Woo hoo! I found these sweet egg cups at the NCJW (National Council of Jewish Women) Replay Thrift Store on Main Street in Nyack.

They were $1 each and sold to me by a stylish woman named Celene who is in her 70’s and hails from Northern Ireland. I knew the smaller end of the cup was for a soft boiled egg:

But what about the larger end? Celene told me its where you can put the egg if you want to mush it up and dip your toast in it. “It’s really a British thing,” she told me. I don’t really care for soft boiled eggs — I prefer them scrambled or in omelet form — so I presume I’ll never use these cups in this way.

So far, they have made nice receptacles for oatmeal cookies:

And crystallized ginger:

Turns out I have a thing for egg cups, even though I’m not really one for soft boiled eggs. I think they can be used for all kinds of purposes. I got this one at a thrift store years ago. It does a good job holding our dish scrubber:

This one holds my wedding ring while I wash dishes. It was given to me by my friend Margaret, a.k.a. MHP, for my birthday one year as part of an excellent chicken-themed birthday present:

And finally, this one comes from my mother. I remember it sometimes sitting on our breakfast table holding vitamins at our house in Wisconsin. Now it sits on my desk holding paper clips:

I guess what I’m saying here is, don’t underestimate the egg cup. And don’t underestimate your local thrift store, either. Strolling through them is always an adventure and the amount of cash you’ll end up spending is so small it would fit nicely in…an egg cup.