Latest / Family Tree Food Stories / Kitchen Gadgets: Family Stories, and the Tools That Outlive Us And a 30-Year Sister Joke.

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Kitchen Gadgets: Family Stories, and the Tools That Outlive Us And a 30-Year Sister Joke. · Family Tree Food Stories

0:03
Nancy May: Hello everybody.
0:04
It's Nancy and Sylvia once again with another episode of Family
0:08
Tree Food and Stories, and this one has a bit of interesting history.
0:13
We're not talking about food, we're actually talking
0:16
about things in our kitchen.
0:18
But before we go there, if you aren't already subscribed to our podcast
0:23
so that you get regular updates when we release every Thursday, of course
0:26
you can listen to the show any day of the week 24 7, which is kind of nice.
0:31
go to podcast.family Tree Food and Stories or family tree food stories.com, Please
0:36
subscribe and share it with your friends because as we like to say, every meal
0:40
has a story and every story is a feast, but this kind of feast that we're talking
0:45
about today is a little different.
0:48
As we said, it's not with a recipe.
0:50
We're starting with something a lot more simple.
0:53
We're talking about tools and gadgets because we did a post in our Facebook
0:57
group on a little, it was a, I call it a hand mixer that I found in a, in a
1:02
junk shop and put a picture on a page.
1:05
And the amount of people that responded that they still had
1:08
one in their kitchen was amazing.
1:11
Right.
1:11
Sylvia Lovely: It looked like a bicycle,
1:13
Nancy May: I remember my mom had one when we were kids and we always
1:15
used it to make scrambled eggs.
1:17
Sylvia Lovely: it looked complicated to use, but I guess you
1:20
Nancy May: No, not, not really complicated.
1:22
No.
1:23
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
1:23
For you maybe.
1:24
Okay.
1:25
Let's set the
1:26
stage here.
1:27
I am not mechanically inclined, so I'm one of those whatever's easy kind of stuff.
1:32
Nancy May: It reminded me of my dad's old hand drill, which had a similar
1:36
thing except the drill bit was in it.
1:37
and that was put together with tape.
1:39
Moms
1:40
wasn't put together with tape,
1:41
but from the humble spoon, which is read the, probably the
1:45
simplest gadget in our kitchen.
1:47
Two things that are a little bit more complex.
1:50
We've come a long way baby, haven't we?
1:52
Sylvia Lovely: Oh yeah.
1:53
And these tools are like food adjacent, They enable our food to be served to
1:58
us and it includes a lot of, things and we can't cover everything today.
2:02
So we're gonna spill over probably into another episode.
2:05
But you think about all the gadgets and things that we use in the kitchen, and
2:09
we take 'em all for granted, that does not even include the plates and the forks
2:14
and the spoons and all of that stuff.
2:16
So.
2:16
Or the tablespoons.
2:17
I think we do cover a bit about spoons.
2:19
But anyway, I think that this is at least a beginning to
2:23
kind of cover that wire front.
2:24
it's kind of exciting.
2:26
Nancy May: So spoon.
2:27
It's not just a spoon.
2:28
There is a whole family tree here of wooden spoons and
2:32
ladles and spatulas and spatula.
2:34
Do you consider a spatula spoon?
2:36
I don't know,
2:36
Sylvia Lovely: A flat spoon.
2:37
Yeah.
2:38
Yeah.
2:38
Nancy May: wait.
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have you ever heard of this?
2:40
I think it's called a sportal?
2:42
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, I've got a sportal, it's rounded, but it's got little.
2:45
Nancy May: It's kind of flat at the same time, I guess
2:48
Martha Stewart made a big deal with having sporal and all of a sudden sportals
2:51
were, all over the place for a while, and I think she was selling them for.
2:55
$50. 50 to a hundred dollars for a sportal.
2:58
You've gotta be kidding.
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That damn
2:59
thing better.
3:00
Excuse me for
3:01
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, you lost your mind.
3:04
Nancy May: Yeah.
3:04
No, it's Martha next.
3:07
Sorry.
3:08
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
3:09
So spoons are interesting.
3:10
I remember, my chef, we would occasionally be in a store like a, you know, just.
3:16
Not a junk store.
3:17
I, I call it that.
3:18
one of those emporiums that have all kinds of things, not necessarily
3:21
antiques, just old things.
3:23
We would always pick up a spoon 'cause they had a lot of collection of spoons.
