Thanks everyone for all of the wonderful posts! I love hearing your sweet memories of time with your moms, grandmas, and even now with your kids! You all make me want to go on Ebay to find all of these treasures that you speak of. I am especially intrigued by the cast iron stove, though I like the $20 Cracker Barrel replica idea as opposed to the $100 antique! 
I think what I like best, though, is how we all cherish these memories enough to want to share them with others, especially our kids. I especially think it is great that you are all encouraging even sons and nephews to join in on the fun. So here is one more toy to consider...(not a true culinary toy, but a fun one.) the Snoopy Snow Cone machine.
Yep, had the Snoopy sno cone machine. That thing was a pain in the a$$!. I hated to put all my effort into pushing down that plunder and cranking that handle on the back just to get a little crushed ice. Wasn't worth the effort, but what does a kid know. DH bought some electric snow cone ice shaver thingy a couple years back thinking it would be neat. I think it got used once and still sits in a cabinet collecting dust like so many other things.
This is a great thread. Yep, I also had the Snoopy Sno Cone machine and you are correct - it really was a pain in the a--. My neighbor broke it 3 days after I got it for Christmas trying to crank the silly thing. I didn't have the easybake oven, but another type -
anybody else have the Holly Hobby oven?
I just found it on ebay! I didn't have the ice cream stuff (sundae dish and scoop), but the rest of it was definitely part of my kit.
http://tinyurl.com/2dmxup
dating myself.. I gave that kit to my daughter when she was little, and now my granddaughter is playing with some of it.. Few pieces missing, but still have alot of it.
That's funny that I didn't even think of it until I checked it out on ebay..
I feel so cheated...I never even heard of Buzzy the Cookie Crafter!! I too was the child (one of four) of a farmer's daughter and we were extremely self-sufficient at early ages because our parents were in the fields. I entered all of my baked goods in the county fair for the first time at age 8 and had baked them all myself. BEFORE that though, I had the complete tiny tupperware set that matched my mom's putrid 70s colors-avocado green, harvest gold, burnt orange (I think that one had a different name) and brown-mugs, pitcher, etc. and I loved them. My little brother and I would use our snow-cone maker and fill them up. We found out early on that we could use orange juice concentrate or Country Time Lemonade with a TINY bit of water to flavor our snowcones after we ran out of the stuff they sent with it. DELICIOUS. I STILL like my OJ and Lemonade SUPER strong!!
Wow - Great stories.
When growing up, a family friend use to keep my twin sister and I for days on end during the summer. She had three kids of her own and their cousins were always over. I remember flying through the screen door, drinking out of the water hose and long hot Texas summer days and sticky summer nights. She didn't have air conditioning and we slept with a swam fan.
My Mum's friend was a cake decorator. She was always working with cake mixes, colors and my favorite - Butter Cream Frosting!
I would watch her for hours on end putting her cakes together. It would amaze me that when we woke up that cakes would be sitting all around the kitchen. She had to get up before the chickens to bake otherwise she would pass out of a heat stroke if she baked during the day...
One day, she let me have a broken cake to decorate. She showed me how to ice it and then use the star tip to decorate it. With time, she taught me how to bake a cake so I could make them at home.
It is almost 30 years since those days of baking with my Mum's friend, but I think of her now as I am taking up the art of cake decorating. We have lost touch over the years and I hope to find her in the near future to tell her that she has been a great inspiration. It's funny, but I still remember some of the Old School techniques that she taught me...
Awh ... the memories...
ladysonja,
Your story sounds familiar to me too. I used to spend my summers (with my bro and sis) at my grandparents' house in Texas. We spent our days picking and snapping green beans, drinking from the hose, playing a bit of baseball in the fields with our (seemed like hundreds of them) cousins, and then playing with the only toy set my grandparents had...a pink plastic tea set. At night we slept with the windows open listening to the crickets and coyotes.. Man it would get hot there! If we were really good that day, meaning we didn't injure ourselves or others, we would get an ice cold Coca Cola (Still in the glass bottle) to drink on the front porch or some of Grandma's home made ice cream...
Oooohh I love your stories. Not familiar with some of the toys you cherish but I have a few of my own.
I love the tea sets and kitchen sets. One I cherish most was a cheap plastic teaset my mom gave me as a reward for good grades. i love it cause I know she got it at a time when money was tight and knowing that she bought it for me when she couldv'e spent the money on something else makes it extra special.
I always used to play "cooking" with plants and flowers that grew in our garden - getting told off by my grannie for ruining her plants!
No one in my family baked. The oven was used to store left overs. But I picked up my love of cooking from my grandma. And one of the family's treasured secrets was fruit salad. Everything was made from tinned fruits, even tinned cream, because tinned items meant they were "stateside" (imported from America) which in the Philippine context meant they were high quality and expensive. It was good salad and funnily enough though my family has migrated to the states, where fresh cream, peaches, oranges, apples, etc abound, they still use the same tinned items to make fruit salad!
The first recipe I invented was a yummy "torte" of Ritz cracker layers, butter, condensed milk and shredded cheese which I put together for a garden picnic when I was about 8 years old. It's still my comfort food, I'm embarrassed to admit.
I love this thread. So many memories. I owe everything am I now, as a kitchen addict, wife, mother and woman to my beloved grandma who was called home to Heaven last March. Though she didn't teach me to bake, she taught me to LIVE!
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