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Welcome To Grandma's Kitchen

Pull Up A Chair And Enjoy The Topics Below

Grandma's Kitchen is a page where you can sit and visit with dessert lovers and friendly folk from around the world. Share your fondest nostalgia, listen to old time radio shows, take a dessert poll, reflect on a delightful kitchen poem, and lots more.

Do you remember Grandma's kitchen with its cheerful red checked tablecloth and the geraniums blooming in the sunny south window? What a place to make homemade hermit cookies or chocolate fudge while the snowflakes were fluttering against the little window panes.

Grandma's cheery kitchen

Some of my fondest childhood memories are centered around time spent in our old farmhouse kitchen. The cupboards and baking counter were set along two walls, the cook stove, fridge and radio along the third, and a comfortable old 19th century fainting couch (a couch with a back that's raised at one end) sat against the fourth wall beneath a window.

The center of the room was reserved for the large kitchen table and its eight wooden chairs.

Aside from mealtimes, many hours were spent around that old kitchen table taking, reading, playing games, listening to the radio, and entertaining visitors who had just dropped by for a chat. You didn't need to call ahead or wait for an invitation in those days. You were always welcome to drop in unannounced.

Experience Grandma's Kitchen

Why not drop in now and have fun exploring the page? Grandma's kitchen is always open online. You're welcome to make your favorite hot beverage and pull up a chair. Be sure to invite your friends to visit this site by using the buttons at the bottom to Tweet about it, or share it on Facebook.

Grandma's Do You Remember When... Forum

The place to relax and reminisce about old times. Whether it's about nostalgic candies or your first car, share those timeless memories or enjoy reading what others remember.

Listen To Old Time Radio Shows

Got a few minutes? Enjoy listening to the best old time radio shows ever broadcast. Take your pick from comedy to drama and relive some fond memories.

Nostalgic Radio Forum

Here's where Old Time Radio (OTR) fans relive the Golden Days of Radio. Share your memories of vintage radio programs and their stars, or have fun reading and commenting on what others have shared.

Nostalgia Television Forum

Relive fond memories of early television shows and their stars. Post your own old time TV memories, or enjoy reading and commenting on what others have shared.

Kitchen Poems

Enjoy reading a selection of Mom's favorite little kitchen poems to brighten your day. Discover how poetry and cooking go well together.

Humorous Cooking Quotes

These old food quotes and sayings will bring a smile to your face. Share them with your friends on Twitter to help brighten their busy day.

Dessert Recipe News

Get vintage dessert recipes and related news items updated daily. Pull up a chair in Grandma's kitchen and find out what's new in the world of great-tasting food and desserts.

Find Out Of Print Cookbooks

Here's how to get your own copies of the old time recipe books that were once kept on a shelf in Grandma's kitchen cupboard. Originals and reprints of the old cookbooks are still available, and I'll show you where to look.

Read About Victorian Crafts

Have fun making unique Victorian craft items to beautify your home and delight your friends and family. This page will get you started.

Aeolian Harp Plans

The melodious sound of a Victorian window harp entertains whenever there's a light breeze blowing on a summer's day. Here are plans for building your own wind harp for your kitchen window or patio.

Antique Kitchen Appliances

View illustrations of the 19th century kitchen appliances that were commonly used in Grandma's kitchen. You'll find some of them mentioned in the old fashioned recipes.

Antique Baking Molds

See illustrations of the molds used in Victorian kitchens for baking and making fancy dessert dishes. These are the culinary molds sometimes referred to in the vintage dessert recipes.

The Dessert Recipes Poll

Please cast your vote for your favorite dessert and help me to know what types of old time recipes you'd like to see more of. Help me to make this the best dessert website on the Internet.

The Best Way To Lose Weight

Grandma's dessert recipes are best eaten in moderation, but second helpings are hard to resist. Here's how I've managed to deal with the extra pounds.

Helping Children Around The World

We are so blessed! Here's how your pennies can help needy children in other countries to experience a better, healthier life.

Lest We Forget

Special Memorial Pages to honor fallen friends or loved ones who were casualties of war or peacekeeping. Share your Memorial with us, or read the Memorials shared by others.

How To Have A Cheery Kitchen Like Grandma's

The modern kitchen has conveniences and luxuries that Grandma never dreamed of, but Grandma's kitchen was always bright and cheery even in winter. Its pale yellow walls, blue checked curtains, and patterned linoleum floor made it inviting and comfortable. Our family spent more time together in that old farmhouse kitchen than in any other room in the house.

The following article is taken from an old newspaper clipping found in one of Mom's recipe scrapbooks. Although it's describing an ideal kitchen in the 1920s, its suggestions can be used to create an inviting kitchen today.

The Ideal Kitchen

The ideal kitchen would, of course, be designed with the practical needs of its particular household in mind, writes a Household Science Expert in Answers. The practicalities of the kitchen should certainly be considered first, but for all that I am inclined to think that for those of us who work in our kitchens a good deal the practical side must be relieved here and there.

If I think of all the kitchens I have ever been in, there are other details besides efficient draining-boards, electric cookers, labor saving cabinets, and so forth which stick in my memory. I remember first of all whether the whole room gave an effect of light; whether it was cheerful to work in. I remember the windows and the views from the windows. I remember that I could see the sea from one, gardens from another, grey roofs from another. I remember curtains and color schemes and the gleam of china as well as refrigerators, larder arrangements, and hot water systems.

I have always felt that kitchens must be friendly as well as efficient places. Most housewives spend a good deal of time in their kitchens, and if they do not, someone else does.

Labor saving furniture grows cheaper and cheaper, and kitchen cabinets may now be obtained to match your particular color schemes. Those who are setting up house for the first time have, of course, a better chance of carrying out some of their pet ideas, but most of us can have our way from time to time about color schemes.

Remember first and foremost that your kitchen should be bright and cheerful. Choose for it, then, light cream, primrose, lime, pale orange, pale green, or pale blue, while avoiding blue, or green if the room lacks sun. Choose something washable. Paint is expensive, but there are now washable wallpapers.

The happiest and cheapest choice for kitchen curtains is the fadeless check gingham. Gay chintzes are also attractive, or if you prefer to be more modern (and more expensive), you may have oiled silk. For the rest, indulge your fancy as you wish, and increase the friendliness of your kitchen according to the time you spend there.

Before leaving Grandma's kitchen, be sure to visit our most popular pages:

Humorous Cooking Quotes

Victorian Crafts

Aeolian Harp Plans

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HOME to Dessert Recipes

Welcome To My Website

My name is Don and I've dedicated my site to bringing you the best in vintage dessert recipes.

Grandma's historical recipes are given exactly as they were first published and sometimes lack exact temperatures and cooking times. Here, you'll find...

Help With Vintage Recipes
Help With Measurements
Help With Oven Temperatures

Grandma McIlmoyle's vintage recipes for dessert

Enjoy making the delicious homemade desserts your grandparents loved. Help to keep the old fashioned recipes alive.