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Yard Sale, Thrift Store, Junk Heap Shopping (Part 3)


Tere

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The blades are removable and have been sharpened.   The whole top of the unit was cleaned thoroughly after the auction, there were several old hornet nests nestled in there.

 

I was going to do carrot chips also, but we ran out of "wanna-do" as soon as the potatoes were done.  

 

This is kind of a remote site for cooking.  There is power and water.  I am building somewhat of a ranch kitchen onsite so this old stuff is good for using.   I did use an induction hob and a 100 year old cast iron beanpot for the deep frying.  Nothing like having 3 centuries of kitchen stuff onsite and in use.

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2 hours ago, lemniscate said:

The blades are removable and have been sharpened.   The whole top of the unit was cleaned thoroughly after the auction, there were several old hornet nests nestled in there.

 

I was going to do carrot chips also, but we ran out of "wanna-do" as soon as the potatoes were done.  

 

This is kind of a remote site for cooking.  There is power and water.  I am building somewhat of a ranch kitchen onsite so this old stuff is good for using.   I did use an induction hob and a 100 year old cast iron beanpot for the deep frying.  Nothing like having 3 centuries of kitchen stuff onsite and in use.

How about using it to make the slivers for marmalade? 

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28 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

How about using it to make the slivers for marmalade? 

 

Possibly.........but I think the citrus may disintegrate due to internal softness.   Maybe frozen citrus could work.  This thing is pretty brutal.   Also, we still have to rig up a "catcher" system because the slices fling themselves all over.  We tried a large plastic bag and a vinyl bucket with limited success.  I estimate we lost 25% of the potato slices due to trajectory.  Still learning the beast.

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34 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

 

Possibly.........but I think the citrus may disintegrate due to internal softness.   Maybe frozen citrus could work.  This thing is pretty brutal.   Also, we still have to rig up a "catcher" system because the slices fling themselves all over.  We tried a large plastic bag and a vinyl bucket with limited success.  I estimate we lost 25% of the potato slices due to trajectory.  Still learning the beast.

It's probably supposed to be put right over the kettle into which the slices fall!

 

If you took just the peels of the citrus and stacked them together then on their side they could go where the potato fits in I wonder. I see it's a great big open surface - you'd have to rig something to restrain them.

Edited by Kerry Beal (log)
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2 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

I see it's a great big open surface - you'd have to rig something to restrain them.

Right now we are using a long wooden paddle to provide downward pressure and guidance.   Anyone watching us from afar with this thing would not have any idea on what we were trying to accomplish.  It was glorious and hilarious.   Or maybe something out of Fargo.

 

I am thinking of something like griddle weights might work.   There might have been a cover or weight that fit in that side.   Mystery lost to time.  I've used newspapers.com (found the company ads that made it, but only for butcher/deli equipment), I've used Bing w/AI to help, I've done GIS searches.  Nothing I found resembles this machine.

 

I agree that it probably sat over some kind of vat.   It is nice it's on modern wheels though.  We had to wheel it 1000 ft across the rodeo grounds after purchase to get it to the van.   We were stopped every 10 feet for questions.   It took a while.

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3 hours ago, lemniscate said:

 

Possibly.........but I think the citrus may disintegrate due to internal softness.   Maybe frozen citrus could work.  This thing is pretty brutal.   Also, we still have to rig up a "catcher" system because the slices fling themselves all over.  We tried a large plastic bag and a vinyl bucket with limited success.  I estimate we lost 25% of the potato slices due to trajectory.  Still learning the beast.

 

15 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

Right now we are using a long wooden paddle to provide downward pressure and guidance.   Anyone watching us from afar with this thing would not have any idea on what we were trying to accomplish.  It was glorious and hilarious.   Or maybe something out of Fargo.

 

 

I am having the BEST time with these mental images!

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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18 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

It's probably supposed to be put right over the kettle into which the slices fall!

 

If you took just the peels of the citrus and stacked them together then on their side they could go where the potato fits in I wonder. I see it's a great big open surface - you'd have to rig something to restrain them.

 

 

Cranking that thing over a pot of boiling oil......too risky for me.

 

Perhaps into a pot of water to wash off the starch.

Edited by gfweb (log)
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  • 2 months later...

