Thank God Its Monday, again! #HappyMonday to everyone. I personally look forward to all Mondays because they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you!
I love October as much as Mondays. It celebrates so many subjects related to Mom, among them are National Book Month, National Cookbook Month, Eat Better & Eat Together Month, National Women’s Small Business Month, National Work and Family Month, Positive Attitude Month, Self-Promotion Month, and even National Kitchen & Bath Month.
The kitchen can often be the ultimate deal maker or deal breaker for most home buyers. It was a very important factor for my parents (particularly Mom, of course). More and more, people with families are looking for homes with large kitchens that have room within for the family dining table – rather than there being a formal, separate dining room.
My family’s favorite gathering place has always been the kitchen. It was the place where we all gathered to eat, laugh, and talk about the day’s events. I have a sign on a wall by my own kitchen table that reads: “There’s a room in every home where the smallest events and biggest occasions become the stories of our lives.” It’s so true!
Since 2020, the importance of the family kitchen increased ten-fold. The dining table became more than just a place where we ate our meals. It became the family’s epicenter, even more so than the old normal. It functions as an office and classroom desk/work area, as well as a wide array of other things.
But that’s not new to my family, as we grew up with Mom’s Secret Recipes business growing and taking over the whole dining room of our house in Algonac. Of course, the kitchen was another hub for all of her recipe developments, also. Mom wrote a lot of articles about the kitchen and its importance to the cook as well as to the family unit.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, p. 66)
COME INTO THE KITCHEN
THE KITCHEN – IT’S THE BEST place to be when we’re home! You’ll notice that even current home designers are getting away from the formal dining room area, the same way auto designers are abandoning the limousine, the regal and roomy sedans, with their plush interiors, for more functional models.
Homes are becoming more functional in design, as well. In our continuing efforts to economize, to restrict energy sources and to b ring the family back to the warm, bright openness of a country kitchen, we have rediscovered the personal advantages of the best room in the house.
Oh, there will always be the sleek and satiny modern designs of circles, rectangles, and dimensional art forms in the immaculate whites and the startling blacks and the platinum trim and aluminum coldness of contemporary décor.
But the classic country kitchen is coming back where there is one large working space close to the appliance area and also open to the informal, large eating area.
One kitchen design that I truly enjoyed and wished I had thought of it years ago, was a portion of one wall in the eating area that had a shoe molding frame glued to enclose one area that contained a haphazard arrangement of family snapshots, superimposed, over early school drawings by their children; a few post cards depicting a favorite vacation spot when the kids were little and bold handprints of each child, with their names lettered beneath.
The other walls were tastefully decorated with framed favorite recipes and measuring utensils and baskets that were really used, every day, rather than portray the useless object of décor. It was a warm and workable kitchen that reflected a family as a unit rather than the individuals.
There was no reflection of a magazine layout for a swanky and impersonal organization in that room. Every inch of it said, ‘Welcome!’ If you were a stranger when you entered, you were a friend before you left.
It’s been another year, in which many of us have been dealing with an overload of stress and anxiety. Food tends to be one of the few things that usually comfort us in trying times. That’s probably another top reason why the kitchen is, more often than not, considered to be one the favorite rooms in a house. In fact, it’s often regarded as the HEART of the home.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, p. 66)
FAMILY & HOME
FAMILY RESTAURANTS and homestyle meals are returning to popularity. During the war-protesting days of Vietnam, the right to be ‘different’, the right to protest, to be individual made anything even slightly related to ‘family’ and ‘home’ forbidden – or corny. People became impersonal to each other…
Now the pendulum is swinging the other way. The family and home have been reinstated…even in our restaurant industry. Today it is changing back to the personal, the warm, the family. The restaurant industry, in its urgent bid for the public’s loyal attention, is trying to make their dining experiences like your home away from home. Hospitality is becoming their badge of honor!
The kitchen… is the best place to be when we’re home! You’ll notice that current home designers are getting away from the formal dining room area… Homes are becoming more functional in design, as well. In our continuing efforts to economize, to restrict energy sources and to bring the family back to the warm, bright, openness of a country kitchen, we have rediscovered the personal advantages of the best room in the house…
The classic country kitchen is coming back, where there is one large working space close to the appliance area and also open to the informal, large, eating area… It was a warm and workable kitchen that reflected a family as a unit… Every inch of it said: ‘Welcome!’ If you were a stranger when you entered, you were a friend before you left.
