Herbs and Spice and Everything Nice

Good morning friends! I was taking a little bit of a break from work this morning to make some pasta salad to have for lunch, and I realized that most of my measuring cups(except for my trusty Pyrex one) have somehow magically disappeared. So I've been surfing the net looking for new ones, because unfortunately, unlike some people, I've never been very good at the "pinch of this" or "handful of that" style of measuring, especially with baking. I've received family recipes over the last few years that have been like that...add a dash of this, or just enough to flavor, or my favorite: "add flour by the handful until dough is soft and a light cream color". Now seriously-define "soft and light cream colored"? huh? What if the recipe writer was colorblind? What if her definition of "light cream colored" was the color of real cream(the kind that floats on top of unhomogenized milk) and my definition of "light cream" is an ecru color?

These I may just have to get for my mom for Christmas. They are M-Cups matryoshka doll measuring cups from www.perpetualkid.com. They accurately measure 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and 1 full cup. Great piece of kitsch for a small kitchen, since they stack and store just like real matryoshka dolls!