Ever wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall on a typical morning in our household? Not that we have flies. We don’t. But if we did, that fly might be treated to some pretty interesting shit. Like this:
Me: Why don’t you bring some borscht for lunch.
Husband: Okay. (fumbling around for containers and coming up with only lids) Are there any containers left?
Me: We might be out. Just use a Mason jar.
Him: I’m not bringing my lunch in a Mason jar.
Me: Why not? What’s the difference?
Him: It’s a Mason jar. I might as well carry my books in a strap and roll a hoop all the way to work. Lalalaaalalaaaaaa….
Me: It’s just a container.
Him: I’m not bringing borscht in a jar.
Me: So you’re going to spend money to buy lunch we already have because you don’t want your coworkers to make fun of you?
Him: I’m already the laughing stock.
Me: Well, you can hardly blame me for that. Look, just pour it into a bowl when you get there. You can do it in your office, all secret-like.
Him: Where are all these bowls you’re talking about?
Me: Surely, given the modern technology you claim to espouse, you have bowls at work.
Him: That’s right. I walk through the door and suddenly I’m tripping over bowls, there are bowls coming at me from every direction.
Me: …
Him: Why don’t you buy 365 Mason jars and just freeze my lunches for the whole year.
Me: You’re an asshole.
Him: I hope you put this on your blog because the only one who’s going to look bad is you!
The End.
So. Who’s right?
Since we do not live in Kansas circa 1890, I am right.
Posted by: Husband | February 04, 2009 at 08:20 PM
Sorry, Husband. Tammy is right. Mason jars are awesome; I take them to work with my lunch in them all the time. They also don't leach anything when you heat them up in the microwave! Bonus. As a clincher, I offer that I recently drank water from a Mason jar in a trendy restaurant in Cambridge.
Even if you can't bring yourself to see the Mason jar light, you could've solved your problem by putting the contents of a plastic container into a mason jar, washing the container, and then filling the container with borscht.
But your idea about freezing 365 lunches in jars is actually pretty good.
Posted by: Sarah | February 04, 2009 at 08:38 PM
I don't think that any mason jar has been linked with BPA... Also, if you had the Mason jar you could just bring the bowl from home as well!
At work, there are a few of us that keep a set or "real" plates and silverware from home, so we aren't using the plastic utensils and paper plates for working lunches.
Posted by: Calypso | February 04, 2009 at 08:51 PM
My boss brings his lunch to work in a mason jar anytime he has soup, which is often. Then he puts it in a bowl, which he keeps in a desk drawer when not in use. But he doesn't do it all secret-like - he just strolls into the breakroom with all his supplies and makes the transfer in the open. I keep TWO bowls, two spoons (one regular, one soup) and a fork in my desk drawer. Sorry, husband.
Posted by: Sara | February 04, 2009 at 09:01 PM
Fly on the wall? Can I please come to dinner? This is good stuff! :)
Sorry husband, T has this one right.
Posted by: andrea | February 04, 2009 at 09:43 PM
Clearly, all the blogging ladies are against me. What about the men? And clearly Sara's boss can do as he pleases because snickering would result in instant termination.
How can I command any respect coaching my company's softball team if I am seen eating my lunch from a trendy jar-like contraption?
No ma'am, that don't fly at GTC. I'd be eaten alive.
Posted by: Husband | February 04, 2009 at 10:09 PM
Oh my goodness. My boyfriend and I were just hysterically laughing at this post. When we calmed down he yelled from the kitchen "Can you imagine opening the fridge at work and seeing a mason jar full of borscht?" And that set us both off again.
I agree with Husband. You don't take your food to work in a Mason Jar and there isn't a huge supply of random bowls in any office I have ever worked in.
Thanks for the laugh. I needed it.
Posted by: Karen | February 04, 2009 at 10:54 PM
I am just envious of having a refrigerator and borscht for lunch. Really, I'm also envious you have lids for your mason jars. I take a pb&j in a ziploc baggie.
Posted by: Mary | February 04, 2009 at 10:58 PM
Sorry, Husband, I'm with Tammy here. Mason jars are better for the planet and your body. And also, if she's going to make you a tasty lunch, I kinda think you should be willing to bring it in a Care Bears lunch box if that were what it took. Unless your office is a lot more like my middle school than I'd like to imagine.
