What do you do in your kitchen?
- Thread starter Mad Cook
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What eating of course? No room for eating in my kitchen.
No?. well, I eat in kitchen. Can't cook so eat :/
Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
Good thing I got to start at the "grown-ups" table since I was the ONLY kid in a house of five people.
I really miss the kitchen/family room area of our last house. The back half of the house was a Great Room roughly 24'X33' with a peninsula counter dividing the kitchen work area from the family room. Plus there was the dinette part of the kitchen area too. When we'd have the neighbors over for a post-holiday gathering everyone would bring either an app or dessert and load up that peninsula with munchies. We'd have the beer/wine/drinks and everyone would circulate and chat and have a good time. We still had the parties when we moved but this house layout isn't anywhere near as party-friendly as the last home.
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
No matter where I lived, an EIK (eat in kitchen) was the main requirement. The kitchen table was where I did prep work, sat with friends for coffee, helped the kids with homework, paid bills, wrote notes for school, read cookbooks, sat and talked on the phone, gave my babies their daily bath, lived my whole live around that kitchen table, and it is where my second husband was sitting when he proposed to me. He loved to sit at the table and watch me cook.
For years I had a chrome kitchen set with six chairs. Yes, they sold the whole set with six chairs. Chairs were not an optional item like today. Those cahairs and table saw a lot of life.
For years I had a chrome kitchen set with six chairs. Yes, they sold the whole set with six chairs. Chairs were not an optional item like today. Those cahairs and table saw a lot of life.
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Claire
Master Chef
I've been looking for one of those sets for my kitchen. Seems like they were very "retro" popular for years, and now that I could use to replace my little kitchen table, I don't see them so much.
Addie, I grew up living in the kitchen! We had a table with six chairs (must have come as a set because they were all red including the table!) and a U shaped cooking area with two stools on the outside. Everything happened in that kitchen. I remember at Christmas time the table would be filled with cooling goodies I would help my Mom make. I did homework, we played games, visited, and even ate there once in awhile
. Most of our close friends (and all my and my sister's friends used the side door which was right off the kitchen and probably never went further unless to the bathroom at the far end of the hall. I loved that kitchen and all its memories. Oh, and we didn't have a private dining room - Mom got rid of it and it became an extension of the living room.
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
We have a store up on Route #1 that sells appliances. But they have a section that is devoted to the chrome kitchen sets of the 50's. Tables w/six chairs, counter stools. They even have that chrome ribbed apron that required a scrub brush to keep clean. Have you googled them in your area? Or you could make a trip back east and pick one up.
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
Addie, I grew up living in the kitchen! We had a table with six chairs (must have come as a set because they were all red including the table!) and a U shaped cooking area with two stools on the outside. Everything happened in that kitchen. I remember at Christmas time the table would be filled with cooling goodies I would help my Mom make. I did homework, we played games, visited, and even ate there once in awhile
They didn't have TV during my early days of childhood. It was the radio. If you had money, you had a floor model in the parlor. If not, you had a table model sitting on the kitchen table. After the kids went off to school, mom listened to Helen Trent, My Gal Sunday, etc. At 7 p.m. there were kid shows like the Lone Ranger. On Saturday mornigs, kids listened to their shows until 10 a.m. Then ran outside to play all day. And you could always find mom in the kitchen where she was baking and cooking. So the whole thread of family life happened in the kitchen. When I got married just about all homes were buyng TV's. But simply because I was raised in the kitchen, it never occured to me to transfer any activity to the LR. After ten a.m. when I had gone through all the rooms after the kids left for school, my life continued to be in the kitchen. And that is where you could always find me.
Today a small TV has replaced that table radio. My daughter has a small flat screen of a movable arm so she can move it to be seen where ever she is standing or sitting. And she too raised her family in the kitchen.
I feel sorry for kids that live in mansions. They usually have a cook. They are missing some wonderful memory building fun in the kitchen. Can you see Belinda Gates in her kitchen helping her kids with their homework?
Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
I bet Melinda Gates did raise their kids. After all, she quit working at Microsoft not long after she married Bill so that they could start a family. Both of them are very involved in helping groups that help children. I bet even their kids have been taught to give back. Better pick another rich one to pick on!
If you want to be sure, I can see if my old neighbor can track Bill down at the MS campus the next time he heads up to Redman to teach a seminar, although Al has never run into Bill that I know of. FWIW, my old neighbor could BE Bill Gates! I swear we lived next to Bill's doppelganger!
If you want to be sure, I can see if my old neighbor can track Bill down at the MS campus the next time he heads up to Redman to teach a seminar, although Al has never run into Bill that I know of. FWIW, my old neighbor could BE Bill Gates! I swear we lived next to Bill's doppelganger!
Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
You might be able to find those sets in antique shops. I see a lot of them in the different towns in NE CT where there are clusters of the shops together. Saw them for $$$ too, right after we gave my parents' set away. *sigh*
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
I bet Melinda Gates did raise their kids. After all, she quit working at Microsoft not long after she married Bill so that they could start a family. Both of them are very involved in helping groups that help children. I bet even their kids have been taught to give back. Better pick another rich one to pick on!
