Kitchen History

   

             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?