The Kitchen...

[Gloria25]

Do many of you find your family time revolving a lot around the kitchen?

 

My family and I love to cook...Us cooking simple stuff like breakfast, dinner, etc is an event that sorta bonds us. I also enjoy tapping into my female instincts to "nuture" the family by making sure I fill their bellies with some yummy and healthy food.

 

I think that a lot of American families have lost that concept. The dinner table is where you can sit and bond with your family. You feed your family, ask how your day was, etc...I've heard that even in Asian families at the diner table is where the kids sit and do homework instead of being sent to their room to do it.

 

How 'bout your family? Do you all bond and enjoy time spent around the kitchen and dining table?

[pink_sugar]

I used to when my apartment was big enough for a dining table. now it's usually me and my husband laying on the couch while we watch something or when we eat out.

[Gloria25]

I used to when my apartment was big enough for a dining table. now it's usually me and my husband laying on the couch while we watch something or when we eat out.

 

Well, when I was in the barracks when I was in the military I broke out the hotplate and literally cooked soup, chicken, rice & peas, etc when I had a relative come and visit....so, size of the place didn't stop from me from cooking as part of being with family..I mean, I was like "no more Taco Bell", I'm cooking and you will eat it!!!

[Tayla]

wow! great topic Gloria, as today that very event happened.! my son and dil invited family for easter dinner, the kitchen was bustling with prepping.... it was interesting to see ppl pitch in. The whammy came though when my dil said, could you each go to the family room, we got this covered. She isn't the chatty type when prepping and has an aversion to ppl touching her foods and cookware. We respected her wish as hostess, yet even her Mom said, that it was fun while it lasted!

My family upbringing always involved ppl in the kitchen... many a conversation got more heat then the food!yet somehow it set the stage for resolution too!

yup... miss those moments... thanks for the topic!

[SpiralOut]

Good timing for this topic. I was just talking about this today. Growing up in my family, we would eat dinner together at the dinner table. There is no reading allowed, no TV allowed. My parents would cook, then my brother and I would clean up afterwards. When I'm up visiting we still do it this way. Oddly enough, I enjoy it now. It's good quality time, just talking while we clean and dry the dishes. My SO came home with me for Easter this weekend and he was surprised by it. He told me in his family it is informal. They have the TV on and everyone just grabs what they want to eat and then eat wherever.

 

 

I live alone now. I don't have a dining room table, so if someone is over we will eat off the coffee table. If we're just eating frozen pizza or something like that, we might have the TV on. If I went out of my way to make a nice dinner, then I'll set the table and turn the TV off. I prefer cooking together but my kitchen is too small for two people. Usually if we want to cook together we go to his house where it's more spacious. I really enjoy doing that.

Edited April 6, 2015 by SpiralOut

[Diezel]

I live way too far from my family to indulge in this anymore.

 

I HAVE been there for other family events of friends I know though. A lot of it has been taken over by electronic devices, TVs, and other distractions.

 

I do have Thanksgiving with a family that has a large family style table in a separate room where nothing electronic is allowed and there are no TV's.

 

Personally, with my own girlfriend, we have dinner at the dining room table and nothing is allowed to be on. This is our time to talk.

[Tayla]

hmmm...formal dining. no tv, no cells or gadgets at table. at family picnics, laid back with certain music ebbing in the background. We have two musicians in the family, so we do enjoy their guitar and saxophone playing outdoors....

Gloria? Does your family prefer music during meals? How about while preping meals?

[bubbaganoosh]

I used to cook for my family on holidays and the rule was stay out of my way and that means out of the kitchen. That might have lasted for a hour or so and then one person would come in and ask how things were going and if I needed help, then another and pretty soon the kitchen is full and their all talking about the food and how good everything smells. How do you get mad and chase them out with compliments like that? Easy, the asked for seconds and a doggy bag.

 

I love to cook and I liked it when family was around to eat it. I taught my youngest daughter how to cook and she' great at it and when her friends ask where she learned and where she got her recipes, she tells them from her dad. Buttons on my shirt are busing off as I speak.

[mrs rubble]

We often cook together and eat together in my family, I'd say about 80% of the time.

I'm very interested in what you American's do though, as I stayed in California for a month when I was a teenager and was hosted by an American family. I ate only one meal in that house in the entire month I stayed there, and this meal was a BBQ and they used disposable plates and cutlery!! Every other meal was take-out or dine-in, so very different to what I was used to in NZ.

[amaysngrace]

We eat together all the time in my house. We also sit at the kitchen table to play games and my daughter does her homework there every day when I'm cooking dinner.

 

Then after dinner we clear off the plates and she's back at the table doing more homework.

 

I get that from my parents though. Growing up we could usually invite friends over but very rarely would we eat at a friend's house because my dad wanted all of his children home for dinner and after we would always play a game.

[Tayla]

We often cook together and eat together in my family, I'd say about 80% of the time.

I'm very interested in what you American's do though, as I stayed in California for a month when I was a teenager and was hosted by an American family. I ate only one meal in that house in the entire month I stayed there, and this meal was a BBQ and they used disposable plates and cutlery!! Every other meal was take-out or dine-in, so very different to what I was used to in NZ.

 

Rather shocked to hear that a Cali family would use disposable anything. They are the Green state and prefer to recycle and re-knew many things. Yet I can understand if this host family used the shortcuts and disposables. Take out meals, or not attending to a family gathering. Sorry that they chose that route to represent the American family. We are varied as we are alike. Most families I know still use silverware and place settings for evening meals and consider dinner time an open forum for banter or discussions.

Yes BBQ's are a relaxed and informal way to keep folks nourished, and paper products are used then....

Did you enjoy some of the local foods?

[mrs rubble]

Rather shocked to hear that a Cali family would use disposable anything. They are the Green state and prefer to recycle and re-knew many things. Yet I can understand if this host family used the shortcuts and disposables. Take out meals, or not attending to a family gathering. Sorry that they chose that route to represent the American family. We are varied as we are alike. Most families I know still use silverware and place settings for evening meals and consider dinner time an open forum for banter or discussions.

Yes BBQ's are a relaxed and informal way to keep folks nourished, and paper products are used then....

Did you enjoy some of the local foods?

This was years ago, I'm sure we are all a lot more environmentaly friendly now. I stayed with another Californian family a few years before this time for a 2 week stint and they had family meals in their house most of the time we were there and used proper crockery and cutlery. My mum still talks about trying abalone in California. I got hooked on cookies and cream ice cream, it took years for it to make an appearance in NZ! But we have it here now. I also loved Taco bell, which still hasn't come to us here!

We are very spoilt in NZ, I have friends who hunt and fish (I fish myself too) so we often have wild pork, venison, goat and fish. A friend also has a dairy farm and we get home grown beef from him. Most people have a vege plot and my house is on land that used to be an orchard, I have old fashioned peaches, apples, fejoa's (do you even get them in the USA??) and grapes growing in my backyard.