Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

In the Kitchen with my Mom

In the kitchen with my mom

 

In the kitchen with my mom means homemade food, one delicious delight after another. The grandchildren know that Monday mornings mean waffles with warm maple syrup. As many as you can eat. It also means cookies… last Monday my mim made,

Chocolate chip,

Turkey cut out cookies (one cookie for each plate, each person in our family coming to Thanksgiving… my oldest brother Marty then eats the heads off of each cookie before dinner… Weird tradtion but it is a tradition.)

and Snickerdoodles.

Then there are the pies.

 

 

 

Turkey cut out cookies

The red plastic turkey cookie cutter hs been in our family a long long time.

I was happy to be home this year, seeing it make its appearance.

Don't ask how many cookies I ate! Snickerdoodles are my favorite.

She hid them.

I don't know why?

 

 

Cookies from home

 

The cookies. Each season brings out a different cookie cutter.

 

 

 

Thanksgiving pumpkin

My nieces standing in the dining room.

Green checked wallpaper, that my mom asked if she should change.

I am the Queen of change, but when it comes to home, my mother's home I like everything to stay the same.

 

 

Bird nest curtains

 

One thing that does change in my mother's home is her decoration arrangements.

The curtains in her dining room never are the same way twice. This year for Thanksgiving she rolled them up and made crow's nest.

One year she had dried corn strung for a curtain.

 

 

 

Breakfast at mom's

The grandchildren know that breakfast is an open bar. Whatever time they come over on Monday, waffles are served.

I watched in awe as she whipped out waffles from seven until eleven.

I had two at ten.

 

Chocolate-chip-cookie-CC

 

What speaks my mother's kitchen to me:

– The sugar bowl and spoon, the exact same one since forever, in the exact same place in the cupboard.

– The small old dust brooms laced on a rod for a kitchen curtain.

– The pull out cutting board.

– The tin cup .

– The chocolate chips hidden in the dish towel drawer,

– The perfectly pressed dish towels.

– Not a single good knife.

– The kitchen faucet with a mind of its own.

– The junk drawer.

– The red checked cook book.

– Constant children coming in and out.

– And my mother's baking up a storm.

 

 

 

Tin cup

 

What was your childhood kitchen like?

 

Comments

43 responses to “In the Kitchen with my Mom”

  1. Janet

    Your best post ever Corey !

    Reply
  2. Karen@PasGrande-Chose

    I LOVE your mother’s dining room! It’s obvious where you get your good eye and flair from … I also love that this is a home with a big heart. Please send love and greetings to your mom.

    Reply
  3. Minodora

    With so many things to do,so many children….i’m coming to Willows to give you a help!Until Easter or who knows when…..:)

    Reply
  4. vida

    What a wonderful place to be! My mother’s kitchen was always busy, nothing was too much trouble to cook and never did she own a single cookbook! You are so lucky Corey, enjoy your time together! x

    Reply
  5. Paulita

    You must be homesick even when you’re home! What great descriptions and details. I have a turkey cookie cutter. I think I’m going to mix up the batter, which has to set overnight, and bake the cookies on Thanksgiving morning. I’m pretty bummed over Thanksgiving, well all the holidays, since my family isn’t together, so I’d better start some new traditions to give it some life.

    Reply
  6. Jennie@clusternavigators.com

    Thanksgiving is not something we celebrate in New Zealand, but I have been in Canada once for their Thanksgiving and in San Francisco pre-Thanksgiving, so i have seen all the preparation that goes on. It is such an amazing thing to behold and even more poignant when told by you and illustrated by your Mom and family. I think all the best aspects of what Thanksgiving must represent are shown and expressed within your particular family, so you are indeed blessed. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  7. Merisi

    The “curtain crows nest” almost made me choke up, such a loving creation!
    I keep thinking all the time how happy you must be, being home at Thanksgiving.
    So different from trying to celebrate far from home, where nobody understands what Thanksgiving really means.
    Blessings to all of you,
    Merisi
    P.S.: How about preparing a second set of turkey cookies, to surprise your brother “after the deed”? 😉

    Reply
  8. suesue

    I love the holidays! My mom’s kitchen always smelled like turkey and dressing, yams and bread. I loved it and miss her so much. We still all get together at her house (where my oldest sister lives) and eat way too much. And laugh, and remember, and love.

