Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Retro Kitchen Utensils

Isn't winter a wonderful cooking and baking season? There is nothing better then coming in from the cold to a steaming pot of soup or warm bread. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!
Carrying on in that same theme, today I would like to share with you my favorite Retro Kitchen Utensils! 
  My great-grandmother's rolling pin with lovely green handles, passed down from my Mom. When I first started making pies, this is the rolling pin I used. Mom has since "officially" passed it down to me! It is so old that dough hardly ever sticks to it as it is nicely "seasoned". I love the green handles!
Another view of those lovely green handles and my cake spatula. Which I of course bought to match the rolling pin handles! This is an amazing tool! Can be used for spreading frosting, removing cake or muffins from pans, transferring cookies from the table to cookie sheet, transferring cookies from pan to cooling rack, cake cutter and server etc... I only recently acquired the spatula and still discovering all the uses. I does make a HUGE difference in  frosting cakes!
Another resent discovery, thanks to my new sister-in-law, is a nut chopper. Works great for making crushed pineapple too! I am all for alternatives to dragging out noisy machines! Just use a little elbow grease! The trick is getting the right size bowl, you want one the chopper will sit flat in, but not too big that the nuts escape. Of course, if you need ground nuts that will take a lot more elbow grease then just chopped! :)
And what would I do without my favorite bowls? This is one of a set of two that were originally part of a Hamilton Beech Stand Mixer. I never saw the mixer, just picked up the bowls at an estate sale.
Got to have a mixer! I must say this is my favorite tool to use! For anything, eggs, cakes batter, crepes, whipped cream, egg whites, pancake batter...you name it, it does a splendid job! I was really amazed when I tried it out the first time, they beat so much better then the electric ones! I think it has something to do with the beaters being closer together then modern egg beaters. The only drawback is the handles, that I again picked out to match my rolling pin, they are a bit small to hold and when trying to get up a good speed are hard to grip.
You can see the cute little handles better.
And an orange juice squeezer! You can find dozens in the antique stores, some at quite shocking prices! Gone are the days when you would have fresh squeezed juice for breakfast, but it does come in handy when a recipe calls for the juice of a lemon! And when you get a bad lot of oranges from the store, they get a new life as juice!

I hope you have enjoyed my collection of utensils from years ago! Do you have kitchen tools from granny?

13 comments:

  1. I have my grandmother's rolling pin only it is all glass; missing the lid because when she used it, she could put liquid in the middle of cold or hot liquid. She probably used cold for pies. I have one of those orange juice or lemon juice squeezers - nice to use.

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    1. Very interesting, I have heard of that kind of rolling pin before, not seen one though.
      My grandmother should probabaly have "the baker" under her name in the family album!! I think of her everytime I use the rolling pin!

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  2. I did enjoy seeing your collection of utensils! Since I'm from the retro era ;) I have my own old rolling pin, my mother's egg beater and my own juice squeezer. I have a collection of old egg beaters hanging in my kitchen.

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    1. Too fun! I have been very tempted to purchase more egg beaters, but couldn't think what to do with it, now I know!

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  3. Not from my grandmama, but I do have a Bundt cake pan and a dinner set of china, which was passed down to me from my mama, and I use the Bundt cake pan all the time and the dinnerware only on special occasions.You have a wonderful collection of kitchen utensils, now that's nice...

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    1. How wonderful to have dishes passed down!
      Come to think of it, I do have a pitcher that was part of a dish set from my grandmum too....

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  4. Mom has a set of dishes from her grandmother that she likes to use. And my grandmother has a rolling pin her grandfather gave her grandmother as a wedding present. But no one is ready to pass things along just yet :) I do however have a homemade rolling pin we picked up at an estate sale because I could not bare to see it get tossed. The family members did not have an appreciation for it. Makes me a little sad so now it has a happy home. I guess I am making my own collection!

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  5. Yey! for rescuing rolling pins!
    Your grandmother has her grandmother's rolling pin......that would be your great-great-granmother! Wow! I love that you also have a story to go with it.

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  6. I don't have any tools from my grandmother but I do have her prestige pressure cooker and her old coffee perculator (one that sits on the stove). I also have some bits and pieces of china that belonged to my husbands grandmother.

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    1. Very fun! Haven't delved into coffee pots yet....not much of a coffee drinker.

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  7. I don't have anything from my grandmother, but I have Mom's old rolling pin (I think it was hand made from the looks of it). I also have a green handled one in my collection. I love green because it matches the trim around the enamel tabletop of my Hoosier cabinet. Most of my vintage kitchen items were got at yard sales, though I am lucky to have some old stuff of my mom and my mother in law.

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    1. Welcome to Apron History! Thanks for stopping by!

      Oh I love Hoosier Cabinets!! I have been so tempted to buy one at estate sales, unfortunatly people usually know what they are and price accordingly. I still keep my eye out, just in case!

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  8. Hi, can you please tell me where you got the nut chopper? That's the one I've been trying to find online.

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