I Love Old Things

Greetings Fellow Earthings:

I love Old things - which according to Papa, is a good thing, since he too, is an Old Thing!

I love old classical music.  I love old rock and roll. I love antiques.  Old Mason Jars.  Old jewellery.  Old furniture.  Old friends.  Old dogs.  Old cars.  Old china and glassware.  Pretty much anything with a history to it.  People get really excited over new things.  Not me.  Give me an estate sale, a garage sale, or an antique shop, any day of the week and I'm a happy girl.

Part of my vintage canning glassware collection.

I love old recipes and old recipe books.  I have a collection of old recipe books that I often peruse, just for fun and inspiration.  My favorite bread recipes come from an old Betty Crocker Breads recipe book.  If  I get a notion to make a "new to me" bread, I check this book out first.  Chances are very good that there will be a recipe for it and I will have great success.

My "Go To" Bread Recipe book.  You could still get this on Amazon, when I last checked.
It definitely covers all your bases.  My copy was purchased new back in 1980. 
It has been well loved!

I love the terminology used in these old books.  I love it more when I find a "replacement" recipe book for a well loved book from my collection. 

The Blue Ribbon cook book was picked up at an antique shop. 
Hubby has his mother's original one from pre circa 1961, well used and loved. 
I was thrilled to find this pristine copy, to tuck away for him. 
The Bread Book was picked up as some of the recipes really intrigued me. 
There are also hand written notes in the margins by a previous owner.  This is gold to me! 
The old Co-op bottle/can opener is the tool I use to open my home canned preserves.

My Go To Dumping Recipe from the Old Blue Ribbon Recipe Book.
I make these every time I make a stew.

Even as a child, I would spend hours going thru my Granny Graham's recipe books, her notes and her hand written recipes.  I know that I inherited my love of cooking, baking and preserving from her.  I always enjoyed just sitting on the little step stool at the kitchen counter peninsula and watch her go about her daily kitchen routines.  She made it all look so easy.  Her meals were simple, from simple ingredients, but always wonderful.  I especially loved her flour bin.  It was built right into her kitchen cupboard and held a whole sack of flour!  Talk about convenient!

My Granny Graham's Dumpling Recipe which I typed out around 1978

When we go antiquing, I am always drawn to the kitchen items and recipe books.  You never know what treasure you might stumble onto.  Papa scouts for vintage Lionel "O" Scale Trains and antique hand wood working tools.  We each have our favorite things to hunt for.

I found this old cloth bound Purity Flour Cook Book at an estate sale. 

For being printed in 1937, it is in amazing condition!

It is wonderful when you find treasures from days gone by in old recipe books.  The recipes are more of a reminder to the cook, rather than an actual recipe.  This baker made this recipe so often that all she/he needed was a few notes.

Besides old recipe books, I also have a collection of vintage cook ware, mixing bowls, casseroles, utensils and other every day items.  That I use.  Literally every day!

This Women of Unifarm Recipe Book was given to me back in 1982 as a shower gift.
Some of the recipes are so vintage that they no longer readily available ingredients.
For instance, there is a whole section on Rape Seed oil recipes! 
The egg beater is from the early 1900's and was a gift from a dear friend. 
And yes, it works!  My grand kids love to use it.   

You won't find a Kurig in my kitchen.  Coffee is made either in one of my two Pyrex stove top percolators or a press.  After replacing several electric coffee makers over the years, I had finally had enough.  It didn't matter if it was a $20 discount store special or a $200 programmable system, I only seemed to ever get 2 or maybe 3 years out of it, before I had to set out to find yet another one.  My last one expired about 15 years ago.  I was fed up and unwilling to spend another dime on yet another disposable coffee maker.  This led me on a search for vintage Pyrex Perks.  I have been blessed to have found not one, but two fully complete with basket and stem, in two different sizes.  Wow!  This is a game changer!  Coffee has never tasted so good!

