Pesach musings of my kitchen thru the years

During my preparations this year, I found myself reflecting on our kitchen and the 44 Pesachs we have spent there.

My mental wanderings have, through the years, taken me from believing my kitchen was wonderfully large (11x12 at the bare walls) when we first moved in to wondering how I could continue to cook in a kitchen that felt like a postage stamp! So much effort goes into the holiday and the kitchen is the focal point of all that effort before during and after.

When we moved into our house, we had a 6-months old baby. The kitchen seemed fine, far too big for the few dishes and appliances I had. And then I tried to cook my first company meal (my parents for Shabbat) in the single, 14-inch square wall oven we had. The chicken pan and the rice casserole dish couldn’t fit in at the same time. I was in tears! How could we have bought this house with such a tiny oven?

When the first winter came, we discovered that the huge single pane kitchen window grew a thick sheet of ice — on the inside! The cabinets under the cooktop were impossible to use; if a pot or cover slipped off, I would have to crawl into the cabinet to retrieve it. But, to keep our curious little crawler out, we had to keep it locked almost all the time, rendering the space useless anyway.

So, we redid the kitchen; took out a door to the deck (we had another one right around the corner); we added more counter space, an insulated window, new cabinets, and a real stove. Domestic heaven. Due to a batch of bad glue that rendered our laminate counter a game of whack a mole, we ended up with Corian countertops — free of charge! I loved my new kitchen.

We soon grew from three to four and then five. I was teaching cooking classes and teaching at a university downtown, so I accrued a lot of “time-saving” gadgets. Still, as the kids got bigger, the kitchen got smaller. But the food got cooked, the meals got served and the holidays were always at my house.

I dreamed of expanding the kitchen out to the 12x12 deck right next to it. We never did that; tuitions for day school, Jewish high school, and then college took precedence. Over the years, our house became teen social central, and tons of food passed from the kitchen to always hungry stomachs. It amazes me how fast teens can empty a full fridge! And the kitchen survived.

The kids grew up and we became four, then three, and now, we are two. After 44 years, the first-generation Corian split, the window warped, and the floor developed many chipped and broken tiles. So, during the Pandemic, we did a mini upgrade — a new floor, a new window that actually opens, and new quartz counters (I found a returned slab at the distributer — I highly recommend that route for cost savings of about 75%).

I love my “new” kitchen and the memories that we will continue to make as long as we live here.

Now, three grandchildren run through the kitchen, exactly as their mom and uncles did not so long ago. My small kitchen really is the kitchen of my dreams and a place in which my kids, friends and cousins still love to congregate, help cook, and even clean up.

As I put away my Pesach dishes, and return my kitchen to its 50 week a year status, I mentally promise to try (once again) to keep the cabinet shelves in order and the fridge super clean, and I will continue to be thankful for my small-by-most-standards kitchen. As they say, the kitchen is the heart of the home and mine has been — and is — ticking just fine.