The Old Fashioned Way

 Years ago before there were food processors and kitchen Aids, fancy blenders and juicers, our grandmothers, and perhaps our mothers mixed and juiced and blended their ingredients by hand. I was recently going through a kitchen cabinet at my mother's house when I came across this little vintage kitchen tool.  It had belonged to my grandmother before she gave it to my mom.

I don't remember ever seeing my grandmother using it, but I do remember watching my mom as she would screw it to her pull out bread board, something that every kitchen seem to have back in the day.  She would grind up leftover roast beef, ham or chicken into a bowl.  Then chunks of onion and pickles would be put through the grinder as well, all to be mixed together to make a meat spread to put into sandwiches.  Nothing was ever wasted when I was growing up.  Mom would save all the crusts and ends of the bread loaf and when she had a large amount collected she would put it into the oven to toast.  My job was to take all the toasted pieces of bread and push them through the grinder to turn them into bread crumbs that could be used in other dishes. I remember really enjoying the process of cranking that handle round and round and watching the food or crumbs spill out into the waiting bowl.

 

 My mother is now giving it to me.  My kitchen doesn't have a pull out bread board, but hopefully it will work on this heavy chopping board I keep on my counter. Maybe I will use it to grind up nuts.  Wait a minute, I think I have a mini food processor for that. Shall I do it the modern or the old fashioned way? hmm..

 

Here is another little vintage kitchen tool I found in my mother's cupboard, a metal fruit press.

 Growing up in Southern California in the time before most of the orange groves were plowed over to make room for huge housing developments, citrus fruit was inexpensive and easy to find.  I remember pressing many an orange or a lemon to make lemonade or juice to drink or use in some tasty dessert,  When we lived in the desert we had friends who owned a pomegranate orchard on their farm.  They would gift us with large grocery bags filled to the brim with fruit at harvest time.  My mother would cut them in half and use this nifty little squeezer to make juice for pomegranate jelly.  Yum!  

I truly appreciate all my modern kitchen aids, but somehow using them doesn't quite conjure up that same sense of satisfaction that watching my mother and grandmother put together delicious meals and treats the old fashioned way, using a knife, a cutting board and a couple of simple cast iron tools. Feeling a bit nostalgic but in a good way.  

Adieu!