GRANDMA'S KITCHEN THE WAY WE REMEMBER IT swap

I love how you explained this(in your minds eye)I do that alot~both my parents and grandparents are passed so that is a way for me to visit:-)

Welcome everyone!

To My Partner, here are somethings always found in my Grandma's kitchen:

1. Blue willow china (she only used these on Special holidays) Note: only a plate or teacup and matching saucer expected here, if you can find this.

2. A full apron (with flowers on it and cotton lace around it)

3. Hair nets (she never went into the kitchen without one on)

4. Ceramic Bunny Rabbit Cookie Jar (it was always filled with ginger snaps or Nilla Wafer cookies)

5. Cookbooks from the 1950's (though she NEVER used them)

6. Mason "canning" jars (she drank Lipton Iced Tea in them)

7. Crank style flour sifter (she used one of these for every meal--either on biscuits, rolls, cornbread or dumplings)

8. Heavy metal stock pots with lids (she always had homemade stew, dumplings or tea brewing)

Miss you Grandma! Thanks for swapping!

Welcome creationsbysamantha! Don't forget to tell us 8 things always found in your Grandma's kitchen. Your partner will pick, thrift and send you 3 of these items!

I remember both my grandmas, one from Canada and one from Mississippi so I'm listing things from both:

1. My Canadian grandma had an aluminum container that was full of teaspoons on the counter near the coffee/tea, i also had in it some stirring straw spoon thingies that were long clear glass tubes with a little green glass spoon bit at the bottom, with a hole at the back for drinking from--those were the special things--perfect for ice cream sodas.

2. She also made pie all the time and had a plain 9"pyrex pie plate for baking them in.

3. There was also always a box of Russel Stover or Whitman's Chocolates in the kitchen--we got to take one and make a Wish--she called them "Wishes"

4. There was a light green colored glass soapdish at the kitchen sink, that held a handmade nylon tulle scrubbie.

5. My Southern Grandma had cotton aprons in faded flowered fabric that covered her from neck to knee--she was a short woman!

6. She had floursack towels--hers were from real floursacks and were probably a hundred years old! New ones would be fine!

7. In her refrigerator was a rectangle (sort of small loaf-shape, bigger than a pound of butter) glass dish with a lid, that was probably a Fire King or Pyrex; it was clear but made with wavy sides and a clear top. I think she had a green one, too.

8. There was a three-rod towel rack by the sink, it was screwed into the wall and had three thin arms with bent tips that stuck out and could be swung away for the dish towels to dry on.

9. The biscuit cutter and wooden rolling pin were also a constant--she had a bin with a big sack of Lily White self-rising flour in it that she opened up, made a little well in the center of the flour, worked in some shortening, poured in some milk or buttermilk and mixed it with her fingers just enough to make a dough, then rolled out the dough, on the wooden cutting board on the counter, and cut it into biscuits--the best in the world!

Just remembering all this stuff gives me warm fuzzies!

Cyn

Welcome twobluecrows! I could picture your grandma's kitchen! The chocolate "wishes" was such a cute idea! Sounds like a tradition worth continuing! :)

Hmmmm My Grandma was a very self sufficient women(she owned a restaurant and tavern). That being said she was not a traditional grandma. So this is going to be kind of tuff. 1. In her kitchen she had Don glass measuring glasses, She had aprons for cooking obviously, hmmm having a restaurant kitchen she had many things. 2. Many recycled dish towels and old lye soap. 3. Dishes that had ivory pink and black 1930's. 4. Green colored glasss salt and pepper shakers. 5. The old fashion malt glasses silhouette style. 6. anything with tea(stirring sticks and cup/saucer1930.s) 7. she had polish cookbooks(being polish i guess lol) 8. table cloths that had fruits or checks 9. other then that go with it~

How cool creationsbysamantha! Your grandma owned a tavern? Do your family still have pictures of her restaurant and tavern? What a heritage to be proud of! I love everyone's stories!

I am so excited about this swap! I was very close to my (maternal) grandmother - who was really like a mother to me. So I'll be describing her kitchen for my partner. :)

My grandmother's name was Mary. She passed away three years ago this past January 8th.

• Grandma always had a Granny-Smith Apple-Green and White enameled coffeepot (with orchard fruits on the front of it) that had a hinged lid which she kept on her stove for (don't choke, now!) grease. My grandmother was from the South - and that carefully drained and filtered grease from breakfast bacon - or the evening meals' pan drippings was used to make the best pan-gravy I have ever had to this day. As a child I had viewed that her gravy was pure magic - and it all began with that Green and White enameled Coffeepot that she kept (filled) on her stove, at all times.

