All the food memories on the breakfast topic made me think about my food memories.  And mine aren't so much the food as the serving pieces!

There is a special oval plate about the size restaurant use on salad bars now that my Grandmother ALWAYS put her fried pies or chicken fried steak on.  Momma still only serves CFS on it.  And grandmother had this large bowl that I always remember having green beans from.  I have a bowl just like it now that I got at a garage sale.  I haven't used it for anything yet because I haven't had t make a big enough serving of green beans!  DH started to eat cereal out of it the other day and I told him he couldn't because it was the "green bean bowl"--he never blinked, just put it back.

And my Daddy's mother had a certain spoon that she used for "mashing" potatoes.  I know now that it is a sieved serving spoon but I didn't when I was a kid.  That was the only thing it was ever used for and I would have no idea where she got it.  But she got it out to mash the potatoes and used it to serve them, then it was washed and wrapped back up and put in a drawer.  I wonder where it is now?

I have a certain glass for milk, a certain glass for water, a certain glass for Dr. Pepper.  They just don't taste right if not in the right glass.  Oh and a certain pan for biscuits.  You guessed right.  It is my Grandmother's biscuit pan!

How about y'all?

re-tired

 I don't have many memories about serving dishes, but I do about mixing bowls. Mom had a set of three, I think it was, each one in a different color. The biggest one was yellow and she always used that to mix bread dough in. The other two were blue and red. Don't know whatever happened to them, but I'd love to find a set like that. I have this thing in my head that if I had a big yellow mixing bowl I could make better bread... 

When my grandfather moved into the retirement community, I helped my aunt and uncle clean out the house (Grampa was supervising... at 89, he wasn't helping much - except for insisting someone take certain items instead of donating them) - that's how I got my grandmother's dining room set.  One of the things that Grampa insisted I take was a wooden mixing bowl and a chopping blade that had been his mother's; she always used it to make chopped liver for Passover.  I always use it for chopped liver, but I don't use it for much else (it's over 80 years old) but it's special to me because my grandfather wanted me to have it.

My grandmother had this beautiful stoneware mixing bowl that she would use all them time when she was cooking.  She was the one that really started teaching me how to cook, I remember being six or so and cooking with her in the kitchen mixing something up in that bowl.  It was cream colored and it had a light pink and a light blue band around the top.  When my grandmother passed away my mom took it and it sits up in her cabinet now, it's too fragile for regular use.  I love opening up my mom's cabinet and looking at that bowl when I go to visit, it brings back many fond memories.

This is going to be a little difficult to articulate, but here goes:

I recently had a very humbling realization.  When I was little, my mom had a set of corelle plates with the "Olde Towne Blue" pattern.  There was one chipped plate that she always put on the top of the stack because if one got broken, it would hopefully be the chipped one.  I remember that *I* was always the one that got the chipped plate and I always whined about it.  Well, my mom recently had a yard sale and she sold those plates.  She and I were sitting there talking and laughing about how I always got the chipped plate and felt slighted when it occurred to me that I always got the chipped plate because they always made sure that I was the first to be served dinner.  Gee, and it only took me 35 years to realize it . . .   :)  That wisdom I prayed for crops up out of nowhere, it seems.  :)

I can only attach a few memries to some kitchen utensils or containers. I can, however, remember that my grandma had a tin in her kitchen cupboard that always had a treat in it. Most times there would be winter green candy inside (Love this stuff), other times it would be cookies, especially windmill cookies. Since my grandma has been gone for 27 years it is my memory of things she did more than what she had. She made ugly quilts that were the warmest balnkets ever. She patched all of our clothes and to this day I cannot duplicate her method, which stayed put. She made the best waffles and sausage dinners, the worst spaghetti sauce you ever tasted (lol), and she tatted simple lace to attach to handerchiefs that she would give away as presents. Thos are the things I remember.

