Friday, November 19, 2010

My This Kitchen Smells - Day 30

This is it!! I've completed my 30 day challenge! Whew hoo!! These 30 days actually flew by.

So today I am to describe my most vivid memory of our kitchen growing up. This is way appropriate seeings that next week is Thanksgiving and all.

We moved around alot as a kid so there wasn't one particular kitchen that stands out. When you are a kid one kitchen looks like the next but what I do remember are the holidays in those kitchens.

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas my father would commandeer the kitchen and kick my mother out. He had work to do. My father loved to bake, a trait he got from my southern Alabamian grandmother. Each year he would systematically go to the grocery store and purchase all of his ingredients. He'd come home and meticulously put it all together and create these culinary masterpieces.

I would sit back and just watch him work. It wasn't a holiday until daddy would perform his magic in the kitchen. Oh the smells that would emanate from that oven were heaven. It gave me such warmth. It just wasn't the holiday until my father performed his magic.

He'd bake until the wee hours of the morning, way past my bed time so when I awoke the next morning there would be all kinds of cakes and pies on the counter. It was like the cake and pie fairies came by and dropped a load of stuff off at our house.

I truly miss those days.

What are your fondest memories of your kitchen?







8 People saying stuff:

Freckle Face Girl said...

I just loved baked goods and the smells they bring into the home. I'll be cooking Thanksgiving again this year. I am so excited about it that I decided to make homemade rolls for dinner last night. Yum! Of course, my kids gobbled them up and only ate a little of their dinner.

Karen said...

While my dad can barely make toast, it was my grandpa who did all the holiday cooking in our family too. The only thing the ladies would make were these special Polish cakes at Christmas. I recently asked my grandma if she would teach how to make them this year.

Great memories.

Red Shoes said...

My most favorite holiday kitchen memories are of my Mom... When she worked her Thanksgiving/Christmas Kitchen Magic, the entire house had this wonderful aroma...

I miss her so much...

~shoes~

Just telling it like it is said...

food enormous amounts of food and my Ma trying to get me to not eat sweets...yeah right!

Jeni said...

Oh the memories certain food aromas do bring back to me! One smell that very few people are familiar with was the really strong odor that permeated our kitchen during December when I was a kid and that was when my Grandma would put the dry salt cod to soak -in lye water -and oh how it would stink up the kitchen. But the reward, on Christmas Eve when she would cook the lutfisk for our traditional supper -made that smell a darned good one. Another scent that I still love is that of bread rising. When I was a kid, I could track my Grandma's bread down from where ever she'd try to hide it so I wouldn't get into it and sneak big hunks of raw bread dough to pop into my mouth! The only thing better than that smell is the smell of freshly baked breads (or anything freshly baked, really)! Great post, Kid!

OHmommy said...

Wow. I don't think my father ever stepped foot in the kitchen. My poor mother. What a wonderful memory for you to have of your father.

Elisa @ Globetrotting in Heels said...

wow! the only things my dad can make are fried eggs and boil water for pasta. That's it :-)

My fondest memories in the kitchen are definitely of my grandma, she was a fabulous cook, she could make great meals out of leftovers, she made amazing fresh pasta, pizza and bread.
And she left me help her! She'd even give me a little dough and stuff to make my own. Loved it!

myonlyphoto said...

Wow that brought lot of my memories back. My grandmother and my mom did most of the baking for the holiday, and we would eat all hot cookies and cakes, we were the judges. I do to miss those days, but I am continuing the tradition. Anna :) PS congrats on your completion of the 30 day mission.