Saturday was a good second hand shopping day for me.  There is a local company that does estate sales and she posts tons of pictures on Facebook of each home she's got coming up.  You can ask price/size questions and purchase them before the sale itself and then pick the items up on the sales days.  I love looking, but don't buy much.  Recently, though, I was charmed by this little covered china side dish:

1-IMG_3670.jpg.0cfccafa486132f803d45f60a45ce25e.jpg

 

1-IMG_3671.jpg.7fcbd60a390910e0fe666396ab0296fc.jpg

It looks like a cheese dish, of course, but it is so tiny - it would just about fit a half stick of butter!  I don't know what I'll use it for, but I fell in love with it.

 

From there I went to a Goodwill and found this almost complete set of dishes:

1-IMG_3673.thumb.jpg.1b1d46f582b9190f76ff94d71252f69f.jpg

 

1-IMG_3675.thumb.jpg.3a9663c5369f8b82df673de1f421cab0.jpg

Eight dinner plates, eight side plates, eight soup plates, a gravy boat, a platter, and 3 cereal bowls (not pictured).  Hard to see, but the rim and the snowflake in the center are metallic silver.  It is just a set from Target and very heavy for porcelain, but it's pretty and I could use it all winter (not just Christmas).  It was $44 and while I was debating this lady walked by and complimented it.  Then she mentioned that since it was 50% all blue tag purchases it would only be $22!  So, of course, I bought it.  

 

 

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11 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

Saturday was a good second hand shopping day for me.  There is a local company that does estate sales and she posts tons of pictures on Facebook of each home she's got coming up.  You can ask price/size questions and purchase them before the sale itself and then pick the items up on the sales days.  I love looking, but don't buy much.  Recently, though, I was charmed by this little covered china side dish:

1-IMG_3670.jpg.0cfccafa486132f803d45f60a45ce25e.jpg

 

1-IMG_3671.jpg.7fcbd60a390910e0fe666396ab0296fc.jpg

It looks like a cheese dish, of course, but it is so tiny - it would just about fit a half stick of butter!  I don't know what I'll use it for, but I fell in love with it.

 

From there I went to a Goodwill and found this almost complete set of dishes:

1-IMG_3673.thumb.jpg.1b1d46f582b9190f76ff94d71252f69f.jpg

 

1-IMG_3675.thumb.jpg.3a9663c5369f8b82df673de1f421cab0.jpg

Eight dinner plates, eight side plates, eight soup plates, a gravy boat, a platter, and 3 cereal bowls (not pictured).  Hard to see, but the rim and the snowflake in the center are metallic silver.  It is just a set from Target and very heavy for porcelain, but it's pretty and I could use it all winter (not just Christmas).  It was $44 and while I was debating this lady walked by and complimented it.  Then she mentioned that since it was 50% all blue tag purchases it would only be $22!  So, of course, I bought it.  

 

Those are PERFECT winter dishes! I'd have bought the set too. And Had Words when I brought it home. :rolleyes:

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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13 hours ago, Smithy said:

It looks like a cheese dish, of course, but it is so tiny - it would just about fit a half stick of butter!  I don't know what I'll use it for, but I fell in love with it.

 

 

I'd put a half stick of butter in there.

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16 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

I'd putMy a half stick of butter in there.

 I'd put my Irish butter in that one and use my regular boring butter dish for my regular boring butter. As it is we now keep half sticks of each on one butter dish which is messy, fussy and annoying. My retinas are somewhat compromised and it's hard to tell the different easily, plus sometimes I want one or the other at room temp. This would go under the dubious heading of simplifying my life by buying more crap.

 

A few years from now I could pass that adorable dish along to the twin grand-girls if they are the kind of girls who make high tea for themselves and their companions, whether stuffed or imaginary. Right now it looks more like one of them will prefer the mud of the soccer field and the other will become a cat burglar in a black suit dangling from a second story eave. They turn two today!   

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1 hour ago, Katie Meadow said:

 ... it looks more like one of them will prefer the mud of the soccer field and the other will become a cat burglar in a black suit dangling from a second story eave. They turn two today!   

Enjoy them!   As I tell my husband, just as we adapt to one new stage, they're into another.

