What I Found at Mrs. T’s Estate Sale
Not too long ago, I went to an estate sale in a sleepy little town about 15 minutes from my house. It was a glorious, sunny fall day. My friend and I threw caution to the wind and decided to go “sale-ing” and out to lunch when we were finished.
What treasures we found that day! My favorite sale was the one being held for a woman in her 90s who had recently passed away. Mrs. T. left lots of things behind. Furniture. Appliances. Clothing and tools. But I was most fascinated by her kitchen trinkets. These items had been collected over decades beginning with her days as a new bride in the 1940’s.
I quickly loaded a box full of what might seem to be random and common things found in one’s kitchen. A glass candy dish. An old tin cookie-cutter. A frosting knife. Several cookbooks. And my personal favorite––an old wooden rolling pin.
I didn’t pay over $.50 for any of these items, But that day I felt like I had hit the jackpot. I needed a frosting knife and have been meaning to buy one. My rolling pin is over 25 years old and, although it still works fine, when my daughter is home baking with me, we have to share one. And I am always up for a new vintage cookbook. I find so many fabulous recipes within their pages. And so I squealed with delight to my friend as I loaded my box high with these culinary treasures.
But something in me also felt a little sad at leaving that day. Didn’t any of Mrs. T’s family members want these kitchen items? Had the candy dish at one time held bright colored treats for her grandchildren? Had she used the frosting knife on birthday cakes for her loved ones over the years? Had she baked pies from scratch with that old rolling pin for her family’s Thanksgiving each year? Didn’t anyone in her family want these items?
When my sister-in-law passed away in October, I helped my niece and nephew to clean out her home. It took us several weekends and we all both laughed and cried at some of the items we found.
Cleaning out her kitchen cupboards brought back many memories for them. And for me. Seeing her springform pan that made her famous raspberry–white chocolate cheesecake so many times made us all choke up a bit. We found her cheese knife that was well-used over the years. {Ehmans have never met a cheese they didn’t love!} It made my heart smile to see both my niece and nephew delighted to repurpose so many tools and treasures from their mom’s kitchen. And they were so generous with me, giving me some of the items as well.
I wonder what it might be like someday when I am gone. What things from my kitchen will my children want? My big cast iron pan that fries eggs for my boys on so many Saturday mornings? My red soup kettle that has made so many homemade soups over the years? My pastry blender that forms the crust for my chocolate-pecan pie? My cookbooks, all stained and splattered from years of loving use? And I’m sure they’ll be a fight over my cheese board and knife! {my kids all have Ehman blood, you know!)
Today I want to give away in heirloom cookbook to one of you, along with a few of our family’s favorites recipes, handwritten on some recipe cards.
To be entered in the giveaway, simply tell me your most treasured kitchen item: Either one you now own or one that a loved one passed down to you.
The winner will be announced Monday.
In the meantime, whip up something for your loved ones this weekend. Whether it is a homemade pie for a sweet treat or a healthily main dish made with love.
Remember the colorful turkey platters that our grandparents or great had? Mine that was passed down was hung on the dining room wall. We’ve moved and I have yet to find that perfect place yet. I also love my glass cake stand that my sister bought me ages ago. Very few celebration cakes don’t end up on this stand. I wonder which one of my kids will want it someday.
I love my wooden rolling pin. It’s the one we pull out every year to make Christmas cookies with my kids. <3
I have several of my grandmothers treasures, but the one most dear to me is her rolling pin. Oh how I remember her using it when I was little. It’s a daily reminder she is with me and that can make a bad day go away real fast.
I treasure my Great-Grandmother’s antique plates that now hang on the wall in my dining room!
I have so many favorite kitchen items it’s hard to pick one. I have a weakness for kitchen gadgets and office supplies.
*oops I can’t spell MIXER. LOL!
KK
My most treasured items in the kitchen are the cookbooks and recipes from my Grandmother and husbands grandmother. I always know they are with me when I create the same things as they did with love, and wonderful tastes.
Many treasures are found in my kitchen! My favorite is probably my Mama’s recipes and cookbooks. She passed away a few years ago and my Daddy passed away last year, so these treasures bring back a lot of good memories for me and my kids each time we use them. I intend to pass them along when my girls and nieces start getting married!??
Oh my, I am so not sure! There are so many things I have that I love & always looking for more! Kitchen gadgets are my vice!
I guess if I were to have to choose, it would be my soup pot. My hubby would live on soup 365,days a year if I would make it. And there are so many variations to soup & never have the same thing twice!
My daughter always comments on me & my gadgets too! Just wait till she grows up!
My favorite kitchen gadget hands down is my grandmother’s old Saladmaster ‘food processor’ that she bought at the State Fair of Texas. It was a two legged gadget that had a handle to turn, and you could change out the grating attachments to get different cuts. One for fine grated cheese, one for coarse grated cheese, one for crinkle cut fries, one for ‘coins’…I just loved it! I found another one years later at an antique store and bought it. Over the years, my grandmother’s attachments had rusted quite a bit, and the rubber feet had split, so they scratched the counter if you weren’t careful, but I can remember how special it felt to be chosen to grate the cheese or potatoes or cabbage or…the list goes on. My second favorite had to be her old Kitchen Aid stand mixes – baby pink, I might add. It worked for years – in fact my cousin has it at her house now. Amazing, the memories that are made in the kitchen. Thank you for taking me back, Karen. It was an awesome ride.
