Hubby and I calculated that beginning March 1, 2020 (when we were first told to ‘stay inside’) when the pandemic first hit our area to November 30, 2020, we will have prepared 825 meals in our lowly, middle class, 19 year old kitchen. That’s 275 breakfasts, 275 lunches and 275 dinners. Never mind all the in-between snacks and countless times we have opened and closed the refrigerator, looking for something else to eat!

I don’t know how, our already 19 year old kitchen, has been able to stand up to such a constant barrage and frequent usage, but it has. Nonetheless, each and every night, I clean up the whole, daily cooking mess, scrub down the stove top, wipe down the fridge, clean up the quartz countertops, polish off the maple cabinetry and voila’ our kitchen is ready to serve us the very next day. Thank goodness we replaced all our appliances (stove, fridge, dishwasher) 4 years ago, so they are sorta new. If not, they would have surely broken down by now.

Over the years we did replace the laminate countertops with quartz stone. We did replace the sink, faucet, overhead vent, add in some extra lighting but the kitchen mostly still stands as it did 19 years ago when we first had our home built. It is astounding (to me) that the kitchen is still standing, despite it’s constant service to us and our family.

Here are just some of the fantastic dishes hubby and I have cooked up over the last nine months: