When I think back on my childhood, then to my college years, and now to my adult life (I use the term adult loosely), many of my happiest and most vivid memories took place in a kitchen. When I think of family gatherings, I’m always transported to a kitchen. When I was a teenager, we had a phone with a long white cord in our kitchen – and I spent many nights laying on my kitchen floor talking to my now husband.
On Sundays, all of my siblings gather at my parents’ house for dinner. The first thing I do when I walk into their house is saunter into the kitchen to check out what Mom is making for dinner. In my own home, our kitchen is the center of everything. We eat, do homework, talk about our day, and even this blog is written right on my kitchen island, several times a week. My point? My kitchen is the center of my home. We spend so much time there, live so much of our lives there, that the kitchen has become a very special place for me.
Even on days when my sink is full of dishes, when my newest recipe has flopped, and my daughter is fighting homework with every ounce of her being, my kitchen is the center of our day-to-day being. We have hard conversations there. We laugh there. We eat delicious food there, and we celebrate there. The American Kitchen is so much more than a functional room for food preparation. It really is the heart of our home.
GE Appliances have been in American homes since 1905. For a hundred and ten years, GE has been a part of the changing ways people live, play, cook, celebrate, and shape family life at home in America. My friends over at GE have developed a series of documentaries called Our American Kitchen. Every kitchen has story – I’m sure yours does – and these documentaries explore how real GE appliance owners, as genuine representatives of Americans and the American experience, are living their lives in their kitchens. 
These documentaries have really touched me – the human experience is vastly different for every single one of us, but there are also so many things that tie us together. Something as normal as our kitchens and the moments lived IN our kitchens are part of our foundation and for me, comprise the bulk of my happiest memories.
I’d love to hear some of your kitchen stories – and while you’re at it, head over to GEAppliances.com and check them out. Stay tuned for an upcoming post with more information about the Our American Kitchen documentary series. It would be fun to see some your kitchen pictures too – send them to me on Twitter or Instagram, and use #OurAmericanKitchen! Share a kitchen memory of your own in the comments below to enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card! Entry Instructions: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
- Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
- Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
- Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
- For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older (or nineteen (19) years of age or older in Alabama and Nebraska). Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 2 business days to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from 4/1/15 – 6/30/15. Be sure to visit the G.E. Appliances brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!
I remember learning how to cook on my grandma’s kitchen. I loved her old cast iron pans and pots
elena150980 at yahoo dot com
I always helped my dad prep family meals by helping to peal the garlic, shrimp or anything else he needed to have done.
kellywcu8888ATgmailDOTcom
I remember baking cookies in the 7th grade as part of a business class to see how many cookies I could sell. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen.
mami2jcn at gmail dot com
Favorite kitchen memory is baking Christmas cookies with mom.
heather hgtempaddy@hotmail.com
My favorite kitchen memory was making cookie dough with my mom and then eating most of it before we could even bake it! yarbr012@gmail.com
My kitchen memories about me and my daughter cooking new recipes for our family, and it is a place where we have fun talking and eating during the week and getting to know about one another’s day!
my email jewelwood55(at)gmail(dot)com
I remember my mom teaching me how to make biscuits
dlatany at gmail dot com
I have fond memories of spending time in the kitchen with my grandmother who passed away several years ago. She loved to cook and taught me quite a few family recipes!
My kitchen memory is from a few years back when we had the entire family together, I mean the whole family, and that can be a hard thing to accomplish, but everyone was there for Christmas Day for the BIG meal we had, and everyone helped in the making of it, is was the best dinner I have ever had, since then a few have passed away, so it was nice to celebrate and create a everlasting memory.
Nicole.ddziedzic at gmail dot com
One of my favorite kitchen memories is helping my grandma make rootbeer egg nog on Christmas and her famous strudel. Even when I was quite young, she would let me hop on a stool and help her out.
A wonderful memory I have is when I was first invited to make tamales with a friends family. Such a great time, and so nice to be a part of their family tradition. I wish my family had something similar. Thinking I need to start one with my kids.
I can remember making countless recipes with my Dad in the kitchen. He was always making new dishes.
My fave kitchen memories were baking cookies with grandma!