• Grandma had a stainless steel (black knobbed) bread box. It said "Bread" (in cursive) on a tin or stainless steel "label" in the lower right-hand corner on the front of the door. It was large - and it sat on the counter right beside her stove. At lunchtime she would always take the bread out of the box and make sandwiches... sometimes we had avocado on them - and the avocados came from the tree in her backyard.

• Grandma always cut her buttermilk biscuits with a red-knobbed (red was her favorite color), tin biscuit cutter that she had been using since the 1950's. We had biscuits and gravy, often.

• Grandma had glass refrigerator dishes that she stored her leftovers in. They were white with a blue pattern on the front (it wasn't corning ware - it had a blue design that almost looked like an Amish farm scene on it...) and the lid was of ribbed (see through) glass.

• Grandma had a cookie jar with cookies all over it. The cookie jar was an ivory color - but the cookies were multi-colored (realistic looking!) and the knob of the cookie jar was a walnut. I loved that cookie jar... she always kept it filled with homemade cookies. She kept that cookie jar on top of her refrigerator - right next to the entry space opening.

• Grandma had a hen dish that was blue - but it looked like it was covered with an oil-slick or something because, though it was blue - it had greens and pinks visible in the shiny glaze, too. You would raise the "lid" (which looked like a chicken sitting on a nest - the base of the "bowl" looked like a nest) and find the margarine sticks she kept in there so that they were always covered - but kept at room temperature so that they remained easily spreadable; there - on her counter.

• Grandma had a couple of vintage cookbooks from the 1940's and 1950's sitting on the shelf over her (white enamel) stove. I think that is where my love of vintage cookbooks comes from. One of them was about the size of my palm - and about a half of an inch thick. It had a blue hardcover - with a (cartoon) woman who was stirring dough in a bowl on the cover. The drawing of the woman was outlined in black and yellow. I can't remember the name of the book, though...

• Grandma had a flour-sifter that was one of the canister types. It was tin with a black handle - and you would measure the flour into the sifter and squeeze the handle, repeatedly, to sift the flour. We used to make cakes and cookies together - so when she got out that sifter - I knew that it was baking time.

:)

I wish I could join this swap because we have plenty of antique stores around here with so so many of the things described here ( i could get kitchen things by the truckload!) but my grandmother was a very modern woman! Instead of making biscuits she would take us to McDonalds. :)

***Another thing I remembered (the green receipt pad) for writing the orders for the restaurant(mint green checks)*****

I will put this on my watch and see what I can find. Cyn, I remember all that very well. It was my mother tho, not my grandma. Tells you how old I am...

My grandmother mixed new and traditional stuff in her kitchen, but the old fashioned stuff was my favorite because it told a story.

• She had little funky salt and pepper shakers, sometimes in shapes and themes.

• She decorated for each season with little touches around the kitchen like dish towels that always hung on the oven door.

• Shaped cookie cutters for making cookies when the grandkids came to visit.

• Old silverware that didn't match the rest of the every day silver ware. I remember the strange shaped stuff the most like grapefruit spoons and fancy shaped butter knives. There were other shapes that I never figured out what they were for.

• Egg cups for hard boiled eggs. I really miss these.

• Salt dishes. Have you ever seen these? They are adorable little teaspoon sized bowls that hold salt to dipping veggies from the inevitable relish tray that featured prominently at every gathering.

• Playing cards. Grandma's kitchen had a junk drawer that kept the all important playing cards for the odd game of gin rummy or crazy eights.

• Grandma loved to entertain so there were always cocktail napkins, a cocktail shaker, shot glasses, and the like.

ladydy5, my mom kept a lot of the same kind of stuff her mom had in the kitchen, and it's still there! Old habits die hard! It did give me a love for things vintage though. :) I have a lot of the things listed in everyone's lists--just hanging around, waiting for a new home, most of it I've collected over years of flea market shopping!

It's funny how perspective changes for some people--my husband's mother had a beautiful heavy farmer's table in the kitchen, it'd been there since her grandparents parents built the farmhouse a lo-o-ng time ago, and in the 80s when someone came to her offering a new formica dining set in exchange for that table, she couldn't get rid of it fast enough! Out with the old and in with the new! That table was probably worth $500 then and even more now! There's just no accounting for taste, and she was very happy with the new set.