3:27
And I was actually surprised 'cause I was at our farmer's market one day
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and I posted this and there was a spoon salesman as one of the booths.
3:35
And he creates this beautiful.
3:37
Wooden spoons and spoons kind of have a place in, in a lot of ways.
3:42
I remember one, I watched sitcoms, as a weakness.
3:46
I pick up great lines in sitcoms for speeches.
3:48
But Ra Raymond that, everybody loves Raymond, about the famous spoons
3:53
that hung on their wall was waiting wedding gifts, a spoon and a fork.
3:57
Giant ones.
3:58
And when they took 'em down.
3:59
There was the imprint of them on the wallpaper, so they
4:02
had to put 'em right back up.
4:03
Anyway, it was kind of
4:04
Nancy May: Oh, I, I got a quick spoon story.
4:06
This, you're gonna love this.
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So my sister, when she got married, her mother-in-law gave her a rack
4:12
of these, you know, one of those racks to put the spoons on and
4:14
then she, where you travel to.
4:17
So she had all these spoons and she kind of laughed about them.
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Now, her mother-in-law who since passed, and that's not nice to talk bad things.
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It's not like it was bad, but it was just kind of quirky.
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She was a, a, a backwards, appalachia type of lady.
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and.
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This was a gift that she was giving of her heart to my sister.
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Well, everywhere we went, Bob and I went, I found spoons and
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I would give her, I would send a
4:40
spoon to her for like birthday and Christmas, and I would laugh
4:43
every time I put it in, you know?
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Well, one Christmas she got me back.
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She sent me that rack with all the spoons back to me.
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Sylvia Lovely: I love that.
4:53
I love that.
4:55
Hey, what is it about wooden spoons?
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there are actually recipes that say, use a wooden spoon, and I kind of had one.
5:02
and I've lost it.
5:03
So I have a different wooden spoon that's much newer, but I
5:06
really love that old wooden one.
5:08
It was just, I don't know, sort of like a cast iron skillet.
5:11
It had stirred so many things that it had a history,
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Nancy May: I'm a, a wooden spoon fanatic, so I agree.
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And my mom had one I remember.
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I could actually see that wooden spoon in my mind, how it was a little burnt on
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the tip and a, a little thin, because it had been used a hundred million times
5:29
in a, in a cast iron skillet, or a stove
5:32
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
5:32
Like, like, like us, Nancy, we're
5:34
Nancy May: Yeah.
5:35
We're a little burnt on the edge.
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Sylvia Lovely: but there is some science to it.
5:39
It doesn't conduct heat like metal, so you're less likely to squirt a sauce.
5:44
It's gentler when you star.
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There you go.
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There's
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a little
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history science.
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Nancy May: my dear friend Mary says, you know, all the goo that's on the bottom
5:51
of your pan when you're cooking all that good gunk she calls that pan shit.
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So.
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Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
5:56
Okay.
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Nancy May: The wooden spoon gets all that up, so it really adds more flavor.
6:01
I'm not a fan of spatulas, but yeah, wooden spoon is my thing.
6:04
I totally agree.
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Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
6:06
I don't know what it is.
6:07
Personality history,
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Nancy May: It's a method, right?
6:10
Sylvia Lovely: you know, vintage is coming back in style.
6:12
We're buying vintage clothing.
6:14
Older women are appearing on the runways.
6:16
I'm fielding all the calls now to be on the fashion runways, and I don't think
6:22
I want me, but there there is that trend
6:25
Nancy May: Right,
6:25
and then there are labels.
6:27
Lale are another hero.
6:29
Now, I don't have so many ladels, but I do have a ladle that was given to us as, as a
6:35
gift from one of my mom's closest friends, and she found it at an antique store.
6:40
It's a silver ladle and it has the initial M for May on it.
6:45
So that was kind of neat.
6:47
Although Bob's last name doesn't start with an M, but I never
6:50
changed mine, so it's my l
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Sylvia Lovely: yeah.
6:53
That's cool.
6:53
I bet it has a story behind it.
6:55
Nancy May: It probably does.
6:56
The story that I have is that Carol Kocka had gave it to me out
6:59
of her heart and out of love and affection, and so that's the story
7:03
that it has for us and it's important
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Sylvia Lovely: You know, let's, let's digress for a moment and talk about that,
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because collecting the stories behind these things and you don't always know,
7:14
but you know what's really fun about it.
7:15
You can actually.
