I'm just curious if anyone else is sentimental over "cooking utensils" that have been passed on from a family member or friend to you. My first set of square tiered cake pans came from my husbands Grandmother whom I unfortunately never met. I was given my Grandmothers round tiered pans and just recently recieved my Great-Grandmother's rolling pin (and it is BIG). When I use these items I can't help but wonder how many Christmas or Wedding cakes have been baked in those pans or how many pies that rolling pin rolled.
I hope they know I treasure these items and hope to one day pass them on to my daughter.
I only have my grandmother's covered cast iron skillet, but when she passed, I went into the kitchen and claimed her recipe box. No one said a thing. I cooked by her side since I could stand. All of her main recipes are incorporated in my business and they are my favorite to make. Many other family recipes are used and I wouldn't change them. After Christmas I am going to ask my cousins and aunts to submit recipes and they will get the credit on the web site.
YOu are very blessed. I was never in a position to get things like that. I was blessed to get some items, but the ones like you are talking about, no. I would have done the same thing as you if I had though. I am very sentimental about that kind of thing. I will more than likely get my mother's stuff when she gives up cooking, but since my brother loves to cook he will probably want some of it too. I want my mother's rolling pin when that time comes and her cookbooks. She has already told me that there are things that she will give me. My brother is very generous so if there is something he wants I will be glad to share that item with him instead of taking it for myself. Unfortunately we are not close enough in distance to share back and forth. hopefully that is still a good long while off. Realistically, I am not sure though. My mom is a fantasic cook, but doesn't do it as much as she used to. God bless and you just keep on reminiscing. 
As my children grew up and moved out on their own, I would often get phone calls asking "how do I make Nan's blueberry cake?", or "how do I make bread pudding?, or the like. I'm very thankful that my mom and mother-in-law are still alive and strong at 80+ but it got me to thinking about some of theirs (and mine) favourite recipes. Most family celebrations center around food and these memories are very precious.
So I gathered all the family recipes and I made a cookbook for each family member with all these treasured recipes and memories. I added photos and captions. Long after I'm gone and our mothers gone, these recipes will now be passed down from generation to generation. I'm so happy they won't be lost and will be there for many family celebrations to come.
What great stories! I'm from the south and passed on family members do live on in their recipes. My three girls say they will only fight over their best loved recipes of mine, so I bought those blank binder recipe books and I am handwriting all of the grandmothers and my recipes for them... times three. Who needs a video camera for immortality?
My husband's grandmother gave me her first Betty Crocker cookbook, and her first cast iron griddle... i was always over at the house admiring them, and writing down recipes from it, and finally she said "You mights well take it, your the only one who has looked at them in 30 yrs. I know all the recipes by heart, and now, you can know them too!" I cried. I hadn't had a gramma since i was 10, and i was proud that day to know she loved me as much as i do her.
I have a ladle that belonged to my maternal grandmother; I never met her because she died long before I was born. I also have a set of cookie cutters from my husband's grandmother.
Hmmm . . . what else? I also have a set of four Pyrex bowls that were a wedding gift to my parents when they were married 50 years ago. My mom gave them to me a few years ago because they're too heavy for her to lift now (she has arthritis in both hands). It gives me the warm fuzzies to use those and know that I'm serving love to my family.
Out of all of that, though, my favorite is probably my mother's Betty Crocker cookbook, published in 1957, that she got as a high school graduation present. She gave it to me when I moved into my first apartment. Oh, and the recipes written in her own hand for frittoli (sort of like a pizza turnover), focaccia and sfingi (Sicilian-style donut holes).
I think I need to call my mom now and tell her thank you and I love her.
Funny I should read this post today: I just spent hours scanning some of my mothers hand-written recipes. It is a project that will take me weeks to complete as she left behind 7 spiral notebooks! I still get teary looking at her handwriting. I'm planning on making a book and passing these recipes and memories on to my now grown children.
Mom passed away of Alzheimer's 4 years ago. She taught me to bake and passed on her decorating tips and bags to me. I went on to culinary school and owned 3 bakeries. She was very proud of me. Along with the notebooks, after she died, I found laminated newspaper articles about me and my bakery. The funny thing is, I was so proud of her and what she taught herself. My mom made amazing 3-D carved cakes 45 years ago. She was way ahead of her time!! I still think of her every time I bake.
Good topic! I have serving bowls from one Baba and bakeware/utensils from the other (she will be 102 in November!). And handwritten recipes from both (and my mom too). I plan to color photocopy their recipes and handwrite my own so that my children can have all of our "family" recipes in everyone's own handwriting. I too, am very sentimental about these things. When we gather, the first question is always, "what are we going to have to eat?"
I too, have read the stories that were posted after my writing and my eyes are on the teary side also.
My mom and dad made my brother, myself and the 5 grandchildren a cookbook a few years ago of the family favorites and where and who they got the recipes from and it is very used. I love mine and it lost the plastic saver pages a long time ago because I use it so much. I want to do the same, but I am just getting started getting the recipes that I have on my computer so I think that it will still be a year or two before I get one done.
My kids do occasionally call me to ask about a recipe or how to do something and I am very touched when they do. They call Grandma a lot also. If I don't know the answer to what they are asking I will suggest they call grandma unless Grandma sent them to me. My mom is diabetic, but is very careful with her diet so she still makes things that are special, but is very careful what she eats.
Food memories are just as precious as pictures to us. My mom used to make us birthday cakes that were shaped. I remember when my brother was 4 she made him a Church (3-d) and that was 44 years ago. SO she was ahead of her time also. She always did a great job.
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