Frequently Used Kitchen Items--Vintage, Newer

 

I've taken a trip down memory lane for kitchen items that I blogged about in mid-2015. I still use a goodly number of them. "Ancient" ones include a Tupperware measuring pitcher, a Wearever air popcorn popper, and an Osterizer blender, I've replaced some items that broke or have improved capabilities or both reasons. I've accumulated a few newer gadgets since the 2015 articles.

Several kitchen items have shown up in various articles and YouTube videos I've produced over the years, mostly WRT to baking cookies or cakes. The star of my YouTube videos is my Osterizer blender, which is approaching 45,000 after being up since mid-2016. ("Stuck Blender Blade?" shows diagnosing and unsticking my blender blade assy, then reassembling and testing it.)

My composite pic in "Frequently Used Non-electrical Long-time Kitchen" l shows non-electrical implements and gadgets.

 My composite pic in "Frequently Used Electrical Long-time Kitchen Items" shows mostly small electrical appliances.

 Back in 2015, I used a still-images Kodak camera (1760 x 1168 resolution shrinkable to 640 x 425). In contrast, my more compact Canon takes varieties of stills and videos that surpass the Kodak, which broke after over 10 years of use. My video shows hands-on handling of the kitchen items, something of a show-and-tell session. Some viewers might actually recognize or have some of the same objects. Interestingly, some show up on the web with "vintage" in descriptions.

From "Vintage vs. Antique vs. Collectible | What’s the difference?"

Antiques have to be at least 100 years in age. That is what makes a true antique according to respectable dealers. Vintage can be anything from 20-99 years old and generally capture a sense of nostalgia that’s relevant to the culture in some way.

I've identified the items in the video. In case you don't recognize any or had anything similar, ask someone who's older if they owned such an object. Maybe they still have theirs!

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Frequently Used Non-electrical Long-time Kitchen Items (June 2015)
Frequently Used Electrical Long-time Kitchen Items (July 2015)
Frequently Used Kitchen Items--Vintage, Newer (article, video)

Musement Over 2021 Holiday Season Ad Circular

A recent Bed Bath & Beyond ad circular had a gift suggestion that caught my eye for weirdness: Battery Storage System. My curiosity nudged me to look online. Surprisingly, battery storage containers seem to be mainstream.

BB&Y's web page calls it "Battery Daddy", displaying double-sided storage. It even comes with a built-in battery tester. Surprising is almost 700 reviews, 4.8 rating. Maybe the optimal molded design for maximum storage space and built-in tester makes the product a reasonable purchase. But as a gift, hmmm.

The BB & B circular got me to thinking about my "Hammacher Schlemmer Mmy Oh Mmy" blog article I wrote in December 2016. The company Hammacher Schlemmer provided me plenty of offerings to, yeah, snicker at. It even inspired me to come up with a kidding article title. A few eyebrow-raising items: Battery-operated spinning fork, Stanley Cup-shaped air popcorn popper, Flameless marshmallow roaster

BB & B sells interesting household items, but sometimes I think the offerings are messages to spend, spend, spend. The beckoning seems especially prominent during back-to-school and Christmas time frames. Anyway, onward to some eye-catchers in the circular, which I found online!

Drinkware

"New Sports Drinkware", $24.99 to $39.99 image showed a few drink containers. The price range for such items struck me as pricey. I poked around the web page and found a lot more variety. And sorting for price resulted in a goodly number of items well below the price minimum of $24.99.

Coalish Soap Bar

The BB & B pic showed "Bad Ass Lump of Coal" in big letters. How intriguing! The title showed "Duke Cannon 10oz Lump of Coal" for $7.99. OMG! Eight dollars for a lump of coal! Would this be the 21st century version of Pet Rock? No! The BB & B web page, and closer look at the ad shows the product to be "Duke Cannon® 10 oz. Big Ass Lump of Coal Activated Charcoal Soap". Surprisingly, 202 reviews w/4.9 rating. Sigh! Eight bucks for a gimmicky bar of soap! Also, the circular categorized it as an under-$25 stocking stuffer. Sure, it's under $25, but "stocking stuffer" scope and cost seem to have expanded over time.

Hot Chocolate, 1 1/2-Ounce Spoonful</p>

"Hammond's 1.5oz Milk Chocolate Dunkin Spoon" caught my eye for specific function and cost. BB & B's website ("Hammond's® Milk Hot Chocolate Dunking Spoon") didn't show much detail. Googling "hammond's hot chocolate dunking spoon" yielded enough info that I inferred that stirring one of the $2.99 items and one cup of hot milk together would make a cup of hot chocolate. Sorry, seems pricey and overwrought. You want hot chocolate? Buy a multi pack of hot chocolate powder (Carnation, Nestle, Swiss Miss, ...) at your grocery store, dump an envelopeful into a cup, and pour boiled water, stirring the stuff. Mmm, remember to buy marshmallows!