7:17
Come up with a story and you can like, wonder who this was.
7:20
And you can write about who Mary maybe, or Mabel.
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If it's old enough,
7:25
I remember just, in the writing class, I was saying, write about something in
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your history and woman raise her hand.
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She.
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Well, there's this yellow dress my mother had on, but I don't see a story in it.
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About three months later, she got back with me and she said, you know,
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I remembered why it stuck in my head.
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My mother got that dress for her 25th wedding anniversary, and
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it just meant so much to her.
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That's why it stuck in my head.
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So, if you are having some curiosity about something, you ought to.
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Think about what a story could have been, that would've surrounded it.
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it triggers something in your head
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Nancy May: it
8:00
doesn't take a lot,
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right?
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It can be very, very simple, the fact that, ladle, that silver
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ladle probably has a story of its own somewhere before where somebody.
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It didn't want it anymore and left it at a junk shop to where it has
8:13
a new story because it was a gift of my mom's best friend to me.
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Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, there's a story.
8:18
there's stories everywhere is what I try to tell people, try to find them.
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But, one of the questions I have that, um, always, always reading
8:26
things I probably shouldn't read 'cause they scare me to death.
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But plastics, everything now is plastic and you have a plastic spoons, spatulas.
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Lales and all of that stuff, and then you hear about microplastics and
8:40
forever chemicals and all of that.
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I don't know if there's anything to that, but I try to use stainless
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steel or wood where I can just because I'm hedging my bets.
8:52
Right?
8:52
Who knows?
8:53
Nancy May: Right.
8:54
And we talk about, gadgets.
8:55
there was this trend of these thick plastic, cutting boards that took over
8:59
wood, and they were supposed to be.
9:01
Healthier and safer.
9:02
Well, it turns out that's not true.
9:05
It's the old wooden cutting board
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that is actually more sanitary for you because you can scrub and clean the wood
9:12
properly where the plastic all those cuts it gets in there and you're not able
9:17
to get into those micro cuts as well.
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So apparently.
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the plastic cutting boards are nixed plus there's more
9:24
character in a wood cutting board.
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I don't know, but you,
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Sylvia Lovely: Oh, I know, I know there is.
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I don't know what it is, but wood, I think it's a connection to nature.
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Maybe everything else is kind of.
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Human made, but wood, it's, it's right out there looking at
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trees and forests and pigs and
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Nancy May: Our food is
9:42
connected to nature, right?
9:44
It doesn't, well, hopefully it's not grown in a Petri dish.
9:47
Oh, wait a second.
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So this is a little slight divergent.
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I heard the other day, and I'll have to check it out, I'm not sure if
9:54
it's true, but you have to read the labels of your meat in the grocery
9:58
store to find out if they are like.
10:01
don't wanna say lab grown, but there's some sort of Yeah, apparently it's
10:05
like, versus on the hoof, which is also kind of gross when you think
10:09
about, that's where you should know where your food comes from, I guess.
10:12
Wouldn't wanna make me a vegetarian,
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Sylvia Lovely: I, that's a big debate.
10:16
I had this the other night at a restaurant, and when we started talking
10:20
about meat, and this woman says, I don't wanna know where it comes from.
10:23
I just wanna see a chicken finger right there.
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Nancy May: Yeah, I don't wanna see a chicken
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finger.
10:27
The idea of chickens with fingers kind of grosses
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Sylvia Lovely: Anyway, I'm sorry, what?
10:30
What were you saying?
10:31
Nancy May: But apparently you have to look at the label to, let
10:34
you know That says whether it's grown in some sort of structure.
10:38
I'll call it a structured environment.
10:40
I'll have to find out exactly what it is and put it in the show notes
10:42
so people can check it out or put it in our, on our page as a resource.
10:46
But I thought that was interesting.
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Sylvia Lovely: Well, that was a big movement several years ago and I
10:50
haven't heard much about it lately.
10:51
I guess people have other things on their mind, but I guess as meat gets
10:54
more expensive too and then people are more conscious, I mean, we were kind of
10:58
making light of where your food comes from, but yeah, Does make you think about
11:03
where your food comes from and lab food?
11:06
I don't, you know, I don't know.
11:07
Somebody could probably put a fake steak in front of me and a real one
11:10
and would I know the difference?
11:11
I don't
11:12
Nancy May: Oh, they did a test with chefs.
11:13
They say they knew, but, I don't think so.
