Smells of Home

The kitchen is one of my favorite rooms in our house. It is not because it is pretty. See previous post on home improvement! It is because I consider it to be the center of our home. We enter and exit our house through our kitchen so it sees the most bags dropped on the floor, coats and mail strewn about, and dirt tracked through it. Everyone in the family is gaurenteed to spend at least thirty minuites in it three times a day with the other people in the family while meals are being eaten. If my children are hiding out in their rooms all I need to do to attract their attention is to start cooking. The smell of simmering herbs for stews or soups and the smell of fresh baked bread will bring them running and volunteering to help. The best conversations are had while mixing bread dough or a sweet treat. Snitching from the bowl has been developed into an art form in this house and is good for a few belly laughs as they attempt to get away with it. Lest you think it is only the children snitching I must share with his permission that my husband is King of the snitchers! In fact, according to the children he snitched moare cookie dough than anyone else yesterday!

I wont say that I don't have prepackaged foods in the house. I do. For instance I am incrediably fond of Cambells tomatoe soup, but for the most part I make our foods from scratch. It is still cheaper than the prepackaged food but I also think it has an intrinsic value that you can not buy in a box. It is healthier because you are in control of the ingrediants, their freshness and quality. Cooking is a form of art and if you take time to develope the skills and nourish them I think you will find as I did that it is a blessing to enjoy and a gift to those you love. .