Oven Gloves - One Hand or Two?

Photo: Michal Zacharzewski

It strikes me as odd that British shops offer a selection of oven gloves that comprise of two square gloves joined together, whereas Dutch shops only offer one glove. I've wondered why for many years but to this day I have no definitive explanation so I'm throwing it open in the hope that someone can enlighten me.

Is it because Dutch ovens are in general so small one hand is sufficient to hold the small tray that actually fits? Many Dutch kitchens only have a small dual function oven and microwave so huge roasting dishes are nowhere to be seen which causes Americans problems at Thanksgiving and Brits untold stress at Christmas when turkeys need to be cooked......

Are Dutch people born with one hand made of asbestos and therefore an inbuilt heat resistance that us Brits just don't have?

Is it a cost saving thing? One glove cheaper than two?

I have an extra wide oven in my kitchen which was already fitted (by a Dutch family I hasten to add) when we moved in and my roasting trays are heavy - using only one hand to remove hot trays or dishes from the oven is asking for a hospital visit. That's why I import my oven gloves from England.......

Am I alone? Do one handed oven gloves work for everyone else? Answers on a postcard......

Expat Tastes

I was recently having a bit of a twitter with a Dutch expat in England and she was telling me that every time someone comes to visit, or she comes back to the Netherlands, she raids Albert Heijn for essential supplies to take back.

"I'm curious," I tweeted. "What type of things do you get?" She replied,

"Well half the Albert Heijn! Cheese, ontbijtkoek, hagelslag, crisps (hamkaas, bugels) and I miss all vleeswaren - osseworst etc." "Oh, and magazines," she added.

I tweeted back,

"That's hilarious!! I bring back English cheese and 'proper' flavour crisps... and magazines & books. Funny what you get used to!!"

So we agreed she would send a lorry of English supplies over, and I would send it back full of Dutch goodies.A kind of Tesco - Albert Heijn shopping exchange scheme......

The idea of a Dutch expat lugging Dutch cheese over to England at the same time I was hauling a good piece of English cheddar back to the Netherlands made me smile and as her Albert Heijn trolley is filling with hamkaas and bugles, mine is filling with prawn cocktail and worcester sauce flavour crisps.

I do bring a lot less variety of things back with me each trip than I used to but there are still staples that the local Dutch supermarket just doesn't stock, so they go on list when we pop back or someone comes over:

• jelly cubes
• Branston pickle
• Ambrosia rice pudding
• custard
• bite-size shredded wheat
• crumpets
• Bisto gravy granules

To sum it up she wrote,

"You can take the Dutch out of Holland but you can't take Holland out of the Dutch!"

Indeed, and you can certainly say the same about the English. Though it did make me wonder what foods I would miss from the Netherlands if I left..........