Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A Table To Be Proud Of

My journey began when I was little. My mother always let me cook with her in the kitchen. I’d sit right next to the stove top on the counter watching her make Mac and Cheese with egg noodles. It actually sounds kind of dangerous now that I have kids, but I was never stupid enough to touch anything. I have to be honest, It wasn’t the best Mac and Cheese, but I loved sitting on the counter and feeling the steam from the pots come at me when someone would open the back door. My mom would always be humming or singing “Up Up and Away In My Beautiful Balloon” or some other silly song that has been stuck in my head the past twenty years. She’d let me bake anything I wanted even when I was little. I was usually baking with my sisters and would argue with them about how I really didn't like chocolate. It wouldn’t be fair to say that my family had a sweet tooth. It was more like we were just sweet all over from the desserts we made. Anytime people would come home they’d pick up something sweet from Collin’s Street Bakery or my mother would have made her “Puffy Oatmeal Cookies”. I’m still trying to figure our why the heck they were puffy. We ate them though because there was love in those cookies.

We have a really big family and by the time I came around everyone was either coming in or going out with the exception of a couple brothers and sisters but I distinctly remember our kitchen when everyone would come home from school. It was full and when it got too full my mom would kick a few people out. She’d usually start with Daddy if he was in there sneaking in ice cream after dinner. He loves ice cream after dinner. Then one by one we’d have to get out of there because it just got too packed.

Daddy and my brothers built a huge round table with a lazy susan on top so we could all have dinners together. It was a table that all of my other brothers and sisters could fit around. To some that sounds funny, but I’m the youngest of 14 so it was quite a table. I remember watching that food on the lazy susan go around and around while people discussed important things. School, work, religion, politics. It was like a merry go round of food and CSPAN all rolled into one. My mother, usually never sitting down to eat, would always put the dessert right in the middle of the lazy susan. I never ate any of her vegetables or the liver that Daddy liked her to cook for that matter but I sure has hell ate her cake. It never looked like it would turn out when she was making it, but somehow, it was always delicious.

6 comments:

~SHANNON~ said...

What an awesome idea for a blog! You are so right about kitchens holding such special and personal memories. Maybe it's a combination of the lovely smells that one can so easily remember years later- and all the love and caretaking that go on in a kitchen!

I found your blog through the MOPS Board- thanks for sharing it! I cant wait to read more:)

PS. Mac & Cheese with egg noodles? That sounds deelish! More surface area for cheese! Yay!

Dani Noonan said...

Thanks Sharon! I'm excited about it :) Thanks for posting and I'll see you at MOPS :)

Danielle said...

I found you via my cousin, Shannon who posted above. My mother and hers are Noonans too and I'm a Danielle so we figured its Kismet or something that you were found AND that your a blogger too! Plus you kinda look like us (do you have blue eyes too!?) so we must be long lost sisters or something! Anyway... I'm a follower of your blog and while I won't be at this Mops thing you ladies speak of cause I live in NY, I look forward to reading lots more!
Danielle

Dani Noonan said...

How crazy! Any family in Iowa? I married into the Noonans but they're Irish so it sounds like we're long lost cousins by marriage LOL! Thanks for stopping by and more post are coming! :)

Unknown said...

Great idea, Dani. You have a great story to tell...

Unknown said...

Danielle I remember the day Daddy finished making that table in the back yard and tried to roll the table top into the back door. It was too big around to fit. He had to take the door jamb off completely. And the best thing was not that we could all sit around it, which was indeed a good thing, but that if you lifted off the top and got down into the hollow base and someone (actually 2 or more someones) put the table top back on--it was the best hiding place ever.