23 Things You Loved About Your Grandparent’s Kitchen

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Going to Grandma’s house as a kid was always an adventure. First, you’re hit with the smell — that one smell you can never forget that reminds you of soap and old furniture. Then, you’re likely bombarded with snacks from the kitchen aka the best part of the whole visit. Cookies, cheese crackers, and some kind of casserole bake were always on the menu for some reason.

But looking back, there were definitely some things in Grandma or Grandpa’s kitchen that you never questioned until now. Why was everything farm-themed? Was the fruit basket real or fake? Where can you even buy those fruit candies? One thing’s for sure — certain foods and gadgets in their kitchen are things you love and will never forget.

1. Jell-O

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Older generations had an interesting obsession with Jell-O and gelatin-like foods (which we will never truly understand). But Grandma’s Jell-O was always in a fancy glass dish, sometimes with nuts and canned fruit floating about. If she ever showcased some retro gelatin meat dish, I’d beg my parents to never bring me back. Love you, Grandma!

2. Walnuts and a Nut Cracker

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It’s rare nowadays to come across shelled nuts (besides pistachios) at home, let alone find a bag of walnuts in the pantry. But in the grandparents’ kitchen, it was weird not to see giant walnuts (shell included) placed right next to an actual nutcracker. It was practically impossible to watch The Price Is Right without those freshly cracked nuts.

3. Peppermints

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One thing grandparents are exceptional at is being prepared. Need an extra blanket? Here’s a whole closet! Need a mint? Here’s a year’s worth of restaurant peppermint candies! It’s like they just stock up on restaurant mints and still buy more at the store. I guess you can never be too prepared.

4. Generic Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Photo by Walmart

A child’s worst nightmare. Just barely worse than coffee ice cream (maybe grown-up grandkids wouldn’t complain about that, though). There was never any Neapolitan or chocolate sauce. And contrary to popular belief, putting sprinkles on butter pecan ice cream does not make it worth it, even for a simple child.

5. Saltine Crackers

Photo by Amazon

If I didn’t feel well, I’d get a whole sleeve of saltines. Dinner, even if it’s not a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup, always came with a side of crackers. Or if I didn’t like dinner I was stuck eating saltines for dinner. Saltines wore appropriate for every occasion, I suppose.

6. Haribo Gummy Bears

Photo by Amazon

Just like with the peppermint candies, it’s almost as if grandparents just stock up on the most random candies. If you’ve never had to stick your hand into an actual jar of gummy bears, you wouldn’t understand when I say how weird it is. But grammy and gramps never saw an issue with it, so why should we?

7. Ancient Cast Iron Skillet

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The famous skillet that has been passed down for at least five generations. With decades of caked on, seared meat bits always adding some more flavor to whatever new dish you could come up with. It’s impressive cast iron skillets can last that long to begin with, let alone still offer up more flavor with every dish.

8. Lemon Creme Cookies

Photo by Walmart

Nope, not Oreos. Not even lemon Oreos. Lemon creme sandwich cookies — the slightly crunchier and much less satisfying sandwich cookie. But it was clear that this was Grandma’s favorite dessert, so you wouldn’t feel so bad rejecting her offer to have some after dinner. And it was always store brand.

9. Creme Savers

Photo by Life Savers

Remember these? Can be found at the bottom of grandma’s purse, the candies you’d try to sneak away with when you’ve already had enough, tasted like a dream. Strawberries and creme was always such a hit — I can literally taste it just thinking about them. Where did our grandparents buy these things?

10. Prune Juice

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Opening the fridge and seeing the dark purple jug of prune juice wasn’t such a pretty sight. Grandpa would swear drinking a little bit every day was good for you. And it always sat in the back of the fridge waiting for an inevitable tummy ache, which was always so dreadful. I can’t look at prune juice the same.

11. Pretzel Rods

Photo by Walmart

For some reason, these just hit differently than regular pretzels. Pretzel rods are a whole commitment, since they are so filling. When you’d ask for these, you’d absolutely make sure to ask Grandma or Grandpa for a big glass of water to go with it. And you could never seem to finish one by yourself.

