Someone on my Twitter feed yesterday asked “What makes you happy?” Without hesitation, I responded with “Being in my kitchen!” As long as I can remember, the kitchen has held a special place in my heart. It’s where you pour secret ingredients like “Love” and “Hope” and “Prayers” into your family’s food. It’s where you create beautiful, wholesome meals from nothing but a handful of this and that. It’s where you work out the problems of the world over a cup of coffee with your bestie. It’s where you write out cards and bills and maybe…a letter!
The kitchen holds the heartbeat of a home. My earliest memories involve my grandma’s kitchen out at the farm…that place I still get to enjoy and soak up the wisdom she left in its bones. With an oilcloth table covering and a kerosene lantern as a centerpiece, I spent many wonderful hours in that kitchen. Another favorite kitchen was in the farmhouse we lived in when Hubby #2 was doing his internship and residency. A big old cast iron farm sink under a wide window you could throw open made cooking more pleasant, even on the hottest days.
When I got up yesterday, I immediately set on a pot of beans for supper in the slow cooker. Then, I set to organizing my workspace in the kitchen so I could start canning the produce stand on Tuesday. By the end of the day, I had eighteen beautiful jars of cubed butternut squash that will make wonderful soup this winter. As the canner was chattering away, I whipped up some cornbread and baked it in an iron skillet. I took the smoked ham hock out of the beans and removed the tender meat from the bones so we could get some of that rich, smoky flavor in every bite.
The ClearGel arrived yesterday so I can finally start on the apple pie filling. I’m really looking forward to that. I love baking pies in the winter, but don’t always want to take the time to prepare the apples. My cousin has always made pie filling so I’m going to try my hand at it. I think once I get that project done, I’m finished for the season. This has been a huge undertaking and I have to admit…the diversion has been a saving grace for me. It helped me get through some bumps in my road and now, I’ve got all this great food ready to go. I’ll have all these great memories when I put the food on the table or share the occasional jar with my loved ones.
Well, that’s a wrap on September! Let us pray October brings us moments to pause. To sit with a cup of tea and marvel at the earth turning to gold. To close our eyes and catch a thin whiff of wood smoke and wet leaves. To hear the last faint strains of crickets and katydids before they are gone for the year. Ahhhh….sweaters and leggings, here I come!
❤️
“He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”
Daniel 2:21 NIV