My
kitchen is small, just enough room for a table and two chairs, the big old
stove, a small refrigerator, and one person making dinner. The counter holds
the electric kettle, the toaster, and my kitchen-aide mixer on one side of the
sink, the cutting boards and compost bin (the classic yogurt container!) on the
other.
There is not room for fancy gadgets
and new equipment. We keep the Crockpot and microwave—both ancient—in the back
hall. Cooking, in our home, has not changed much since the house was built. Nor
has the room. Every night, I stand
in the
same spot, using the same knife and cutting board, chop veggies, turn 180
degrees to the stove to sauté them in the cast iron pan, bake bread, drain
pasta….the simple rituals of food preparation. Some days, there is a frenzy in
the kitchen, as I prep bread dough, yogurt,
and soup for the week, balancing sheet pans on
the step stool and washing dishes as I go, because there is no room to stack
them up.
In summer, I make jam and pickles,
can tomatoes and beans. A lot of food moves through this small space. There’s a
skill and an art to daily cooking that we learn by doing, day after day.
And
I wonder how many people have stood chopping onions, taken the same steps,
before me? Will someone else follow me?
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