Fern's Kitchen

For most of my life growing up, my mom's kitchen annoyed and amazed me at the same time.
My parents did not believe in the home upgrade so the same basic kitchen that was in the house they purchased in 1968 remained until that house sold in 2001. Mom was always ok with this.

The annoying parts:
No dishwasher, unorganized pots and pans, not enough counter space, old, old Formica tops, no great knives and the messiest silverware drawer ever. If you washed dishes and someone was in the shower, they ended up with third degree burns.

The amazing parts:
Always a great meal.

When mom sold her house and moved into a shared house with Vince and Sharon, they built her a small kitchen in her part of the house. For some crazy reason it's a smaller replica of the same bad kitchen she always had!
No counter space, no garbage disposal, no dishwasher, no good knives, limited power outlets, and a low sink that kills the back when you are washing dishes. I call this the camper. And if you leave the kitchen door open while you cook anything at all, the smoke alarm goes off in the entire house. Really loud. And annoying.
Again, my mom does not mind this. It drives me crazy.

Since I have been here we have had a few big family meals.
Between Dec.23 and Christmas Day she made 50 meatballs, tomato sauce with pork neck bones, baked 15 pork chops, roasted a pork loin, made pasta, ravioli and Italian wedding soup (with 50 smaller meatballs!). I made stuffing and salad, chopping with only one chopping surface. All in a space smaller than a master bathroom.

I personally did dishes at least 10 times. We had family meals, just the 12 of us, at least 4 times. My mom was exhausted, but happy to have us all there, even though we bicker and complain about the camper.

Lots of love goes into all that cooking. Which is shared through the food. And in the end, who cares if the kitchen is top notch?