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Sylvia Lovely: Well, steak maybe, steak has a certain texture and they say
11:19
that's the hardest thing to achieve
11:20
in lab is the texture and how much that means to you.
11:24
You don't even think about it.
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Nancy May: We are gonna have to do a show on lab raised stuff,
11:28
which is not very traditional.
11:30
But anyway, so let's go into knives because since we're talking about
11:34
meat, we might as well cut our
11:35
meat with a knife, not with a wooden spoon.
11:38
You know, I have, A carving knife.
11:41
That was my dad's, I always say my mom and my dad's, but it was the
11:45
carving knife that was always used to carve the Turkey at holiday times.
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And so we ended up with it.
11:51
And Bob, Bob's a big knife sharpener.
11:54
He sharpens everything, you know, he, in fact, we were having dinner over at
11:57
friends the other weekend and he opens the knife drawer and starts sharpening all her
12:01
knives right there of the kitchen for her.
12:04
Sylvia Lovely: those things.
12:04
He can't stand it.
12:05
If
12:06
Nancy May: Right now he's picked up the name Bob The Builder
12:08
'cause he is fixing a screw in the drawer because a drawer was falling
12:11
apart and we dropped off screws for
12:13
Sylvia Lovely: could you ship Bob up here for like two weeks?
12:17
Nancy May: Yes, sharpening knives, definitely.
12:20
But, there's nothing worse than having a knife that won't cut through a tomato.
12:23
So I've got Bob for that one.
12:26
But every time we bring that knife out, I think of mom and dad and in fact,
12:30
at our Christmas party, which we do every year, usually about two, well,
12:35
we used to do it the Friday before Christmas so that everybody had a
12:38
chance to not cook for themselves.
12:41
They could have somebody else cook for 'em, and that was us.
12:43
But I always gave the carving of the Turkey to somebody else, so
12:47
they felt like they were part of
12:49
family.
12:49
Right In the community.
12:50
That was there and we found somebody who's an expert carver down here.
12:55
So Harold
12:56
Sylvia Lovely: Really
12:56
Nancy May: new Carver
12:57
Sylvia Lovely: Harold
12:58
Nancy May: party
12:59
Sylvia Lovely: man and we have a
13:00
car.
13:01
Nancy May: Right.
13:01
Keith back home in Connecticut.
13:03
Our neighbor Keith, was the carver, and now we've got
13:06
another neighbor, Harold, who's
13:07
Sylvia Lovely: and.
13:07
Nancy May: carver.
13:08
Sylvia Lovely: And let me add, I learned this from my chef because
13:11
we did some classes with children
13:14
and he encouraged them to use knives, but he taught them how to use knives,
13:19
which I thought was very interesting.
13:21
'cause you curve your fingers around.
13:23
I,
13:24
Nancy May: They
13:24
Sylvia Lovely: trying to think.
13:26
Yeah, you, Yeah, Yeah.
13:28
And, and that will save now
13:31
Nancy May: fingertips,
13:33
Sylvia Lovely: you know, that.
13:33
Nancy May: cut themselves on a knife.
13:35
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
13:35
but it always frightened me when he would be encouraging children to use knives.
13:39
But he said he had to teach his own children because as a chef,
13:42
he had lots of knives around.
13:44
And if you have 'em around, kids are gonna find 'em.
13:46
It's like if you leave a gun unlocked, you know your kid's gonna find it and
13:49
take it to school and get expelled, and your life's gonna be turned upside down.
13:52
Right.
13:53
So you don't.
13:54
You don't want that.
13:56
And the other thing about knives is they make you slow down.
14:00
A lot of people get their food pre-chopped now.
14:03
Everything's convenience oriented and that onion chopping,
14:06
for instance, makes you cry.
14:08
But it's a good cry.
14:09
Right?
14:11
I keep telling myself that, but it, it takes time,
14:14
Nancy May: It's a meditation type of thing, right?
14:16
When you're chopping and putting things together.
14:17
So yes, we'll call, knife meditation.
14:20
Maybe we should need do to a knife meditation show.
14:22
Say that three
14:23
times fast.
14:23
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
14:24
Nancy May: that would put me to sleep.
14:25
But don't fall asleep when you're chopping onions.
14:27
No, not gonna work.
14:28
Sylvia Lovely: Or anything.
14:31
Nancy May: then we have mixing bowls, but before we go to mixing bowls and whisks,
14:34
because I have a very kind of, hopefully it's a heartwarming story about a bowl
14:39
that we have and we'll be right back.
