Fall-ing back in love with my kitchen

I love our kitchen. If you were following my blog at all last summer, you might recall we were just finishing up our renovations a year ago. We had work done in a few rooms that started right around Memorial Day and it wasn’t until Labor Day weekend that our house became our own again. It was fifteen years in the making and worth every bit of inconvenience and struggle though.

The kitchen is the heart of the home. Where loving (and simple) meals are put together, homework is completed and morning cups of coffee are enjoyed over the newspaper along with conversation about the day ahead. But as you know, the newness and shine will generally rub down and the thing that was new tends to blend in with the chaos of real life. Books begin to cover the breakfast bar. Dirty dishes clutter up the counter space. The junk drawer starts to collect things that don’t belong (especially since you eliminated the junk drawer after the remodel!). It’s a daily chore to keep the space as it was originally made to be enjoyed. It’s just life.

Fall is my time of re-birth for all things kitchen. The Kitchen Aid blender, which spends most of it’s time hanging around the linen closet, makes an apprearance at regular intervals. Baking cakes, cookies and other treats that signify Fall is here. The crock pot comes out from it’s hiding place on the basement shelf where it sits during the summer months and it’s almost time to bring out the Instant Pot that makes (with a little help from me) my mom’s perfect applesauce recipe.

I will once again take a stab at meal planning, seeking out new ideas and recipes to shake up the routine of our palates. I will pull out the old favorites that are neglected in the summer months: mac and cheese, meatloaf, stew and apple crisp. The September calendar sits close by and I can’t ignore it’s fullness already and wonder if the meal planning will be all for naught. And then I’ll look for another way, pockets of time to nourish ourselves between school, activities and appointments. This is our season of life and it’s flavored with apples and spice.

MC