Kitchen Confessional

I have a confession to make - I've been slacking on my new year's resolution to create a working cookbook. No one is really complaining but my domestic spirit and palate is suffering for it.

Part of the reason I haven't been inspired to play with recipes is that we've been on the sick track lately. Who has the interest to cook when no on has the stomach to eat? Super Dave has been the latest casualty to the stomach virus.

It'a all gotten very sad compared to my domestic goddess days when I was completely enamored with cooking. Back then I was trying new recipes nearly every week; I was in love with the attempt. Just the act of putting on an apron and propping a cookbook at my side does something to me, a conscious shift occurs.

I've been craving that feeling and decided to go searching for it once again. But while my cookbooks and recipe folders are normally a source of comfort and inspiration for me, today they were only making me feel more inept - so much still to sort through. I decided to go looking instead through some old photos, proof of those fabulous meals and happy days.
  

While I did recover pics of some great dishes, the images seemed flat and not at all as lively as the memories I still had in my mind. This was unexpected and a bit depressing until I noticed something else in abundance.

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen but I do not do it alone. Through the years, I've had lot of HELP-ers...

 Here they are - way back when.

  I've had listmakers - Mom you need more eggs!

 Tasters - Mmmm, needs more salt.

 Shoppers - I've got the eggs.

 and dishwashers too.

(why do kids think washing dishes is FUN?)

I've also had bakers,

lots and

lots

of bakers.

Pizza makers too! 

I may be partial to all these memories because they are mine but finding them reminded me why kitchens are such special spaces.

There's a lot of living that goes on here. It's not just about the food but time spent too.

A lot of goldfish have been eaten here.

If these photos could talk, they would surely be recipes in their own right. 

Recipes that I want to remember just as much as my mom's secret ingredients for her stellar cheesecake. So it was only fitting that they should find a place in my recipe organizer too.

I don't think Sweet "P" will mind...they've always been good company to me.