A series of daft events on the way to healthier eating.

Eggs are no good for losing weight because you need bread and butter with them (well I do, and can only stomach eggs hard-boiled)
You lot without teaspoons, how do you measure out instant coffee, stir tea or coffee, fish the tea-bag out of your mug, get jam out of the jar for scones, serve a strange friend who wants sugar in her drink?

Can't work out how to manage without teaspoons either!
Neither of us take sugar but vital for DGS's feeding himself, eating boiled eggs, yogurts, little pots of chocolate mousse etc!

We use dessert spoons for yoghourt type things. I use a fork to get tea bags out and don't stir tea anyway. I never even noticed the disappearing teaspoons until the egg situation. All sorted anyhow. Finn I've boiled eggs in a pan before so I know what that's like. I really find the wee gadget better.

A fork???

I know! Its amazing but you can use almost anything -have used a biro before in the office

Forks are good for taking teabags out of the cup, because the water squeezes through it better than with a teaspoon, Ana.

Hmm..not so good if you accidentally stab the teabag before you've got it out of the cup though!

I was always put off those silicone egg poachers because they looked rather like the protective 'box' my DS used to wear inside his pants when he played cricket. . You can poach an egg more neatly if you put it in boiling water in its shell for 10 seconds before breaking it into the pan. Toaster tongs can be obtained on line and as well as getting things like crumpets out of the toaster without burning your fingers, you can use them to take your teabag out of the cup.

I've got toaster gongs but they're made of wood and I don't fancy squeezing my teabag with them! Have also got stainless steel holey teabag tongs but never use them - a teaspoon's much easier

(Jane10 yes, I have used a biro on occasion! )

toaster gongs??? tongs.

The latest Gizmo to be seen with is a Thermomix TM5 which apparently does absolutely everything - weighs, chops, mixes, stirs, cooks, blends, needs, purées, and more as well. Apparently it cleans itself too, which is a bonus - all for the princely sum of £1000 . DD2 here in Oz is desperate to own one and I am busy trying to dissuade her, citing all the possibilities of spending $2000 on more exciting ventures! I have cupboards full of once exciting, but now useless, gadgets and inevitably revert to the proven old fashioned methods. Nothing beats boiling an egg in a pan of water or beating hell out of a lump of dough

Providing the teabag hasn't sunk, I mostly whip it out with my fingers. Otherwise I use a teaspoon.
I used to play guitar (anyone who has played one will know how the tips of the fingers become completely hardened with thickened, calloused skin.) In cookery lessons at school I used to take hot trays/tins out of the oven with my bare hands. It was quite an impressive party piece, though I honestly didn't do it to impress - it simply didn't occur to me to use an oven glove as I didn't need one!

I used to wonder who on earth Delia wrote her book for - now I know!

I don't even use vinegar when I poach my eggs and they still turn out ok. Just bring the water to the boil, drop in the egg, turn it down to a simmer, take any loose puffy bits off with a draining spoon as they expand and float to the surface, the egg is ready when it too rises up.

JaneR, my grandma used to poach eggs your way, but I always found them to taste a bit watery. I have a poacher pan, but mine has little cups that sit in holes on top of the pan, so my fingers don`t go near the boiling water.
When we were first married, we lived in a small, 200 year old cottage that was crumbling away, we found 2 rusty teaspoons in holes in the walls.

How can you make tea without a teaspoon? How do you measure it into the pot?
What are these funny little square things that visitors from England keep bringing us?
We have a wonderful tea shop here in rural France, where we buy Ceylon for the morning tea and Yunnan for the afternoon.

Lakeland sell teabag squeezers, a bit like a syringe action, and they are great! No more scalded fingers!http://www.lakeland.co.uk/12644/Tea%20Tool/all-reviews/12/20.2

Why doesn't the link go blue? On a tablet!

www.lakeland.co.uk/12644/Tea%20Tool/all-reviews/12/20.2

Jane that's how I do my poached eggs too.

Tea just doesn't taste right if made in a cup in my opinion. Give me a pot any time and then I can keep topping up my mug and no need to fish out or squeeze the tea bags.

Yes, Jane, me too. And I found the best 'tool' to remove a boiled egg from boiling water is my spaghetti server - it is egg shaped with prongs so it drains the water. Perfect!

I thought I would poach an egg for brekkie using ana's instructions (thankyou btw)

Buttered the silicone mould, dropped the egg in, used a slotted spoon to lower it in to boiling water, it slips and half the egg white is in the simmering water and stuck hard to the outside of the mould. Meanwhile egg is still not done and I have been on FB, email and GN while I wait.
Then I read *anno's post' so I am going to have the crumpet with JAM.
And the moulds are going to the charity shop.
.

Back to my old method (same as janer's)

The moulds are very useful for boiling eggs. If you put each egg in its own mould (in its shell of course) they don't bump into each other in the boiling water, or the sides of the pan, and they don't crack. Mine often used to crack. They don't since I started doing this.

I have got the tea tool lona recommended. It is very good. I hope this link works