14:59
So Sylvia, we stopped with knives and we've taken this turn To something.
15:04
Well, we're taking the turn to mixing bowls and whisks not quite
15:08
as sharp, but ' cause we're round and we're whiskey or that's a
15:12
Sylvia Lovely: Air.
15:12
Full of air.
15:13
Nancy May: right?
15:14
But, the ritual of baking has become a big deal again.
15:18
And there's this whole tra wife thing.
15:20
But even still, I'm not a fan of the tra wife thing.
15:23
that's for
15:23
another show, but.
15:25
I know, right?
15:26
but to eat his own, I get it.
15:28
I get it.
15:29
But
15:30
baking, I mean, I
15:33
I think you can do that.
15:34
I think you can do that.
15:35
But baking, I mean, you can't bake and you can't cook without some
15:39
kind of bowl at some point in time.
15:42
Right.
15:43
And whisks, well, you've got the electric and the hand whisk.
15:46
I'm kind of an electric beater person.
15:48
Sylvia Lovely: Mm-hmm.
15:49
Yeah.
15:49
yeah.
15:50
I do, but sometimes I just like to use my wooden spoon and my
15:54
whisk at the beginning of baking.
15:56
Of course, when you can do the eggs and the sugars and things like that where you
16:00
can get them, or eggs are really good for that.
16:03
Uh, yeah, that's true.
16:04
I have a set of bowl that I guess we've had since.
16:08
Nancy May: a second.
16:08
You have a set of bowl or a set of bowls?
16:10
Sylvia Lovely: I do
16:11
have those from time to time, and they get me in trouble.
16:14
Okay.
16:15
Oh well anyway.
16:16
Old bowl, you know, old bowl that are like faded.
16:19
They're just plain old things, you know?
16:21
I don't know.
16:22
Do you have fancy bowls?
16:23
Nancy May: I don't have fancy bowls, but I do have a very special wooden
16:27
bowl and it's sitting on my counter.
16:29
It's a big old wooden bowl that Bob and I got during our, we were on our
16:34
honeymoon, which we drove up Route seven to Vermont, New Hampshire area.
16:39
The Vermont Bowl factory, which is no longer around, but it was very
16:43
famous, little tiny place at the time.
16:46
It burned down and they used to hand turn wooden bowls.
16:50
We have a wooden bowl from the Vermont
16:52
bowl factory and on the bottom when we got home, Bob carved in like one of
16:57
those little wood carver things, a little heart with our initials and the date
17:01
Sylvia Lovely: Oh,
17:01
Nancy May: is that sweet.
17:02
Sylvia Lovely: he's a romantic.
17:03
In addition to being a knife.
17:05
Nancy May: I know
17:06
Sylvia Lovely: Knife, whatever.
17:07
What do you call a knife
17:09
He's a knife Carver.
17:09
Uh,
17:10
Nancy May: I'll
17:10
Sylvia Lovely: some kind of a version
17:12
of that.
17:13
But, that is so romantic.
17:14
That's something you'll cherish forever.
17:17
Nancy May: absolutely.
17:18
Sylvia Lovely: and hope somebody wants it after you, you
17:20
know, that's the sad part
17:21
Nancy May: Yeah.
17:23
Sylvia Lovely: is that people don't want the stuff anymore.
17:25
Right.
17:25
But well, that's for another day when we'll talk more about that.
17:28
But yeah, so, Tools become part of that whole experience.
17:32
If you think about it, what we use, the whisk introduces air
17:36
into the, in, into all of that.
17:39
And I've got like two or three of those things in my,
17:41
in my arsenal and Okay.
17:43
How I acquired them, they're just plain, ordinary.
17:45
But got 'em, I've
17:47
Nancy May: think they were pyres.
17:48
They weren't clear Pyrex bowls.
17:49
They were the, the milky Glass bowls.
17:51
Do you remember those that our moms probably had, or, well, kids who are
17:56
younger today wouldn't know those.
17:57
You would get them at the grocery store and they either had a
18:01
flower pattern design on them.
18:03
It was marigold yellow or avocado green, some sort of print that was on it,
18:08
they were mixing bowls.
18:09
Sylvia Lovely: and they weren't quite ceramics.
18:11
They were not that
18:13
Nancy May: And I don't think it was a Pyrex, but it was something
18:15
that didn't break as easily as a
18:18
ceramic.
