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The American Kitchen ~ Farmhouse Style

Before we had modern conveniences, the American kitchen wasn’t meant as a gathering spot for entertaining family and friends. Since there were many more steps to cooking and creating meals in the early days of our country, the kitchen was the workhorse of the home, as opposed to being the heart of the home. But today, thanks primarily to the evolution of appliances, the kitchen has become the place where we feed our loved ones and nourish our souls at the same time.

Spring-Breakfast-Nook-2It’s at kitchen tables like this one where ideas are exchanged and memories are made across America. I love my little dining nook in my circa 1875 farmhouse kitchen where I can enjoy small gatherings over a warm, home-cooked meal.

 

American Farmhouse KitchenMy kitchen is over 100 years old and I often wonder what it looked like in the late 1800s.  It certainly wouldn’t have my GE Appliances stove and oven, since GE Appliances stove entered the American home in 1905.

 

American Farmhouse KitchenWhen I think of the American kitchen, I’m reminded of my grandmother and mother clad in their pretty aprons, creating meals and memories for our family. Holidays were always about food, family, and spending most of the day in the kitchen.

 

American Farmhouse KitchenWhile I certainly enjoy the conveniences of modern appliances in my kitchen when I create meals from scratch, I still like to keep its ambiance of farmhouse charm.  I enjoy romanticizing what life must have been like when the Nash family moved into this house 140-some years ago.

 

American Farmhouse KitchenAmerican families and lifestyles have certainly evolved since then. And for 110 years, GE Appliances has been a part of the changing ways people live, play, cook, and celebrate family life at home in America.

You can learn more about the diversity of the American kitchen in the new documentary series, Our American Kitchen. You’ll learn the struggles and celebrations of various American families, as told from the heart of the home. One story of particular interest to me is a couple with 5 adopted children from Vietnam to Africa. Their kitchen became an integral way to introduce the kids to American culture. I can’t wait to see it — their stories are coming soon, so stay tuned!

What’s one of your favorite stories you treasure from your childhood kitchen? Leave a comment below to enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card!

 

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184 Comments

  1. I love my kitchen and breakfast area…it seems to be a gathering spot not only for adults, but also the grands and greatgrands!
    My favorite story among MANY about childhood kitchens….
    My family had a woodworking shop, my Dad could build anything and it was always beautiful! My Mom badgered him until he started rebuilding the kitchen in our home. He moved everything and measured and cut and fit, and built lovely maple cabinets. Then he got busy with the shop, and when I moved out 10 years later, the kitchen cabinets still didn’t have any doors!!! They sold the home a few years later….yep, with doorless kitchen cabinets :^)
    Blessings to you,
    J

  2. I remember our kitchen table growing up had a bench in the back that all of us kids would sit on!

  3. My favorite childhood kitchen memory is making Christmas cookies with my mom and decorating them together.

  4. My fav memory is of my grandmother’s kitchen. Watching her beat biscuits on her old Hoosier cabinet. Pumping water from the well out back and bringing it in to heat water on her wood/coal stove. This was in the ’60’s! When we visited it was also fried chicken and pork chops she’d fry up for breakfast. Me and a couple cousins would stand and watch her move back and forth in that linolium floored kitchen and thought how cool it was – little did we know how hard she worked to put that one meal on the table. Great memories.

    1. Vicki, your story of your grandmother’s kitchen reminded me of my grandmother and also cooking on a cast iron stove, where the pipe for the oven went up through the chimney. Yes she did worked hard making potato pancakes from scratch. There also was a linoleum floor, green and white squares. The house I live in happen to be bought by me, which is the house of grandma. Back then growing up and being there brings back those dear memories of her cooking in cast iron frying pans on that cast iron stove, maybe one day I can purchase a cast iron stove (more modern though). She would always make meatloaf for Sunday dinner, and yes like you mentioned fresh home made biscuits and oxen tail stew. Thank you for sharing your memory, as it brought back memories to me. That was the good life.