Leah Bloom, Boston Sustainable Food Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-1929-Boston-Sustainable-Food-Examiner
Posted by: Leah | February 04, 2009 at 11:23 PM
Mason jars for the win. To add to their case, they don't leak and are durable. My husband takes smoothies into work in mason jars. Then again, I'm not sure you want to side with the man who drinks fruity smoothies for lunch.
Posted by: melch | February 05, 2009 at 12:35 AM
Siding with Tammy on this one, and my office has plates, bowls, mugs, glasses, silverware, cutting boards, etc...everything you need to make or heat your lunch.
Posted by: Emily | February 05, 2009 at 02:24 AM
oooo! I know! Get one of those fake severed fingers and ... nope. nope. Too early.
Would you feel different if it were moonshine instead of borscht?
Posted by: Jess | February 05, 2009 at 09:31 AM
In Atlantic City, NJ, there's a place called the Back Bay Ale House where they will serve your mixed drink in a mason jar. A big one. With 3-4 times the booze in a normal drink. So the only time you look silly is when you try to stand up! Maybe this would be more acceptable at the office?
Posted by: Erin | February 05, 2009 at 09:55 AM
Gotta agree with Tammy here. A mason jar is practical, easy to clean and in a retro way, stylish. Better than some tupperware, and how would you ever clean the stains off a plastic container that held borscht.
Posted by: johnwhorfin | February 05, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Your both right. I miss you guys!
Posted by: Sis | February 05, 2009 at 11:58 AM
To second Erin's thought, there's a place in northern NJ called (aptly) The Mason Jar and all drinks, including manly servings of Guiness Stout and the like, are served in mason jars. But seriously, hubby, if you're afraid of being the laughing stock at softball practice (a manly man would be coaching baseball, but that's for another day) tell Tammy to paint some damned bunny ears on the thing and you can brag that it was a gift from Hugh Hefner.
Posted by: Katie | February 05, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Excellent! I say we bring back the mason jar into vogue! Mason Jars can be the new hot trendy kitchen gadget of 2009!
And husband, two words for you sport! "Cowboy Up."
Posted by: Heidi / Savory Tv | February 05, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Hey - I have an idea! Get (and use) a thermos for your soup. You can find them cheap at Good Will. Then you won't have to have a separate bowl to eat it from. Everybody wins and nobody looks like a dork pulling a mason jar out of his (slightly) used paper bag with the other kids sitting around him rolling their eyes and giving him pitying looks. (Sorry Tammy - I totally agree with husband on this one.)
Posted by: Sally | February 05, 2009 at 01:03 PM
Sorry hubs, but when you do things like bring Funyuns to an office pot-luck...you beg to be labeled the laughing stock.
Would it have helped if the mason jar had a NFL team or golf club etched into the glass?
*waves a foam finger with Tammy's name on it*
Thanks for the laugh, it really made my day.
Posted by: badu | February 05, 2009 at 02:06 PM
Your husband is hilarious.
Posted by: Sam | February 05, 2009 at 03:04 PM
Love the exchange, if only because my husband is now refusing to take certain foods to work, lest he appear low-classy. I think that's worse than not wanting to show up with a mason jar. You guys are funny.
Posted by: Melissa | February 05, 2009 at 04:26 PM
Is this because I'm just stupid and ignorant, or can I blame the fact that I'm British - what the hell is a Mason jar?!
Also, I work from home so have no experience of this "taking lunch to work" thing, but I can say that I hate having to take anything to work that makes me look dumb (dodgy plastic bags when I have piles of student papers to return, the manual to my mobile phone because I can't figure it out by myself...), so I'd say I'm tentatively (till I know what an MJ is) on Husband's side on this one...
Posted by: Kirsty | February 05, 2009 at 04:47 PM
Kirsty, A Mason jar is a glass jar with a screw-on top typically used in canning and making jelly or preserves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_jar
They are very, very dodgy for lunches IMHO.
Posted by: Husband | February 05, 2009 at 05:12 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_jar
Very, very dodgy for lunches, IMHO.