18:18
Sylvia Lovely: what they call that.
18:19
Yeah,
18:20
Nancy May: I see those occasionally in, the junk cabbage shot.
18:23
Cabbage shots.
18:24
You shouldn't say cabbage shots.
18:25
My, my mouth is between your balls and my bowls and my cabbage
18:30
we're having a good day today,
18:32
Sylvia Lovely: and
18:32
Nancy May: mixers.
18:32
So yeah, that, and now the whisk sort of takes us onto more the modern whisker, or
18:38
beater, beater thing, which is the, the picture that we had on the Facebook group.
18:43
It's a, I'll describe it for those who are listening.
18:45
It's basically a, a device that looks like the beaters on a, a regular electric
18:52
that are attached to some pole and a gear that makes it go round and round
18:57
When you turn it, and I'm, making the hand motions, like, you can't see this,
19:00
but it turns the little beaters on the bottom of this pole manually versus
19:05
electrically, and they're light, but.
19:08
You'll occasionally see them in a, in a gadget shop.
19:10
And it was surprised at how many of our, folks there our
19:14
little group had one still.
19:17
Or they used it, or their mom had one or Go figure, I don't
19:21
have one anymore.
19:21
Sylvia Lovely: me wanna find one.
19:22
'cause I do, I have an old mixer, and it's just a handheld and it's kind of,
19:27
half the time doesn't work.
19:28
So they always work.
19:29
If you're using your hands to make 'em work,
19:33
Nancy May: Right,
19:33
Sylvia Lovely: thing, right?
19:34
Nancy May: best tool are your hands.
19:35
But anyway,
19:36
Sylvia Lovely: They don't wear out.
19:37
Nancy May: and the stand mixer, the old fashioned stand mixers.
19:40
I've seen the original ones that made, I guess a GE or whoever made them.
19:45
but those were old, clunky things.
19:47
And now we have the fancy ones today that are like the
19:50
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
19:50
Nancy May: ones.
19:51
Sylvia Lovely: How many, like, I wonder how, they rank on, bride's
19:54
lists of things that they want today.
19:57
' cause
19:57
you know.
19:57
people eat out so much, become interesting to see where they, rank.
20:01
I bet blenders have probably taken like a lot 'cause it make
20:05
smoothies and things like that.
20:07
What do you have in your kitchen?
20:08
Do you have a
20:09
Nancy May: We have two blenders.
20:10
One I told Bob we have to get rid of because I hate cleaning it.
20:13
It does.
20:14
The bottom doesn't come off.
20:15
So I said, just get the plain old stupid blender that just the bottom comes off.
20:19
It's very simple.
20:20
I don't need anything fancy one that when you put ice in it, it'll be fine.
20:23
You can make a smoothie.
20:25
Get rid of the, the blender that makes the soup and chops up the
20:28
dog food and does just one thing.
20:30
I'm done.
20:31
So, Yeah.
20:33
Yeah.
20:33
Dave, get rid of the fancy one.
20:35
What else do we have?
20:36
We have a juicer that we've never used 'cause he wanted the juicer, gadget.
20:40
Gadget.
20:40
Bob Bob's a gadget guy too.
20:42
else do we have?
20:43
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, I but you know, those big mixers, I don't have a mixer like
20:46
I had, I just have a little handheld, but I don't bake that much either.
20:50
Do
20:50
Nancy May: I do have a KitchenAid mixer that I have used a number of times.
20:53
I haven't made, done a lot of fancy baking lately other than
20:57
my bread, which, I use my hands.
20:58
Those are the two tools that, wooden spoon in my hands and a bowl,
21:03
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
21:03
Nancy May: pretty much it.
21:05
Sylvia Lovely: That's kind of kind of good, you
21:06
Nancy May: yeah.
21:07
But.
21:07
We are at the new age of gadgets.
21:10
So, you know, one of the other things that I do have, which I absolutely love,
21:14
and we were looking for a replacement part for it this morning is, and
21:19
I've mentioned it in past shows, is my mom's original Cuisinart mixer.
21:24
Sylvia Lovely: Oh, interesting.
21:25
Nancy May: It has a crack on it.
21:27
the base was white and now it's kind of a yellow.
21:29
It's had two buttons on, which is one button that you put your on and off.
21:33
And the other one was a pulse.
21:34
And that Cuisinart mixes chops and does everything better than anything else.
21:39
We have a new one that we got for the aids that took care of mom and dad.