  5. My favorite memories are of my Grandma’s kitchen. It was small and always busy as she baked the best cakes with gooey frosting and always had bottles of cream soda in the fridge. That was a long time ago.

  6. So many good memories from my childhood kitchen…so much so that when I find any vintage items that my Mom or Grandmom had in their kitchen I try to bring them home to mine 🙂

  7. Our family always had a big garden and that meant canning vegetables,it was my job to wash the jars in hot soapy water
    because i had small arms. At family meals we enjoyed eating those vegetables and remembering funny things that took
    place while canning.

  8. My favorite kitchen story was making cookie dough with my mom and then eating most of it before we could even bake it! I never got sick from eating raw eggs!

  9. I don’t have very many good memories of our kitchen growing up, it was a difficult time. But, I have fond memories of drying the dishes that my sweet Aunt Bunny had washed at night and talking to her. I LOVED her so much. She lived with us and we lived in my Grandmothers house. I did love that kitchen , it was very old too. I wish SO much I had pictures of that house, kitchen etc.

  10. I love spending time in my kitchen. We have an empty nest now, so I just cook for two. The kitchen used to be the “heart” of the home. Maybe when we have grand kids……

  11. My grandmother had a summer cabin in the peaceful mountains of western North Carolina. We spent countless hours in the kitchen that was home to her small wood stove that had 2 “eyes” (as she called them) for cooking with pots and pans full of the best grits, bacon, eggs and pancakes that I’ve ever eaten in my life. She only used her black cast iron pots and pans on the stove. I am most fortunate because I have her pots and pans as well as her treasured stove in my home. When I look at them I gaze into my past and remember….

  12. I remember my grandmother’s kitchen so well. It was huge. No counter space, only a fridge and stove, and this big round table in the center. The table was where all the cutting of vegetables and preparing of food was done. We would all sit around the table while my grandmother would cut up veggies and peel potatoes – giving each of us a small piece as a treat. As we grew older, we got to help her in these little jobs. This was before TV so after dinner we all helped with the clean-up and then gathered around the table again to do homework or listen to the radio.

  13. Hi Jennifer, love todays post also your kitchen and the legend behind it. I often have the same thoughts even when I buy an old treasure such as my wooden breadbox…I know no Sunbeam was ever stored in there lol only homemade. I have many wonderful childhood kitchen memories and I had the best of both worlds; Italian & Polish. In my Nonna’s kitchen every sunday she made homemade Cavatelli which is a little round pasta that she would individually make by pressing each with her thumb, the whole table would be covered so that they would dry. Her Tomato sauce unbelievable, it would be simmering all day filled with sausage & meatballs. My cousins and I could not wait to eat. We would keep asking her if it was time to eat until she gave us a pinch of homemade Italian bread to shut us up. The smell was amazing in her kitchen. My Babusia made Stuffed cabbage every Sunday, but she was famous for her Polish pickles. She always had a crock filled to the brim, the smell of the fresh dill and garlic was wonderful, no canning jars just the crock and about 10 days of fermenting. I was surely blessed on Sundays! I try to duplicate all of these things and have a lot of fun. Thanks for a chance to win. Lisa @ Sweet Tea N’ Salty Air

  14. I don’t have to many fond memories, I guess my Mom did the best she could. The best thing she did for us was take us children to Sunday School. Happy Easter. Because He lives we can live also throughout eternity.

  15. I grew up on a small farm and the kitchen had the old kind of wide clapboard cupboards,4 doors up & 4 doors lower. There was red & white linoleum which always left the scrub water red as it faded. A double sink with a metal cupboard surround. This is where I would mindlessly dry countless dishes& silverware as a kid. There was a stove, refridge and a large oak table.
    The back door had a wooden screen that banged when shut and bounced the cotton ball attached to it which was supposed to keep the flies away.
    Many fabulous meals were turned out in this very basic kitchen.