Blessings all,
KK
Oh, Karen…this made me tear up. My mom passed away in April, 2007. I have all of her kitchen trinkets that I could not bear to part with. I am having an issue with hording things that I just hate to get rid of, even though I don’t need it. I would never, however, part with her cast iron frying pans, cake plate, rolling pin, sifter, grater, and still have a couple of her wooden spoons that I am still using. My most prized possession, however, is a gallon freezer bag (that had my name written on it by my mom) full of handwritten recipes with all the little things that were spilled on it, some really funny comments made when she changed something that she didn’t like and added her “yuk..that sounds nasty. I used lemon flavoring instead”. LOL I recently spent an entire weekend at a bed and breakfast with my best friend going through this entire collection along with lots of recipes that were given to her on old yellowed papers, cut outs from magazines and papers, etc. I am compiling a scrapbook of all these recipes into a binder, protected in their original handwritten notes, categorized as a cookbook would be. It is quite an undertaking but I have reminisced and laughed and cherished every single item. She even had a recipe that she had written down that my niece had given her when she was 3 years old. So funny…and priceless. Your email just reminds me how important cherishing these memories are. I still have some categories to complete but I will not stop until it is finished. I just hope my daughter will cherish this as much as I did.
My favorite kitchen item is my Le Cruset stock pot. I make a lot of soup in it. I’ve had it about 10 years and it is well loved.
Handwritten recipes, time-lines, and shopping lists from my mother. She cooked each summer for a church camp and regularly for events at her congregation, so many of these recipes serve 50 – 100 people. She kept great notes about what worked well, what she would change “next time” and how long it took to cook 120 scrambled eggs!
My grand-mother’s apron and my mother-in-law’s hand-turn cheese grater. My mother-in-law made the best pimento-cheese and always used this grater, and now my husband makes it using her recipe. Truly special memories.
What a neat blog post. I LOVE to find things at an estate sale or garage sale that I need and just like you wonder about its past, etc.
My most treasure item is the attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer because they were my Moms. I bought my own Kitchen Aid but the attachments were my moms. Still going strong after all these years.
I have two–one old and one new!
The old is a flour sifter that my Grandma used a lot and I every time I use it it reminds me of her love for God and all of us.
The new is my waffle iron given to me by my stepdaughters (a huge gift in itself) and used almost every time my grandchildren spend the night at Papa & Nana’s!!
Thanking God for giving me the gift of cooking/baking and that I enjoy doing it for my husband and family!
I have two treasured items to share with you….1. is a homemade cookbook my grandmother gave me as a wedding present all written in her own handwriting with a few from my aunts in their handwriting and 2. Her tube pan which she used to make 7-up Pound Cake & Lemon Fruit Cake. My aunt and I used these pans to make both this year. It was so fun cooking with her and remembering my beautiful grandmother.
My most treasured kitchen item is my nana’s pound cake recipe. She is famous in her little Southern town for her scrumptious pound cakes that she has delivered with love to many a church bazaar, funeral, and baby shower. Her cakes were so enjoyed at my wedding that guests only ate hers and didn’t touch the one from the caterer. Now that she is living in an assisted-living facility, she doesn’t get too many opportunities to bake her delicious treats. So, each bite of one now is a priceless treasure.
I have 2 items..One is a old strainer that my mother used for years and gave to me when I got married. The 2nd one is a Angel Food cake pan that a Granny Mary used for years and then passed on to me. Granny Mary is gone now but I still think of her everytime I bake a Angel Food Cake with that Pan.
My all-time favorite kitchen gadget is my Kitchen Aid Mixer. Not nostalgic now, but my grandchildren will be able to use it when the time comes (maybe I better buy another so there won’t be any squabbles:). With my mixer, I will be able to whip up any recipe in this fabulous Southern Living Cook Book, and it will be a wonderful addition to all my other Southern Living Cook Books!
My favorite kitchen item is my George Foreman grill – because I don’t have a lot of time and it cooks my chicken so quickly and easily!
My most treasured kitchen item are my wooden spoons. I think about how many meals, treats, and sweets I’ve made for my family. I love this looking back!
I have a cookbook from my great-grandmother that was given to me from my great-grandfather when I got married. It has her recipes written in the margins, etc… Makes me nostalgic to think of her in the kitchen making her yummy pies, cakes, and candy. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! :)
One of my favorite things in my kitchen is my mother-in-law’s old cookbook…… if for nothing more than to see her handwriting. She didn’t have the fanciest or most beautiful handwriting – but it is like none other. She was a horrible speller and she knew it – we used to laugh for hours at things she had misspelled. Oh how I miss her – when we went through her things after she passed, I probably kept too many silly things. She was precious to me and just knowing that she had spent hours using them, “breaking them in” means more to me than I could ever express.
When I attend estate sales, I always think about the hands that used the items, the hearts that were touched, the memories made, and how I can honor the person.
I am blessed with many kitchens treasures. I love the recipes from my grandmother on my mom’s side as well as the small cutting board upon which is the “kitchen prayer” from my dad’s mom. I wouldn’t be here without them and their gifts are daily reminders of that blessing.
I absolutely my glass Pyrex measure cups! Brings me back to the days in Grandma’s kitchen, teaching me all the measuring ways of cooking!