My Mother's rolling pin

I have a rolling pin that was made by my grandfather back in the 1930s.

It's made from hickory, I think. I don't actually use it.

i'm waiting on a cast iron pan that my grandmother passed to my mother.

it's beautiful.

eta: i'm in no rush.

mom.

Not exactly kitchen equipment, but I have a collection of old shotguns that got sent home with me when my mother moved a couple of years ago. I didn't really want the old things (note to any gun enthusiast reading, they are not old Parkers or anything like that).

I have my mother's rolling pin,"The PieMaster," so named because she made a fine, fine pie crust. I don't, mine's barely adequate. But when I feel I need her help I dig out "The PieMaster." I swear it makes a difference.

I have a tapered French rolling pin and a marble rolling pin. The marble one is heavy; I think I could flatten a steak with it.

My grandmother's roasting pan. I don't roast anything in it, but I use it to make stuffing (her recipe) everything Thanksgiving. It's the only time I ever drag it out, but it wouldn't be Thanksgiving if I didn't.

I have a carving set that belonged to my paternal grandmother. I've never used it for carving. The knife (aka the bayonet) lives in the pantry for cutting open the shrink wrap on large bundles of cans. I barely remember my grandmother, she died when I was 5, but think of her every time I use the thing.

MM

Shakesbear said:

Jersey Chick I have a roasting pan as well. Mum used it to bake cakes in and so do I. Most of the recipes I inherited are what mum called roasting pan size.

Suirattigas I always think mum's rolling pin makes a difference when I use it - I can almost hear her and granny discussing my technique.

Cray what does your mother use the pan for?

Alleycat, shotguns and a marble rolling pin? WOW! I have a marble slab for rolling pastry on, but it is so heavy that I rarely use it.

Click to expand...

are you kidding? that's her 'go to' pan!

it's used for anything that you'd normally use a frying pan for on the stove top.

and i seem to recall a few cobblers being baked in that thing too.

Wow, just realized I have absolutely nothing that has been passed down through family or anything...and now no chance of that happening.
However, I have a mixer that's from the 40s, bought it at a yard sale for cheap, just to find out it's worth a lot more if I fix the cord. It tried to electrocute me...but it's MINE!
I also have a large dining set from '70-72 that I paid $20 for at a garage sale, and recently learned that the salt/pepper shaker set is worth about $15 alone.
The worth of these items aren't really the point though, the dining set I hated when we first got it, it was a "hideous diaper-like color", but it grew on me and I began to love it, that's how I learned about it's worth. I wanted to know if I could find more pieces to the set and boy, there is some amazing stuff.
I have nothing of my family's things to pass down, and never will, but even though these began with other families, I hope they last long enough to continue on.
It's not the same, but until we get things from Mr. Greeny's side I've got nothing else, just what began as ours.

I received a couple of platters, some dolls with hand crocheted dresses done by my grandmother, and the first afghan she ever made and gave away. Sadly brown orange and red were all the rage at the time so it's unredeemably hideous. I am not sentimental about things so I've been trying to find someone in my family who would appreciate them more than I do, but no luck since it's still unredeemably hideous but at the same time I'm not allowed to get rid of it either. I just get to pack it around everywhere.

The dolls I liked to look at when I was like 5 so for some reason they thought I would just them as a grown adult. My kids have them in their room and when they get tired of them, I have no idea what I'll do with them.

I think I'm considered strange that way because I don't really treasure anything. To me it's either useful or not, the history doesn't really mean much to me. I love my dear dead grandma but not her things, go figure.

I'm late to this thread, too, but I think the most sentimental value thing I have is a round baking dish I inherited from my Grandpa (my mom's dad). It's really the only thing of his I got; I have a couple of his rings but I only have those because I basically took them.

I also have a set of Spode Christmas china; it's not a complete set but my MIL gave us ten pieces or so (counting the plates as one piece, there are actually a dozen of the plates) and we've added to it here and there through the years. She also gave us a set of (real) ivory-handled silver fish knives and forks, which we rarely use but which I really love having.


Honestly, most of the things I have a sentimental attachment to are things I bought myself or the hubs bought me, which I really love. I love my Le Creuset cookware; it makes me feel like a gourmet chef every time I use it. I have a set of Le Creuset salt and pepper grinders (bought at the L.C. outlet store!) that literally make me squee every time I use them, because they feel so luxurious and they're so pretty and work so well. I'm proud to have them on my stove and table. I have a set of 1920s Limoges china--a 30th birthday gift from my mom--that I rarely use but also love. For some reason I get a huge kick out of my little spice grater from Williams-Sonoma.

I like to think that I'm creating memories etc. for my girls when I use this stuff, and since I'm teaching my sd how to cook I've started collecting bits and pieces of cookware etc. for her, because she's almost 18 and will be out on her own soon and will need that stuff, and I want her to have nice things that come from me.

I have my brother's chef knives. He passed away 8 years ago. I love my kitchen and I love cooking and they make me feel close to him

Two things: My great-grandmother's large cast iron skillet and the glass china cabinet my great-grandfather made for his 'little girl' (grandma) when she married in 1917. I'd be gutted if anything happened to either.

Each of us in the family have a cutting board my grandfather made before I was born. Apparently he had some random countertop sitting around, so he cut it into several pig-shaped cutting boards of various sizes. He died when I was 15, so everything of his is incredibly precious to me. His death card (and my grandmother's, and uncle's) was in my wallet when it was stolen last year, the day after Christmas, right after we moved to a different state.

We have a ton of stuff I've been stealing borrowing from my mom over the years.

We have a nice set of cast iron skillets, none of which we can really use because we have a cheap ass stove that uses headlights to heat things and it takes forever to get up to temperature.

Then we have an old eggbeater I use sometimes. And a potato ricer (I use it to squeeze the water out of shredded potatoes when I make hash browns), an old meat tenderizing hammer, this thing with little spikes on the end, which I also think tenderizes meat, some little basket on the end of a handle (I think she said it was for soap, maybe you put a soap cake in it then swirl it in the dishwater to make it soapy?), and several other things I have no idea what they're for. They just look cool in the basket in kitchen.

I've got precious little from my side of the family... my mom's 9" Lodge iron skillet, my grandmother's rolling pin (that has only one handle. I think the other one was broken off in a slight conflict with my grandfather...), and a spoon my mother used to make gravy with the Lodge skillet. Since I couldn't make gravy when I left home without the precise measurements of that spoon and that skillet, she gave both to me as an apartment warming present.

From Ol' Boy's side, I have many treasures: my mother-in-law's iron skillet, cast iron griddle, and very old measuring cups, mixing bowls, pitchers and spoons. Her press cookie maker. Her old jam making sieve. Her cookbooks and recipe clippings. Her silverware, tea towels, and other linens - all neatly washed and ironed and folded and put away back in '75 when she died of breast cancer. It was left untouched until Ol' Boy's dad died in 2000 and it all passed to me... soon, I caught myself washing, ironing, folding and putting it away, I had a vision of one of my niece's pulling it all out in twenty years to wash it again, iron it, fold it and put it away... needless to say, I use it now, every chance I get. I hope to wear it all completely out before I die.