Sometimes, small things make you pleased. And the oddest small successes do matter...
I try to drink a fair amount of liquid first meal of the day. Whether it is breakfast or lunch (eggs, pancakes, or sandwich) doesn't matter. I have a mug of green tea, lightly chocolate-low sugar milk with a splash of vanilla, a small glass of Coke (for the fizz), and usually a glass of V8.
I thinking of the vanilla today. I don't really care if it is real or artificial. The taste is about the same (and cooking article generally agree). What really matters to me is how easily I can pour a controlled amount into the milk. Some bottles come with flip-top caps that only allow a few drops (my favorite). Some come with seals under the caps and I just poke a small hole it the seal.
I bought one recently that had neither. Take the cap off, and it is a 3/4" open bottle. Control is tricky. Too much vanilla is a bit bitter. I don't have the steadiest hands these days, so that is a problem. I was looking for a small food-grade squirt bottle and not having any luck.
On the other hand, I had just emptied a bottle of soy sauce with a nice small-holed flip-top cap. I was considering emptying the small vanilla bottle into the large soy sauce bottle, but wondered if the vanilla would sort of evaporate in all the extra space.
Then I looked at the caps on both bottles. They seemed about the same size (visually). Was it possible they were interchangeable? I mean, a slight difference in size would leak. And if the a cap threads were even barely different, same problem.
So I tried the exchange. The flip-top, small hole, soy sauce top fit on the vanilla bottle like a glove!
The flip-top cap on the soy sauce bottle...
In a way, I should not have been too surprised. Industry loves uniformity of sizes. It is a lot cheaper (efficient) to make 10 million caps of one size than 10 million caps of 3 sizes. I've discovered this elsewhere. I have some cast iron pans with no lids and I have some teflon pan with lids. Most of the teflon pan lids also fit the cast iron skillets perfectly! This is often useful.
I have also discovered that all toothpaste tubes have the same type of caps. Some come with flip-tops and some don't. I save the flip-tops... So when I buy one with a screw-off cap, I usually switch them. Trust me, some mornings I just can't deal with a screw-off cap...
So when I discovered that the soy sauce flip-top cap fit on the vanilla bottle, I was very happy. It sort of made my whole day. OK, maybe I am too easily "happified" by such a little thing, but little things like that can actually mean a lot these days.
There are enough major things in the world that aren't working. I'll enjoy a minor one that does... 😁
