Pyrex mixing bowls typically come in sets of 3 with a small, medium and large bowl that sits snuggly inside each other. Pyrex has been around for almost 90 years. Over 75 percent of households in America own at least one piece of Pyrex.

Like so many things we use today, the original idea led to the present glass dishes we know as Pyrex. Besides the pyrex mixing bowls pyrex makes many other glass dishes as well. The pyrex glass is a tough and unique invention.

Thanks to a railroad glass scientist needing to create a lantern that got hot but did not shatter when rain or snow got on it we now have pyres glass. The word Pyrex comes from the Greek Word pyro or fire, and Ex which refers to the type of glass. It does not expand or change shape when heated. This may be why Pyrex glass in the 1960s and '70s was used in the windows of the Apollo and Gemini spacecraft.

With Pyrex glass you are able to take the dish from the microwave to the oven as well as the freezer. You can mix, cook, serve and store all in the same dish.

Most Pyrex bowls and dishes made today is clear glass. The brightly colored Pyrex mixing bowls that you remember in Grandma's kitchen are now collector's items. So don't throw that old glass mixing bowl set out. Glass mixing bowls are better than plastic for mixing and storing food because they do not absorb the flavors and odors of the food stored in them.

Anything that you can do all phases of mixing, cooking, and storing in the same dish gets my vote for the ultimate convenient kitchen utensil. It is easy to see why these mixing bowls can be found in kitchens all across America.

Tracye Gano is an accomplished freelance writer and designer for kitchens 4u