*Do It While You Are Able
Make some memories in the kitchen!
Cooking is such a basic activity for each of us. We NEED to eat so we spend time, no matter how little, in the kitchen preparing what our bodies need to stay alive. Sometimes we even fix fun food.
Two years ago, I was so ill that my son needed to come stay with me for two months. During that time, being wheelchair-bound because of weakness, I didn’t even attempt going into my kitchen. Thus, when I was able to walk and navigate, I truly valued that kitchen and all it contained.
I still do!
As I looked in the silverware drawer the other day, I could see some of my history. There was the silverware that my dear aunt and uncle gifted to me as a wedding gift, 55 years ago. The silverware lasted, the marriage didn’t.
Then there is the silverware from my children’s growing-up years, valued for that very reason. How many meals did I cook, serving my family with love AND that silverware? Hundreds!
Special to me is the silverware I bought to start anew after my husband left home. Colorful handles cheered me as I no longer cooked for a family but just for myself. Bring on the colorful utensils!
Let’s step back a minute.
What Are YOUR Kitchen Memories?
I was remembering when I was a child... I loved coming home from church to the aroma of the delicious food my mother had made while we were gone. That was her task since she was that old-fashioned term ‘shut-in’.
Cooking seemed to be a team effort. My father would get the meat baking. While we were gone, my mother peeled potatoes and prepared the vegetables and always a salad. I can still taste the special ham, created with love. Of course, as I got older, my part of it was to do the dishes afterward.
My dad’s specialty was hamburgers on the grill year round in California. With his special ingredients, hamburgers were thick with a hickory flavor. I can still taste them in my memory!
In my growing-up years, every evening meant a home-cooked meal with us gathered around the dinner table. Always delicious and fun with my Dad being his normally silly self, such as reading the grocery list in an Italian accent.
My specialty was Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was the first meal I made as an engaged woman, inviting another couple to enjoy it outside with us in California. Ah, that was a full on picnic! Also, when I journeyed to my parents’ home after I was married, I would always fix them a full Thanksgiving dinner.
My other specialties
As my own family sat around the dinner table, it was full of dishes I’d learned to make: pizza from scratch, oriental chicken, pizza casserole, beef stroganoff….
Of course, dessert was always enjoyed, too, with my special from scratch cinnamon rolls or banana cake with buttercream frosting and…I’d better stop there.
I still have that special bowl I bought at a country yard sale which was used to mix my son’s angel food birthday cake for years. Plus, the Teflon coated (newly developed Teflon in those days) pan just for that purpose. Looking at the pan makes me smile at the memories!
When I could go back into the kitchen again last year, everything was waiting for me, even the pots and pans I’d received as a wedding present so long ago. Now they were retired, along with me.
Two years later, I still don’t do much cooking, having changed my diet completely. Every once in a while, though, I will look at all the bowls, pots and pans, and utensils and consider if I should begin cooking once again. The jury is still out on that one since I’m very content with my current ‘menu’.
So, when you step into your own kitchen, enjoy it in the stage your life is right now.
If you have littles, enjoy teaching them ‘how to’ eat with utensils and that fun conversations can take place while cooking and sharing a meal.
If you have grade school children, enjoy the mealtimes together. Soon they will be grown, and gone and you will wonder where all of those mealtimes went.
If you have bottomless pit teenagers, let them tell you their favorite foods you make and do that often. Don’t let busyness steal away the time you can spend with them.
If you have grown children, remember their favorite meals and cook them for special events such as their birthdays. Invite them for a real home-cooked meal.
If you are an empty nester with only a spouse at the table, take that time to each talk about your day and enjoy a table for two. Maybe even light some candles.
If you are alone at the table, fix something special for yourself even if it’s a plate of cheese and crackers with yogurt on the side!
Do it while you can!
Make memories!
Seize precious moments along the way!
Dawn Ulmer, a retired Registered Nurse, has enjoyed writing since the age of 19 when she wrote ‘My Philosophy of Nursing’. After marrying and becoming a mother, she developed a newsletter for young mothers called ‘Moms and Sidekicks’. She has been a columnist for a women’s newspaper in Grand Rapids, Michigan writing about time management. From that column, her first book was written and published: “Balance of the Hurried Woman.” Through the years, she has been published in ‘Decision’ magazine, ‘Our Daily Bread’ devotional and other publications. Presently, she is enjoying writing on Medium, her favorite platform.
Please SUBSCRIBE if you would like to read more from me.
Also available in e-book format:
If you would like to have your name added or deleted from my list, please let me know.
Alma Curry Doris Rouse Ken Van Camp Mary Papas Sharon Hillam Jemimah Susie Winfield Haley K. Julie KingGood Lee Byrd Lu Skerdoo Rosa Diaz-Casal Nikita Rayne Johnson Leslie Flemons Samy Writes 🌸 Órla K.