If you want to be sure, I can see if my old neighbor can track Bill down at the MS campus the next time he heads up to Redman to teach a seminar, although Al has never run into Bill that I know of. FWIW, my old neighbor could BE Bill Gates! I swear we lived next to Bill's doppelganger!
I didn't say she didn't help her kids. What I stated was, "Was it in the kitchen?" They probably have a study room just for doing homework.
That's not nearly as bad as what a friend of mines parents did. They lived in the country. Some time in the '50s, they got rid of the "yucky" old wooden furniture and replaced it with a "nice", new chrome and Formica kitchen table and vinyl upholstered chairs. They burnt the old stuff.
They figured it couldn't be very good because it was really old - it had been in their family for many generations. 
CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
We ate in the kitchen--our parents ate in the dining room after we were in bed--around 8 p.m. They ate different meals than we did, what, I have no idea because we were in bed before they ate. We moved when I was 7 and the house was open concept so we also graduated to eating with our parents (my oldest brother was 11 by this time...hmmm...maybe that's why he has social issues...). We never graduated to eating with the adults on holidays--there were too darned many of us so we all ate in the addition that was added on to the kitchen and the adults ate in the dining room.
OP
OP
Mad Cook
Master Chef
My mother did the same when clearing my grandmother's house. She burnt a Victorian chaise longue (circa 1860)which had belong to my great-grandmother, and my aunt and I only just managed to wrestle the "lady's" (the one without arms to accomodate her skirts) and the "gentleman's" (with arms) spoon-back chairs and one dining chair from mother's hands as she headed for the bonfire the second time! I now have them in my house.That's not nearly as bad as what a friend of mines parents did. They lived in the country. Some time in the '50s, they got rid of the "yucky" old wooden furniture and replaced it with a "nice", new chrome and Formica kitchen table and vinyl upholstered chairs. They burnt the old stuff.
What goes round comes round. I recently saw a 1950s formica/chrome furniture on sale at an extortionate price in an "antique" shop. the dining set was priced at £420 in the end-of-season-sale. The next time I passed they had a "sold" notice on them!
Kitchen Barbarian
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2012
- Messages
- 187
Ooookay, that's really sad. I cannot imagine sending the kids off to eat by themselves - sure there's the kid's table at holidays, but it was set up as near to the main table as possible. Lack of space is not the same as actual total segregation. Adults talked to the kids and vv during the meal. Also lots of adults and kids spread throughout the house where space is available. I can't imagine not eating until the kids go to bed, or not eating dinner (and every meal possible) with your own kids.
But anyway.
My ideal kitchen would not be separate from the main living area. I have no use for a separate dining room - a spot for a table, sure. I'm all for the great room concept, and I do mean GREAT room.
I have little use for kitchen cabinets, either over or under the counter. I can't reach most of what's over, and I can't squat down to get at most of what's under. Drawers I can manage.
I like pantries, not cabinets. In our current kitchen, which is HORRIBLY designed (there are NO windows in the kitchen at all, talk about cheaping out on construction) there is a vaulted ceiling. The wall cabinets that are there (and there are not very many) are mounted higher on the wall than usual, with the result that I can't reach but the bottom most shelves, and my 6' tall son can't reach the top shelves.
So, given my druthers - minimal cabinets, shorter than usual because I can't reach the top shelves anyway, and give me pantry space. I want windows. I want an open floor plan. I want enough space to do actual work. I like an island in the center of a larger space. I want access from the kitchen area to a deck or patio.
I do NOT want a washer and dryer anywhere but on a slab in a utility room or in the lowest level of the house, yet most houses put the w/d just off the kitchen - RIGHT where I want my pantry space. If/when I get so old that I can't manage a single flight of stairs to the basement, it's time for a single story dwelling, LOL!
But anyway.
My ideal kitchen would not be separate from the main living area. I have no use for a separate dining room - a spot for a table, sure. I'm all for the great room concept, and I do mean GREAT room.
I have little use for kitchen cabinets, either over or under the counter. I can't reach most of what's over, and I can't squat down to get at most of what's under. Drawers I can manage.
I like pantries, not cabinets. In our current kitchen, which is HORRIBLY designed (there are NO windows in the kitchen at all, talk about cheaping out on construction) there is a vaulted ceiling. The wall cabinets that are there (and there are not very many) are mounted higher on the wall than usual, with the result that I can't reach but the bottom most shelves, and my 6' tall son can't reach the top shelves.
So, given my druthers - minimal cabinets, shorter than usual because I can't reach the top shelves anyway, and give me pantry space. I want windows. I want an open floor plan. I want enough space to do actual work. I like an island in the center of a larger space. I want access from the kitchen area to a deck or patio.
I do NOT want a washer and dryer anywhere but on a slab in a utility room or in the lowest level of the house, yet most houses put the w/d just off the kitchen - RIGHT where I want my pantry space. If/when I get so old that I can't manage a single flight of stairs to the basement, it's time for a single story dwelling, LOL!
