gift-giving – In the Vintage Kitchen: Where History Comes To Eat

Cheers to All Souls: Our Annual 40% off Sale Is Next Wednesday

Published on October 27, 2022 by In The Vintage KitchenLeave a comment

The last bouquet of summer included the final flourish of zinnias, dill, okra, daisies, cosmos and nasturiums.

The leaves are falling, the pumpkins are picked, the last of the summer tomatoes have been plucked. The zinnias were clipped for a final garden bouquet. The okra stalks were added to the compost pile. The herbs moved from the garden to the greenhouse and the rockery raised beds are full of autumn leaves. October is waving goodbye. And that means something exciting is just around the corner… our annual one-day-only 40% off sale.

If you are new to the blog or the shop, you might not know that we always host this sale on All Souls Day, which falls on November 2nd every year. Technically a Catholic holiday, we selected All Souls Day not for its religious connection, nor its aura of spookiness (being so close to Halloween), but for the sheer fact that it is one of the few holidays in the calendar year that pays tribute to deceased ancestors. We wouldn’t have a shop full of wonderful heirlooms had they not traveled through other people’s lives, other people’s hands for generations, collecting stories and memories along the way. To us, all Souls Day seems like the perfect day to celebrate vintage style.

It’s also a lovely time of year to start preparing not only for the holiday season but also for the winter ahead where cooking adventures, gift-giving, and craft time await. Autumn doesn’t officially end this year until December 21st. If you’d like to hang onto the season as long as possible you’ll find many fall-favored pieces in the shop that will carry you all the way through…

If you are ready to start gathering ideas for Thanksgiving, you’ll find an assortment of items ideally suited for Turkey Day 2022 and beyond…

Christmas in the Vintage Kitchen always comes in little details. Red and white restaurant ware, a mini Christmas tree, an antique green striped serving plate or a shimmery candelabra that we are sure has seen some magnificent parties in its day. In the shop, you’ll discover a sampling of festive treasures waiting to add a little sparkle to your celebrations…

The sale begins at 12:00am on Wednesday, November 2nd, and ends at 11:59pm that same day. All items in the shop will automatically receive the 40% discount at checkout, so there is no need to fuss with coupon codes or discount names. We encourage you to use the wishlist feature on our site if you have multiple items that have caught your eye. Just click on the heart under each listing title and it will automatically add the item to your favorites list where you can then add them directly to your cart.

Since it is our only sale of the year, shoppers in the past have been known to set their alarms for the moment the sale starts at midnight. If you have fallen completely in love with something in particular, please keep that in mind. New (old) items continue to be added to the shop daily, so stop by for fresh finds leading all the way up to the sale. One of the items coming to the shop today is this set of six vintage Czechoslovakian luncheon plates full of pink, purple and cranberry-colored flowers.

As always, if you are looking for something that we no longer have in stock or you can’t find in the shop, please send us a message. We’ll be happy to add your name and needs to our waitlist. Having said that, I hope on this year’s sale day you will find something truly magical that makes your heart sing with joy. Cheers to all the old souls. And to all the cherished items that they have left for us to enjoy. Happy shopping!

So Timely: All About Wishlists, Quick Cooking and the Biggest Sale of the Year…

Published on October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 by In The Vintage KitchenLeave a comment

It seems like a bit of a rush to talk about the holidays already. Autumn has just arrived and it’s not even Halloween yet. But time flies faster this last quarter of the year, and I didn’t want it all to blaze by without sharing some fun things that have been brewing in the Vintage Kitchen recently. Especially since they might be of help when it comes to celebrating the holidays this year.

Add to Wishlist

It’s here! It’s here! Your very own Vintage Kitchen wishlist is here! Launched just last month, you’ll notice a heartshaped icon on all product pages in the shop, both in the upper right corner and underneath every specific item’s title on each product page. If clicked, the item will be saved to your own personal wishlist where it will sit until you decide to remove it. Whether you are deciding about a vintage or antique piece for yourself, or you want to share your favorite gift ideas with friends or family, this will keep everything you love all in one organized place.

Shop Sale – November 2

Our BIG shop sale day is just three weeks away! Enjoy 40% off site-wide on Monday, November 2nd during our annual one-day-only All Souls Day sale! This is the only sale in the shop all year, so if you have your eye on something special, November 2nd is the day to capture deep discounts and get a head start on your holiday shopping. Discounts will automatically be applied upon checkout which means no coupon codes are needed. The sale begins at 12:00am, November 2nd and ends at 12:00am, November 3rd. Hope you find something that speaks to your soul or reminds you of a dearly departed loved one from days gone by:)

The Quick Cooking Chronicles

For all the busy cooks out there who are short on time these days, but still long for interesting, home-cooked foods, I’m excited to announce a new series of fast-acting heirloom recipes – The Quick Cooking Chronicles.

Not every fantastic vintage recipe I make in the kitchen actually makes it to the blog. This is a true travesty and something I have been trying to figure out a way to remedy for over a year now. So many marvelous heirloom recipes get left behind just because there is not enough time to research and write about their history in a thoughtful manner.

