Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Spoons and Pins

It is only the modern
that ever becomes old-fashioned.
-Oscar Wilde


Due to a generous bonus from an oil company client, I treated myself to a KitchenAid stand mixer this Christmas. It's enormous and has all the attachments and hooks and motors. It's also still in its box. Until I have need of making meringue or homemade whipped cream, it's staying there.

Kid you not. I am not crazy about noisy kitchen gadgets. I am over-the-moon crazy for quiet old spoons. This weekend I bought another ancient wooden spoon to add to my growing collection of ancient wooden spoons. I have several that are hand-carved. I have others that are worn smooth and thin with time. All of them wordlessly brag of generations of care and use. I wrap my fingers around their handles and wonder where they came from. What they've made. I wonder whose birthday cake they mixed. Whose soup they stirred. Whose bottom they paddled. (wink)

And please don't get me started on rolling pins. I collect wooden ones, of course. Just the wooden ones. They're so romantic; one glance tells you someone... somewhere... used these beauties to fill a pie safe and feed their sweetheart. I imagine cherry pies with lattice tops and golden buttermilk biscuits and thick, crumbly sugar cookies and bubbly chicken pot pies and hot, fried peach pockets. I can just picture the pin in a drain board, all clean and dripping, as its family scoots up to the old farmhouse table to eat their dinner and grin their grins.

Tell me that's not more romantic than a noisy KitchenAid mixer. Yes, I'm looking forward to adding to the legacy of my spoons and pins. It's only the modern that ever becomes old fashioned, after all....

(Side Note: Please be sure to get in on the chance to win a FREEMAN HOUSE CARE PACKAGE by helping our friends at A Place to Bark. You just may find yourself the winner of an antique rolling pin to go with that book and apron! See sidebar for details.)

9 comments:

Kathleen Grace said...

Hi Brin, those old spoons and rolling pins are beautiful, but that kitchenaid makes whipping up fresh homemade bread so easy! I dont know if you are a bread baker but I use mine weekly for fresh bread:>)

Brenda@CoffeeTeaBooks said...

One of the first blog posts I made (a year and a half ago) was about "my precious"... my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Since then, my daughter has upgraded to a bigger Kitchen Aid stand mixer, too. It is amazing how wonderful they are.

However, I understand what you are saying. I have a Cusinart food processor and a very nice chopper/slicer given to me as a gift. However, 99% of the time I use my trusty chef knife collection!

Becka said...

I am a sucker for wooden spons to. I absolutely refuse to use anything other than that.

With the exception of my kitchen aid. LOL. when it comes time to make cookies or breads, out comes the kitchen aid. Anything else, gets a wooden spoon. I have a special drawer dedicated to my spoons and have a hissy if someone tosses anything else in there.

Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality said...

Brin, those are wonderful collections you have there.

And I loved your Monday post. You are so right in that Godly mates are the most important thing to look for. My niece is 25 & is woefully trying to find a Godly man. They are fleeting, I'm afraid. I encourage her to wait, he will come in God's timing.

you have such a way with words....

Rhoda

Vee said...

Your spoon and rolling pin collection is enviable. I love old spoons, too, and find that they are much stronger and altogether more lovely than buying the new things. Do you display your spoons and pins?

I have a funny story about spanking with wooden spoons. Back when I believed in spanking (I stopped being a believer when I became a grandmother), I was digging in my lilac bushes one spring day and found a regular burying ground of wooden spoons. And I'd been wondering where those things were going!

Terri Steffes said...

What a cool thing to collect. It's like old recipe books that have pages dogeared... makes you wonder!

Jenny said...

Awesome post, Brin. Makes me want to bake.

You're such an inspiration.

Unknown said...

Are you sure were not sisters seperated at birth? Again, you posted on one of my loves, old kitchen utinsils, esp. spoons and rolling pins! Gotta love that old wood!

ancient one said...

I have a SIL that collects rolling pins. She has so many. Bet she thought she had them all, but you've got so many, she's probably wondering...LOL Her name is Sue, too! I'm checking out the Sue above my post!