Friday 14 August 2009

The Kitchen Table . . .



I read somewhere recently, and was amazed to learn, that most families today don’t even own a kitchen table. In these present-day times it would seem that the table has outworn it’s usefulness and many families just don’t see the need for one anymore. Our homes are smaller so space is tight and at a premium. With mother and father both working, and kids involved in many outside activities, families are so busy that most don’t even eat a meal together nowadays and if they do, more often than not, it’s eaten from their laps in front of the telly.



For as long as I can remember the kitchen table has been an integral and important part of my life. Back, where I come from, the kitchen table is the first place people sit down at when they come a-visitin and the most common place used for entertaining guests. Anyone who comes to the home is made welcome, sat down at the table and the tea cups and cakes are brought out pronto. It would be a sacrilege for someone to come to call and tea and cakes or some other form of refreshment not to be offered!



The kitchen table has long been a symbol of welcome and comfort to me, and I’ve sat around many a kitchen table in my day chatting with friends, playing card games, eating meals, planning things, having meetings, writing in my journal, painting, sewing, mending, etc. I just don’t know what I’d do without one and I cannot imagine a family without one!




Covered in oilcloth, my table has always been a handy extra countertop . . . a place where I can roll out my pie dough, cookie dough or knead the bread that all too often turns out like a doorstop for me! My ex-husband always used to make our bread for the family. With five growing hungry kids that meant plenty of bread, and he used to make our kitchen table fair dance out the door with all his kneading and pummelling of the dough . . . it was the best bread around.




I have fond childhood memories of standing next to my grandmother’s kitchen table and watching her as she worked . . . humming songs under her breath, her busy and capable hands tending to the business at hand, with always the treat of a scrap of potato, or dough or a gentle look and smile coming my way from time to time, the air full of flour and the sound of her crisp crackling apron . . . feeling surrounded with love and purpose.



My kitchen table has always been “the” meeting place at the end of the day where my family gathered together to break bread and share our day's experiences with each other. Suppertime together was a rule and nobody daren’t miss it, with very few excuses accepted. We would all sit around the table and, hands held, share a prayer together before the meal would be dug into and happy voices would begin to chatter and share tales and adventures of the day just experienced. Joy and laughter abounded and sometimes even a few tears, the feeling of love surrounding us with a thick and tangible presence that you could almost touch.

Most evenings, as I washed the dishes after supper, I could count on looking over at the table and seeing heads bent over books and paper as my kids did their homework together, under my watchful eye, with only the odd reminder and admonition from me to get at it and leave their brother/sister alone.

The table was where we played games together . . . monopoly, risk, checkers, dominos; cards . . . are only a few. What wonderful days those were when the air rang with the sound of laughter and playful teasing . . . and once again, abundant love.




I just don’t know how any family could get along without a kitchen table. The very idea seems foreign and almost sacrilegious to me, almost as if an integral part of family life is missing. Although there are only two of us, Todd and I still gather together at the kitchen table at least once a day, and hold hands and pray before we share a meal together. Because of the hours I work, it might not always be in the evening, but rare is the day where we don’t sit together at it at least once during the day and spend some time together, being a family, as small as it is . . . Jess often laying at our feet. I could live without my sofa . . . but I could never live without my table!



I got this recipe many moons ago from an old cookbook of mine called
“Food that Schmecks” written by Edna Staebler. The recipes coming from many of her friends in Mennonite country in Canada, probably most of which were handwritten on scraps of paper at the kitchen table. I have made this so many times through the years and it has been adapted and changed to suit our tastes that it is no longer her recipe anymore, it’s now become mine . . . family food . . . the glue that sticks us all together, along with the kitchen table . . .




*Frankfurter Cheese Bake*

Serves 2 to 3 depending on how hungry you are

Printable Recipe

This is comfort food, pure and simple. It’s full of lovely flavour and is a real family pleaser. The amounts given here are for two or three but it is very easily doubled or even tripled. It’s something you can just throw together at the end of a busy day and it makes good use of things most of us have in our larders at any given time, or at least I do anyways. Perfect for when someone just drops by and you say to them “Won’t you stay and set a spell? I’ll put something good on for us to eat.” You need nothing more than a salad and some good crusty bread to go with it.

¼ pound egg noodles, cooked and drained (Over here I use mafalda pasta)
3/4 to 1 cup of grated medium to strong cheddar cheese (I always use the full amount, but then, I am a glutton)
1 heaping TBS plain flour
Pinch salt
½ cup milk
2 TBS melted butter
1 package smoked frankfurters, sliced
2 TBS soft dark brown sugar
2 TBS mayonnaise
1 tsp good mustard, more often than not I use Dijon

Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/375*F. Butter a small shallow casserole dish and set aside.