  16. My favorite would have to be Christmas time and learning how to make the family recipes. Our fudge is the best! Have loved reading all the comments.

  17. I grew up in a little house in the middle of the prairies of Illinois. There was not a separate laundry room, the washer and dryer were in the kitchen. One of seven children, you can imagine those machines running all day long! And my mother folded all of the clothes, sheets and towels on the kitchen table. This was always early in the day as then she had to prepare dinner and set that table! So you can see, the kitchen truly was a workhouse for her!

    Thanks for a great giveaway, Jen!

    Jane xx

  18. I have fond memories of being in the kitchen with my grandmother learning how to bake cookies! She was so patient with me and always let me lick the spoon;) I miss her terribly!

  19. So many great memories of the old farmhouse kitchen, and I have a lot of the same type of remembrances. But the one my mother and I had many good chuckles over was “The Chocolate Angel Food Cake” story. Mom was always in a hurry, making 3 meals for extra farm hands during planting and harvesting, delivering coffee and sandwiches midmorning to the men in the fields, then again mid afternoon, homemade fried cakes or sugar cookies and lemonade to hold them over til supper. One day mom wanted to make a chocolate angel food for supper dessert. No box cakes then, it was 12 egg whites, beaten one at a time, etc. Mom grabbed the powdered cocoa only to find there wasn’t enough in the box and no time to drive 5 miles to the nearest market. Her only option was the Nestle’s Chocolate Milk drink mix, which she measured out with the cocoa powder and hurriedly beat into the cake mix. Poured in the pan, push it in the oven. How good that cake smelled baking. I could hardly wait for that beautiful cake to cool and come out of the pan! Finally! Mom picked up her cake knife to cut me a piece. One cut and POUFF! unbaked chocolate powder exploded out of the cut, and the cake sagged on one side! All we could do was laugh! Apparently, in mom’s hasty cake mixing and pouring into the angel food pan, a large bubble formed and baked into the cake, exploding when she cut into it. Everybody had a good laugh over it when we told the story at supper that evening. Didn’t affect the taste any, every crumb was eaten. I still smile when I think of that cake.

  20. My favorite memory was having dinner at the table every night. We’d set the table, including bread and butter on the table, and we’d all sit down for dinner. Both my parents worked, and on the one night a week my mom worked I was in charge of dinner for my dad. I know I cooked him some bad food sometimes, But he always complimented my cooking!

  21. One of my fondest memories is rolling out dough and cutting out gingerbread men for Christmas cookies. It was almost as much fun as the decorating and eating!

  22. Helping with the Christmas baking! Learning to braid pulla bread, heaping sprinkles on gingerbread cookies, making pepparkakors etc. The smells cannot be beat!

  23. I loved spending time with my two grandmothers in their kitchens in Philadelphia. At the age of 5 I remember helping to wash and dry the dishes. One grandmother had a huge kitchen and the other had a small kitchen. Both were wonderful!

  24. “What’s one of your favorite stories you treasure from your childhood kitchen?” Well taking that question literally my childhood kitchen was an Easy Bake Oven and oh did I love that little oven! I always helped my mom in the kitchen with baking and I have a wicked sweet tooth to prove it! I was there helping all the time and mom would often hold off on baking till I got home from school. I got to lick the batters and pinched cookie dough or cake batter when she was not looking- but I learned a lot too. So when I got my Easy Bake Oven I thought I was an old pro and so proud of that turquoise oven and the delights I could make with it. I would get out the little cake pan and grease it and mix the little package of cake batter just like Mom did and pour it into the pan. I would pop it in the oven, constantly peering through the little window every few minutes until the timer said it was done. I would cut it into little sliver pieces to serve to my parents and 4 brothers and sisters sometimes with a tea towel over my forearm pretending I was serving in a fancy restaurant! Oh the good of days of my Easy Bake Oven… could explain why I am such a big fan of my toaster oven- it is my summer oven and lets me have a “summer kitchen” (outside) !

