Wine opener. Sometimes low cal salad dressing. Splenda. Tea bags.

Butter! I hadn't considered that!

Green tea bags,splenda,herbal cough drops, tiny bottle of waterless hand cleaner & a Tide "stick" !

Well I'm impressed Cathy. Even more than I already was. LOL!

I carry a pepper grinder in my purse. I never go anywhere without it.

Ann

Frank's Red Hot Sauce. I love my food kicked up a notch!
I just have to make sure the lid is always closed tightly on it though, otherwise I'd have a real mess! Oh - and I always leave it at home when I'm going through Airport Security Checkpoints. Have you ever tried to explain why you're carrying a bottle of hot sauce in your purse?
Barb

After Ann had mentioned a peppermill, I started carrying one (one of those little clear ones from Tuesday A. M. that cost about $3-4). Better than the pre-ground that is in most restaurants. Butter....hmmmm.... hadn't thought of that!

Multiple pairs of glasses means I'm carrying a purse again after many years of not carrying one. Amazing how suddenly I "need" things...among them are a small bottle of Tobasco green sauce, Ginger Altoids, and tea bags.

I take butter when we travel out of the country. I will not eat margarine or country crock on anything...yuck!

Had not thought about a travel-sized pepper grinder. But most the restaurants in our area have pepper grinders on the tables now.

Michelle

A spice grinder...Believe they are mc Cormacks....and can make a "I'll just have oil and vinegar" into a real salad dressing.
Linda C

Tylenol....just in case I have too much wine. Diana55

Funny,Funny,Thead!LOL!! I never thought of butter. It is all too disappointing when your lobster dinner is ruined with bad butter or mystery butter. I have had that happen.

And all my friends think it's funny that I carry tea bags! LOL

That is hysterical! The thought of pulling a stick of butter out of my purse just cracks me up! Thanks for putting a smile on my face...

Emily

I don't like those pats of salted butter on bits of waxed cardboard that seem so prevalent in restaurants. Of course it does me no harm to have my bread sans butter!

Do you remember the Seinfeld episode where they talk about bringing their own maple syrup to the restaurant? I can identify with that one.

Kleenex - so when there is no toilet paper! even in nice restaurants..........
Pepper grinder is a great idea...

I also carry tea bags, packets of Equal and a corkscrew in my purse. The corkscrew is a recent addition because Elery does drink wine, although I'm still trying to learn to like it.

I also carry salt and pepper, tums, Ginger Altoids and Zantac in the Jeep, in case of an inpromptu picnic!

Annie

I don't carry a corkskrew in my purse, but I keep one in my suitcase. I can't tell you how many times I've had to buy corkskrews while traveling. Now I just don't unpack it.

Splenda, ibuprofen, pack of kleenex, Shout wipes, bandaids, dental floss, nail clippers, emery board, cough drops, immodium and an alphabetized phone book that fits in my wallet.

I have to laugh at taking your own butter to a restaurant. Restaurants here often don't give butter....it's still an old custom to eat bread dry or dipped into the olive oil of your salad plate. How on earth do you keep it from melting into a greasy puddle?
It would be all over the inside of my handbag if I did that. LOL.

Apart from the usual purse items, I always carry my smallest camera for taking foodie pics and a plastic sandwich bag to take home any meat scraps for my cat Bunny, who sits by the back garden gate waiting for us to come home, as though she were a dog. And expects a foodie treat even if we've just gone to the bank LOL!

Most restaurants here also have the little potpourri mixed pepper in grinders on the table and if not then I ask for the big pepper grinder (sometimes baseball bat sized) to be brought to our table. I'm another who loves using a lot of pepper.

SharonCb

Boy I didn't open this thread until today, I just thought it was going to be about who likes evoo to dunk bread in or who likes butter to spread on it (around here its all evoo, butter rarely appears). This is really a smile provoking thread, LOL.

The only thing I carry for emergencies during a meal out at a restaurant is a Tide stick and anybody who has eaten with me knows why.

LOL, Woodie!

I don't carry a purse! but I have taken a mini peppermill to camp in my pocket, they've been using the same industrial bag of pepper for the six years I've been there. The only thing I bring to restaurants is my appetite, and Larry's wallet :)

Dishesdone

....thought I was the only one who doesn't carry a purse :)

Butter ? Please do tell, do you freeze it first so that it will be a spreadable consistency when you dine out ?

I always have Splenda.

Now being in Florida, there is no way I'd put a stick of butter in my purse! What a mess that would be!

Usually when we go out and there is bread involved, I ask for EVOO to dip it in.

Truthfully, I dont think I've been to a restaurant where there isnt any real butter offered.