Posted by: Husband | February 05, 2009 at 05:14 PM
Heck, I used to take my lunch (usually pasta) to work in an old, misshapen tupperware container that was literally the laughing stock of all my co-workers at PELAS. I don't know if a mason jar would have illicited more jokes then it did! However, I will say that if I had had someone who made me borscht for lunch I would have carried it to work in an open top bucket!
Posted by: Dad | February 05, 2009 at 05:37 PM
How's this for laughing stock: A few weeks ago my refrigerator reached that state of shame where all of my containers were in use (some for a month or more). I brought by dinner in a small sauce pan (handle sticking out of my canvas lunch bag) which I stuck in the (very large) toaster oven at lunch time. Ate it right out of the pot with my own fork. I'd take a mason jar over that any day.
Adding to the image: I work in an ER, ate lunch at the nurse's desk.
Posted by: NurseJen | February 05, 2009 at 06:14 PM
Thanks for the explanation! Now that I've seen the MJ's in action, I have to say I would feel kind of weird taking my lunch somewhere in one... It's not unimaginable, but I couldn't really see me doing it. Sorry Tammy!
Posted by: Kirsty | February 06, 2009 at 03:49 PM
So, that's 3 for Husband, and some much larger number for me. I WIN!
Thanks for your input, everybody. I may need to call upon your marital mediation services again in the near future!
Posted by: Tammy | February 06, 2009 at 08:41 PM
I was going to vote for you, Tammy. And then say, on a totally unrelated note that the name Tammy makes me think of Sweet Potato Queens, so you should be one. Especially since you're a legitimate Tammy.
Posted by: Alyson | February 06, 2009 at 09:21 PM
I demand a recount!!
Posted by: Husband | February 07, 2009 at 08:16 AM
I have been offline for a few days, and I have to say, the image of Husband skipping to work and rolling a hoop made me snarf my drink. Sorry Tammy, as I am a delicate flower and sensitive to the mockery of my co-workers, I gotta go with Husband on this one. Perhaps the next time you go to town to do some trading at Nels Oleson's Dry Goods store, you can get some tupperware.
Posted by: Even if it makes no sense, I'm voting with husband | February 09, 2009 at 05:10 PM
Mason jars are only durable until you drop them...
Posted by: Tricia | February 12, 2009 at 10:59 AM
I like the idea of washing out a container if you can't bring yourself to take a mason jar. I think people look at us less often than we think they do haha.
Plus being glass you aren't risking some chemical from the plastic containers!
Posted by: Vanessa | February 13, 2009 at 01:19 PM
I use mason jars to bring things to work sometimes. And there's a complete set of plates and bowls and things in the kitchen, and dishwashing liquid and a drying rack. Plus disposable stuff.
If people can't manage that level of weird (about a 1 on the 0-10 scale), I can't imagine I could bear to work with them
Posted by: pyewacket | February 13, 2009 at 03:33 PM
Maybe not for his lunch but Mason Jars are great for food storage. What you say? Really. Because of the threat of weather conditions and other natural disasters, it would be well for us to prepare. In 1915, Mt. Tambora erupted and people couldn't get food and supplies for over a year. What happened in 1915 can happen if Yellowstone erupts. We need to prepare with food storage and other emergency supplies. Read this for more info: Prepare for a Natural Disaster or Emergency with Food Storage. I enjoyed your morning!
Posted by: Mary June | March 11, 2009 at 11:52 PM
This is hilarious. I love it! I just have to say Mason Jars are totally cool, All the hippest or hippiest places serve food and drink in them. If you're ever in Boulder, Colorado, you can head over to Mountain Sun where (as least they used to) sell their beer in mason jars.
Love it.
Posted by: Leah Klein | March 29, 2009 at 03:59 PM
I drink out of mason jars allll the time. Mason jar = good cocktail glass
Posted by: Kari | March 30, 2009 at 02:02 PM
i use mason jars for EVERYTHING. freezing, storing dry goods, and i make infused oils in them, and there are probably fifty other uses I can think of. And sorry hub, my husband always uses mason jars to brings drinks and food to work. We prefer them to plastic because they don't cause breast cancer and countless other disorders. not to mention cleaning is a breeze. did i mention my hub is a big garbage man who does mechanic on the side, and he's not ashamed. probably about the most guyish jobs out there, lol. And i cant recall a time when someone has said something to us. So my advice to you is to grow up, and stop worrying what other people think. and if they do say something to you, laugh at them and blame it on your wife. sorry wife they all so this anyway.
