Cheerios in a Heart-Shaped Bowl

If that doesn't say love, I don't know wh

A few years ago I decided to replace all of my dishes, bowls, and drinking glasses here at the dojo with vintage kitchenware. If you’re going to drink Kool-Aid from a glass, it might as well be one with a scene from The Great Muppet Caper on the side printed with lead paint.

When I ran across this pair of Cheerios-branded dishes in a local antique mall, I grabbed them immediately. The pitcher was $15 and the heart-shaped bowls were $5 each, but I was able to get the whole set for $20. When I got home I found out they were newer than I originally thought, but they still have that retro vibe I enjoy.

The “milk pitcher” is a staple of television sitcom breakfast tables that never saw much use in our house. Apparently we were animals, pouring milk into our cereal bowls directly from the plastic milk jug. I never really understood the point of a milk pitcher. How much milk does one pour into the pitcher, and if there’s any left after breakfast, is the pitcher placed back in the refrigerator without a lid, or are you supposed to pour the milk back into the jug? If you keep milk in the pitcher, do you top it off it when it gets low? If you do, when does it get washed? Maybe this is why we never used one when I was a kid. It’s all so complicated.

I underestimated the warm feeling of joy that would come from eating cereal out of a heart-shaped bowl. Empty, the bowl is almost too yellow, making the shape hard to make out. Full of cereal and milk (poured fresh from my new Cheerios pitcher), the bowl comes alive. Cheerios really hearts me.

I’ve spent the past several decades eating cereal on the couch, in front of the television, or at my computer desk. There’s something about this bowl, and especially the pitcher, that demands more class. They deserve to be used in a breakfast nook, on a small table next to a bay window with the morning sun peeking in through curtains with drawings of corn-on-the-cob printed on them.

The mug of coffee next to my cereal is too hot to drink. Carefully, I pick up the pitcher and top off the mug’s contents with just a little cold milk, transforming the coffee’s color from deep roasted brown to a delicious caramel. I take a sip, and the taste, and temperature, are perfect.

Today is going to be a good day.