    Reply
  9. bramble

    Roomy with checked curtains, crocks, wooden spoons, butter molds,rolling pins and springerle molds. Red and green handled cookie cutters in an oak basket waiting for the next “cookie day”. Hoosier cabinet in the corner crammed with baking supplies. Always good smells of bread, pies, cookies along, with whatever meal of the day it was. The very best part was the woman in the middle of it all who always had time to talk, laugh and share a hug with whoever walked in. God how I miss her, but am thankful to have had such a wonderful Mom in my life. Corey, I am sure your Mom and mine would have liked each other, lots in common, including their unique and creative decorating! Happy Thanksgiving one and all!

    Reply
  10. Bev

    Oh the smell of baking: my mother’s homemade cinnamon rolls! Every time I bake them I think of my mom.

    Reply
  11. Jackie

    Picture of the dust broom curtain please!!! You should do tours of your moms house-I’d pay for the “B and B” experience at her house:)

    Reply
  12. Linda H

    We had the same cookie cutter growing up! Grandma was the baker in our family. Last night I made a batch of gingerbread to cut into turkeys, pineapples, acorns, and maple leaves this morning. Don’t think I’d be welcome for Thanksgiving without them!

    Reply
  13. Lisa DeNunzio

    Greetings Corey. Why is it that we never want our childhood home to change? We want it always to remain that sunny warm place where are wonderful memories were born and continue. We will be 20 this year to share the Thanksgiving feast and offer up some thoughts as to what we are most grateful for. We do this each year in a large circle outside that tends to increase each year.
    By the way, my first entry on my blog has been posted. Be kind when you read it. I have a very long way to go but am excited. A hug, Lisa
    Please take a look when you have a chance. htttp://ladolcevilla.wordpress.com.
    Any thoughts or gentle suggestions (I feel very vulnerable and uncertain) would be most appreciated…..

    Reply
  14. Brenda, Walker, LA, USA

    I thought you were in my mom’s kitchen!!! What is it with the knives???

    Reply
  15. Tamara Komuniecki

    Corey, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Well, your mom’s house is not so much representative of my past (though, having grown up on a farm with three other siblings, there is some of that here), but my future. You see, I aspire to be the kind of nurturing, patient, creative and caring woman your mother is. It makes me wish I had a brood of children who will bring me a brood of grandchildren!
    Enjoy your time at home – I am so enjoying your stories!

    Reply
  16. Debra

    Corey, Happy Thanksgiving! Your mom is so awesome – I am so tired before this holiday, but your post of your mom’s tireless energy is inspiring me to push through! My childhood was quite different, I was never allowed in the kitchen and try hard not to pass that on (but, I have to admit my daughter’s messes are over the top sometimes). Thanks again for a great post – have a wonderful day! xo

    Reply
  17. jani

    i wish big families all living close to one another was still the norm….. sounds magical….
    happy thanksgiving.!

    Reply
  18. Ione

    Brought back memories of my mom in the kitchen. She was a whirlwind. Everything was delicious. My friends would stop by to walk with me to school so they could eat a left over breakfast biscuit. Mom’s were the best.
    I do envy your mom’s sweater and scarf attire for cooking. She looks so chic. A look I could never pull off while cooking. I wear sweats or other leisure attire.I’m thinking I should try to glam up a bit more.