21:43
I figured they would use it.
21:44
I've got the new one.
21:45
It, it's horrible.
21:46
I just
21:47
Sylvia Lovely: Ah.
21:47
Nancy May: like it.
21:47
Nope.
21:48
Sylvia Lovely: Isn't that interesting to hear?
21:49
Nancy May: the, top, just the little button that makes it stick
21:52
so it'll close so you can turn it
21:54
on.
21:54
Off is
21:54
gone.
21:55
So
21:55
Sylvia Lovely: old is good.
21:56
Old is good.
21:58
What about a garlic press?
21:59
Do you have that?
22:00
Or a mandolin
22:02
Nancy May: I have a man, I have two mandolins.
22:04
I have two fancy man, actually three mandolins.
22:07
Yes.
22:07
And I have shaved my fingers a number of times.
22:10
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
22:10
Then greater, I use that for Parmesan,
22:13
you know, one of those portable, greater things
22:16
Nancy May: I was watching the Lost Kitchen on Netflix and how she
22:18
was traveling and she had this really cool three-sided grater in
22:22
mandolin, and so I had to have it.
22:24
So it's more of a decorative piece, but I do use it and It's one of the
22:28
best things, but I have slice my finger on it, so I'm kind of careful.
22:31
Yeah, I'm kind of careful on that one.
22:33
But, that's the mandolin that I, I like the best.
22:36
And then there's a couple other ones.
22:37
My, my mom never had a mandolin.
22:39
We used
22:40
Sylvia Lovely: do you think people really have an avocado slicer?
22:43
Nancy May: it's called a spoon and a knife.
22:45
And that's what, yes.
22:48
Do you know there's actually something called avocado hand.
22:50
Sylvia Lovely: No.
22:50
What in the
22:51
Nancy May: Do you know what that is?
22:53
So when you cut an avocado in half right?
22:55
And
22:56
you, you, you, twist it.
22:57
One side always has the pit.
22:59
Sylvia Lovely: Right.
22:59
Nancy May: You put the avocado with a pit in your hand and you
23:02
take a big heavy knife that's sharp and smash it into the, pit.
23:07
Well, more often than not
23:09
people miss it and they, that knife goes into their hand.
23:12
And avocado hand is a term that's used in ER hospitals,
23:17
Sylvia Lovely: I bet.
23:18
'cause you know that people do
23:20
Nancy May: Yep.
23:21
Mm-hmm.
23:21
Mm-hmm.
23:22
So that's, that's it.
23:23
But, yeah, I love going into junk shops around here, especially, I didn't see them
23:27
as much up north in Connecticut, but down in Florida they have all sorts of wild,
23:32
old fashioned gadgets, and I have more pictures I'm gonna have to use for this
23:36
posting to show people there's a little.
23:38
There's a little bakery up in Micanopy, Florida, which is an old
23:41
town, one of the oldest towns I think in the state of Florida that has
23:44
a bakery and it has some sort of.
23:47
Wild contraption.
23:48
I have no idea what it is, Only thing I can think of.
23:51
It looks like a harrow that you would put on the back of a tractor, but it's small
23:55
that you would use with a wooden handle.
23:57
Only thing I can think of is that it was used probably, this is my made
24:00
up idea on pastry where you could then do lattice over the top of a,
24:05
Sylvia Lovely: Oh yeah.
24:05
Sure.
24:06
Well, that makes sense.
24:07
but, as our world gets more technology driven, I'm sure there are, and I don't
24:12
have a technology kitchen, but I'm sure we're reaching into worlds, to come
24:18
that we wouldn't recognize kitchens.
24:20
And so, I don't know, are we trading off the simple.
24:23
Small things that you find in the so-called junk stores.
24:27
are we just getting smarter and what's the difference?
24:29
you now have an Instapot, you have air fryers and machines
24:33
that just promise to do it all.
24:35
And so I don't know where, where does all that leave us?
24:38
' Nancy May: Well, my sense is that it's dangerous for mental health.
24:41
Sylvia Lovely: yeah.
24:42
Nancy May: right, we're, cooking and just being in the kitchen sometimes by
24:45
yourself is a sense of quiet escape.
24:48
thinking of quiet escape and, and old stuff.
24:50
You're never gonna Guess what I got this weekend?
24:52
I got an old fashioned crock butter turner.
24:57
Sylvia Lovely: No,
24:58
Nancy May: I
24:58
did.