12. Wafer Cookies

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Your parents (with some weird and unreasonable excuse) would never buy these for the house. Maybe that’s what made these taste extra good at Grandma and Grandpa’s house — it’s all about the exclusivity. Strawberry was my absolute favorite flavor. Vanilla took second place and chocolate always stayed in the packet.

13. Silver Tea Kettle

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These weren’t like the silver ones our parents would own. These were seriously vintage — and I don’t mean the “cool” trendy use of the word. My grandparent’s tea kettle was definitely the same age as my dad, and couldn’t be bought in any surviving store anymore. The whistle it made is something only that tea kettle could make.

14. Fig Newtons

Photo by Walmart

I miss you grandpa, but I really don’t miss these. And they’ve kind of ruined figs for me — I haven’t gone near any fig products because of this forsaken snack. For all I know, figs are delicious! But I can’t separate that crumbly, gooey, dry, raisin-y taste of a Fig Newton from other figs. Sorry.

15. Generic Brand Soda

Photo by Dollar Tree

My parents and grandparents would team up for the ultimate “These taste just like the brand name ones!” to use against me. For the record, they were totally wrong. Walmart sodas were just different from Coca Cola. (Not necessarily bad, just different). And as a kid, names were all that mattered.

16. Werther’s Candies

Photo by Staples

Oh yeah! These candies cured everything. Not to mention, they were delicious. If I had to choose between these candies or the Creme Savers, I don’t even know if I could do that. Both are great, but there’s something so classic (and accessible) about Werther’s. Now I don’t have to go to Grandma’s just to eat one.

17. Any Kind of Pie

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“Come in and grab a slice of pie,”- Grandma. Grandma’s are, like, magicians in the kitchen. Different visit, different pie. Different flavors I could never imagine trying out without the help of a famous baker. Way to go, grandmas of the world. Also, lemon meringue pie was always the best (I’ll fight you on this).

18. Fruit Basket Centerpiece

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I can honestly say the plastic grapes tasted the most real. Just kidding, I never actually ate them (thankfully). These plastic, inedible fruit baskets always looked so tempting, though. How could pears look so shiny and sweet and yummy? Every centerpiece was a fake fruit basket, too, no matter what table in what room.

19. Licorice

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The soft chewy kind that was always stale, yeah that kind. And since becoming a (kind-of) grownup, real licorice is actually not bad. But I’ll always think of the stale, expired licorice at the bottom of Grandma’s purse — which I’d accidentally grab on my pursuit of a Creme Saver or a Werther’s Caramel — when eating a Red Vine or black licorice.

20. Ugly Kitchen Mat

Photo by Home Depot

This thing scared me every visit. There was always some faded, vintage image of a farm animal for some reason. My grandparents had cow ones all over the kitchen, so now I think of them whenever I see anything cow-related. Not all cows, when printed on kitchen mats, are cute. Trust me.

21. Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Photo by Dollar Tree

First, you lick the icing off then take that cookie down! Even though it was oatmeal, which was definitely not appealing as a child, these were fantastic. Probably just because there was sweet icing, but still. It was a good motivator to get me excited to visit the grandparents, too, so these are a win-win.

22. Animal Crackers

Photo by Walmart

You learned not to expect overly-sugary cookies and treats at your grandparents’ house, but animal crackers were such a gift. You take each one out of the box, see which ones were fully formed, ate the others, and played the rest before snacking on them, too. Did anyone else talk to the animals first like me?

23. Fancy Candy Dish

Photo by Amazon

Also known as the “ultimate trap.” Sneaking candy from out of these quietly took tons of practice, but once you mastered it, those coveted M&Ms tasted like pure gold. Taking the lid off was fine, but putting it back on (without anyone catching on) was the hard part. Us sneaky kids definitely got one too many sugar rushes from sneaking sweets out of these.

If you made it to the end of this list, I think it’s time to give your grandparents a visit. 

Featured Image by Sweet Services

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