Only salt and bread on the table. Very boring really!

Salt and pepper and that's recent.

Kosher salt, sea salt, sugar, pepper grinder.

Nothing, I take anything out and put it all away

I have a small landing zone shelf nect to my fridge which is as close to a table top as I have (My table is usually covered by ongoing projects - ex. a pile of risotto spoons awaiting a final sanding).

Currently - salt, pepper, maple syrup, ginger honey crystals, bragg’s and rice vinegars, Lea and Perrins, Soy sauce, sesame oil, antacids and fiber... It gets tidied regularly but most of these land back here again quickly.

Small vase of fresh flowers, a cut glass banana boat and a basket of napkins

At the moment, a tray of pickled and dehydrated goods I'm boxing up today to give to my sister, and a basket with summer squash I harvested this morning. Later today there might be some garlic that is ready to sort and braid laid out on the table.

I have a big old kitchen table, and nothing really lives on it. But I am often working with food on it.

My informal eating area is the coffee table with the TV on, so a remote control.

I don't have an informal eating table in Los Angeles, but in Cathedral City, the only dining table is informal. On it, I have S&P grinders, a container of sea salt, and a plastic container of flatbread crackers. Sometimes I also have a container of cherry tomatoes. When we leave, we take the crackers (and tomatoes, if there are any) with us.

When I open the package of flatbread crackers, I put them in a plastic container that used to contain deli meat, as the container that the flatbread comes in is not resealable. I always carefully check the expiration date for crackers when I buy them, as I have found expired crackers in stores, and they are horrible.

I used to make my own flatbread crackers, but they are quite a bit of work:

My very large dining table is my home workspace now, taken up with papers, supplies and tools, mostly. The only 'edibles' on it is a big bowl of macadamia nuts waiting to be shelled.

Everything else is in our little galley style kitchen.

I don't leave anything edible on the breakfast room table, but there's usually a vase of flowers and an old non-activated iPhone on a cookbook stand that I use for morning puzzles and reading.

Nothing. I put everything away

A small vase of flowers sitting on a hand-crocheted doily. (Beautifully done doily not by me. I buy them at estate sales. Such beautiful art so woefully unappreciated.)

Currently I have sewing machines on my formal dining tables, but I have side tables that I move them to before dining - they are easy to move, but I do more sewing than I do eating. I used to keep a decorative African bowl on my dining table in L.A. and nothing else.

I noticed that we do additionally have a bowl of fruit (plum/plucot) on our breakfast table here in Cathedral City. I usually have to move everything off when I cook here, as I have practically no empty counter space, and the table serves as a work space. It is a bar height table, which I find awkward for dining, but I like it for prep. I hate sitting in a bar stool to eat - the bar stools do not slide the way chairs do. Also, I do not like having to get on and off them. They are okay for drinking at a bar but not for eating.

salt and pepper, peanut butter, and right now, a butternut squash

None. I’m less successful keeping tools, mail, etc. out of my kitchen but food goes away. Only things that stay out anywhere intentionally are onions, garlic and tomatoes. Oh and avocado oil, next to the cooktop.

Oh, I forgot. A Cochonou saucisson that I got when the Tour de France cycle race went through our town at the end of June! It is not for eating. Too precious LOL

One nicely decorated bowl stays on the table and hubs bananas rest there. It is a beautiful bowl and will sometimes be piled with seasonl fruits or pretty vegetables in season.

Other than that it gets used for all manner of practical uses that include ongoing projects and the temporay resting place for items beign moved or sorted.

Nothing but the bowl lives on the table. I hate clutter and dont abide with it. The same for the working countertop in the kitchen. Nothing there that is not beautiful or used on a very frequent basis, and the things that are there due to the fact that they are used on a daily basis are also contained in an attractive, or eclectic, manner. And, they are a carefully selected few.. I like clean and clear surfaces. Did I mention my aversion to clutter? Gawd, I hate clutter!!!!!

I clear our table only because I am one of those all or nothing people who if there is one thing then the table is covered with bills and laundry. It is a rule, nothing on the table or counters because they would be covered in a minute.

IC, it's a sausage? A souvenir?

My mother and her carpenter carved a breakfast room out of nothing when I was small. I tried to do the same, but it wouldn't have been out of nothing, and would mess up everything else. There was a side counter for most of what's currently on my table, and another counter where my father could use the coffeemaker and the toaster without getting up. on the table was a little tray with S&P, the sugar bowl, and sometimes the milk pitcher, though more often the coffee milk came out as the dishes were being picked up. The breadbox was in an upper cabinet with the glasses, and the cereal and cookies were in a lower cabinet at the far end. This helped keep pests from bollixing the rest of the pantry, and was convenient to th table.

We don't do coffeeor sugared tea so the sugar bowl is in a cupboard awaiting company. The S&P is reduced to a single item that does both (but is used rarely). i don't know why three kinds of honey live on my table! It doesn't get used that often either! There used tto be a big can of mesquite honey in the pantry, but ever since we've been getting smaller bottles it's lived on the table. !

