A Little Flour Never Hurt

In some homes the kitchen is the heart! It’s where families gather to talk, eat, and hang out.  Before we remodeled several years ago, my kitchen was small and cut off. Now it’s a part of the entire living space. The island I selected has been the hub of numerous Christmas Eve baking episodes with many of the women in my family. We would clear the space, roll the dough out and create beautiful cookies made with all kinds of love.  Okay, well, that sounded a little better than they actually turned out…wink wink.  We’d actually get extremely tickled when they came out of the oven looking like puffed up marshmallows or snowmen that had turned into puddles, but tasty they were.  Santa liked them for sure. My daughters would choose the ones they created to leave for his arrival and awaken with pure delight to the crumbs left on the plate.  

I still have my mom’s rolling pin.  If it could talk, I’m sure I would finally get a hint of some of the secrets of her dishes.  She had it for as long as I can remember. She rolled out dough for cookies, pies, and her amazing dumplings. My mom liked to spend time with me in the kitchen.  She was an excellent cook! She’d give me a hard time if I questioned this or that. Try as she might, I never mastered homemade biscuits.  If she had to eat my wampum biscuits, I could see her cringe. I imagine she would rather butter my butt with a switch instead of that thing I called a biscuit.  If I asked her how to make one of her delicious recipes,  she would tell me she did one thing, but when my dish didn’t turn out like hers, I was certain there was something she would purposely leave out.  I mean if mine didn’t turn out, she would make hers and guess what I would join her to gobble it up, which meant some extra time spent together. Her mighty good dishes always had me asking for a tat more.  I would always leave her table full as a tick and with a big hug. Sneaky little thing…

Late-lee I’ve been thinking about my daughters when they were young. As an empty nester, I find myself doing that a lot. I ponder over the times we spent together and have some regrets about not spending enough time doing things like fixing up more yummy goodness.  I was often worn slap out.  I blamed it on the fact that our lives were so busy. I mean I worked 40 plus hours a week in education, drove them to cheerleading or soccer practice, and to wherever else their schedule required them to be.  I could have said no, but I wanted them to learn to handle themselves when life seemed hectic (i.e. balancing busy schedules), recognize the value of a “stick-with-it” attitude, and how to be a part of a team, which sometimes meant sacrificing your own desires for the greater good. I truly believed (and now I can attest to it) that those were qualities that when developed would help them become selfless kind-hearted individuals who would do everything they could to help others. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I’m very proud of both of them! 

Where I may have failed them was in the kitchen…LOL! Fortunately, they have more than made up for that on their own. But now, I have my sweet granddaughter to make up for my epic parent fails…tee hee!  I try to pick out things that we can make together when she is over for a visit.  I look forward to our weekly  “date nights” especially when I know we will be in the kitchen together. We’ve made little pizzas, cupcakes, mac-n-cheese among other easy dishes. This past week, we went a little further and that little stinker hung right in there for the entire time. I was reminded that it’s okay to make a big mess in the kitchen.  A little flour never hurt the countertops. The messy chocolate wipes easily from her face and hands and the chocolate chip I found when I opened up my laptop to write this was just a sweet reminder of our time spent together.  

I can only move forward with my daughters sharing recipes with them, cooking dinners and holiday meals together, and trying out different things they fix. I can’t get their childhood back, but if you have children, I can tell you that if I had it to do over again, I would steal away more opportunities to spend time with them fixing up some yummy love. Not only does it serve as a wonderful learning opportunity where they can learn about math, reading, and even science when you incorporate why certain ingredients are added such as baking powder vs baking soda (sorry, every now and then the teacher in me leaks out), the incredible memories you can make together are far more tasty than anything you could possibly whip up in a dish. 

When the television and radio are turned off, the conversations get turned up.  Reese and I talk about many things when we are together. She is at that age where she has so many questions and wants to help so very much.  I am so thankful for having this time with her.  I love telling her about the grandmother she never met. The feisty chic who loved her lipstick, manis, pedis, and her kitchen.  There’s a picture of my mom right by the sink in my kitchen because that was her favorite place to be and while I’m cooking, I talk to her. Every now and again I swear I get a whiff of her Estee Lauder perfume! 

If she were here with us, I’m sure she would say to me, “Rhonda Marie, don’t forget to let Reese lick the spoon!”