  25. My favorite childhood stories is cooking with my grandma, my sister and I would always help her in the kitchen and she taught me how to cook, the best part of it was getting to experience all of it with her.

  26. My favorite stories of my mother teaching me how to cook and cooking so many wonderful dishes with her. She taught me to make fried chicken, homemade bread, potato salad and cinnamon rolls. My Mom taught me to make so many good comfort foods in my childhood that to this day, I am making these same memories with my daughter!

  27. Going to great grandmas for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Aunts, great-aunts and my mom bustled around the kitchen getting everything ready.

  28. I loved this post, and really enjoyed the comments, too. I remember all of the kitchens of the various relatives from when I was growing up. Aunt Callie got up at daylight, went out and chopped wood for her stove, then rolled out her “sody biscuits” on her Hoosier. Granny Jones made hers on a Hoosier, too. Our kitchen was very small, so my mother used the kitchen table. My best memories of us together were in the kitchen at Christmas, making cookies. I watched her cook, often doing my homework at the table while she worked, but she rarely let me help. She gave instructions just like a TV chef, and I am so glad she did!

  29. I loved my mom’s macaroni &cheese & screwball cake. Whether a kitchen is large or small, I just love bring in one!

  30. My memories growing up, I distinctly remembering helping my mom do the dishes. We didn’t have a dishwasher back then. I would lay on the floor, on my back, and dry the dishes while we chatted. She always took pictures of my on the floor; what a goofy kid.

  31. I remember my grandfather always kept peppermint patties in the door of the fridge. They were his favorite, but he did share with me!

  32. What I remember most about my childhood kitchen, is always being there….watching my mothers every move. I was taking it all in and knowing now how much I learned just from watching. I now welcome my kids to watch me, and even include them in the helping.

  33. One of my favorite stories I treasure from my childhood kitchen is baking sugar cookies and apple pies with my grandmother, mom and sisters.
    tcarolinep at gmail dot com

  34. Such a beautiful post, Jennifer! I have lovely memories of baking with my mom growing up. What a great giveaway contest!
    Hugs, Jamie

  35. My favorite times in the kitchen involved making cookies with my mom! And one time when my brother and I were young teens we cooked a gourmet anniversary meal for our parents, even though we’d never cooked meat or Baked Alaska before in our lives!

  36. My favorite memory is the first time my Mom and I made cookies together when I was about four or five years old.
    Digicats {at} Sbcglobal {dot} Net

  37. My mom makes her Christmas cutouts and then my siblings and I frost them. I remember my brother trying to make the ugliest cookie possible and my sister getting all hyped up on sugar. haha

  38. One of my favorite memories from childhood is being in the kitchen with my Mom and Grandmother learning to bake and cook at the holidays! All the stories they told!

  39. Not my kitchen, but my grandparents’ kitchen – I have many memories baking with my grandmother whenever my siblings and I came over to visit.

  40. I remember helping my dad prepare things like pancakes, it was our special time together.

  41. What’s one of your favorite stories you treasure from your childhood kitchen?
    walking into my G’ma Freeze’s kitchen. She was an AMAZING cook and an even better baker~~~

  42. i loved making apple pies with my mom in my childhood kitchen.

    Thanks for the chance to win!
    wildorchid985 AT gmail DOT com

  43. My favorite story that I treasure from my childhood kitchen is that I am my parents little helper. I was told that I wanted to do thing all by myself (even I wasn’t so ready) while my parents would only let me “pass on” ingredients. 🙂 Until this day, I am still the little helper whenever I visit my parents’ kitchen. Of course, it’s a different story when I am in my own kitchen now. 😉

    amy [at] utry [dot] it

  44. I loved watching my grandma cook and being surrounded by the conversation of the home in the kitchen.
    sazzyfrazz at gmail dot com

  45. My kitchen memories revolve around my Mother teaching me to cook, I have so many fond memories of that.

  46. My kitchen inspires me to spend more time with my family since my favoite memory is cooking with my grandma truckredford(at)gmail.com

  47. I have an old photo of me with my grandmother in her kitchen. I’m standing on a chair learning how to make hand made pasta with her.

