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If no one has any more guesses, I will return in a couple of hours and list the functions for which this tool could be used.

You got it! Kerry. My cousins think I am nuts for collecting all this old "junk" that was retired from use more than fifty years ago. They also wonder about all the "city folk" who are buying up old farms and "tartin' them up with granite counters and installing new 'vintage-style' appliances." My cousin Clyde Lee says his grandson is raking in a fortune refinishing old wide-board heart pine floors in those old houses. Some people are obviously not hit too hard by the recession. He asked if I wanted one of the old wood stoves from the farm. It only weighs 600 pounds and he can recommend a good freight man! I declined, although I appreciate the thought. Lots of money sitting there as it is still in prime condition.

Here it is with a ruler. Kerry has one function correct!

And I'm bumping up this topic as I came across this odd item while digging through a box of stuff sent to me by one of my cousins who still lives in Kentucky and has held onto a lot of things used at the old home place when I was a child. I vaguely remember this being used and it is a multi-purpose kitchen tool Any guesses as to the uses to which it was put?

I'm bumping up this topic as there is something "New" or newish on the market. My weekly Kitchen Contraptions email arrived yesterday but I didn't check it until this morning. An interesting knife design from Kuhn Rikon with an interesting name. and yet another somewhat useless new "pitter" gadget. I suspect this one will not be as handy as the mango pitter, which I do like. Peach Pitter Frankly, I have my own routine for working with peaches - lots of peaches and I doubt this gadget could improve on it. I do like the looks of the Phoenix Cooktop But doubt that I will ever convert to an electric cooktop. There is also the super thin kitchen scale by Ozeri, which looks interesting.

Getting back to the original subject, I came across this while searching for something else. Sweet tostadas. This describes the crisp bowls made with corn tortillas, but one can work equally well constructed as one would a "stacked" crisp taco or tostada. I usually fry my own, rather than buying the commercial version, but the commercial ones are perfectly fine for making various combos. Such as those suggested here. And there there is the more elegant construction described here! A local Mexican/Guatemalan restaurant prepares a lovely breakfast with a stack of tostadas, the first layer is scrambled eggs with chorizo and green chiles on a crisp tostada, then another tostada with sliced tomatoes and guacamole topped with salsa and sour cream. Very pretty as well as delicious. One can have beans if desired.

I agree 100% about the need for several identical sized skillets (or saucepans, etc.) to maintain consistency in cooking the same items in multiple pans. I have four 10-inch cast iron skillets that often are used simultaneously because they work exactly alike and I can time the product easily. I have three 4 quart saucepans (Bourgeat) for the same reason. I know it is possible to cook items in larger vessels but it often takes longer (to boil potatoes, for instance) and the results are uneven, in my opinion and in my kitchen my opinion is what counts. I have two woks because overloading a wok defeats the purpose. I have multiple "chef's" forks because I am always using two at a time and have others around for testing doneness of various things (yesterday it was artichokes). regular forks simply do not have enough reach or enough strength. I have several extra large cooling racks full sheet pan size and a dozen half sheet pan size. had more but have sent a few off to other folks who needed them. They hang in the pantry from long L-hooks. I use them for cooling baked goods, draining wet fruits and vegetables and candied stuff. Nothing better for cooking bacon in the oven (especially when sprinkled with granulated maple sugar!) Ditto sheet pans. I have a dozen of the half-size because I use them for everything imaginable from oven to freezer. They are cheap at Smart & Final or the restaurant supply store. Many times when I find a utensil that I really love, I will buy a back-up to have on hand just in case the first one goes belly up or goes missing and especially because far too often, when I find something that really fits my hand or the way I work, it is discontinued or "improved" by the manufacturer and doesn't work as well (for me) as the original. (For instance, the first "safety" can opener with the crank instead of the smaller twist-type thingy.) I didn't buy a back-up of that one and when it broke I was very upset that I couldn't get one like it. Anyway, those are some of my reasons for having all the junk that is in my kitchen and pantry.

I've layered them in the upper parts of a trifle in ginger-flavored whipped cream.

That is a great book. I have "Forgotten Modern: California Houses 1940-1970" because my dad built a couple of the homes featured in the book. I got to see several houses while under construction and compared to many non-tract homes, they were "overbuilt" in that they were safer than other "hillside" homes and were designed to ride out earthquakes with little or no damage. I've also got the book "Living Retro" because I have a bunch of "Danish Modern" furniture. Still looks good and works well with some of the vintage Art Deco stuff I have collected.

