A welcoming kitchen is the heart of a home, especially one that focuses on entertaining.

“Entertaining has been such a big part of my family; people gathering in the kitchen and talking and spending time together,” Annie Kantor, owner of Modern Metal, told the Journal. “It’s with that sort of value and with those occasions in mind that I redesigned my house and out of that sprung my business.”

When Kantor was remodeling her family home, she said she obsessed about the details.

“Along with tile and switch covers and light fixtures, I saw a vent in my entryway, and I thought I should have something really beautiful there,” she said. “I scoured antique markets for some beautiful old brass vent covering [and] couldn’t find anything the right size.”

A textile designer by training, Kanter translated an old textile design into metal and had a vent cover made in that design. This inspired her business, selling vent covers, screen dividers, fencing, gates and building facades.

Decorating for entertaining is all about creating a beautiful space that exudes warmth and keeps a flow, so people can walk around easily.

“I don’t really have doors on the whole main floor of our house because … wanted to encourage socialization,” she said. “And we designed [the kitchen] in a way so that people could really gather, because everybody ends up in there anyway.”

She added, “One of the first things I bought when we started our remodel was a [10-foot long] antique table, … it embodies everything I want when I think of entertaining [with] a design element.”

Kantor believes a home should be used and accessible, not just a showroom, so she chose surfaces that could be used and drinking glasses that could be replaced.

“We don’t care if there are rings on [the wood table],” she said. “We bought maybe 80 Ikea wine glasses [10 years ago], [so] we don’t pull out the paper or the plastic whenever we have a party, and [if] something breaks, we don’t worry.”

Kantor attributes her love of entertaining to her upbringing.

“My mother and my grandmother both always had a house with revolving doors, lots of guests, lots of friends,” she said.

Her grandmother lived in Palo Alto and she always had a random Stanford student join the table.

“We had some of her artist friends … we had exchange students and of course, anybody in our temple community who didn’t have a place to go, so it was just always a welcoming house, inclusive,” Kantor said.

Personal, meaningful elements include your meals. When she hosted Thanksgiving last year, Kantor asked the family members, who were coming from different places, for their favorite Thanksgiving recipe.

“[Entertaining] doesn’t have to be something that you design,” she said. “It can be how you make somebody feel [by] having a recipe that gives them comfort.”

This philosophy works both ways. One of Kantor’s favorite recipes is a noodle kugel that her friend Anne Schmitz, who is from the Italian D’Agostino family in New York, makes for Yom Kippur break fast.

“It’s very dense and rich, and it’s the topping on top of it [that makes it special],” Annie said. “The funny part is, like any really good [recipe], it’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and it can vary every time.” The recipe is below.

Cooking is like design; you bring yourself into the final product.

“Anything that has meaning is what will bring your personality into your home,” Kanter said. “I have a wall [of photos] when you walk into my foyer.”

Kantor doesn’t display the best, frame-worthy pictures there; she selects the ones that highlight memories.

“One of the pictures is a photo of my [two] daughters’ feet, wearing these Roman sandals,” she said. “Our whole family knows, when we see it, it captured a moment on a family trip to Rome [where] my girls had a massive, three-day fight over Roman sandals.”

That photo captures a memory. It’s a very personal touch with a great story behind it.

Learn more about Annie Kantor at ModMetalDesigns.com.

For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:

Anne Schmitz’s Kugel Recipe

Adapted from “The Joy of Cooking”

1 pound egg noodles

4 cups sour cream or Greek Yogurt

2 lbs cottage cheese

2 lbs cream cheese

6 large eggs

1 cup sugar

4 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Topping:

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 cup chopped walnuts and coconut (1/2 and 1/2)

4 tbsp flour

4 tsp cinnamon

4 tbsp softened butter

1/8-1/4 tsp of salt

Cook wide egg noodles according to package directions, but don’t overcook.

Noodles notes: If I can only find golden grain, I use them. Ideally, if you can find some kind of heavy German egg noodle, the texture is much more interesting. I don’t rinse the noodles; I just let them cool in the colander.

Beat the rest of the kugel ingredients with an electric mixer or whisk for several minutes.

Notes: I use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. You can also use ricotta for part of the cottage cheese; I’ve never done all-ricotta, but I’m sure it would be good. I sometimes add a dash of nutmeg depending on the crowd.

Add the mixture to the noodles and place in a greased Pyrex pan.

Stage 1: For the first hour, cook it at 325 degrees. It should look solid and slightly brown when you take it out to add the topping.

This is an ideal place to stop if you are doing it ahead of time. Refrigerate it, and do the second stage later. Do not mix it without baking it because the noodles suck up the moisture and it comes out too dry.

Stage 2: For the topping, I use half coconut and half pecans. You can use whatever kind of nuts you like, depending on the crowd; pecans just caramelize nicely. Toast nuts and coconut separately at 325 for about 8 to 10 minutes before mixing into topping; keep an eye on them, it may take less time.

In a small bowl, mix the topping ingredients together with a fork and spread over the kugel.

If you have broken up the cooking of the kugel into stages, get it a little warmed up before you put the topping on. I don’t think it has to come up to 325 internally but it should be close.

Bake kugel at 325 for another 30 minutes. If I think it needs to be browner, I turn the oven up to 350 or 375 for the last 10 minutes.

Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.