Kitchen Lessons from My Mom
By Alice Osborne
March is the month of my mother's birthday (the 16th, to be exact). She's been gone 12 years now and I still get so lonely for her. Lots of you can relate, I bet.
Anyway, I was thinking about her today as I was preparing my articles for the newsletter and started remembering the many things she taught me about kitchen work. I thought I'd pass some on to you - not that you don't already know these things, but just as a reminder - of our moms and the legacy they leave.
First, she made sure my sister and I understood it was a privilege to work in her kitchen - not an unalienable right. And we could earn that privilege by always cleaning up after ourselves. The psychology is clever, don't you think? Instead of growing up seeing kitchen work, and the cooking and baking that goes along with it, as a drudge, she created this mystique and allure that just drew us in. You can bet we cleaned up after ourselves - we wanted that privilege, and funny thing, we're still cleaning up after ourselves to this day!
Mom was careful about cleanliness. She kept a spray bottle of diluted bleach water around to disinfect counters, etc. She changed the sponges and dish rags every day. And she was always on me for tossing the dish towel over my shoulder when I was drying dishes. "Dish towels shouldn't be close to anyone's hair!"
She loved to feed people and set an abundant table. We never worried that we might not get all the mashed potatoes we wanted, or if the gravy was going to run out. Her motto was "better too much than not enough - that sends a message of stinginess!"
Speaking of gravy, I never made much of a point to learn to make it. She was the Mother Superior of All Things Gravy, and we made sure she knew it. So even after I left home and was cooking for my own family, when it was gravy-making time, I'd call her for the recipe and how-tos. I think this tickled her a lot.
Mom also believed the kitchen wasn't really clean until the floor was swept. Didn't matter how much homework we had, or what appointment we needed to run to, we could always take two minutes and quickly sweep the floor. She didn't like work building up - she always told us it was easier to do a little now, than have to do a LOT later.
There are many many more things mom taught me, but I'll conclude with this last thought. My parents struggled terribly during my growing-up years and some nights she must have had a tough time coming up with a meal. I remember suppers of bread with a white gravy. But she was always positive and enthused as we sat down to eat together. Her philosophy was, "Food tastes better made with butter and love," and in our home she brought both to the table!
