That’s what French cooking schools call dish towels. In cooking school we got two and had to use them for everything. You don’t wipe your hands on a torchon then take a flaming pan off the stove or hot dish out of the oven. If they’re wet they won’t protect your hands.
We always used to say that Mom had “asbestos” hands in that she could handle hot things. I’m better at that than I used to be but you won’t see me using a tea towel to get a pan out of a 500 degree oven. First, I’m not into self-mutilation, and second by moving to 7.500 feet above sea level my skin is already a mess and my fingers hurt even before I took up the guitar last week.
Back to towels. As to bathroom towels, I’ve an assortment of linen goodies from my Aunt that are in storage. For dishes I prefer linen or pure cotton, no bath towel cotton. This place came with one tea towel, terrycloth bath towel sort, that I use to dry hand-washed dishes as a mat. The rest are pure cotton or linen and some are waffle-weaved. One says Black Dog on it, another touts Texas. One has a Scottie with Scotland on it from friends who went there at least ten years ago. Another Jim’s mother found after thirty years in storage. It sports a lively print of melons and unfortunately disintegrates after each wash and it’s only had two. I should have placed that one in a frame before ever using it.
Jim uses tea towels as bibs and napkins, and it’s especially good to have one at the front of his shirt on a workday morning when he’s eating two eggs over medium and may spill on his shirt and have to go change.
I mark my time in life through some of the special tea and bath towels we have. Some mean I have to take out the iron, and others, that I need to use them because they remind me of special people and events in their lives that they chose to share with us.
Look at your dishes, pots and pans and thank the relative who added the gravy ladle, the potato masher, the special rolling pin. The china, college Corelle, and the memories of the cookies you baked together or that special Thanksgiving meal.
For me, it’s photos and kitchen stuff and I don’t have either here living in someone else’s home in a unique and lovely environment. It’s still someone else’s home. I brought one wedding photo 5X5 that is on the side table in the living room. Other than a jar with utensils that is our only presence here.
We brought along nearly all of the torchons, and they are safely ensconced in an open kitchen cabinet with the dishes, We must have at least 60, total. I buy more when the hole-ly ones go to dusting duty but like knowing the vintage of what we have on hand. Cheers, Dee
