The kitchen is the most important room in the house. It’s where we cook and gather as a family. It’s where memories are made. The kitchen reminds me of Sunday dinners at my grandmother’s house when the whole family would meet and I could connect with my cousins. My grandfather had a special cookie jar with “junk cookies”, like my grandmother would call them. He would sneak a few to us disregarding my grandmother’s disapproving look. I can also remember being in the kitchen at my other grandparents’ house. We had to travel a whole day to visit and we always ended up in the kitchen! It seemed like their whole life was centered around eating! My grandmother would make cakes and pastries and meals all day long. Once she passed away, my grandfather took over the role. He made this fantastic chicken meal, one we replicate often! I also remember watching my mother cook. Being in such a small kitchen, I couldn’t always help…but I would sit nearby and watch her cook. Or, she would bring the bowl to me at the dinning table and I would do the mixing there. Sometimes, to surprise my parents, I would cook dinner and make a hand written menu. My mother still speaks of those meals over 30 years later! Even today, my favourite place to be is the kitchen! I love making meals for my family! On Sunday mornings, I love making pancakes for my children, even though they are quite capable of making their own. It is my way of showing them a special kind of love. I find it rewarding to create something just for them that will make them happy and make them feel special. One day, maybe they will look back and tell the story of how their mother would make special pina colada or chocolate chip pancakes. Or maybe my niece and nephews will reminisce about their aunt Jenny who made themed dinners! I just love making meals a special event! My parents and my brother and his family often come for meals at our house. For this reason, my husband built me a huge 14 foot table we could all sit at!
And what do we do when the meal is over? At my grandmother’s house, my parents’ house or in my own home? We do the dishes! How many great discussions were made at that kitchen sink? May it be between my cousins and I as we helped dry the dishes at my grandparents’ house after family dinner, with my father, mother or brothers when I was growing up, with my husband or children…Every meal ends with the dishes…and with an awesome conversation! During the week, the task of washing the dishes was mostly for my father, and today in our house, it is my husband’s job. Neither my parents or myself have a dishwasher, so they need to be washed by hand. The kitchen sink represents the breaking of gender roles, that a man can be in charge of the kitchen as much as a woman. The kitchen sink reminds me that great things will come to an end, that what is dirty can be cleaned, and that when one thing ends…something else can start! It reminds me of so many other things…like washing my paint brushes, bathing my two year old with autism in the middle of the night to keep her quiet as to not wake her brother, washing the fresh vegetables I picked from the garden, giving my guinea pigs a bath, washing baby bottles day after day in an never ending cycle, and straining the big pot of kidney beans before preparing the chili…
Everything but the kitchen sink
The expression “Everything but the kitchen sink” means “everything you can think of”. Sunflowers and the Kitchen Sink is my take on that expression. Since the original expression omits the kitchen sink…I chose to include it. So many of my life memories revolve around the kitchen sink…and so the expression sunflowers and the kitchen sink seems more appropriate to describe what this blog will discuss. The most important memories I have revolve around sunflowers and the kitchen sink.
Jennifer Geigel 