Celeb Wrestler Trio Pez Pack

The circular showed a Christmas-themed Pez kit, but I couldn't find that particular item on BB & B's site. For that matter, as much as the search field suggested Pez terms, the results showed precious few. Plain "pez" works ok. An amusing offering—"Pez WWE Gift Set" for $11.99. Yikes! Only 1.74 ounces of candy! Further digging yields info about the dispenser heads—Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), John Cena, and The Undertaker. I'd not heard of The Undertaker till just now. Anyway, WalMart shows a wacky current price of $57.17, and out-of-stock blurb. A little more description and better price is at "WWE Boxed Pez Set - John Cena, The Rock and Undertaker" for $10. Apparently, the Undertaker took over Hulk Hogan's spot.

Popcorn Poppin'

The circular showed a stovetop popcorn popper for $26.99. I searched for "popcorn poppers" at BB & B's site, and was amazed at so many varieties of devices! Several of them use microwaving, one is an air popper, and several look to be stovetop. Something about Whirley Pop seems fussy with needing oil and watchful eye. Google displayed good results and q/a for "how do you use a whirley pop popcorn maker".

I still use my Wearever air popper from late 70s, nearly identical to "Popcorn Pumper Commercial From The 70's", adding melted butter and salt afterward. That machine was built to last! However, if I were to switch to a microwave popper, I'd poke around Google search results for "best microwave popcorn popper".

Product Hesitancy this Season

Do I sound like a bah humbugger in this article? Hope not by much. The fast approach of Omicron has discouraged me from casual shopping and crowds. News of supply-chain problems makes me think all sorts of items would be in short supply. Lastly, maybe firstly, I consider a lot of Bed Bath & Beyond's proffered products to be frivolous, expensive, or both, intended to encourage impulse buying, the novelty to wear off quickly. Nope, not going there!

I didn't intend on picking on Bed Bath & Beyond, except that particular circular was a rare arrival this holiday season. In the more distant past, loads of catalogs and other advertisements used to come in the mail. However you shop this season, good luck to you!

Frequently Used Electrical Long-time Kitchen Items

Do you have kitchen gadgets or appliances that you you've had for a long time and still frequently use? I previously wrote about non-electrical kitchen items. This time, I talk mostly about electrical appliances, such as my popcorn air popper and salad shooter.

Wearever Popcorn Pumper 72000

This hot-air popcorn popper is listed as vintage, and having come out around late 70s, before microwave popcorn. This model has the butter warmer at the base rather than at the chute (73000). Looking at a webpage of poppers for sale, some people state usability for roasting coffee beans.

Works great still, and I use it several times a month. Instead of the included butter warmer, I microwave butter in a glass cup with a piece of wax paper covering the top. Yeah, more work, but I prefer to not put the aluminum warmer in the dishwasher.

Presto Salad Shooter

This appliance works like a portable food processor with a lot less bulk. I use it pretty much weekly, since the early 90s. It's great for slicing carrots for salads and multiple veggies for making veggie pasta.

Although the shooter has multiple cutting and grating cones, I use the slicing one the most often. Over the years, I'd put various cracks in the original slicing cone, Read my article for details of finding and buying the replacement cone (good purchase experience).

GE Hand Mixer

I've had a few mixers over the years. This one is maybe 10 years old; the previous one had a plastic free-rotation stand. This appliance gets the job done. It has only two speeds, and the beater blades sometimes don't lock easily. (I've never felt the urge to get a high-end muscly machine.)

Osterizer Blender

Hooboy! It's been in my household since the 70s! Over the years, I've used it weekly, but sometimes I've neglected it for long periods of time (years?). I used to use it frequently for pureeing chunky salsas. (I'm not wild about chunky salsas or similarly chunky pico de gallo. I've used it for chopping up ice and also blending hot butter into egg yolks for hollandaise sauce.

Maybe 15 years ago, the blades wouldn't rotate. Maybe I didn't fully dry the blade unit after handwashing it. I reluctantly bought a replacement, not thinking it sensible to buy an entire new blender.

GE 700-watt MIcrowave Oven

Yes! Only 700 watts! I've had this oven for about 25 years. It's so low- powered that most microwave meals list instructions for 1000 to 1100-watt ovens. Pretty much, if I'm doing a frozen meal, I add about 50% more time. A couple of the rack brackets are gone or broken, so I don't use the rack anymore. The lack of a full set of brackets don't seem to affect heating performance or make the oven unsafe to use.

Do you have appliances that you've had a loooong time that you still use regularly? How about sporadically? Eh, I have some electrical and non-electrical items that I use very infrequently or still haven't tried, but I'm not going there. :-).

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Frequently Used Non-electrical Long-time Kitchen Items (June 2015)
Frequently Used Electrical Long-time Kitchen Items (July 2015)
Frequently Used Kitchen Items--Vintage, Newer (article, video)