What I've wanted to write about for a while has been what I consider real treasures - the cooking and baking supplies passed along to me from my mother and my grandmother. When my family left Europe 58 years ago, they didn't have a lot of "worldly possessions", but humble everyday items that I now treasure.
For years I've wanted to display my grandmother's egg beater. It's really worn - the red and white paint shows years of wear - but I've never found the right way to show it off in my kitchen. One day I might just splurge and have a custom shadow box made for it. The tablecloth in the picture was made from a printed panel - the seamstress would just have to pick the colours she wanted to use. Fortunately for my daughters, both of my grandmothers made a tablecloth using the exact same panel, but in different colours. One is in mauves and pinks (below) and the other in vibrant reds and golds.
My mother bought the milk glass bowls back in the 1960's at a Toronto institution, Honest Ed's. Back then the discount stores and Walmarts didn't exist in Canada, so anyone new to the City went to Ed's to stock their kitchens. The bowls have a fruit pattern on one side and led to my collection of milk glass. I've actually found fruit bowls that match this set at our local Value Village - or the VV Boutique as my friends and I also call it. ;)
The loaf pans are quite newly inherited. My mother made the most amazing, most, rich fruitcake for years, but there are less family members now who want to eat it, no matter how soaked in brandy it is. Since she knows I bake loaf breads quite often, this spring she surprised me by saying "Here, take these - I don't use them any more." As pleased as that makes it, it still rattles me whenever The Baker gifts me with her baking tools!