‘Things changed, as well they should. Women went out to work. If they weren’t working to supplement the family income, they went to work for their own satisfaction. Whatever the reasons, families changed. Eating at home became less… appealing – and less… convenient. Homes were built with smaller kitchens… Microwave ovens were more affordable and defrost-and-heat became more popular.’ – Gloria Pitzer, Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 295)
It’s been another year, in which many of us have been dealing with an overload of stress and anxiety. Food tends to be one of the few things that usually comfort us in trying times. That’s probably another top reason why the kitchen is, more often than not, considered to be one the favorite rooms in a house. In fact, it’s often regarded as the HEART of the home.
AGAIN, MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, p. 67)
KITCHENS
KITCHENS ARE NO LONGER FOR COOKING! They’re for snacking. Kitchens are not designed today [1982] for families, but for the individual. There are no shelves for keeping favorite cookbooks nearby, to work with the recipes in them.
Kitchens have become hallways from the outside to the rest of the house that is designed to make lasting impressions on the people who have to be impressed! We have neat little places for artificial plants and artifacts of just the right color, to tie it all together.
The way the magazines and showroom floor models of furnishing groupings do! Homes should be, however, a reflection of us! Not an echo of somebody else.
A kitchen designed for a cook, for a family to enjoy belongs to the designers of 50 years ago. I wish homemakers would design kitchens instead of those high educated, sophisticated, degree-holding architects and interior decorators who never have to cook in them.
Never have to untangle a preschooler from the Mixmaster cord, or retrieve G.I. Joe dolls and E.T. puppets from the cake batter bowl. You cannot expect a 5-foot-3-inch tall homemaker to be able to use the top cupboard shelf of a kitchen that was designed by a 6-foot-2-inch man at a drawing board in a high-rise office building, probably thousands of miles from where the home he’s drawing will be built.
People who now design kitchens in homes are not the same ones who will live in them, who will cook at their inadequate stoves; baking in their very small ovens, washing dishes at their misplaced sinks.
In the homes I have seen, in searching for one for our family, I longed so much for the one I had left in St. Clair; that I had to come back to truly appreciate it. And you know what? It was designed by a woman. The builder’s wife designed this house for a big family!
I never met her. She died of cancer about the time we bought the house. But I think of her fondly, often, as I enjoy what she planned for us, without ever having met us. And, while I realize that I will probably offend the liberationists who worked so hard to get the woman out of the kitchen, I must applaud those of us who still, by our own choice, and out of love, wish to enjoy their homes, their families, and especially – their kitchens!
For ages, the kitchen was always the heart and soul of the family unit, until people became busier with activities outside the home – work/school, sports, and other extracurricular activities. That’s partly what contributed to the success of fast food fares – families became more & more on-the-go individuals.
LAST THOUGHTS…
This may sound sexist, however, as for me, my mom, both of my grandmas and probably most of my aunts and great-aunts – cooking was always something we enjoyed doing for others. I find cooking to be one of the best and easiest ways to say, “I love you” or, simply, “welcome” to those with whom I share my table!
IN CLOSING…
In honor of Friday, being National Chocolate Day, and October being National Dessert Month and National Bake and Decorate Month, here’s Mom’s secret recipes for Gourmet Fudge Cake & Fudge Icing; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Gloria Pitzer’s Mostly 4-Ingredient Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; April 1986, p. 66).
P.S. Food-for-thought until we meet again, next Monday…
October’s observances include: German-American Heritage Month, Italian-American Heritage Month, National Apple Month, National Applejack Month, National Bullying Prevention Month, National Caramel Month, National Chili Month, National Cookie Month, National Fire Prevention Month, National Go On A Field Trip Month, National Pasta Month, National Pickled Peppers Month, National Pizza Month, National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, National Pork Month, National Pretzel Month, National Reading Group Month, National Sausage Month, National Seafood Month, Pear and Pineapple Month, Polish American Heritage Month, Rhubarb Month, Spinach Lovers Month, Tackling Hunger Month, Vegetarian Month, and World Menopause Month!
Today is also… National Food Day, National Bologna Day, and United Nations Day!
Tomorrow is… National Greasy Food Day!
Wednesday, October 26th is… National Tennessee Day, National Mule Day, National Pumpkin Day, and National Mincemeat Day!
Thursday, October 27th is… National American Beer Day, Navy Day, and National Black Cat Day!
October 28th is… National First Responders Day! Plus, as the last Friday in October (for 2022), it’s also… National Breadstick Day!
October 29th is… National Cat Day, National Oatmeal Day, National Hermit Day, and World Stroke Day! Plus, as the last Saturday in October (for 2022), it’s also… National Trick or Treat Day!
Sunday, October 30th is… National Publicist Day and National Candy Corn Day! It’s also… Halloween Eve (aka: Devil’s Night), as well as being Halloween Safety Month!
…43 down, 9 to go!
