3 The Kitchen

The kitchen   The whole family is together in the kitchen.  That is where it is the warmest.  They still haven't finished eating supper.  Lelo is talking today non-stop:
"When I sit on the bench, my feet don't reach the floor.  How do you do it?"
  Uncle Pepe smiled because of the child's simplicity  and he said:
"You still have to eat a lot of broth, Lelo.  And this isn't the floor;  the floor of the kitchen is called  chan".
"The floor is made out of wood, isn't it grandpa?"  said Carme.
'That's right, child. In  Galician kitchens there are a lot of things that are being lost.  Before, the meals were made in the lareira. Of course,  there weren't stoves or gas ranges then.  And when the chimney wouldn't draw, we all used to go around smoked, as if we were sausages."
  "And what is the chain called  where the pot hangs? asked Henrique, who was getting wood from the unllar  to stoke the fire.
  "That is the gramalleira. And the framework that sustains everything is the burra."
  While the rest were speaking, Rosario and Carme were already at the sink, scrubbing.  Since the water that came out of the tap was very cold, they had a basin with hot water. In it, they were putting plates, serving platters, spoons, forks, glasses and knives.  A scrubbing with soap and the scouring rag or with detergent, and after a good rinsing, to the drying rack.  Later they had to place them in the upper shelves; the pots, casseroles, frying pans, and pans in the cabinet and the cups in the cupboard.
The conversation of the table was also about to finish.  Uncle Pepe said,
".. what I used to like the most was to take the bread out of the oven with the long stick. We used to have to keep it well swept with the oven broom so that it would stain.  What times!"
  He got up from the table.  With his two hands on the mantle, and looking at the fire, he let the sparks jump  to his pants. Carme was taking out the ashes in order to throw them into the ash bin.  She liked that lareira more than all the gas ovens in the world.