A bowl of lemons and limes.

We eat most of our meals at our breakfast table. In the middle, a walnut lazy susan because the table is glass - can be loud/clanky, and may scratch. We plate at the stove or counter, may put sides/condiments on the lazy susan during a meal. Other than that, 4 place mats would be the only other things found on the table when we're not eating. Table is in a garden window and I have to be careful with colors. No fresh flowers, bright fruit or the year-around hummingbirds knock themselves silly against the glass trying to investigate.

The question was "food stuffs". My answer is salt and pepper. Candlesticks, compote with fake lemons, decorative footed bowl, wine coaster...none of those are food stuffs.

Pink salt (in a pink salt shaker) and regular pepper (in a pink pepper shaker). We never eat there though......

Oh! Morz! The poor birds!

Linda, it's true, but I think the people sharing other acoutrements have also answered the foodstuffs. It's fine. What are the relatice sizes/heights of the compote and footed bowl? it sounds like a lovely still life but my mind's eye keeps trying out different vessels. :)

I always have a bowl of fruit on the table and salt and pepper grinders.

We live in a 1914 craftsman bungalow, so there is no open concept!

Decent sized kitchen, but no room to sit and eat.

On our dining table can be pepper grinder (rarely use salt), some hot sauce, a napkin holder, newspapers, a stack of various magazines, bills and usually an embroidery project

I forgot to mention that I also have a tiny bowl (currently a sushi sauce bowl) with minced chile de arbol. I use this when I am making pizza, but it is staying on the table because the bowl is open. If I had it in a closed container, I could put it somewhere else.

The only things always on my dining room table (we do not eat in the kitchen) are napkins, salt and pepper and a small jar of something The Princess calls "Dust of Death", which are dehydrated and ground Death Spiral/Sugar Rush/Reaper/Whatever peppers for Elery. He puts it on everything from eggs to salad.

I have a crystal basket that I sometimes use for flowers or seasonal items like glass Easter eggs or Christmas ornaments. I also have a ceramic turkey, some glass/ceramic pumpkins, a cut glass Easter rabbit and various table cloths which are seasonal, and The Princess likes to come and make a "table scape", so I let her.

At various times, though, I need a big space so at those times I could have election materials, Township documents, documentation for the Veteran's Administration, calendars, tax documents, whatever I need to spread out and organize. I am guilty of using one end of that table for a work space and using the other end as a place to eat, but not often.

Annie

I save spice bottles, but I can see your chili flakes in a covered jam pot with spoon. :)

Last night I tried to make space in the pantry cabinets for the honey. I ended up finding ”uncertainty goods”, bought ahead of need when available during the last year. Some things that I had thought were back to steady are still iffy, but I feel less need to prepare for the worst, and more inclination to use it up. The honey had nothing to do with any of that, but I still found no good home for it. And there's a new bottle of Bragg's vinegar in there, which pushed the getting close to empty one out. I'm trying to find someone to eat the raisins...

I have lots of cute little serving bowls, and I got some especially nice carved wooden ones in Fiji that came with little wooden spoons, and these are great for holding chopped dried chilies. I have sets of hand decorated ceramic ones from Italy and Spain, but all of these are in L.A. at the moment, and I need to make a note to bring some here.

I like taking pinches of chilies to put on my food. I do not like taking pinches of salt from an open container - I always use a spoon instead, but I see a lot of TV chefs using their fingers to pick up salt. I'm always afraid they are contaminating the salt. My sister gave me a small salt pig that came with a tiny spoon, and I like using that. I can measure better with a tiny spoon than I can by pinching with my fingers.

Ordinary foodstuff: salts, peppers, and fresh fruit(s). Today it's a pineapple, peaches, bananas, and lemons. Always in homemade baskets. lol!

Lars, those crackers look fantastic!!! Have you posted the recipe before?

Oh, Lars, I so agree on the salt pig! I was given one many years ago and it lives in the back of a cabinet. I don't think anything much can live on salt, but I don't like putting my cooking-dirty hand in it. I like cooking with regular salt, and I got a diner style stainless salt bin with perforated top and easy handle for myself when we moved into this house. If I want to "measure" a pinch, I'll sprinkle some in my hand until it's the right amount. If I want a proper measure, I unscrew the top and use a measuring spoon, or by weight I have a little very accurate digital scale for tiny amounts. I don't like using kashering salt, sea salt, or any such thing for cooking, though I will actually use my (washed and well dried) fingers for pinches of finishing salt, like fleur de sel.

So the end of the old Bragg's vinegar bottle is still on the table, and it was useful! I got a little too enthusiastic with the habanero sauce at breakfast. It's delicious, but left a lot of burn. Nothing like a good slug of the vinegar in one's water to fix that. :)