In an effort to continuously share good food, especially during hectic times, these not-enough-time recipes will now have a new home on the Vintage Kitchen Pinterest board, aptly called The Quick Cooking Chronicles. All the vintage recipes featured here are made with simple ingredients and simple steps. They are heirlooms that have been around for decades and have been sourced from old cookbooks, or passed down from family members, or shared between readers here on the blog. They are the good foods, the new (old) favorites, the time savers, the uncomplicateds. All made with just a handful of everyday ingredients yet arranged in interesting, unexpected ways. Super helpful, they are foods made for days filled full with gift wrapping and snow shoveling and turkey prep and hanging lights and decorating trees and clinking glasses and celebrating life. It’s a continual work-in-progress so check back often here if you are in the search for some quick, good recipes. I hope they will help bring ease to your kitchen and keep you fed and fueled! Here’s an example of such a meal… the recipe that instigated it all…

And finally,

The algorithms have been changing again on Instagram, which means that the Vintage Kitchen content is getting covered over. I have no interest in being a slave to these constantly ever-changing metrics with their unpredictable highs and lows and their peaks and valleys. I just want to bring good stories and good food to you:) The best way to help shed light on vintage kitchen history is to comment and to share posts if you feel so inclined or generally like the content. This will help our community of cooks and readers grow more vibrant each and every day and for that I’m so grateful! There are a couple of VERY EXCITING things in store for the Vintage Kitchen, all which will be unveiled soon. I can’t wait to share the news! In the meantime, cheers to Autumn and to appetites and to schedules that keep us on our toes 🙂

In the 1920s, this is how summer parties began! Made by Carl Tielsch, one of Poland’s premier porcelain potteries, this is the newest set of vintage dinner plates to come to the shop. They were made between 1925-1932, that dramatic time period that included roaring 20s decadence and sobering Great Depression realities. We hope these four saw more parties, less depression:) 🥂

So excited for impromptu summer bouquet season:)

UPDATE on this morning’s story about the baby bird who fell out of his nest. We are so excited (and relieved) to say that he is doing great! ⭐️ He’s nestled into the straw in our raised bed between the pepper plants and the tomatoes, with a big umbrella offering shade from the sun. His mom and dad have come an amazing eight times to check on him over the course the day. 💛 And at each visit they’ve fed him many bugs and worms. He’s moving around quite a bit in his own and he has no problem chirping and calling out for his parents to come with more snacks. It’s been so heartwarming to watch this little robin family overcome the super tough hurdle that is early bird life. 💛 I hope once this guy finds his wings that he’ll come back to visit us all summer long. 💛 A big THANK YOU to everyone who offered tips and advice. With your help, it turned out to be a marvelous day for saving a songbird:)

Now that our final greenhouse diary entry of the season is posted on the blog our mighty little growing station is taking a well deserved rest.🪴 In this last post, we discuss all the greenhouse helpers that got us through our first New England winter and shared more insights from the life of Katharine Sergeant Angell White (1892-1977), our gardening inspiration for this whole series. We learned so much this past year in the way of greenhouse gardening. Hope this info helps other new gardeners too. 🪴 And can’t wait to be back with more greenhouse adventures in the fall! Until then, a zillion kitchen history stories await:) Hope you’ll join us all summer long.

Our first harvest of rapini from greenhouse seed to garden plants 🌱 New blog post coming shortly with our final greenhouse update of the season 🪴 This was such a fun blog series and we learned SO MUCH we can’t wait to bring it back again this fall highlighting new adventures and experiments.

A sneak peek at what we’ve been up to lately! We are pretty certain that 1750 House didn’t start out with a butler’s pantry 273 years ago, but it’s so exciting to make a space for one now. Can’t wait to share more renovation photos soon!

The simple joy of a bread and butter weekend, 1950s style! 🍞 This vintage butter dish was made by Universal Potteries for their Ballerina series. It features the popular Moss Rose pattern - a bestseller of the 1950s that touted an advertising tagline that was straight out of the Don Draper school of marketing… Ballerina lends itself - blends itself - to reflect your way of life. 🩷

Cheers to all the moms out there who feed us, show us, encourage us, teach us, support us, and enjoy with us all the beauty and the bounty and the joy and the adventures that the kitchen has to offer. Happy Mother’s Day!!! 💛

Exciting News! It’s Giveaway Time!

Published on August 27, 2018 by In The Vintage Kitchen12 Comments

Hello dear readers! The Vintage Kitchen is very excited to announce a gorgeous gift giveaway from an incredible artist inside the white box pictured above! What could it be? What could it be? Here are a few hints…

It will last forever.
It’s made from history.
There is more than one inside.
It is meant for a specific item in your kitchen.
Back in the day, they were referred to as statement pieces – now they add sparkle to any space.

We will keep you stumped until tomorrow when we reveal the contents of the giveaway, which is tied into a lovely interview with the artist that will be up on the blog this week. Submit a guess today as to what’s in the box in the comments section below, and you’ll be automatically entered for your chance to win this magical prize. And please note, you do not have to correctly guess the contents in order to win. A winner will be selected at random from the pool of comments provided. The winner will be announced on Wednesday!

Good luck and happy guessing!

P.S. If you are new to the blog, giveaways in the past are all kitchen themed in one way or another. See what fun items we have given away in the past here and here.