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Jessica and I went up to northern VA last week to do a few things we’d missed when we went up in April for her belated birthday celebration trip.  We ended up going the day when the air quality was so bad due to the awful fires that the Canadians were experiencing.  Since staying inside was our goal for the day, we dropped into every thrift store we could find with close parking.  Found some fun things and a mystery.  This tea pot and sugar/creamer set (creamer may or may not be missing a lid) caught my eye:

1-IMG_3748.jpg.01135429f093b009f6e6d0c61b002932.jpg

I love the design and it has “S” engraved on the side of each piece:

1-IMG_3749.thumb.jpg.2b12eadf2f6b44ab6b93c1dfff2ae751.jpg

The whole set was $24.  I love “silver” and with the initial, I had to have it.  The mystery is what it is.  At first, I assumed hotel silver because it is so heavy and substantial.  But it shows no sign of tarnish or having been polished (it has enough rough spots that I can’t believe I wouldn’t find SOME tarnish in a thrift shop piece).  It REALLY doesn’t feel like silverplate either.  But I think it must be plated silver after all.  Here’s the hallmark:

1-IMG_3752.jpg.19c896e11261836524920a62128cb4b9.jpg

…which, if I’m deciphering it correctly says, “Rogers & Bro Triple plate”.  Interestingly, something has obviously been obliterated just above that and “C 7634” scratched in by hand.  Triple plate is, according to Martha Stewart, “means that three layers of silver plating were applied to a base metal during manufacturing”.  So, I’m guessing that someone lovingly (and nearly professionally) polished this set before donating it to the thrift store.  It has some lovely little details:

1-IMG_3750.jpg.e8077cb3c3ce1d5c93cf0c73e0b01d51.jpg

 

1-IMG_3751.jpg.084c838293bbca66da9ad70932122e75.jpg

 

1-IMG_3754.thumb.jpg.7e3d3a171ce56505e4c7133115bc903c.jpg

I’m very happy with this purchase and I’m actually looking forward to seeing if it begins to tarnish!  LOL

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@Kim Shook 

 

that's quite a WoW purchase 

 

*************** .

 

somebody took care of the set.

 

and now , you get to do this youself.

 

that's  rare these days.

 

I know you will enjoy it.

 

love to see , what you fd out.

 

Congratulations !

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
On 6/24/2023 at 8:09 PM, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Just about to leave an "Everything $1" yard sale when I spotted this 28cm Descoware frying pan.   Need it like a hole in the head, but, heck, what are you going to do?

 

That is an absolutely gorgeous Descoware pan.  It looks totally unused.  And it's 11 inches wide! 

 

I have a huge collection of vintage Descoware cast iron.  I got obsessed with it after rewatching old Julia Child shows about 20 years ago and seeing it all over her kitchen.  I find it more durable than Le Creuset or Staub, and the grey interiors don't discolor as easily, either.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Hubby needed a haircut, so I checked out the thrift store next door. Was looking for clothing, but of course the kitchenware attracted me. Oh, my!

 

I have a series of wonderful Le Creuset enameled cast iron gratin pans. I'm not sure whether this one matches my largest, or the next size down.

 

20231115_122841.jpg

 

Descoware. The photo doesn't show the proper scale, but it's about 9" x 13" oval. Good condition. $4.00!!! 

 

These steak plates with chargers, or whatever you want to call the set, are a heavy shiny metal plate paired with a wooden base to set the plate atop a table. Think: heavy-duty sizzler platters. (Mine are aluminum platters atop plastic bases.)

 

20231115_121413.jpg

 

$1.50 each set. There are four. I left them alone...for today...but what a great set for entertaining!

 

I may go back.

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
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2 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

@Smithy, can we assume you bought the Desco piece?     (I would have although I have absolutely no need or space for i!"

 

No, I left it alone too. I thought long and hard -- but I have 3 Le Creuset gratin pans at home, one of which is the same size, and I have other pieces that serve the same purpose here in the Princessmobile. (If I knew anyone who could use it, I'd buy it for them. I'll keep thinking.)

 

When I got back to the barber shop my darling asked whether I'd bought anything. I held up my bag of clothing, then said I'd been sorely tempted by the kitchen goods but hadn't bought any. "Thank you!" he exclaimed. We all laughed.

 

But I may go back for those sizzler platters....

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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  • 3 months later...

I went back to the above-mentioned store yesterday, and found a Cuisinart Panini Press / griddler. $8. All parts there; looks lightly used. I wrote more about the entire adventure here. I've always been too cheap to buy one of these presses; cheapest I've ever seen them was on there order of $70, and a similar item on Amazon right now runs more nearly $100. Score!

 

20240217_114521.jpg

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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