Baking with memories and treasured heirlooms

Hey everyone!! Lots of oddness around here today. I baked AND I am blogging. The last couple day have been the "perfect storm" for so many things!

I was up early and cinnamon rolls sounded good. While Small Town Guy was catching up on some zzz's (or maybe I was just up too early) I went to Pinterest to see if I could find a recipe that sounded good. I found this one. I had everything I needed, so off to the kitchen I went.

As I started gathering the recipe ingredients, bowls, and boards it was as though I was receiving approval from heaven above. In the kitchen was myself, a recipe on an electronic device, and memories and love, sweat, and tears from some amazing women before me. Some of those women I know/knew and loved and others I never had the opportunity to meet. It was as if we were altogether in the kitchen this morning making a batch of a cinnamon rolls to have for breakfast when Small Town Guy awoke.

The board has been used by my Great Great Grandmother, a Great Great Aunt, my Great Grandmother, and most recently, my Great Aunt. This board just looks awesome!!! The bowl holding the dough belonged to my Grandmother on a different side of the family. I am sure many of you have seen the set of Pyrex bowls this bowl came from. My Grandma gave me the set about a year and a half ago. She had received the set as a gift many years ago.

I have never been one to wear an apron. I love looking them, and quite possibly collect them, but wearing them...nope. There is even one that hangs in our kitchen. Had to have it, never worn it. Never worn it until this morning. I was thinking about a different Grandma and how she so enjoyed her time in the kitchen. She always wore an apron, ALWAYS! I have a couple of her aprons, but she was a petite lady. Those sweet aprons won't fit. Something compelled me to take the must have apron off the hook and actually put it on. Once tied, it brought a grin to my face.

Time to get to work! Mixed, beaten, left alone to rest. Then rolled, buttered, cinnamoned (new word) and sugared.

Small Town Guy stirred before the sugary goodness made its way to the oven. I was told I had flour on my nose and that somehow made me cute... anywho, since he was in the kitchen he was asked to hold the baking sheet while I cut the rolls.

They kind of look amazing already don't they??? When they came out of the oven I added the glaze.

Sooooo good! Had them with  a glass of milk. YUMMMMMMM!!!!! The recipe was simple and definitely a " I will make them again." sort of recipe. They also received Small Town Guy's approval!

Once I decided this morning would become a blog post, I knew I needed a picture of our iPad. It is my generational contribution to cooking with the generations before me.

And yes, I did take a picture of part of that must have apron. Perhaps now that it has been used for the first time it will be used more often. It is much more convenient than looking for the towel that SHOULD be on my shoulder but NEVER is!

Hugs and love from my small town kitchen, where I had a blessed morning, to wherever you may be reading this from!!
~xoxo
Small Town Girl

Oh the things we collect!

How many of the same sort of item does one need to have before it is considered a collection?

Everyone collects something, right??? (I hope so)

But if they don't, I probably have enough collections for those that don't collect...how about you?

This whole thought process started the other night while I was making dinner.

Cutting boards. How many cutting boards does a person need? I don't know how many I NEED, but I HAVE 5 or 6 and I always find myself looking at them when out and about. I didn't take a picture of the entire collection, because a few of them are the standard, nothing special sort of deals. BUT THEN, there are the REALLY COOL ONES!!

This cutting board is awesome. It was a wedding present. It was handmade by a very special family friend!! It is beautiful and I think of our wedding day and the person who made it every time I use it!

Ooooh! Yes! Those herbs came from my little porch herb garden!

The smell of fresh herbs = happy!!!!!!

This cutting board is WAY awesome, too! This one belonged to the ladies before me. It was passed on to me at my bridal shower. It was used by my Great Aunt, my Great Grandmother, and my Great Great Grandmother. Now how cool is that??? Oh the time spent with this board. If only it could share some of those moments and memories...

 Do you see those spoons????? Aren't they lovely??? Don't tell, but I have more!!!

I love spoons, especially small spoons. I don't know why. I don't have an explanation for it.

Porcelain measuring spoons are awesome!!! You should see the Christmas ones. 

They are cute, and they make fun noises, but....I must caution you... 

THEY DO NOT SURVIVE A TUMBLE TO THE FLOOR!!!!!

*sniff *

Back to the cutting boards.

The other fave is this one. This one was made by my Grandfather. It is the right size for small jobs, such as cutting a lime. It also makes a great surface to set hot dishes on.

There are a few others, but they are nothing special.

As I write this, I realize that they each get used for their own thing.

Maybe I am weird. Do you have certain cutting boards you use for certain things?

What sorts of things do you collect?

Have a great day everyone!

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs and love from my small town to wherever you may be!!!

xoxo ~ Small Town Girl

Small Town Bits Sunday #3 Sugar Grove Joint Vocational School

Another weekend has come and gone. Why do they go so quickly? I think they go even quicker when you are under the weather! I hope you have managed to avoid all of the nasty germs floating around right now!