24:59
I
24:59
did.
25:00
I am not
25:01
gonna.
25:02
It was at a, a little local shop that was closing down and I just loved the
25:06
way
25:06
this thing with the
25:06
Sylvia Lovely: they Tall
25:07
Nancy May: Yeah, it's about as tall as my knee.
25:09
It's a,
25:10
Sylvia Lovely: do you do?
25:11
Nancy May: well, it's got the, the wood pole and the,
25:14
the little, I call it flat.
25:16
It's
25:16
Sylvia Lovely: on the Prairie
25:17
Nancy May: why Yeah, like you chomping it up and down like
25:19
everybody got the big muscles.
25:21
I will not churn butter, but I thought it was so cool.
25:24
I just had to have one, so,
25:26
yeah.
25:26
Sylvia Lovely: come with instructions?
25:29
Nancy May: So, yeah, I think I can ask AI for that one.
25:32
Sylvia Lovely: Oh ai.
25:33
Will they talk about technology?
25:35
No, I agree with you though.
25:36
I think, when you do cook and I don't often, but you know, it's funny 'cause
25:41
you develop your own little tiny recipe.
25:44
Quirkiness, like quiche, restaurants frequently serve quiche, right?
25:48
But they never meet my standards 'cause I just have a special way I prepare my
25:53
quiche and it's really rich and it's only occasional, but oh, it is so good.
25:59
and restaurants, it just tastes like, you know, it's dry.
26:02
I don't cook often, but when I do, I want it to be tailored
26:05
Nancy May: and restaurant kes tend not to be fluffy.
26:07
They tend to be kind of flat, right.
26:09
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah, they are.
26:10
And I like fluffy.
26:12
Nancy May: So I have a quiche recipe that people go crazy for absolutely nuts.
26:17
Sylvia Lovely: Tell me once in it, tell me how you do it.
26:19
Nancy May: well, I'll tell you where to get the recipe.
26:21
It's Paula Dean's quiche recipe.
26:24
Love you, Pauline.
26:26
More fat, more butter than you can possibly
26:28
Sylvia Lovely: Oh, butter
26:29
Nancy May: heavy cream,
26:30
Sylvia Lovely: heavy cream.
26:31
Yeah.
26:31
Nancy May: it's her, uh, spinach, bacon, quiche.
26:34
And then I will not always use spinach or bacon.
26:37
I'll just put any, like roasted garlic, like I'll just substitute that
26:40
Sylvia Lovely: you can give, like I get a leftover pork chop.
26:43
Bernie and I don't eat a whole, we split meals.
26:46
We bring home pork chop even when we split, and I'll use
26:49
pork chop in it to flavor it.
26:51
not a lot.
26:52
'cause the eggs provide the protein.
26:54
Cheese provides protein.
26:55
And so you don't need a lot of meat.
26:57
And I'm trying not to eat as much of it, although now it's
27:00
kind of meat world, right?
27:02
Protein.
27:03
But.
27:03
Nancy May: eat a lot of beans, I promise not to stand behind you.
27:05
Okay, and speaking of behind, I think we're close to the end of this
27:09
show we wanna thank you all for being here with us because you know what?
27:14
We are so fascinated with the stories that we hear from you all and from
27:18
others because believe it or not, we all have stories about food.
27:21
In fact.
27:22
Another Sylvia, Sylvia France shared a picture, with me yesterday.
27:27
She had lunch with a friend, and he makes, was it beet pickled beet eggs
27:34
or eggs that are, in the pickled eggs that are in the beet color.
27:37
And so she sent me a picture of the jar of pickled egg beets that he sent her or gave
27:43
her, which I thought was really sweet.
27:44
every male has a story and every story is a feast, and you all have stories.
27:49
We would love to hear more about your stories.
27:51
You can go to podcast Family Tree food stories and send us your story there,
27:57
or join us on Facebook in the Family Tree Food Stories Group because we
28:01
have lots of stories going on, and we'd love to hear yours and share them with
28:05
others because we might get an idea of.
28:07
What sort of tool or gadget you use that's better than, I don't know, a wooden spoon.
28:12
How dare I say that?
28:14
Sylvia Lovely: Yeah.
28:14
Right.
28:15
That's the king sacrilege.
28:18
Nancy May: right.
28:18
Thank you for sharing our table with us and we look forward to hearing you soon.
28:23
Take care and be well.
28:25
Bye-bye.