I agree with KarenDW I have just about every size of those scoops purchased from Fantes.com, including the odd shapes. I love the rectangular one for portioning mixtures, such as chicken salad, on tea sandwiches when I am preparing a large batch. I am unable to use a regular thumb lever disher because of arthritis in my right thumb.

It would be easier for me to list what I DON'T have two (or ten) of in my kitchen. Ah ha! I just remembered (from doing some cleaning of odd stuff arranged in utensil crocks) that I have only one molinillo and one bird nest fryer basket. (They share space in a big crock of the larger type gadgets and utensils. My downfall is being an impulse shopper when it comes to kitchen stuff. A couple of years back I posted a photo of the many whisks I have - I have added to the "collection" since then and they seem to be everywhere. Sometimes I think they are like wire clothes hangers, when you aren't looking, they reproduce!

From the photo, it looks like the weld was defective.

My plant bag has begun to split in one spot and is repaired with hose tape. I saw This sturdier version in the new Gardener's Supply Catalog and when I went online saw the two-for-one deal so ordered the for next season. The existing plant continues to fruit and bloom and so far I have picked eighteen small to medium tomatoes - all have excellent flavor. I think that next year I will start a couple of determinate varieties that have produced a lot of fruit which sort of comes in waves. That is, they bloom, fruit and when the fruits are mature and beginning to ripen, another wave of blooms appear. Planting them a few weeks apart should insure that one will have ripening fruit as the other has them about half way to maturity. We had over a week of 100+ temps but I think the fact that the bag itself is in shade during most of the day is a big factor. The foliage gets plenty of sun. There is a tomato planter that is on a stand and has a top that is intended to use as a planter. The Upside-Down tomato planter It is more expensive but handy for folks who don't have a place to hang the TT.

Preparing clotted cream is not all that difficult but it does take time. If you have a good source for NON ultra-pasteurized/homogenized cream then you are in business. You don't have to hover over the cream for the entire time but a constant source of low temp heat is essential. My demonstration is on a gas cooktop with a copper slab to keep from having a hot spot worked well for me but I have also used an induction burner and a similar cast iron (enameled) vessel. (Gave that one to my daughter as it matches the colors in her kitchen.) There are several things that can be substituted. Trader Joe's Greek style yogurt (blue label) is a very nice substitute as it has less "tang" than other brands and is quite dense. With just a small amount of sweetener, such as honey, agave syrup or similar, it goes perfectly with scones, biscuits, crumpets, etc.

The Cadco works in the space but not like a regular "built-in" oven. I have friends who had the same double Thermador ovens in their Eichler home and did not wish to do a major reno that would change the character of the original classic mid-century design. (This was also a "Gold Medallion" all-electric home which touted the "Live Better Electrically" theme. Some of the countertops had to be replaced but they were able to find the vintage Formica that matched and also a Formica and chrome dining set in near-mint condition. Their house was featured in a Sunset magazine article twenty-some years ago when mid-century modern regained some of its popularity. Now Eichler homes, even in disrepair, are snapped up as soon as they are on the market, in spite of the bad real estate market.) They had the cavity that existed to house the double ovens boxed in and completely tiled, except for the existing vent that was fitted with a small, integral exhaust fan (fitted into the vent pipe). In this tiled space the Cadco oven has sufficient clearance on all sides to comply with its working efficiently and safely. There was enough free space at one end to allow for a storage area for sheet pans, etc. They did have an electrician check the breaker box and the existing wiring as well as install some additional outlets on a new line to serve additional appliances. There is also a strip of halogen lights along the top front edge of the space which really spotlights the oven. It certainly impressed me! I've had the half-size Cadco oven for years and I love it. If I needed the bigger one, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it.

I have "a few" and here are some that were easy to reach so I could dust them off and take photos. There are more, higher on the wall than I can reach and I'm not taking a picture of them because I really don't want to show the "collection" of cobwebs that currently embellish the others. These are the largest, although I do have one that is much larger but it is currently on loan to a friend who is chopping herbs for dyes. I use the larger ones for chopping dried herbs for potpourri and etc. I don't want to damage the blades on my good knives on tough, dried herb stems. I quite often do use the one with the offset blade in a wooden bowl for chopping nuts when I want them coarsely chopped. It's made in France and was my grandmother's.

Have you tried The Cheese knife I have all three and they are great for cheeses that are not super hard and are already cut into wedges (by the store) or blocks. I was amazed at how well the first (small) one worked so bought the others and also got them for my daughter. Soft cheese does not stick to the blade and it produces neater and cleaner cuts than the other steel cheese knives I have. (Some very expensive.) For the harder cheeses and for whole wheels I have the big two-handled Wusthof (12-inch blade - it was expensive but I also use it for cutting large melons and hard winter squash, and have found numerous other uses for it) or I use a cheese wire (cheaper solution) I used to buy them from Fantes but since Amazon began carrying them, have bought this one. (Also use for cutting cheesecake, sliding under sticky cakes on a springform base, etc.) I also have one of the heavy, leaf-shaped "knives" for breaking parmesan and other grating cheeses into chunks.

