1/4 c is NOT my friend! I have had the same measuring cups for (probably) ten years. About the second month after I bought them, I sat the 1/4 measuring cup on the counter too close to the stove. That little faux pas went unnoticed until it was too late -- a little hole melted into the cup, about the size of the tip of my pinkie finger. But I kept using that warped little 1/4 cup, mostly because it seemed frivolous to go out and buy another set just for a 'right' 1/4 cup. I don't know of any stores that sell measuring cups by themselves.
Finally, about a month ago, I saw a set of measuring cups with measuring spoons that matched. My measuring spoons are fine, thank you, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, I just had to have that nifty matching set, hung together on a convenient hanger for my kitchen. Lo and behold, the only two times I've used that set of measuring cups, I've used the 1/4 cup. The second time I used it, I was packing brown sugar for cookies and guess what? The handle snapped right off! I guess I don't know my own strength. I laughed out loud tonight as I whipped up a corny banana oat bread for work tomorrow. Still using the old stuff, still positioning my index finger just so on the little hole in the 1/4 cup, never bothering with the new measuring spoons at all. In my defense, I didn't study the new utensils at all when I bought them, or I wouldn't have. Each one, every cup, every spoon, has two levels of measuring. I'm not sure what that is supposed to do for you. I don't like my tablespoon to double as a 4-teaspoon measurer. Hmmm...
And another note from the kitchen. I usually mix my dry ingredients separately from my liquids and moist ingredients whether the recipe calls to or not. Unless the recipe specifically instructs to add this or mix-in that in a different order, I mix them separately and then blend the two together. This always makes me think of myJoe. He once named my wire whisk "Spooner" and now, every time I use it, I root through my utensil drawer telling myself out loud that 'I know I put Spooner back in this drawer somewhere!' Ah, the Joe-isms...they never fail to make me smile.
