Room by Room: Kitchen

Time to just throw in the towel and talk about the kitchen. I read a lot of homemaking books from various and sundry backgrounds. Some are Christian, some secular, some are pagan. I’ve gleaned things from all of them. But one thing that I find frustrating is it is the pagans who most delight in the kitchen. Not the Christians who have been given all things richly to enjoy, who have a wealth of Proverbs and Psalms at their fingertips reminding us that food is a good gift from God, and who have many, many narratives about God providing food even in impossible situations. It’s not us who wax eloquent about the ‘magic’ of the kitchen in praise of God’s provision, in praise of daily bread. It’s the pagans. How is that even close to appropriate? We of all people should be profuse in our thanksgiving for all that the kitchen produces for our families. Why aren’t we? Why do we allow complaining and murmuring to constantly inhabit and infuse our kitchens? I find it haunting and shameful.

I want to stake a claim on honoring, on seeing, the splender of a kitchen.

Kitchens, ladies, are places of warmth and wonder if we will only let them be just that. They’re places of alchemy, healing, tending, feeding, brewing, baking, simmering, roasting, canning, and more. They’re a cornucopia of provision. If we will stop complaining about having to cook one more meal and stop only seeing the mess (my kitchen is a sight right now as I write this), only seeing the work, only seeing the dishes, we will be awed by this room. The kitchen is the heart of our domain, the center of our reign, the constant expression of our love, and the place that often turns four walls into a home. The kitchen functions on a physical and spiritual level because food is both physical and spiritual.

Breathe. Just breathe in the kitchen. Dwell, really dwell in your kitchen. Here is magic. Not spells and incantations, not hocus pocus, but real magic. Here hot water is boiled to concoct healing drinks that warm the soul, delight the senses, and draw people together. Here are bits of this and bits of that simmered and stewed until the whole home is infused with heavenly smells. From our shelves, we select ingredients, wave our wands, and set sweet, savory, simple, and artistic dishes before the ones we love. We stir the cauldron, mix and match spices, and create enrichment and enjoyment be it ever so humble.

 Cooking for our families is a full-time, expert management job. It is. It’s unhelpful to act like food doesn’t take up the majority of our time and labor. Because it does it’s easy to lose a sense of wonder and awe for the work we’re doing. Every once in a while, step back, light a candle, set out some flowers, and pray to God who provides blessings on your work. Pray that your people would be blessed through your work. Then, roll up your sleeves, tie back your hair, and get to brewing up some love made manifest.

Function: The kitchen’s job is to provide a place to store, prepare, and present food to sustain us and our people.

Kitchens are busy places. From machines that save labor to experiments with sourdough and kefir to small window gardens kitchens must do it all. Almost everything that has to do with food finds a place in the kitchen. From the first cup of coffee to the last midnight snack, the majority of the family and the homemaker’s life centers around the kitchen. Let’s think about a few things that can help with function.

·        Flow: One of the most important ‘behind the scenes’ elements of any service industry is flow. Things have to flow well. If they’re not flowing well people bump into each other, step on each other’s toes, and duplicate steps while missing others. Flow can make or break your ability to take care of customers. That is the hardest thing about adding a new team member. They always mess up the flow. Not their fault, but it takes time for everyone to stop running into each other. Kitchens are all about management and you, HearthKeepers, are the manager. You need to watch your flow. Are you wasting time and motion with how your kitchen is laid out? Could you swap the location of things and save yourself some steps? The more streamlined you have your kitchen laid out the more graceful your cooking will be. If you’re constantly darting here, then there, then back over there to cook a simple recipe you need to look at your flow.

Bringing kids into the kitchen is absolutely necessary. You have a responsibility to teach your kids how to cook. This will mess up the flow for a time. But you are the kitchen manager so work to bring the flow together while also understanding that the upset is for the greater good.

·        Storage: There’s lots and lots of storage information out there. The main thing is to have a rhyme and reason for how and where you put things and the type of things you group together. Read and review different ways other women have laid out their kitchens and playtest them for yourself. You will find bits and pieces all over the place that help you have a better kitchen layout. And you will change it. The longer you live in one place the better you’ll be able to make it work for you. You’ll learn your own systems and flows, loves and hates, and you’ll better harness all the power of your kitchen. Keep at the work. Keep revising. Keep watching yourself. How you use your storage is yours to command. Make sure you’re being a good steward.

·        Gadgets and Machines: Pay attention to how much real estate you allocate to the storage of gadgets and machines. It’s an easy mistake to invest in things that promise to make your life easier and more fun only to have them collecting dust in a few days. We must practice self-control and observation. If it’s a neat tool but you know you won’t really use it, don’t buy it. Yes, having a snow cone maker is a fun idea, but be honest about actually using it. If you will, do it! If you won’t, it’s a waste of your family’s resources. If you think a machine might be helpful, but you’re unsure, try a between-machine. You think you might want a major-investment food processor, right? Check to make sure you have a place for it to live. Maybe purchase a small, hand processor and see how often you use it. Do you use it all the time? That’s a good sign. Do you need something with more options and power? Maybe yes, maybe no. Just be careful about jumping on the bandwagon with different things. Pay attention to your house.