    Reply
  19. Sharon Penney-Morrison

    Home for the Holidays. It does not get any better. One set of my Grandparents lived on a farm in eastern Kansas. They had dairy cows, chickens, and a few pigs. They were poor, but I never knew that. Grandmother Bessie, cooked on a wood stove, and she had an old kitchen cupboard that was her work counter. Water was drawn from the well outside the kitchen door and carried in a bucket to the small counter, that held a white enamel wash bowl.
    My memory (from the 1950’s) is of her starting the dinner very early. I would help her roll the dough out for the amazing pies, pumpkin, cherry, Pecan and Apple for the boys. She always made homemade noodles and I would get to cut them in strips on the metal topped cabinet. The smells were unforgettable and a mixture of soft and sweet, and of her talcum powder she would pat on her neck.
    When I tell this to my children and Grandchildren they think I am really old to have lived in a time where there were out door toilets, and no running water. It did not seem strange to me….it was just the way it was when we visited the farm from the big city we lived in.
    Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

    Reply
  20. Deirdre

    I have a set of those same red cookie cutters! I’m determined to use them this year.
    Happy Thanksgiving Corey! And happy days with your family. xoxo

    Reply
  21. kim

    Happy Thanksigiving. I spent the past two years with my family but this year I’m staying here and having dinner at my house with friends.

    Reply
  22. jend’isère

    I brought back my Mom’s red turkey cookie cutter to France.

    Reply
  23. Brenda L. from TN.

    What a great post! Lots of memories!
    My maternal grandmother lived with me and my Mom so I saw upclose how great grandmothers cooking can be! I was always the “spoon licker”….no matter what she was cooking…”Pumpkin, come taste this and see if you like it”…and I always did.
    My paternal grandmother was even a better cook! Her Mother and baby sister died from Yellow Fever when my “Nannie” was just six yrs old. She said she pulled a chair up to the wood-burning stove and her Daddy showed her how to cook basic things. She died at 92.
    Both Grandmothers were beautiful people…NEVER EVER said a bad word about anyone…they were much loved and missed terribly when they passed…I was truly blessed to have two WONDERFUL Grandmothers!
    Your Mom’s house sounds much like theirs…warm kitchens,cookies baking, lots of good food and tons of laughter and love!
    Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!

    Reply
  24. Ellen

    can you post a pic of the dust broom kitchen curtain? i’d love to see that!!!!! i think our old red turkey cookie cutter is the same as yours…

    Reply
  25. Amy Kortuem

    Every family needs that one guy who will do things like eat the heads off the turkey cookies. My Dad always finds the roll or the potato or the cookie he wants, licks it and then puts it back on the plate. It definitely works…nobody else will touch it!
    Your Thanksgiving images and kitchen memories are beautiful, Corey. When I think childhood kitchen, I think of my Grandma’s. Small, but always steamy and warm with such good-smellling things going on in there. I’ve been vegetarian for years, but I would some days sell my soul for the beef and homemade noodles she made. I miss her.

    Reply
  26. cynthia wolff

    how about some of your moms recipies. We’ll all carry one her traditions.
    Again, love your family and your mom…she’s the best. your lucky.

    Reply
  27. Monica

    My French husband calls it “Penitence Day” since cranberry sauce, bread stuffing, pumpkin pie, yams and the works are so un-French…but he never complains~
    A Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours Corey!

    Reply
  28. Marilyn

    I haven’t thought of my childhood kitchen for a very long time, but there always was the “junk drawer”. It was a simple kitchen, as my mom was a simple woman. There often was an apple pie and pancakes made in shapes.
    I love your family traditions, including the turkey head being bitten off. Good thing the head is small or he would have a stomach ache by the time dinner comes along. May you and your family have a delightful Thanksgiving!

    Reply
  29. georgie

    Reading this was just like being there-you could feel the love.
    Grandma lived at Favorite Aunty and Uncle’s home and always either helped with the baking or sat in the kitchen and knit. Aunty loved to bake as much as her family loved to eat. Two cookie jars-one a cow, the other HumptyDumpty, four big glass recycled mayo jars with white metal screw top lids were in a cupboard, all half full of different cookie varieties. Everyone liked cookies, in case you couldn’t tell. Oh Aunty’s apple pie was heaven!I can almost smell Aunty’s kitchen, many years later. Butter, yeast,sugar, melting chocolate and Aunty’s perfume. Now unfortunately Aunty has diabetes and is a bit senile, so must rely on those good memories of the past.