Sugar Grove Joint Vocational School. This topic was chosen because this is where my Great Grandfather graduated from high school. It seems that I really do have what appears to be endless tidbits from this side of the family. I love it! Tonight, my Dad and I were looking through a box of things that were my Great Grandfather's. Small Town Dad was looking in an envelope and I was looking in an album and we were holding pieces from the same time frame. I, of course, joined the two together and became curious.

After getting home and looking through the envelope, it is a pretty neat find.

This was the piece Small Town Dad was looking at.

I was holding a newspaper clipping about the same thing.

You open the piece Small Town Dad was holding and this is what you will see:

Class of 1932!!!

Now for the piece I was holding.

There were a few clippings, all the same.

One was dated July 31, 1982.

My Great Grandfather's high school class was celebrating 50 years!

50 years later and only 4 of the original 23 had passed.

There were some photos in the envelope as well.

This one is a color image that resembles the paper clipping.

There is no notation as to who had taken the photo.

The best I can figure is this picture is the the same folks from the above picture and their spouses/guests.

Also in the envelope was a handwritten packet. This packet contains names, addresses, and a little tidbit about each of the classmates. This is pretty cool to me. I can't wait to sit down and read the entire packet.

In addition to my Great Grandfather, my Great Aunt also graduated from here.

My Great Aunt's tidbit reads:

Graduated from Penn'a State University class of 1937. Was a school teacher for 28 1/2 years. Married and widowed twice. No children.

Now lives in Santa Rosa California, neighbor Charles Schulz Studio, Cartoonist of Snoopy, Peanuts, Lucy etc.

Yes it is true. Someone in my family personally knew Charles Schultz. This is mentioned in a couple different places in all the 'treasures' we have.

My Great Grandfather's tidbit reads:

I worked for the National Forge Co, at Irving, Pa as a crane operator for 35 years retiring from there in 1971.

I also was an electrician and did house wiring for 22 years.

In 1937, I married Ethel and made our home in Youngsville, Pa. We had three children, a daughter and two sons, Six Grandchildren, three girls and three boys and two great granddaughters.

We spend the summer at our cottage in Findley Lake, N.Y. and the winters at Bradenton, Florida.

The handwriting is not my Grandfather's. There is a p.s. that says "I also know Evan is a stamp collector"

That little bit was also true.

The piece that made me curious was this one...

This photocopy is marked "Sugar Grove Seminary and Conservatory"

There was nothing else in the envelope indicating a connection between the Sugar Grove Joint Vocational School and the Sugar Grove Seminary Conservatory. I remember hearing stories about the Seminary and was pretty sure they were connected.

I found some information at "mysugargrove.com/edu"

"In 1881 the Erie Conference of the Brethren in Christ church let it be known that it desired to build an institution of learning in the community that could donate the largest amount of money to the cause. Raising more than $8000, Sugar Grove outbid all other communities in northwest Pennsylvania and in the autumn of that year, construction began on the project that wouldn't be completed until 1884. The United Brethren Seminary educated 180 students at its peak offering collegiate instruction in theology, the fine arts, history, language, the sciences and also offered courses in "commercial branches" of law, economics and pedagogy. Tuition ran between eight and ten dollar a semester"

CAN YOU IMAGINE????

Mysugargrove.com also states "In 1921 the community had taken over the use of the United Brethren Seminary building and began using it as Sugar Grove main educational facility offering k-12 instruction at the site. With the development of the Warren County School District, the building was used for high school students from Farmington and Sugar Grove townships, while elementary students from those areas attended a school in Lander. Numerous buildings that are now used as homes surrounded the school and were used for educational instruction as well to serve the numerous students who hailed the facility as their alma mater until the completion of Eisenhower High School in 1956."

**I would later graduate from Eisenhower High School. And it is currently undergoing renovations.

The Seminary building was replaced by the Sugar Grove Elementary School, construction began in 1963. The bell from the tower of the Seminary's main building rests in the front of the elementary school.

**I attended 6th grade at the "new" elementary school.

So....they are kinda sorta the same school!!!

Also in the stack of things we were looking through was this photo.

This would be the class of 1932!

I love these time travels!

Have a great week everyone!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs from my small town to wherever you are!

~Jen

Mason Jar Bridal Shower

To know me means you know I have a love for "Mason jars." This term is interchangeable, kinda like Tupperware. When you send someone to your cupboard to get you a piece of Tupperware, are they really getting you Tupperware or is an empty, cleaned out and no repurposed cool whip container?? Uh huh!!! You see where I am going? In this sense a "mason jar" is any jar with a screw on lid. I know, I know!!! There are people out there freaking out about my use of these terms, but I am sure people freaked about the loose usage of Tupperware, and look...the world is still turning! (oh, if that world turning surprised you, we will save that for a later date and time.)