Personal example: I wanted to get an instant pot. I kept reading about how helpful they were and all the things that could be done with them. So, Price got me one for Christmas. Things started strong, but I quickly realized my man doesn’t like the way food tastes coming out of one, and I don’t have the “spoons” to do all the ‘funky’ things that it can do. I have to keep our food pretty streamlined because I only have so many “spoons” and a lovely handful of dietary restrictions. I now use it mostly to make rice and cook squash. I’m thankful to have it, but I don’t really utilize it. It’s not my cooking style. On the other hand, I’ve recently learned that Dutch ovens are absolutely my cooking style. They can do soups, casseroles, taco meat, breakfast, lunch, dinner, stove top to oven. I use them just about every day. Finding a pan type that works for you is far more helpful than all the gadgets in the world. Having a great  set of knives is equally important. Pans and knives are the two areas you want to invest in. Now, I’m not saying gadgets and machines aren’t helpful! I’m just saying watch yourself, not the fads. Know what you and your family will actually utilize and make sure you have the space for it.

Beauty: Since much of our lives and labor will take place in the kitchen, make it a beautiful place to be. Beauty is so important. You should have nothing in your kitchen that isn’t a delight on some level to look at. Even your tools should have some grace to them. Things that are clean and organized are always beautiful. Don’t miss this important step. If this is the room from which flows our comfort and warmth and sustenance then it should be a place of great beauty.

·        Realistic beauty: the first thing to remember is that your kitchen, like the rest of your home, is a workhorse. Your kitchen is a Clydesdale, not a miniature pony. It has a job to do, and it pulls its weight, but that doesn’t mean it lacks beauty. Your kitchen is a workspace, not a museum. Beauty isn’t found by storing untouchables, it’s by finding touchables that are beautiful. We all have to have plates and cups and silverware. Make sure you like the ones you have. All kitchens must store food and herbs and spices. Make sure you like your canisters and storage containers. Consider, if you can, decanting. It cuts down on the visual noise. Don’t buy anything for your kitchen without considering if it is useful and beautiful. Do you actually like it? Do you want to look at it for the next decade? Does it blend with the rest of your kitchen? Does it make you smile? If it doesn’t, consider a different option. You have to work here, so make sure you like where you work! Don’t make this job harder by loathing every tool and serving dish you have. At the same time, don’t buy things that will make your job harder just because they’re pretty. If you see a beautiful dish set that you know is expensive and you have young kids at home, be realistic. Don’t set your kids or your husband up for failure by buying things that are easily destroyed. You need good-looking workhorses! But they still need to work.

·        Contentment: Have you ever found yourself trapped in the fallacy of assuming other people wake up one morning and presto have the perfect kitchen of their dreams? I know I struggle with this sometimes, with kitchen envy. It’s good to know what you want in a kitchen. It’s good to have goals that you’re working towards. But don’t let that slip into the envy of others. Keep in mind, those others worked hard to get to where they are today. Not many people are just handed the perfect kitchen on day one. A perfect kitchen isn’t everything. Set your dreams and work towards them. Grow your cooking skills. All the perfect presentations in the world won’t make a bad meal taste better. Don’t be afraid of in-between stages. Something may not be ideal but can still work. If you don’t have the time, energy, skills, or money to put together the perfect kitchen, start where you can. Can you learn to cook better? Can you be more frugal? Can you find some in-between tools and dishes that are appealing? Ask yourself what you can do.

·        Clean and Orderly: This is becoming a drumbeat in our Room by Room series. Nothing trumps clean and orderly. We can be at the poverty level, carrying the stress of where our next meal will come from and still  have pleasant homes because  they are clean and orderly. No amount of money thrown at a room will make up for a lack of cleanliness and orderliness. This is especially true in the room where we prepare food. We don’t need to pass a government food inspection, but we do need to not poison our families. It’s not fun research, but we should all be aware of the dangers of spoilage, bacteria, mold, and rot. We all need to make sure we’re keeping the surfaces scrubbed and the food properly cared for. Some of us will scrub our kitchens within an inch of their lives, and some of us will shrug and think, “good enough.” Either way, we all need to stay vigilant about not making our families sick. This is our job. And it is beautiful. Think about it. Would you rather deal with that ground beef in a clean environment where it is easy to see what needs to be scrubbed down? Or would you rather deal with meat in an already rancid environment? One is welcoming and one makes us all gag. The beauty of our kitchens is found in their order and their cleanliness first and foremost.

Kitchens are inescapable, my dear HearthKeepers. We can choose to embrace them with wonder and laughter, prayer and praise, or we can spend the rest of our lives yoked to slavery and drudgery. We get to pick. What we don’t get to do is escape our responsibilities in the kitchen. Think about what you’re teaching your children every time you complain about cooking. Think about the environment we’re creating in our home when we face our biggest task, not as women who know the Lord will provide for us and our loved ones, but as women who rail and complain that we’ve been provided for yet again today. How odious is our attitude towards this room so much of the time? What we need to do is embrace it and learn to look beyond another pan that needs washing to the magic of soul-healing food, rich and diverse flavors, healing for the body, and a natural gathering-in of our people.