Kitchen Aesthetic

My mom's kitchen was the place where everyone wanted to be. Even when a washing machine and dryer sat right across from the old gas stove and a company meal meant canned black olives in the spaghetti, her kitchen was a charmed place. There might be homemade bread. There might be home-canned peaches. There might even be lemon pie. You were guaranteed two things about the meal on the old green table: it would be good, and it would be plentiful.

Mom came by this naturally. Dad still recounts with a certain awe the first time he saw Grandma Gladys spread out a gigantic batch of warm cinnamon rolls on the kitchen table and tell everyone to eat up. I still consider with a similar awe how many people--family, friend and stranger--that both Grandma and Mom fed on a very limited budget. And how very well everyone ate.

Now I have my own kitchen and my own small family of three. Bombarded by waves of adamant and often hyperbolic information about food and nutrition, I have to keep my bearings by remembering a few simple things about a good kitchen, listed below in order of importance.

1) The food must taste good.

2) There must be plenty for everyone.

3) If it is made from simple, real food it will probably be good for you.

4) Gratitude is essential.

With those principles in mind I am stumbling my way to a good kitchen, sorting through the labyrinths of organic vs.local, supermarket vs. farmer's market, raw vs. processed and homemade vs. store-bought. I'm trying to keep (or perhaps obtain?) a sense of humor and some common sense. I'm hoping, simply, to have a kitchen where people like to eat.

That said, this blog is dedicated to Mom and Grandma Gladys.
Their kitchens are still the places where everyone wants to be.