Kitchen Dreams
What does your ideal kitchen look like?
I think the character of a home is identified through its kitchen. This is my kitchen:
I love it. It’s where I’m learning by trial and error (mostly error, actually) to cook and where I easily re-create cookie and bread masterpieces. The atmosphere of my kitchen is a natural evolution of the kitchen my family had while I was growing up.
Have you seen that commercial (I think it’s a margarine commercial) that depicts an iconic 1950s kitchen? A happy housewife with a bob haircut and a white apron in the immaculate kitchen, cheerily opening her oven towards the camera, showing neatly arranged trays loaded down with foodstuffs? Yeah, our kitchen was nothing like that.
Our kitchen was always clean, but constantly in motion; a gathering place. In the warm and open room, there would be a slight feeling of chaos in the air; Mom would squint at the recipe trying to decipher faded, scribbled handwriting, Dad would take advantage of her distraction to steal a dollop of batter from the bowl and the five of us kids would be teasing each other and trying to “help” until Mom shooed us all out.
The kitchen in my apartment now feels like neither the Stepford 1950s kitchen nor like my childhood kitchens. Instead of open and airy, it’s small and packed. The slightly claustrophobic sensation is heightened by the 
frenzy that I often find myself in when I’m making something for the first time. Instead of the soothing rise and fall of voices discussing the day, it’s just my voice talking myself through the recipe that I have pulled up on my laptop, occasionally punctuated by an expletive as I realize that I should have taken that one pan off the stove five minutes ago. My husband mostly stands safely off to the side within easy reach of the fire extinguisher, gently interrupting only to prevent me from forgetting about that same pan again. Things are often calmer on the nights when he cooks, although I will say that the food he prepares is less adventurous!
The tools of the trade have also changed over the years. I don’t remember my grandmother having any sophisticated kitchen appliances. Her favorite utensil was a wooden spoon and her hands; even her egg mixer was the kind you used by cranking the handle. My mother, on the other hand, has several big appliances that dominate the kitchen and force the ingredients into submission, like a beautiful bread machine and a big Kitchenaid stand mixer in that too-ripe avocado color that was popular back in the late 1970s. I probably own more kitchen helpers than both my mother and grandmother together, although mine are less sophisticated. I am the proud owner of a rice cooker, an electric hand mixer and a crockpot; I am also the shameful owner of a SlapChop.
Even basic ingredients vary across the generations. My grandmother swore by boiling all water before using it, milk that came in soft pouches, butter packaged in small tubs and brown eggs. My siblings and I grew up on tap water, powdered milk, shortening and egg-beaters. Now that I do the shopping, we use a Brita filter, drink soy milk (although I do mostly bake and cook with regular milk), butter is bought in sticks and the eggs are organic. None of these preferences are inherently better than any of the others but they do give you an idea of each of our personalities and priorities.
But enough about me: I want to hear about you! What’s your kitchen like? Send me pictures and memories of your kitchens! How do your kitchen practices follow or break the mold from your parents’ or grandparents’? I would love to see the different way you all have individualized this essential room!
Thanks to Roadside Pictures, Limonada, dogs & music, smiteme, xdijo, Danielle Scott, Paul Worthington and Nancy Hugo for the pictures!
Laura
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Tags: 50's style kitchen, appliances, ingredients, kitchen, kitchen aid, kitchens, vanilla, vanilla extract