Pat:

Mom had a set of three, I think it was, each one in a different color. The biggest one was yellow and she always used that to mix bread dough in. The other two were blue and red. Don't know whatever happened to them, but I'd love to find a set like that.

Pat, those bowls are great, aren't they?  They are Pyrex bowls and there are actually four in order of size, biggest to smallest: yellow, green, red and blue.  You can get complete sets on eBay.  I got mine a very special way.  My MIL has a set that my SIL and I have always admired.  MIL goes to a giant city-wide yard sale each fall in Virginia.  She and her friends were scouting for those bowls and had their phones to stay in touch with each other.  By tracking them down one by one my MIL got complete set for my SIL and me, and also our step-SIL.  She hunted down those bowls until she had gotten each bowl, all 12 of them!  Unfotunately, my husband accidently broke the green one so I am going to get a replacement from eBay.

 I didn't know they were still available, thank you! If I'd have thought for a moment, I might have figured they were Pyrex. I don't remember the green bowl, it must have broken. Maybe I'll ask for them for my birthday or something. 

I have the bowl that one Grandmother made biscuits in, and the pan that the other Grandmother baked biscuits in. Lots of memories there. I am sure that I must have eaten my weight in biscuits from both Grandmothers! I also have my Grandmother's teapot. It is stained and will remain so. I think about her everytime that I see it, and the many glasses of tea that I drank at her house. I miss her so much! We shared many conversations over a glass of tea.

I used to look in the Sears catalog when it came and would try to decide which set of dishes I wanted, the ones with the strawberries or the wheat, the flowers or the ivy.  Little did I know that this information and those pictures would prove useful when I began a hobby of antiques/collectibles.  I actually have a pink glass platter and plate in the Dogwood pattern that belonged to my grandmother.  They were made by MacBeth-Evans during the years 1929-1932.  Over the years, I have picked up a plate here or a cup there so that I now have a set of 6.  I also have some low green sherbets from a great aunt.  That same great aunt gave me a clear glass family green bean bowl that she said they only used on Sundays.  Mix these up with some color glassware and there are many combinations possible to set a table.  These kinds of pieces were made for hand-washing, which is the only dishwasher I have!

I've also bought pieces I liked here or there, and have received some items as gifts.  My favorite in old china is Harkerware's Cameo in Blue and white -- it's what I call Wedgewood blue, pure and clear, and the white flower is not always sparkling white, but an off white.  I also have some plates depicting scenes from my city hanging on the kitchen walls, the areas and churches being relevant to family history.  My glassware, not surprisingly, depicts dogs!  :-)  I have some glasses with Scotties on them and a set of ice teas that have spaniels on them. 

One thing I do collect is red-handled kitchen utensils, and have done so over the years at garage sales, thrift shops, flea markets.  I took what is supposed to be a tie hangar for a man's closet (white wire) and hung it over the basement door next to my stove.  It holds my utensils right at hand!  :-)

 My younger sister has Grandma's Salem china (Vermillion Rose), to which we have added over the years.  It always gets used on holidays and otherwise makes a fine display in the china cabinet, sometimes getting changed out for the terrier figurines.

Friend Rhonda just finished her kitchen redo and has some cabinets with glass doors showing off her Depression-era china called Fruits, a Knowles-Taylor-Knowles pattern.  The other day when I was there she had a Forest Green pitcher and set of tumblers sitting on the jade green corian counter.  She has two chair-rails mounted on the wall over the table.  One has china cake servers and the other china rolling pins in various patterns.  She has some green-handled kitchen utensils.

My specific frame of references, for those interested, The Collector's Encyclopedia of American Dinnerware by Jo Cunningham and The Collector's Encyclopedia of Depression Glass by Gene Florence.  There are lots of books out there on the subject.

Needless to say, I have linens of the same era as the dishes.  And a china laundry sprinkler bottle in the shape of an iron with the ivy pattern on it. 

Kitchen?  Guess mine is s kitsch-en.  :-)