My vintage kitchen

When the girls were little and their dad and I were still married, I went to a lot of garage and estate sales. A LOT of sales. It wasn't necessarily because we didn't have the money to buy things new, but I just liked the idea of finding bargains. I might have gotten a little carried away at times. I remember sitting in my living room in the house on Neely and looking around at all the items that came from these sales. I was proud of this. Why, I'm not sure. The girls wore clothes I bought second-hand, too, and wow do I regret that when I look back at home movies. Anyway, here are some kitchen finds that I love and use to this day:

I got this odd-shaped pan for $4.00, and it still has the price written on the bottom in permanent marker. I use it as a landing spot for hot wings, fried potatoes, and whatever we're pulling off the grill. Buying something at an estate sale means it usually belonged to someone elderly. I like to make the assumption that because of this, these are quality pieces. I tell myself that that generation thought carefully about what they bought and therefore made quality purchases. I could write a whole post on the things I tell myself about the elderly. But I digress...

This is my favorite find. I've made countless batches of salsa in this food processor. It was used when I bought it, and I've had it for probably 12 years. I rarely use it for anything else, and if you look closely you'll probably see residual salsa. I don't clean it that well. And what is that brand, Moulinex? It must be special because it's not just "La Machine," it's "La Machine II!"

I bought this double boiler at an estate sale. I use the bottom pot frequently, but I use the double boiler for only two things: homemade banana pudding and melting chocolate for buckeyes. I happen to be making buckeyes right now for a friend who just had her wisdom teeth removed. Despite how beat up it is, I love that it has a copper bottom and that it's the easiest pot to clean that I own. (Check out my vintage stovetop knobs in the background - awesome!)

Alan and I used to go to garage and estate sales pretty frequently. I think it started out as cheap entertainment when that was the only kind of entertainment we could afford, and then we just continued because we always had a good time together. We haven't been going for quite a while now. Kind of hard to do when Alan runs most Saturday mornings and pretty much every other morning of his life. I miss it.