The Most Useful Piece of Trash in My Kitchen

I cannot swear that I have ever actually eaten a spoonful of Talenti (I tend to scarf down chocolate for dessert), but my husband is a fiend for their black cherry gelato. I heartily encourage the habit because I love seeing him so easily delighted, but also because I'm itching to get my paws on the container it came in.

An empty Talenti container is the most perfectly useful object that I hadn't known I'd needed in my life, and now cannot live without. The one-pint jar is round, see-through, made of light and shatter-resistant BPA-free plastic, freezer-safe, perfectly palm-sized, and most importantly possesses a screw-on lid that does not budge, unlike my pop-open-prone plastic storage containers. Proof-positive: The first time I encountered a Talenti container being deployed for anything other than a frozen treat vessel was when a friend slipped one from her backpack to sip a covert cocktail at an outdoor concert. She shared. I was hooked.

In the last two weeks alone, I've used Talenti containers in the following ways:

My aforementioned husband is also a fan of an Old Fashioned cocktail with an orange slice muddled into it, and there's always some left over. The nuns at my elementary school hammered it into my psyche that it's a sin to waste food, so you bet the rest goes into a miraculously fruit fly-thwarting, moisture-retaining Talenti container.

I also tend to make big batches of spice rub that I use for everything from grilling to sprinkling on roasted vegetables. This keeps it air-tight and easy to see when I'm running low.

Bernard is the name of my sourdough starter (he's named for bread guru Bernard Clayton—it's a thing), and he's the progeny of another pal's starter, Pilou. Sourdough is the gift that keeps on giving, so when my colleague Margaret wanted a piece of the action, a bit came to work with me in a Talenti container. Pierre Jr. is reportedly thriving in his new home.

Watch: Ice Cream vs. Gelato

Parsnips and beets are my Kryptonite when they're cooked, but raw and pickled, they're a crunchy pleasure. A quick brine of sugar, salt, vinegar, and a healthy pinch of turmeric and cumin added to the sliced vegetables and refrigerated for a few hours in a Talenti container made them the perfect bright, vivid, lightly tart pickle to balance out a main course salad. And no beet juice stains on my Tupperware, to boot.

That salad, BTW, was massive and delicious and I didn't want to waste a bite. After I drained any extra moisture, the rest came with me to work in one Talenti container, and the leftover dressing in another so there was no danger of sog. It was, delightfully, even better the next day after all the ingredients had hung out together overnight. And the Talenti container was infinitely more rinseable than a plastic bag. (Yes, I rinse and reuse my plastic bags—remember the nuns?)

I don't live by food and sneaky cocktails alone, I swear. Sparkly baubles are a big fixation, too, and I like to keep them like that. A lidded, shakeable container is a perfect way to keep them clean. I gathered all my silver rings, chains, and bracelets, put them in the Talenti container with a solution of half a cup of vinegar and two tablespoons of baking powder, sealed it, swirled it around and let it sit for a couple of hours. Rinsed off all the residue, and my jewelry was almost as shiny as the day I'd bought it.