Posted by: megan | April 09, 2009 at 01:17 AM
Mason jars are endlessly versatile; they're the duct tape of the
container world. To be without a box or two of empties around my
place is unthinkable.
Drinking:
My mother and my aunts (well, several aunts, anyway) always served
both iced lemonade and iced tea in Mason jars with twist-on lids,
during summer. The lids helped the clumsy to avoid spilling their
drinks, and helped to keep pesky bugs out of sweetened drinks.
There's absolutely nothing more revitalising than a nice, cool drink,
followed by the condensation from an ice-cold glass jar rubbed across
the forehead, between innings of backyard baseball. Also, the
half-dozen or so times that I've received gifts of authentic Tennessee
moonshine, the stuff has been in Mason jars--undoubtedly, the only
containers that moonshine will not easily corrode.
Smoking:
I've used eight ounce, wide-mouthed Mason jars for a few years, now,
as vessels in which to store pipe tobacco--both for immediate use and
for ageing. Heat-sealing (as is used in food canning) is not necessary;
only airflow needs to be restricted, so as to prevent further
dehydration. The glass allows for easy inspection of contents; any
mould may be immediately seen, and its effects countered. When
preparing to use the contents, the jars are perfect for rehydrating
tobacco (if and when necessary).
Fighting:
In case a potentially deadly fight erupts in the breakroom, which
would you rather have in your possession--a lightweight vessel of
pastel-coloured plastic Tupperware; or a hefty vessel of clear,
frangible glass, offering any potential attackers visions of
innumerable, glinting shards of razor-sharp glass? Tote that soup to
work in Mason jars. Be prepared for trouble; never be a victim.
Puttering around the Workshop:
My dad and uncles used to store bits of corrosion-tending hardware
(e.g., ferrous, etc.) and electrical (e.g., cuprous, etc.) items in
Mason jars. Nothing else keeps out moisture as well, and the glass
walls give full visibility to the contents. I've seen countless home
workshops that feature Mason jar lids screwed to the bottoms of wooden
work surfaces' edges; simply fill the Mason jars with bits of this and
that, and twist them up and into the lids. One example of jars (in this case, plastic peanut butter jars) being used in the workshop:
http://chezlarsson.com/myblog/2009/02/screw-organizing.html
Posted by: WTT | May 21, 2009 at 08:34 PM
I see the post is old, but it made me laugh - and reminded me of a former place of employment. The kitchen was stocked with plenty of bowls and plates and flatware for those of us who brought lunches. It was also stocked with a abundance of mason jars The whole office - men and women alike - drank water, soda, tea, or other non-adult beverage from them! Out of solidarity I want to come to the defense of your husband, but given my experience, I know that the Y chromosome and mason jars are entirely compatible.
Posted by: Mitch | June 11, 2010 at 04:55 PM
Famous last words: "I hope you put this on your blog because the only one who’s going to look bad is you!"
Posted by: Sometimestheycook.blogspot.com | January 13, 2011 at 06:31 PM
Actually... I brought borscht in a mason jar to work last week!! In fact, I pack almost all leftover food in jars. And some of my coworkers think (and say) that its funny, and some probably think its weird, and some might actually get it.
No endocrine disruptors, no non-biodegradable plastic, no staining, no leaking, easy-to-clean. Heat in mason jar if I so please. Heat in company kitchen's bowls if I so please. Who cares if they think its weird-- its smart!
Jars (in general) for the win. I'm phasing out plastic as much as possible.
Cool blog. Favoriting it!
Posted by: Tanya | March 16, 2011 at 09:53 AM
Your husbands an idiot. Sorry. Mason Jars Rock!!! but if he wants to look 'cool' get a few weck jars :)
Posted by: Flower | March 06, 2012 at 03:39 PM
Just found this post and love it! I use Mason jars for pantry stuff and will probably start using them for smoothies, too.
Posted by: Mychele | December 22, 2012 at 12:05 PM