Baking pumpkin pies and sugar cookies with my mom and kids are my favorite kitchen memories.
tcarolinep at gmail dot com
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! It all came out fine (nobody was sick after!).
madelinebrubaker {at} gmail [dot] com
I once cooked baked potatoes in the oven and accidentally left them in over night. I completely forgot they were in there.
onefrugalgirl AT gmail DOT com
I would make French fries for both of my brothers and shake them in a brown paper bag with salt. My oldest brother owns a restaurant now but I was the best French fry maker back in high school.:)
I loved watching my mom cook and bake.
chambanachik(at)gmail(dot)com
I remember the first birthday cake I baked for my husband in our new house (and new kitche). It was a dismal failure, but still fun!
Carolsue
Digicats {at} Sbcglobal {dot} Net
I loved watching my mother bake. 🙂
I love my kitchen. its bright and i can see the back yard from there. My kitchen memory is baking with my kids
I remember one Thanksgiving I tried to bake a pumpkin pie in a friend’s kitchen and it would NOT set! I didn’t know that her oven did not reach its full temp when the indicator light went off….alas in was sweet pumpkin soup 🙁
my fond memories are with my grandmother in the kitchen helping out and learning to bake
As a recent college graduate, I started experimenting in the kitchen, learning how to cook. I remember making some exotic meals for my parents, who gamely ate them even though I’m sure they weren’t that great. It gave me the chance to try out my wings in the kitchen!
We enjoy lots of laughter as a family over a home cooked meal.
Some of my favorite moments is dancing around one another and cooking for our four kids! We love to bake with the kids and it can get messy! I remember one time my son dropped a whole bag of flour and it went everywhere it looked like a ghost lol!
my4boysand1@gmail.com
My grandma used to let me eat a little bit of raw cookie dough. Mmm~ 🙂
mom didnt cook but my grandma always made cookies and candies at holidays in our kitchen pryfamily5@gmail.com
I have many memories baking with my grandma in her kitchen when I was a child with my siblings.
prettyinhotpink6 at gmail dot com
During Thanksgiving, my mother and aunt gin and Uncle Charlie would gather at Uncle Charlies gorgeous kitchen and create a magical feast. Turkey, ham, roast beef. You name it they cooked it.
One great story was after a small gathering we did here I ran the dishwasher. Our dishwasher is about 30+ years old, and it just began overflowing EVERYWHERE. No rhyme or reason, its worked fine since.
I remember making dozens and dozens of CHocolae chip cookies with my Grams
When I was growing up the kitchen was the heart of our home. The house was built in the late 1800s so there was a closed kitchen. No open concept architecture back then.
I remember making all kinds of sweets with my grandmas in their kitchens. Such sweet memories!
i baked cookies for the first time with my son in my kitchen.
Thanks for the chance to win!
wildorchid985 AT gmail DOT com
My kitchen memory is that I always hang out and help my parents cook while they prepare dinner. I am their little helper since I was little. Now, my kids help me out when I cook too. 🙂
amy [at] utry [dot] it
I loved helping my parents cook when I was growing up. At holiday dinners, we still cook together.
sazzyfrazz at gmail dot com
My favorite memories are of me and my sister making sugar cookies together when we were kids.
A kitchen memory for me is when I made my son’s first birthday cake.
Most of my kitchen memories are of wonderful family gatherings!
nuthouse(at)centurytel(dot)net
My favorite kitchen memory is watching my Grandma make Chicken and Dumplings.
We would gather in the kitchen and make tamales on Christmas Eve.
MCantu1019 at aol dot com
My favorite kitchen memory is helping my Mom bake cookies.
s2s2 at cox dot net
we have had many delicious meals prepared and enjoyed in our kitchen
debbiebellows (at) gmail (dot) com
I REMEMBER GROWING UP MAKING COOKIES WITH MY MA IN THE KITCHEN… GOOD TIMES BEING A KID AND LEARNING TO COOK AT THE SAME TIME TOO! afjackly@oakland.edu
I was raised on a dairy farm by my grandma near Lake Ontario in New York. She prepared meals breakfast, dinner, supper. Notice no lunch word mentioned. Everything I learned about cooking I learned from her. One Christmas I recall Santa bringing me my own little yellow refrigerator lined with styrofoam, an oven, mixing bowls, etc., I was the luckiest little girl.
