A rare picture of Aunt Lola, Uncle Gerald’s wife. I don’t remember their kitchen at all, probably because when we visited, there were plenty of women and older girls around to help her get meals together and clean up afterward.
I’m sure there are still places and occasions when all the women gather in the kitchen and the men are elsewhere, though it’s not that way at The Compound. I can’t complain about the “old days” in the kitchen, because that’s where you could hear a lot of the good stuff. And by good stuff I mean family scandals, checkered histories, and medical tales about “female troubles” and bizarre home remedies.
I remember there were times when Aunt Lola stayed in the kitchen while the rest of us were eating in the dining room. I don’t know why she did it, but I know on some occasions when my mother’s house was full of people that she wished she had a door on the kitchen just to get some peace and quiet. Maybe that’s what Lola was doing, and I wouldn’t blame her.
The electric percolator she’s holding here: Lynne still uses one like it. She says it makes better coffee, and she may be right. I remember when my parents used metal percolators on the stove. Lynne still has a couple of those, too, and Debbie and I had one when we were in college. I didn’t like using it, because my coffee always ended up full of grounds.
According to a coworker who used to work with someone else in a previous job, that someone else home-grounded “specially ordered” coffee beans that apparently one can’t get at neither grocery stores nor *$. The real secret though is the hand-grounding, because that someone else claims the electric motor oil heats up and leaches into the grindings. I asked if they then use a french press and apparently they use a percolator.
Since I don’t like coffee, I really can’t say what makes it better. But, I will say that 2/3 Paneras between this apartment and the place of loathing (work) do not keep separate the coffee thermos dispensers from the hot water for tea thermos dispenser. At those two Paneras, my tea tastes like coffee oil.
We have a coffee grinder, but we usually buy ours already ground. I confess that I don’t put a lot of thought into coffee (beyond drinking it)–I guess I’m not a true connoisseur.
I do think it’s shameful to flavor tea with the taste of coffee. Those thermoses need to be separated!
Spouse and I had a Cuisinart coffeemaker with a built in grinder. It was the coolest thing: we’d set it at night with fresh water and coffee beans, and in the morning we would awaken to the whirrrrr of the grinder and the smell of freshly brewed coffee. I loved that thing. But it was a regular PITA to clean. We sold it at the giant yard sale before we moved to Alabama.
My first coffeemaker was an electric percolator, Corningware white with that trademark little blue floral design. In my 20s I discovered Mr Coffee and have been a drip girl ever since.
Yeah, we’ve only had drip coffeemakers throughout our marriage.
There is NOTHING like waking up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee.
For years my mom used an old drip porcelain coffee pot with a two part metal brew basket. The bottom part held the coffee filter and coffee and the top part was where you poured the boiling water. No grounds in the coffee.
I also have her collection of six china tea pots dating from 1938 to 1988.
I have a post coming about tea soon.
Sounds familiar.
I must have been in double-figures before I had coffee that was not instant. I had a deprived childhood…
Tragic! Instant coffee is swill.
Do you prefer tea to coffee?