    Reply
  30. Anne Gsolfot

    I love being ‘home’ with you for Thansgiving. It makes me feel so warm and loved. Of course I can’t deny that all of that wonderful food makes my tummy feel happy too. Los Angeles is too far from Willows to just drop in but I’ll be there in my mind.
    Happy Thanksgiving to you and all of your loved ones.

    Reply
  31. Alan

    It is so reassuring to see the same things in my moms home for the last sixty two years. Sure she moved twice, but I can still find many of the same utensils that were in the house when I was a small child.

    Reply
  32. Paula S In New Mexico

    Happy Thanksgiving everyone !!!

    Reply
  33. Kathie B

    Hope you enjoy your holiday, Corey!
    “The cookies. Each season brings out a different cookie cutter.” Corey, does your family have a groundhog cookie cutter from nearby (to us) Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, for Groundhog’s Day? February 2 will be upon us before we know it!

    Reply
  34. Joanna

    Oh my gosh, I so seriously want to be your mom when I’m her age – I cannot imagine being a better grandmother who has more fun!!!!
    This is amazing!

    Reply
  35. Marilyn from Chico, Ca

    My childhood kitchen was a tiny little in an apartment in the city (Philadelphia). We had chrome furniture with a red top and an Aunt Jemima cookie jar on the top shelf. I had to climb up on a chair to reach it (when no one was looking of course)We hardly ever used the kitchen as we ate out for most of our meals. I just LOVE your Mom’s kitchen and wish I had had one like that ! Maybe we would have eaten home more.

    Reply
  36. pattyg

    Now I am inspired to bake! It would be so much fun to be in your Mom’s kitchen and learning her secrets.
    I loved waffles growing up, cooked on an old rectangular waffle iron. I think we used a mix from a box.
    Loved the fudge, brownies, choc. chip cookies, popcorn, toasted cheese sandwiches, and bacon cooked in the kitchen.

    Reply
  37. Linda A

    I rarely leave comments since I do not have a blog
    but your mother’s home and your reflections of the
    family traditions make me miss my mother and our
    holiday rituals. Living in central Calif, I know
    how I would miss home if I were to leave.
    Glad your home….soak it all up and enjoy.
    So touched by this post.
    Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

    Reply
  38. Cousin Chris

    Hey Corey, tell Aunt Delores, since she’s in the baking mood, that Nephew “Creesch” needs a loaf of world famous-$80.00 a loaf at the festa-Massa Sovado!

    Reply
  39. Jeannie

    Your Mom’s kitchen sounds like my Mom’s and her mother’s before her. We had the turkey cookie cutter too. I think it came in a set from Tupperware or something like that. Our kitchens were always yellow and my kitchen is yellow. Dad always painted yellow, he liked it. He said if you had to live in the rainy Pacific Northwest, paint your house yellow to invite the sun. Red checked cook book, junk drawer, the sugar bowl and spoon, you have described home to me. Happy Thanksgiving Corey and family.

    Reply
  40. Kit

    Lovely post – it sounds like the perfect home kitchen, full of life and warmth. You’ve started me off thinking about the two kitchens of my childhood, but it was way too long to write about in a comment, so you’ve inspired me to write a whole blog post about it! I’ve just posted it! But I couldn’t find a single photo of our old kitchen to illustrate it. I love all your pics so much!

    Reply
  41. Kristin McNamara Freeman

    Corey …Today’s words brought to the fore of my mind so many memories of my mother’s kitchen and my grandmother’s kitchen. Snicklerdoodles were my one grandmother’s best cookies and cut-out sugar cookies came from the other. My mom taught us all how to do the family traditional dishes and today I am making the dressing from my maternal grandmother’s recipe…to share with my daughter and my grandchildren.
    I will write in my journal today about mother’s kitchen; memories flood me now and I give thanks for you, your wonderful writing and photos that so often stir those deeply held within memories. Your writing blesses me again and again.
    May your dinner today with family in Willows fill your well with so much love to take back to France with you.
    Thank you Corey for your faithful writing and photo capturing of life around you.
    Kristin McNamara Freeman

    Reply
  42. deborah

    The curtains are so great!

    Reply
  43. Sara

    We had the same turkey cookie cutter! And now I have it in my kitchen!!

    Reply

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