Squishy Bowls in the Kitchen

Those who know me might describe me as frugal. I'm not a cheap skate, but I also don't really like to buy superfluous stuff. I also really appreciate it when one item can have multiple uses. My super light black Arc'teryx shell is great for backpacking trips, but is low profile enough that I can wear it to business meetings and dinners. I use my camping cooking pots for soup and couscous both at home and on the trail. This eliminates my need for a couple extra sauce pans. Of course, at home I also use large pots for pasta, and cast iron for frying things. I'd never take them on the trail.


Being frugal like this, and living on my own means that I do without a lot of the common items that most people have in their kitchen. For example, I have no pot holders. I've generally just used a dish towel to grab out what I need. It's not ideal, but it does the job. Recently though, I was in the middle of a load of laundry, and a load of pancakes. The cast iron skillet was too hot to handle, and all the dish towels were in the wash. Luckily, I'd just recently taken home a set of our Squishy Bowls. They're made of Silicone and are supposed to be heat resistant to about 400 degrees F. They ought to work great as a pot holder. Besides, I need to stand behind every product we make. If they're not as heat resistant as we claim, then I need to know about it! So, I decided I should put my Squishy Bowl to use. It's already in the kitchen doing duty as a bowl. Why not make it my pot holder too?


It worked great! I easily squished it to wrap around the handle of the skillet. The rubbery texture gave me a really solid grip on the heavy pan, and I couldn't feel the heat passing through the bowl at all, even though the skillet was otherwise much too hot for me to grab. And, as I was using it I discovered another nice little coincidence. When set upside down the depression in the bottom of the bowl actually worked perfectly to cradle my spatula and keep it from getting my stove top all gunky. So, now I've got my bowl doing triple duty in the kitchen, and that makes me happy.

Is anybody else out there letting their camping gear pull double duty like this? I'd love to hear your ideas.