I am so fortunate to have grown up during a time when old world values and traditions still existed. Not that I would trade in my microwave or the fine cuisine offered in the frozen food isle of my local grocery store, but just to have the memory of how things were done before the invention of the food processor, bread machines and handy dandy gadgets we have in our kitchens today, is enough to bring a smile to my face.
I remember my grandmothers kitchen. We called her "nanna" because we are of German decent and nanna was a tall imposing women to my recollection. It's been many years since she has passed. Nanna was sort of a contridiction to her generation. She lived in a small apartment by herself. She loved all kinds of music and always had the latest albums and sterio equipment. She was also the first person I knew with a color television. But when it came to her kitchen there was no denying that this was a 19th century born German frau.
I don't believe nanna ever opened a can of anything. She would go to a farmers market on Saturdays and buy fresh fruits, vegtables and meats, bring it home and go to work. She was the kind of women who made spaghetti sauce from tomatos. I doubt many young people today even take the time to realize spaghetti sauce actually comes from tomatos. I know I don't think about it. I can still see in my mind nanna boiling these tomatos, peeling them and crushing them up by hand. Then adding a bunch of stuff, not ever measuring things, and somehow that sauce would come out so smooth and taste like heaven. Spaghetti wasn't a traditional German thing but for some reason it was her specialty. She would can it up it mason jars and give it out to who ever wanted some and trust me...everyone wanted some.
For as good as her spaghetti sauce was, her breads were better. When I walked into her house and smelled the bread baking my mouth would water and I would run to her kitchen to see nanna kneading piles of dough and hot loaves in every concievable place. I've tried to duplicate her bread techniques over the years with no success. When ever nanna would ask me what I wanted for Christmas I would say every year...bread. She would laugh this real deep, soulful laugh and say "then bread you shall have meine frauline" That was actually the only German she knew, having grown up in an orphanage in Kentucky. That is where she learned to cook. From a young age, she was made to cook for the orphange and I suppose that is why she had more of a southern way of cooking than a German one.
Her fried chicken was another thing that no one could match. I remember one time she let me help, which was unusual because she hardly ever let anyone in her kitchen let alone help, and it was unusual too because it was the only time in my memory that she talked about herself. Nanna was normally a very quiet, hardworking women and not child friendly. This is when I learned about her life as an orphan and how her mother gave her up when she was 3 because she was illigitament and the man her mother was going to marry would have no part in this child. Her father was a captain for the south in the Civil War...perhaps nanna was a going away present. She talked about how hard the orphange was and I began to understand her quitness and distance from people. It was a stigma in her time to be illigitament and, more often than not, the child grew up ashamed. Poor nanna, I thought. It was a hard life for her. But she DID learned to cook. She said it was the only way anyone loved her. I suppose she meant it was her way of being recognized in an otherwise unloving and unfriendly world. She told me how she used to have to catch the chickens, kill them and take the feathers off. She thought it was amazing that all she had to do now was go to the market and bring it home. Of course she still had to cut the head off and gut it out. (she could have left that part out as far as I was concerned) But her fried chicken would but KFC to shame. That's another thing I can't seem to do nearly as well.
The last time I saw nanna and her kitchen was about a month before she died. She had cancer but still managed to cook up a storm. She made up Chicken and Dumplings that day. It was my job to depod the peas. Can you imagine? The only thing she used was a knife, a cutting board, a bowl and a pot to make this fabulous meal. I garentee you that if I were to try this I would need every thing in my kitchen and the Betty Crocker cook book next to me. Flour would be every where and I would be so stressed out making the gravy that I would be yelling for emotional support. Not nanna. She could cook and iron at the same time and it wouldn't phase her in the least.
I don't get it. Life is supposed to be easier now in the kitchen. It should be easier in general with all the dohickeys we've got to make things simpler. But it seems the more that gets invented, the more there is to figure out and apply it. *sigh* My husband bought me a juicer for Christmas and I thought wow, now I can make all those healthy yummy drinks instead of going to the store and buying it. Do you know how much work goes into making half of cup of vegtable juice? What would nanna do? She would eat a carrot, that's what she would do. I have a fancy, smancy electric waffle thingy. Half the time I'm standing there waiting for 10 minutes for the little green light to tell me it's hot enough to use. How is this making my life easier? I just figured out my time operated coffee maker only brews the coffee at 5:00am WHEN I REMEMBER TO SET THE TIME. Crock pots are okay but I don't care what they say about the convinience of leaving them to cook while you are away from home. I had one catch fire and almost burn the house down. Yeah, that's easy to do. I think I've used my blender twice to make the kids a smoothie. I haven't figures out all the speeds yet. I have an electric can opener but I still use the old fashioned hand one. I had the George Forman Grill thing but I could only do half the hamburgers I needed for my family at a time so it took me twice as long. I have utensils in my utensil draw that I've never used and don't even know what they are used for but I had to have them. I have expensive, non stick cook ware that I found out eventually WILL stick no matter how much of a loan you had to take out to buy them. I want a bread machine and a food processor. Not that I intend to use them or that I have the room in my kitchen for them, but I have to have them. My sister has them, so I should have them too, right?
None of this makes my kitchen experiances easier and none of it makes me cook as good as nanna. I should just throw it all away and go back to the old kitchen ways where all you need is a knive, a bowl, a cutting board and a pot. But I'm not giving up the microwave. How about you?
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