memories

We didn't have television when I was growing up in Iowa, so I was glad for any interesting diversion going on in my world:  things like watching Mama "dress" chickens (I never understood why taking the guts out of chickens was referred to as dressing); step on the heads of young pullets to behead them and then watching them flop, headless, all over the yard; and watching my mom run clothes through the wringer of the washing machine.  I had great fun playing with the soap-suds on washday, seeing how high I could pile it on my hands and sometimes fashioning myself a soapsuds beard. 


When I'm cooking and baking, I've noticed that whenever I follow a recipe I meticulously measure the ingredients, using special measuring spoons and cups.  If a recipe calls for a teaspoon of baking powder, I scrape the excess off to make sure it's a level teaspoonful.  

Thinking back to my childhood, I've decided all that precision probably isn't necessary.  

When, as small girl, I watched my mother cook, if the recipe called for a teaspoon of something, she got a regular teaspoon out of the drawer.  Now, there is no universal size for such teaspoons, so I'm sure the amount she used varied, depending on what spoon she grabbed; she never scraped it off to level it, either.  It was the same for a cup:  Mother didn't use a special measuring cup back then.  She used a coffee cup, most of which hold either more or less than the eight ounces that a measuring cup holds.  

Knowing what an excellent cook my mother was, I realize that I could be a lot more casual about my measuring.  Not that I could change, even if I wanted to; it's a habit I somehow picked up the one year I took Home Economics in high school.  The teacher stressed the importance of proper measuring, and I still have to do it that way.  

How about it?  Are you a precision measurer, or a casual one?