My 2 vintage Pyrex Coffee Perks

Like coffee makers, I have purchased several non-stick frying pans over the years.  Even buying brand name pans, have resulted in the finish eventually flaking off, rendering them unsafe to use.  I was always told how difficult cast iron pans were to maintain, so my set of three vintage cast iron ones sat, unused and unloved, for literally decades. 

It became time to replace yet another set of Teflon pans.  It dawned on me that I had these old cast iron ones tucked away.  Why not get them out, clean, re season and try to use them?  Wow!  Not only are they convenient to use since they can go from the stove top to the oven and back again, but once seasoned, they are as non stick as any Teflon pan would be.  A quick wipe after use and you are good to go for your next meal.  And no chemical finish to flake off in your food.  Bonus!  

I can't begin to tell you how many electric kettles I have purchased only to have them burn them out within a couple of years.  When the last one - a cute, little cordless unit - gave up on me, I went looking for a large, stainless steel, seamless stove top kettle.  This was a tough order to fill.  I lucked out on a new one at the local hardware store.  It holds 6 litres and has no bottom seam, for the water to eventually break through and leak out.  I have had this kettle for over 4 years now.  That is already way longer than any other kettle I have ever owned!

Collection of Vintage Cast Iron Frying pans and my stove top kettle which have a
permanent home on the cast iron grates of my all gas range.

If you look at my stove, you will notice that it is gas, with cast iron grates.  I have always had an electric stove.  I have replaced more than my fair share of elements - both in the oven and the stove top - and electronic parts. 

My, "I thought it would be my last" stove purchased new ten years ago, was a beautiful Dual Fuel range.  It had a built in dehydrator, a bread proof setting, built in temperature probes, 2 electric ovens, 5 gas burners and more options than I could ever use or even knew existed!  It was My Absolute Dream Stove!  

And then the mother board went on it - not once, but twice.  

And the thermostat went on it - my oven would fluctuate 100's of degrees up or down within moments - so cookies were either molten lava within mere seconds or still raw after the required baking time had passed.  Grrr 

The auto start/stop timer quit working.  I couldn't trust it to turn on at the scheduled time or turn off as programmed.  Sigh. 

One of the electric ovens had quit altogether.  It was one thing after another.  When the main mother board went for the second time, I had had enough.  Not another dime was going into it.  Warranty had long since passed and it wasn't worth to keep fixing as previous fixes were being re-fixed. 

So, I went about looking for a plain old, old fashioned gas stove. No electronics.  No special features.  Something I could light with a match, should I chose to.  Unless I was able to find something pre 1980's, things weren't looking too good for me.  

I had the local appliance store do a search for me.  I wanted a bare bones gas stove.  Do they even make these any more?  I was so happy when they were able to locate one for me!  It would have to be shipped over from Germany, but I was willing to wait.  No bells.  No whistles.  No parts to malfunction.  No electronics to blow up. And it works like a charm! I have had it for well over three years now and not one service call.  Not one glitch - not even a minor one. Although this is not an "old" gas stove, it sure works like one.  And I am extremely happy with it.

If you ever come to my house, you will also notice that not only a good many of my kitchen utensils are old or vintage, but so is our furniture. 

As 1980's newly weds, we had done the whole modern furniture thing, but the stuff didn't last.  The finish peeled or wore away.  Frames broke.  Drawers broke.  I don't think my kids were that rough on stuff, it just wasn't very well made.  And it certainly wasn't made to last.  By the 1990's pretty much everything we owned needed to be replaced. 

Papa built me several wooden pieces, including our bedroom set, storage units and shelving.  I found myself getting more and more interested in old fashioned furniture and its construction.  Since then, pretty much every piece of furniture in our house is either antique, hand made or vintage.  Things were made to last and last they do.  They also stand the test of time.  I also don't get tired of vintage/antique furniture like I do with the more modern trends.  Classic is Classic.  I find something that works for me and I just stick with it.  If it isn't broken or worn out, I find no need to replace it.  And, If we can make something new out of an otherwise old item, we will absolutely try.  

Hubby re-purposed an antique bed to become a bench for my front porch. 

I guess I really do love old things.  Including Papa!

Have a wonderful day.

Until next time,

Gremlynn