Vintage Iron & Tiny Cupcakes

Do you ever chat with your husband about things from your childhood and what your mom used to cook for the family and what she used in the kitchen.. homey discussions?  We were doing that the other day and talking about how our moms used to fry chicken.. mine used  an electric frying pan.. his used a big deep cast iron pan.  So.. I started doing some research online about cast iron chicken cookers and found that indeed they made one just for frying chicken.. deeper sides.  I then did a search on eBay and found several, and then.. I saw this one.. it had a "hammered" look to it and it reminded me of my Mom's favorite cookpot - she called it "battered aluminum".  My sister had that pot for a while then gave it to our brother.  I actually am afraid to cook in aluminum as they've found a correlation between that and people getting Alzheimers.  But I digress... so I called a Portland antique store and and they had a whole collection of vintage iron pots and pans that were refurbished by this one man.  So we went in to look.. and way on the bottom I spied some dimples shining down there and we pulled it out and angels started singing and I fell in love with it and we brought it home.  :-)

The antique shop owner gave 10% discount and this pot was only 1/3 of what the one was on eBay!  And after researching online, I found that the hammered ones are very rare to find.  We now have to scrub the protective oil off this and "season" it by rubbing a thin layer of oil on it and bake it in the oven for 3 hours, and do this 2 or 3 times.  After reading the discussions online, the old iron is much smoother and better than the newly made ones.  

This pan is a "Griswold" - one of the best made of the old pans.  

This pot also has a "hinged lid" - which really isn't a hinge, but the lid has a little flange that fits in a hole on the pan and you can flip it up and it stays up while you turn items in the pan.

A close up of the lid.. and handle.  I just love this stuff!  I look forward to cooking in it.  

I had a look around the antique shop and snapped a few photos.. isn't this little metal barn just adorable? 

The shop was chock full of cool vintage things! 

They had some Jadeite, but I refrained.  :-) 

Yesterday I got a little package with some little tiny baked goods for my dollhouse - you should check out their shop "Winky".  

They sent my little cupcakes and a pie in these adorable little handmade pastry boxes tied with tiny bakers twine... cute, huh? 

I got an apple pie in memory of my mom who was renowned for her exceptional pies - and 3 pink cupcakes - that is my thumb to the right so you can see how tiny these are - of course they're for my dollhouse. 

SO sweet, the pie is "baked" in a bottlecap! :-) 

Don't they do a wonderful job with the frosting on the cupcakes? 

And how sweet is Vicky and her daughter, they added some extras for the nursery!  I put the bottle of milk in the dollhouse kitchen and the toys and picture in the nursery.  Thank you!!

I'm working on a granny stripe chair throw for my daughter-in-law Beth for her chair in her college colors. :-) 

We had an ice storm last night and the sun is shining through the ice on the branches.  We hear little ice cubes blowing out of our woods and hitting the roof and skylights.   

Another cozy day by the fire for us today.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
((hugs)), Teresa :-)