Jeez - my friends think I'm nuts because I carry packets of "True Lemon" for my iced tea. I used to work with a guy who carried Tabasco on his keychain.

If I put butter in my purse here in Florida, I'd have a mess in a very short time.

I've been carrying my travel size grinder for about 10 years. It was a Christmas present from my friend Sandra. And one of the best presents I've ever received. I've only left it behind in a restaurant once, but realized my mistake and got it back the next day.

Wm. Bounds Travel Size Grinder

Ann

May, How funny to sign on today and see this thread.

I have to clarify (since we are talking about butter) that I put the stick of butter in a ziploc bag and the weather was cool so no issues with melting butter. It really came in handy because it was apparent that some of us like a little baked potato with our butter and we didn't have the embarrassment of opening 10 little packs of butter. We were in a **room to ourselves so we didn't get the "eye rolling" from other diners.

We did talk about AnnT's mini-pepper grinder.

**I think the staff sized us up when we were waiting in the bar to be seated. They whisked us off through the kitchen to a private dining room.

Cathy

Annie try mixing your wine with water. Start about half each and adjust from there. Wine is a fairly concentrated flavor and the water returns it to a more natural level.

When I was younger and traveling for military service I'd often pack a bottle of booze where it was handy. As an enlisted guy I couldn't afford to wait in an airport bar for long... unless my drink somehow never went dry. Drank a whole bottle of dry vermouth in the BWI bar. I would not recommend trying this unless you are in uniform and young.

: )
michael

Maintenance items in my pocketbook? Tic-Tacs, ibuprofen, emery board, lip gloss, lip moisturizer, kleenex. No salt or pepper shakers! I also keep Beano in my work tote bag in case of emergencies. Hope that's not TMI.

I always have my debit card so whatever emergency may arise, I can go buy what I need.

My pocketbook is mostly filled with fabric samples and room measurements for shopping for the house. Also, a list of books that sound good for library trips. Lots of grocery shopping lists. Phone, pens, small camera, checkbook -- and all the usual stuff. No wonder it is so heavy!

I don't regularly keep food items in my purse. I have brought maple syrup to the local fire station pancake breakfasts. I also occasionally have the mini Tabasco on hand when going out to dinner.

Annie, Michael has something there. I don't like wine with still water but a spritzer with wine and bubbly water can be nice. Way back in my misspent youth I had a roomie who made many a spritzer with Carlo Rossi (rest his soul) Burgundy and 7-Up. It was my first introduction to wine. And look where that lead me..oh yes, on the path to perdition!

barnmom. I'm sure you upgraded your wine. LOL

I'll have to try the gradual wine drinker method. We went to two wine tastings during PFPP, I really tried to find something that I liked.

Cathy

**On the wine consumption subject, I can't wait until the picture of the dead wine bottles is posted on the PFPP thread.

I use this Unicorn Minimill, but I like Ann's with the "trap door" so you don't get pepper dust! Mine gives me pepper in my pocket!

Ohio, I haven't carried a purse since high school, used to leave it everywhere.

I just ordered AnnT's mini-grinder. But, I don't usually carry a purse either, that's why I had to solicit Peppi to carry the butter in her beautiful bag. I wonder how DH is going to feel about carrying a pepper in his pocket along with my lipstick.

What kind of pepper are we using? I heard it batted around the camp fire but can't remember the name.

dedtired, re: beano; gasx makes thin strips now, sort of like the listerine thin strips, they are almost invisible ........

Oh yes, I keep a bottle of Beano in my car. To protect the innocent.

Heehee...I suddenly remembered the butter in my purse on the ride home and thought OH NO! I was very releived to discover that we had left the sorry remains in the restaurant.

Thanks for the tip, Mitch! That little bottle of Beano is hard to conceal, plus it rattles like ibuprofin in your bag. Well, so do the Tic Tacs, so I have quite a percussion section as I walk along.

I've been known to carry those paper packets of salt along. I don't like pepper.

I almost forgot that I had started this thread! If you'll note the time posted you might surmise that I'd had a sip or two of wine by that time.

I'm another who doesn't carry a purse. Quit about 7 yrs ago and can't stand the thought of ever carrying one again. Thus, I always have bulging pockets. Can you imagine the butter in my pocket? UGH YUCK!! Peppi, I'm glad you didn't return the remains of that butter to your purse. But if memory serves, there wasn't all that much left anyway! LOL

On the topic of liking wine... I think it's a great idea to mix. Way back before I really acquired a taste for it, I'd mix wine with sprite or some such, and sometimes add a splash of fruit juice. Sort of a homemade wine cooler.

**Cathy, the dead wine bottles picture has been posted in the Pigeon People thread.