A Snippet for the Middle of August

Do you have kitchen tools that are older than your children?  Do you have tools which are older than you are?

I'm not referring to serving platters and cut glass bowls, nor to hand-me-down china or silver.  I'm thinking about G'ma's blender, which outlived her by a few years before burning out on my kitchen counter, half mixed cookie dough stuck to the beaters.

I'm thinking about the apple corer/peeler and the meat grinder, which I donated to a worthy cause before leaving Chicago.  They were handed down to Nannie from her sisters-in-law and for some reason they came to me.  Perhaps it was the apple picking then pie making which occupied The Cuters and me every Fall for one very frantic weekend which made her think this was a good idea.

I wandered around several kitchens in several apartments and one house, trying to find a place to attach the things.  I never discovered it.

I used the plastic teaspoon measure I've been using since Big Cuter was a glimmer in his father's eye this afternoon, which prompted this post.

I was making Sherri's Noodle Pudding, the mere reading of which just now has caused many of you to drool.  It's a recipe loved by everyone who's not lactose intolerant.  It was written on a yellow legal pad 30 some years ago.  I've pasted it and taped it and recopied it and printed it in order to read it at all, but I've held onto the original, too.

I also have Ivette's yam casserole (from sometime in the 1970's) and our behind the fence in Chicago neighbor's strawberry banana jello mold - both staples of my holiday table and both still in their original condition.

Is it my imagination, or do those things make the final product just that much better?