Combine the cheese, flour, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Stir in the milk and melted butter. Add the noodles, mixing well. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish.

Mix together the sliced frankfurters, sugar, mayonnaise and mustard. Mix together well and then spoon evenly on top of the noodle mixture. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 to25 minutes, until the frankfurters are starting to crisp up some and the whole mixture is bubbly and lightly browned.





For a kicked up version of egg and chips, or a nice light supper or breakfast, pop on over to my Kitchen to see what I cooked up there!

9 comments:

  1. I agree with you as always. I just can't imagine not having family meals together around the kitchen table...or the dining room table for special occasions...but you are right. I used to ask my high school students if they had meals together with their families. Most said that they rarely did...except for Christmas and Easter. It still amazes me that families don't eat together.

    I have been waiting up to catch your post and say good morning. My stomach has been misbehaving badly for several days and I am not a bit happy with it. I hope that it will let me get some sleep tonight and be behaving better tomorrow. Now that I got to say hello I will climb into bed. Hopefully I will have sweet dreams of Oak Cottage and my dear friend who lives there.

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  2. Ah yes - I remember it well! I don't now about the rest of the world but I'm sure modern day architects design houses with kitchens so small you can't get a table in - robably because they never knew a kitchen table.

    Our house (a bungalow) is old and the kitchen is not that big so we have a table in the spare bedroom, which we turned into a dining room. I wouldn't want to be without a table. You can make even a humble tomato sandwich into something special if you eat it at the table, on a proper plate, with a cup of tea - and NO TELLY!

    love, Angie, xx

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  3. Our kitchen table is the item I most miss from our previous life. We cram around the tiny breakfast bar in our kitchen, but a eat-in kitchen or dining room is on our NEED list for the next house we occupy.

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  4. Oh, my...that is sad to hear, that kitchen tables are becoming obsolete! Our kitchen is too small for a table of any kind--just a dinky box-shaped room. But we love our dining room table and use it daily with joy! Wonderful recipes--and can't wait to nip over to your English Kitchen. Hope all is good there with you, and you all are having a good weekend. The weekend here has taken a turn for the busy--especially with hubby working, And so not quite the relaxing & craft-filled one I'd counted on--LOL! So much happening in the sidelines here just now. And I may be closing one of my shops too. Anyway, do hope we get a chance to chat tomorrow. LOVE YOU HEAPS, dear friend :o) ((BIG HUGS))

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  5. Oh what cute-cute kitchens to look at. Kitchens are the hub of the home.

    Does your husband thank you over and over every time you sit down to a meal????? He's a lucky man.
    Have a great day.
    Sandra

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  6. For me is importante the kitchen table dear Narie, At this house, (that is big) but the kitchen is not large but I have a kitchen table more small that you show (the 1rst) but is nice to me to work in it, and to rolling (je), and some tomes with Mom (when she comes ) we eat some coffe in it.
    I love these lovely kitchen so big with a lovely table kitchen , here where I live I visit some house mopre bigger that mine and someones have lovely kitchen but curiosity these persons sometimes dont love cook, and the persons that ñive at kitchen are the maid and the kids, amazing!! but is the life, but I love mi little table kitche is so useful to me, how always I love your post. xoxoxoxo Gloria

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  7. When I was growing up we watched one too many episodes of Leave It To Beaver during dinner time. TV was relativity new in those days and the novelty hadn't worn off for my Dad...he loved that on during dinner! I vowed that would never be the case in my own home and it wasn't. Meal time was an extremely important time each day and still is. Jim and I sit down together twice a day at the table. Much is accomplished there besides eating.

    Studies provide data suggesting that families that eat together do better all the way around. I believe it too. Good one, Marie as usual. Love the photos of the vintage dining tables.

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  8. We didn't have enough room in the kitchen for a table in the house I grew up in, so we did everything on our dining room table, ate all our meals, did homework, made crafts. We also used our living room all the time too. Everyone who came to visit got a cup of tea usually served in the living room. We have lived in many homes since we got married and few had eat in kitchens so we used our dining room table the same as I did growing up. We sat down as a family for breakfast and dinner almost every day when our kids were growing up. Sometimes now that it's just us we'll sit in front of the TV with dinner but old habits die hard, so it doesn't happen often.
    I hope that as our children get married and have their own children that they will continue the habit of family meals at the table. To me it is so important.

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  9. Great post.

    My kitchen is too small for a kitchen table, but I do have very fond memories of the kitchen table in my mother's kitchen.

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