Grandmother's old double boiler...

When we were flatmates Jen and I spent many a Sunday afternoon in front of UKTVFood watching an entire series of Tamasin Day-Lewis or Nigella in back to back episodes. Nigella has a kitchen to die for (loads of light, lined with books, and a plate or bowl for every circumstance) but there was something much more comforting about Tamasin's kitchen with the knackered oven where the door fell off and no real counter space to work on (much more like the scabby flat we lived in).

The other thing I always remember about Tamasin's program was that she was always producing ancient kitchen heirlooms from out of nowhere. When whipping cream or egg whites out would come the hand powered whisk and when melting chocolate she would always be waxing lyrical about her grandmother's old double boiler.

When my maternal grandmother moved from her current house into a nursing home I inherited a few of the bits and pieces from her kitchen including my very own hand powered whisk, two Le Crueset pans and around a thousand wooden spoons (you can never have too many). My favourite items were the two aprons we found at the back of one of the units. My mum thinks she made one of them at school. There's nothing like a frilly floral waist pinny (with unfeasibly small pocket) to make you feel the part when baking.

This month I have spent most of my weekends helping my parents clear out my paternal grandmother's house (she's moved to sheltered accommodation). Unfortunately there were no such lucky finds to add to my hoard of kitchenalia (Gran B was more of a cheese on toast kind of lady). I did manage to liberate a rather funkily decorated set of pans from the seventies that go beautifully with my kitchen cabinets - a few more goes through the dishwasher and they might be usable (they were in the cupboard for a looong time.

As for my double boiler, I found it in a charity shop last year, but sshhhh don't tell.