I just placed an order with I Gourmet for a wheel of caerphilly and while waiting on hold, was clicking on other items on the site. I was surprised to see that they now carry Liederkranz! which disappeared from U.S. stores a couple of decades (or more) ago. I loved this cheese and never found an adequate substitute, although some of the limburgers are pretty good.

It is a nifty little label printer but it won't take 1 inch tapes and I use a lot of that size because I can get 4-7 lines of type on a fairly short label. I keep all the labels with longer text that I use frequently, in the memory so I don't have to retype them each time. I do have to purge the memory of some old labels that I no longer use.

My friends, who have that Cadco oven, do a lot of entertaining and she loves the oven because she is barely five feet tall and a stacked set of ovens was not an option that would work for her unless one was placed virtually at floor level and apparently there is some code in L.A. that won't allow that. They have a grandchild living with them and as the entire front of the Cadco remains cool to the touch, even at top temps inside, it is also a safety factor. Besides regular sheet pans, she has commercial hamburger bun pans that get a lot of use and not always for the purpose for which they were intended. She does a bunch of mini Dutch baby pancakes that are, to use a cliché, to die for. Also mini pizzas, etc. There are a lot of advantages in having that size oven. When I had my big oven (Blodgett) I always baked pies using a sheet pan for a rack - much easier to clean the pan than the bottom of the oven.

You could always use the discarded mag strips for tools. I have one 30" long, that holds wrenches and another 18" that holds screwdrivers. I also have one in the pantry that holds some odd cooking gadgets that are difficult to find in drawers (not to mention the sharp bits that I always manage to catch with a finger)

Raised bed planters will not work for me in the yard next to my house, which is why I am using containers. I've tried them in the past with limited success for one particular reason. My shade trees are mature fruitless mulberry, with extremely invasive roots which grow into the garden areas within weeks of being rototilled. The containers have to be off the ground, on pavers or the roots will grow up into the pots and strangle the roots of the potted plant and when emptied, the pots are absolutely full of the tough, red, wiry roots from the mulberry trees. It is also difficult to grow grass under these trees - even the toughest hybrid Bermuda varieties. I have some tough ground cover plants, creeping thyme, germander and mints which do okay.

Santa Clarita (and Valencia) are far more upscale than my area and I have been told there is one called "Take Two" that has pretty good stuff from time to time. I think it is in an area that used to be part of Newhall but can't say for sure. I haven't been there and haven't been to any yard or garage sales in the area as it is at a minimum 45 minutes driving time - if there are no accidents on the 14. I do drive down to Whole Foods every couple of months as we have yet to get one up here. There is also a nice farmer's market at the College of the Canyons in parking lot 8 every Sunday morning, 8:30 to noon. I haven't been down there for a year or so but you can phone 805-529-6266 to see if there have been any changes in the schedule.

I've been using Brother P-Touch labelers for several years - I think I am on my third as I keep upgrading. The labels are waterproof but are easily removed when necessary and do not leave any sticky residue. I am rather compulsive about labeling things - I have the flexible ones for wires and cables so I know what plug goes to what device when there are several plugged into a multiple outlet. This is the one I now use.

I have one Topsy Turvy with an Early Girl (indeterminate) growing quite well and producing tomatoes but they are smaller than the same age plants in large pots but are perfectly adequate for salads. I have it hanging from the east end of the deck on the north side of my house so it gets morning sun then is in shade until mid-to-late afternoon. Because of the changing track of the sun, it will soon be in shade for longer - during the hottest part of the summer here in the high desert. We have had several days of 100 + temps but so far not much wind. I have ready a shadecloth wind screen on a frame (so I can move it depending on the wind direction) for when we do get those hot winds which seem to suck the moisture out of everything. I have a drip watering system on timers and have a moisture meter to check the soil in the 100+ containers that compromise my garden. I did note some yellowing of the leaves on the tomato plant in the TT but a couple of tablespoons of Epsom salts about every ten days has cured that problem. If you don't know about this "trick" you might consider trying it. It really works well in container gardening where minerals tend to leach out of the soil more rapidly where the soil drains rapidly. Just took these photos, first of the TT tomato and then of the same variety, same age (Early Girl) that is sharing a large (20 inch) container with a sibling. The fruits on the TT plant are about 2/3 the size of the fruits on the other.