Bliss in the Kitchen

As part of the MaryJanesFarm blog-a-thon, bliss in the kitchen is the theme for week three. Well, to coin a kitchen phrase, that really opens up a whole can of peas! My bliss in the kitchen began early with memories of my grandmother's kitchens. I can remember every detail of both of them, both farmgirl kitchens for real.

My paternal grandma had a kitchen on a dairy farm in Iowa. It was complete with big windows, blowing curtains, and a table right near the stove and sink. She cooked huge meals for the farm hands and she would always sit down and eat last. As she grew older, she could not do as much, so mom would do the cooking and washing when we were there. Grandma also began to lose some of her memory. The last time my mom stood washing the dishes, grandma walked up to her, put her arm around her and said, "I don't know who sent you to help me, but you are a jewel!" She thought mom was hired help! We laughed at that one and always told mom she was indeed a jewel in the kitchen. Family bliss in that memory, for sure.

My maternal grandma had a pump at the sink in her small town kitchen until the 60's. She also always had a daybed on one wall. Above the daybed was a wall lamp where one could lay and read. Anyone not feeling well could always convalesce there where she could keep a watchful eye on them. Her back door went right out the side of the house into her garden, and she canned constantly it seemed. Wearing an apron of course. Her house had no dining room, so we always ate in the kitchen or in the back yard. It was blissful in that room, too.

My mom's kitchen was big, bright yellow, and in the center was a yellow mother of pearl kitchen table. When my grandma came to live with us, my parents gave their bedroom to her and they slept in our kitchen on a roll away which got tucked away during the day. The sink was so deep, she gave me baths in it as a small child! It was so sunny, and had a huge walnut tree outside the back window. Each morning mom would stand there with her coffee. And on late nights, she and I sat and had hot chocolate and talked at the table.

So for me bliss in the kitchen goes a lot deeper than meals, recipes, or the latest appliances, as important as those things are! In fact, it goes backward in time to kitchen living that provided childhood bliss. The best kind.

Check out http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/! Much more bliss in the kitchen can be found there!

Later, I will tell you stories about my kitchen and my daugher's, too. Hers is yellow and sunny, by the way.