  48. one of my favorite memories growing up was watching my Grandpa cook Grandma was ill and it was facaniated us to see this big burly man cooking and he was English i can still see him using his knife to push his peas on his fork

  49. One of my favorite memories of our childhood kitchen was my dad cooking. He didn’t do it often, but when he did, he made these incredible, deep fried hot dogs, covered with cheese and served on a hamburger bun. Yum!

  50. My favorite memories are of helping my Grandma cook Christmas Eve dinner, the whole family would gather there.

  51. A great kitchen memory is at my great aunt’s home, where she cooked on a wood-burning stove! I was fascinated, but I have never cooked on one.

  52. cooking as a family of six – everyone pitching in to prepare and cook an amazing meal!
    tvollowitz at aol dot com

  53. I remember having a food fight with my mom and siblings once. We had strawberries and whipped cream all over the kitchen. it was such a mess but a ton of fun. thank you!

  54. Of course, I have fond memories of baking and cooking with my mother. But there was one time my grandma came over to cook supper. I saw her cutting up some veggies and (what I thought were) strawberries. I must have been gazing intently at the food because she popped a “strawberry” in my mouth, but the taste was so sour and strange that I spit it out. Apparently she was cutting up tomatoes — haha!

  55. I still have the apron my mom gave me for cooking in the kitchen. It was cheap, not meant to be used a lot, but I love it and have still kept it. Since I’m not much of a cook, even as a child, it never got messed up, but it does look ‘well loved’.

  56. I remember making homemade spaghetti noodles with my mom and hanging them everywhere possible in the kitchen to dry.

  57. I remember my grandma making my favorite dessert : bread pudding. She would always give us some graham cookies while we waited for her to finish cooking

  58. My favorite memories from my childhood kitchen are of my mother and I hanging out together while she was cooking 🙂 We’d just chat about anything and everything and I’d help prep the food 🙂 Nice times together! 🙂

  59. It hurt at the time, but when I was about 4 my mom was frying chicken in a big chicken fryer. I thought it smelled so good that I put my nose on it and got a good burn. I learned my lesson, but I still love to smell chicken frying.

  60. I remember a lot of happy times in the kitchen while growing up and while my daughter grew up. I think of it as the gathering place. Not only a place to gather and eat, we would have game night there and other times, just a place to converse with family and friends.

  61. My mother taught me and my sister to cook. She loved cooking and teaching.
    Thanks for the contest.

  62. As a child, I loved Christmas time. I got to spend several days in the kitchen baking sweet treats with my mom. We would take these goodies to all our friends, family and neighbors. I cherish that time we spent together!

  63. One of my favorite memories is making orange cupcakes with orange icing with my grandmother. To this day they are my favorite!!

  64. I remember the very first time I tried sparkling grape juice. It was NYE party my mom was having and I was the only kid there. Her best friend, who I thought was my aunt, brought me a bottle because I couldn’t have champagne. I have been drinking it for NYE ever since! 😀

  65. I remember baking with my dad in my childhood kitchen. The best, most memorable stories were always our baking bloopers, like the time the 3rd grade me added 11/4 cups of water to my bundt cake instead of 1 and 1/4 cups of water. It was a very moist cake!

  66. Listening to my grandmother explain to me again, to pick my own pecans and stop eating hers and that the ones I pick will taste as good as hers 🙂

    tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

  67. #SweepstakesEntry:

    I really just have fond memories of doing lots of fun holiday-related stuff at the kitchen table like coloring Easter eggs, making Christmas cookies, etc

    KC
    [email protected]

  68. I remember helping my Mom cook, she did a lot of stuff from scratch, bread, yogurt, jams, canned products etc.