Margaret’s Kitchen – The Best Kitchen Around

Mom’s birthday was Sunday, September 15th.

What a wonderful mom she was. I am continually reminded of that truth as I live out my my days.

Just this week I was sharing with Zach just this what a great cook Grandma was. I remember being his age and looking forward to dinner every night (except for when Mom would make liver…I hated liver…and yes, I wrote the word hate). My friends would come join us for dinner after basketball practice, and they loved Mom’s cooking too. It was often suggested that Mom should open her own restaurant…Margaret’s Kitchen.

In the right market, Margaret’s Kitchen would have been a hit.

Not sure it would have made it in our town of 500+ people back then.

But back to the thought of being Zach’s age and looking forward to Mom’s dinners…

I’m sad to say Zach doesn’t have that blessing…his mom isn’t the greatest cook. It’s not something I tremendously enjoy, and it’s not something I’m particularly that good at. I do it because I want my family to eat, and my desire is for us to eat healthy. But most of the time, Bill is a better cook than I. I can make a pretty mean upside-down pizza, a pretty good lasagna, a great tortellini soup, and a yummy cheeseburger soup. (I do cook more than these things, but these are by far my family’s favorites.) And I love how Zach encourages me in my cooking, even when what we have isn’t his favorite. 🙂 It makes me feel good to provide for my family in this way.

I imagine that’s how Mom felt.

She liked to take care of her family and part of that was to make sure she did what she could to make us great meals…complete with meat, potatoes, vegetable, bread, dessert, etc. She cooked for six of us, and four of our family were men or growing boys. I don’t know how she did it, but she did it beautifully. She would have rocked the restaurant, Margaret’s Kitchen!

After she passed away, my siblings and I took many evenings to work through Mom and Dad’s home and go through everything in it. It was a painstaking task at first, but it transformed into such a treasured time for us…especially for me. All four of us, either sharing a pot of coffee, a six pack of Pepsi, or a six pack of something else, reliving our family memories through the things that remained in our childhood home.

What a time of healing, bonding and blessing it was!

We each chose the things we would like to keep from our childhood home, and I desired to have Mom’s recipe files. I did really well at first making some of her recipes, but I’ve gotten away from that. After her birthday this past week, I want to get back to exploring her recipe boxes again. I think of her spaghetti, her noodle and corn casserole, her peach pies, and her Spanish rice. I think it’ll be a great way to remember and honor Mom, and her recipes will probably bring back many childhood memories for me. I’ll even share a few here on my blog.

Mom’s birthday wasn’t necessarily a sad day for me this year, but it was a day that I was very thankful for the incredible mother God gave me. There will never be anyone like my mom. I still miss her, but I look forward to continuing to live out her legacy and seeing her some day soon in our heavenly home.

And I see her more and more each day as I look into the mirror. 🙂