My kitchen inspires me to spend more time with my family truckredford(at)gmail(dot)com
Helping my mom make homemade pizza.
Watching my parents cook from scratch.
I remember my first attempt at baking when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I didn’t know the difference between baking powder and soda and my cookies turned out inedible. I’ve improved since then LOL!
I remember my grandma teaching me how to make the dumplings.
thank you
Baking pies with blackberries from my gran’s garden, for sure.
My favorite is baking with my mother in her kitchen
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.
I remember learning that I could use an empty whiskey bottle as an improvised rolling pin. For me drinking hard liquor and cooking various dishes go hand in hand.
I do all of my daughter’s homeschooling at the kitchen table. I am so proud of her for leaning so much! She’s so smart. She also always keeps us entertained during dinner.
Childhood memories of my family of 6 preparing and cooking together to create an amazing meal!
tvollowitz at aol dot com
My best kitchen memory is always cooking holiday dinners with my mom.
I remember cooking blackberry dumplings with my grandma every summer. We would pick the blackberries from her yard then go straight in and fix the dumplings. Those were some amazing summer days. I wish my girls had a chance to experience days like those. Thank you!
crystalfaulkner2000 at yahoo dot com
I remember making homemade pasta in my grandmothers farm house in Poland. She’d let me “roast” a bit of it on the stove into a tortilla-like crunch.
I enjoyed learning to cook beside my mom. Fried chicken was a favorite to make when I was a teenager.
westiemks5 at yahoo dot com
The kitchen is “the heart of the home”. It is where memories are made.
I remember I loved to make biscuits with my mom !
redaurelie(at)gmail(dot)com
I don’t have many kitchen memories, I’ve never liked to cook. I do remember that I left the Chocolate Chip Cookies in the oven for over an hour. I was surprised they didn’t catch on fire or smoke much. They looked fossilized.
I remember my mother making pea soup and I hated pea soup so I would dump mine out the window..lol
I remember making homemade spaghetti noodles with my mom and hanging them everywhere imaginable in the kitchen to dry.
I remember my grandma making the most delicious bread pudding ever!
iamdadtastic@gmail.com
One of my favorite memories in the kitchen is just hanging out with my mom while she made dinner! We’d just talk about anything and everything and I’d get to help her cook. Lovely memories to have of her 🙂
used to like me mom bake when i was a kid – regnod(at)yahoo(d0t)com
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.
eswright18 at gmail dot com
Every year when I was a kid I would bake X-mas cookies with my mom, it was a great tradition.
rounder9834 @yahoo.com
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.
I love cooking with my dad as a teen
One of my favorite kitchen memories is making homemade bread with my mother.
Baking cookies with Mom just before Christmas is a treasured memory.
I love to bake with my oldest daughter, I know we’re making memories while we’re doing it!
My mother taught me and my sister to cook. She loved cooking and teaching.
Thanks for the contest.
We used to make cookies from scratch.
My brother and I spent many hours in the kitchen while our Mom made dinner. Long after we were both married we would still meet at Mom’s kitchen table to catch up on each other’s lives.
I used to love baking sweet treats with my mom at Christmas time in the kitchen. We would bake them for all our friends, neighbors and family
addictedtorodeo at gmail dot com
My Mom always made the best cream puffs on christmas eve..We looked forward to that every year 🙂
We always like to make sugar cookies and decorate them for christmas time.
One of my fav kitchen memories is making homemade fudge and iced sugar cookies with my mom during the Christmas season when I was a kid. To this day, I tear up when thinking of it. So many happy memories!
Angie
14earth at gmail dot com
One of my favorite memories is making orange cupcakes with orange icing with my grandmother. To this day they are my favorite!!
I have so many memories of baking with my dad. We always made cookies around the Holidays. dmarie824 at aol dot com
At my grandmothers it was a gathering place and we all sat around the kitchen tablet that held desserts and platters and talked about growing up together and what was going on now in our lives
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com
cooking home made cookies with my grand mother
#SweepstakesEntry
to me, an american kitchen means fond memories of helping mom clean, bake & also doing my homework at the kitchen table
KC
kacor7@hotmail.com
One of my fav memories as a kid was watching Grandma making scratch biscuits
I remember helping my mom cook as a child.
kport207 at gmail dot com
I have many happy memories of baking in the kitchen with my mom