The magic of ordinary things

I jettisoned a lot of stuff before our move to Oz. I miss a few big things (my car, the purple couch, the lavender in my yard), but I expected that. It's the little things I didn't expect to miss.

I suspect it's because I thought they would be easily, inexpensively replaced. Maybe with the newer, better, fancy-schmancier version of what I had in the States.

However, here I sit, mourning the loss of a simple $4 kitchen tool ... my pastry blender.

I think I've been in every kitchen shop on the Peninsula in search of a pastry blender. Responses to my inquire range from blank stares to "we don't carry electronics" to "if I were a pastry blender, what would I look like and what would I be used for?" to "will a potato masher do?"

Argh.

My explanation of "you know, you use it to cut the shortening into the flour to make a pie crust" is answered with "what's shortening?"

Argh.

B's sister and mom tried to offer alternative means to make a pie crust, but I long for the comfortable, the familiar.

I'm just a simple girl, wishing for a simple kitchen tool to come along and complete me ... and by complete me, I mean, allow me to bake a pie.