The kitchen table.

The Kitchen Table

On a recent family trip to Italy. While visiting my brother and his better half with my one year old "Button" (not her real name people come on!), and accompanied by my sister and niece. I realised and relished the connecting factor of food. At the end of each day we came together prepared and ate a meal around the kitchen table and shared more than what passed our lips. Meal times were a time to commune and share. Every day we visited gorgeous places, shopped until we quite literally dropped and we saved our best conversations for mealtimes. We caught up with each other, put the world to rights and created memories for a lifetime of joy. This made me think of how at home we gradually have lost those daily rituals and I would like to change that.

Two things came to mind. The preparation of a meal is as important as eating it and the location of the meal is paramount to the experience. A meal that is prepared at home with the family involved takes time, there are certain cues to the body to prepare itself to eat The sounds and smells from the kitchen for instance. The body picks up on these cues and ready's itself for a meal. A meal eaten at a table with family is more than just eating. It is a time to concentrate on each other. To share the days events and connect with one another. Compare that to a home delivered takeaway meal, the body must rapidly prepare to eat from when the food arrives at the door until it is served up, there is no preparation stage. Eaten on laps in front of the TV without conversation or even eye contact the community part of the meal is lost. With that in mind I have endeavoured to correct what I feel has become a problem within my family,

At home much to my displeasure we were without a kitchen table for a few months. while a D.I.Y project of mine ran on longer than it should (as often happens around these parts). Those few months of eating upon our knees in front of the TV were tedious and seemed to drain the life out of our little family. My son needed a place to do his homework. I also needed a place to create but mostly we needed a place to get together for our meals.  It was with great pleasure when my project finally came together and we had a beautiful up cycled kitchen table.

I rescued a sad and pretty worn out table and transformed it into my perfect country style painted table with my own two hands. It was a really satisfying project and it makes me smile every day we use it.

 This is the table I will base my next project upon. For the next month as much as is possible my family will eat home prepared meals around our table. Barring time spent out of the house of course :). As I go I will post what we have been eating and how we are finding the experience.

Bon Appetit xx