Wow flibbertigibbet! You just took me waaaaaaaay back with the junk drawer! I remember my grandma always had pens and pencils that she had picked up from the doctor's office or paint store, hardware store etc. She didn't have a pencil sharpener so she took a butcher's knife and cut the wood to sharpen the pencil. It was always, buttons in there, safety pins and scratch pads. It was filled with mason jar tops...because she'd take off the tops and use the jars for drinking tea. We (kids) loved to take her pennies out of that drawer and you'd thought we'd hit the jackpot if we'd find a nickel, dime or quarter in there! Memories! We'd ransack it for peppermint candy too! Ye-ah, it (the candy) pretty much tasted like pencil shavings but...hey...it was candy! And that was all that mattered! :)

Seeing twobluecrows' post reminded me of my grandmother's kitchen table. It was ivory (formica) flecked with gold swirls... and it had a silver band which wrapped around the edges.

I've not thought about that table in years! What a nice memory. Thanks, twobluecrows!

I'm sorry I have to drop this swap and all others that I can I've had a death in my family

First, I will start by paying homage to my bestest grandpa ever, my grandmother had a stroke and he took care of her, so did all the cooking, -One thing he made was doughnut with a metal doughnut cutter and kept them in a large glass rounded jar with a metal top, I don't remember the kitchen much, but more memories of the food he produced, hamburgers with mayonaise, homemade bean soup with beans soaked overnight and a hambone, brownies every sunday

-my grandmother's kitchen was bright and cheery, she put ruffled paper-like ribbon aroung the window, there weren't any curtains. She was the mom to 7 and grandma to 26, a farmer's wife who knew how to cook for a lot of people. She also had geraniums on the window sill, I buy them every year, I love that smell. - she alway wore an appron -we had cooked pudding that she served in the little desert cup, glass ones, that had a stem on them, made me feel like a princess to have desert in one of those. -she made cocoa from scratch, on the stove from an old metal pot. I will always remember her putting"salt"in it. -my grandmother also collected salt and pepper shakers, any animal or people, any that she thought were cute -there was always a metal teapot on the stove, I guess that was for mu grandpa's tea. -When I would go there, I was trusted with a pairing knife and a big bowl (the colored glass ones) to peal and cut up apples (lttle , tiny, tasty ones) from the apple trees on the farm. -everything was served on a platter. everymeal was meat, potatoes, gravy, vegetable and fried eggs (I know, the cholesterol- but most in that family live into their 90's). Wow, that was a trip down memory lane, I just realized what a modern man my grandpa must have been, he ran a gas station and was the main household person too. Yeah

Prayerfully...

twobluecrows...our deepest condolences to you and yours during this period of grief. May you be found wrapped in happy memories of your loved one.

Welcome shellipw!

Wow and wow! I had a greeeeeat thriftstore vintage kitchen swap hunt...how about this, I found two ceramic cookie jars, one cookie tin...AU-MAZING vintage tea/saucer set with creamer and sugar dish to match! CAN'T WAIT 'TIL THIS SWAP STARTS! Anyone else have a great swap shopping weekend?

I'm in heaven now.. I love these memories. 1 Glass covered refridgerator bowls, usually with cucumbers and onions. 2. Fruit jars...the old style with zinc lids and the type that are spring loaded.(pickles and watermelon rind preserves) 3. Fancy old sugar bowl and creamer (I think she had a Shirley Temple one) 4. Small juice glasses with interesting odd designs..(came in laundry soap) 5. Oilcloth table cloths..on an old round wooden table with claw feet 6. Stone ware bowls..(I have one..she stored pickling salt in it) 7. Green glass juicer 8. Pink depression glass dishes 9. Fancy little spoons in a pretty glass jelly dish 10. Wooden match dispenser which fits a whole box of wooden matches..(which I have) there was just so much...the old cracker and oat tins..wooden handled potato masher, slotted spoons, soup ladel, water ladel, My sister got a miniature set of China that matched her china, white with pink roses.

Welcome countrygirl58!

I get "goosebumps" reading everyone's memories! Btw...cucumbers in vinegar was always in my grandma's refrigerator in stoneware bowls covered by Saranwrap. She'd pull this bowl out and sprinkle pepper over the cucumbers...this was either a snack or salad just before dinner. It's amazing how different all of our upbringings may have been, but how similar some of our experiences were! :)