookware and even kinder to your food. Since bamboo does not absorb water the way that wood does, it also will not harbor those bacteria that love to contaminate your recipes. The added benefit is no cracking and warping. You will enjoy the blonde color of the spoon for years.

Your mother would never have considered a wooden spoon to crumble meat in her skillet. No problem with the bamboo spoon! For the same reason it does not change color, it will not absorb the fat from the meat. These bamboo spoons and spatulas will not suffer the detriments of the heat the way that plastic utensils do. Plastic will lose its strength with repeated use, making for droopy, useless heads.

For the price, Pampered Chef bamboo utensils are money well spent. The three spoon collection, two round and one oval, carries a price tag of around $7US. Unless you happen to put the spoon on the burner (yes, it is flammable), you will be using these spoons a decade from now.

Pampered Chef bamboo spatulas are likewise priced, two 13" spatulas for about $7US. Other bamboo items include the "spooners" and tongs. Spooners are 6" spoons perfect for dips, and the tongs are perfect for bagels in the toaster. Tongs are $2US and spooners are about $4US.

Overall, Pampered Chef bamboo utensils get a 10 for value and versatility. They go from pretty on the counter, to gentle in the skillet, to the dishwasher and back. A trip they will make for many happy cooking years.

http://stores.ebay.com/VAs-Dream?refid=store