A Home Cook’s Dream

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love being in the kitchen.

Both my parents are wonderful cooks and, as a result, I’ve always felt very at home in the kitchen.  As a child, I tortured my family with soggy stir-fry with tofu.  In retrospect, mom always had me do this when my father was out of town or working late.  Tofu was not the norm in Texas in the 80′s.  She was likely doing her marriage a favor.  I also loved baking cookies, making homemade pasta and otherwise stirring, sampling and serving up whatever was on the menu for the day.

Since I’ve been an “adult” (whenever that qualification kicks in) and been married (a date I’m more certain of), I’ve dreamt of the perfect kitchen.  I want a big kitchen. With room to move.  With a gas range.  With double ovens.  With a big area to serve pancakes to a house full of hungry kids after a big sleepover.

This week we begin our move into a new house that hopefully will soon be ours.  While the house isn’t perfect (it will keep me busy for years), it has the kitchen!  As my husband and I approach our tenth anniversary, I’ve joked that the gift for year 10 must be ovens.  I’ve consulted the self-appointed gift giving experts at Hallmark, who say that year 10′s traditional gift is “tin/aluminum” and modern gift is “diamonds”.

If an oven counts as tin or aluminum, then we are more traditional than I expected.  Either way,  I couldn’t be more excited to start cooking.  Requests?