Those awesome girls referenced here decided on a mason jar themed bridal shower. Check out this pretty cute invitation!!! They enlisted the help of another pretty cool gal pal to get these invites done! Can you believe they had a party in my honor WITHOUT ME?!?! Geesh. Aw, well, the invites turned out way cute!!

The invitation asked the guests to bring a "mason jar" filled with collectible items.

I can tell you this request stirred up LOTS of conversation. I believe at one point, everyone was worried I was going to end up with 3 dozen mason jars filled with M&M's. I am not really sure what the problem with that would be, but I am sure you can see where the alarm in this might come from. I was part of some of the conversations. The shower wasn't a surprise to me, which made it easy for some on the invite list to ask questions. Some on that list were quite good about asking questions in a way that I didn't know why they were asking, others, well they just went straight to the point! HA!!!!

I said time and time again after the shower..."The mason jar thing turned out way cooler than anyone could have imagined!"  It did. People put thought into it. There were some way cool jars gifted on that August day. Are you ready to take a look at some pictures???

There were mason jar center pieces! They ribbon and clothespins on each jar was a task delegated to one of the flower girls.

A table of jars. These are some of the jars that were brought as per the request on the invites.

Some people brought them separate, others brought them as part of their gift.

To those that brought them as part of their gift, I am not sure if I thank you or not! I thank you because that was one less jar I had to guess, but that messed up the thought process. Yes....I had to guess who brought each jar.

Ok, but here comes the cool part. I hope by now you have at least partially thought about what you would put in a mason jar if this request was made of you! 

These people ROCK! (some of them literally)

 

 A plants jar filled with peanuts and Yuengling bottle caps.

Something significant between the giver and myself.

This jar was filled with the rocks Small Town Guy would put in his pockets as a kid.

Those are also some of his toys. (I bet you figured out who gifted this one, huh?!?)

A frosted jar filled with scrapbook supplies.

Those supplies are sitting here in the wedding project pile, waiting for their purpose in life. 

I can't wait!

This one is from my Grandma. The note reads:

"The things I put in this jar cannot be set on a shelf unless they are pictures, but you can

carry them deep in your mind & in  your heart. I love you & pray that you & "Small Town Guy" will be very happy with your life together."

Her pieces of paper read "lots of happy times", "happy memories", and "loving families"

Again, too cool, right?!?!?

This jar has buttons from my Great Grandmother's button collection.

I can buy all the buttons I want at yard and estate sales, but THESE were my Great Grandmother's!

Speaking of Great Grandmothers.

This jar (above and below photo) has sea shells that were collected by another Great Grandmother...just days before her stroke. It even has her handwriting. {{love}}

I have since been given a picture of my Great Grandmother on the beach the day the shells were collected. I can't wait to display them together!!

Shells picked up by yet another set of Grandparents.

I very much love the square acme jar on the left. The marbles are cool, but the jar is cooler!

This jar was sweet too.

There was a note explaining the jar.

The butterflies and locket you see belonged to my Grandmother.

The locket would become part of my bouquet and make the walk down the aisle with me on our wedding day. The photo inside the locket is of my Grandmother when she was in high school. 

This jar got some laughs.

Can you see why?

A "Ball" jar full of balls. 

ah ha ha!!!

My grandfather thought this was brilliant and if I receive this request I should take and cut up an atlas and put it in an "Atlas" jar....

Oil for making hard tack candy. The story behind it, specific to the giver!

I love the outside of the box thinking, don't you??

A jar full of pennies. 

That sucker is heavy!!

A  jar full of "date night" ideas. Each guest was asked to write a date night idea on a popsicle stick.

There are some fun and yes, suggestive date nights.

The one that says "Go to the Plaza for Pie" should just become a magnet and go on the fridge.

My favorite jar came when Small Town Guy showed up.

Look at the contents of that jar! GORGEOUS!!!

ONE LUCKY GIRL I AM!!!!

The jar....

We had picked the jar (half gallon size) up a flea market a week or two prior to the shower.

Apparently it is a good thing I hadn't done anything with it yet!!!

Oy vey!!! Mmm hmm!!!

Those roses have been dried and are actually back in that jar and it sits here in the office.

There were many other very cool jars.

Some of them did not photograph well.

There were jars with fall themed products, lights, Christmas themed items, marbles, wooden spools, an empty jar labeled "secrets", Pittsburgh related stuff, and more. 

Not only were the contents of the jars cool, but there were some way cool jars too!!

The threads on the towels will wear thin, the glasses will break, other stuff will need replaced...all those things we are most thankful for because we needed those items.

 MOST of the coolest items came in jars!

The one really cool gift that didn't come in a jar was the cutting board used by my Great and my Great Great Grandmothers.

Thank you to everyone for the outside of the box thinking and some awesome memories!

I encourage you, my readers, to think outside of the box the next time you have a gift to give!

Hugs from my small town to wherever you may be in the world!!!

~Jen