So, I got involved in one of those casual office conversations last week and somehow the subject of bringing in treats for your coworkers came up. Or, it might have been something else. To be honest, I don't really remember and I wasn't paying that much attention. Anyhow, at some point I mentioned casually that I had a great recipe for blackberry cobbler and that I should make it for them 'sometime.'
The idea was an instant hit with Fun Bobby. He mentioned it, every single time he saw me, for the rest of the week. "Sometime" became "Monday" in some fashion I can't quite remember.
Long, boring story shorter. I made it. Brought it in. Everyone loves it. Fun Bobby came over and said it was the best thing anyone had ever brought in.
This was probably less about my cooking skills than, as he revealed, the association with his childhood. Apparently his grandparents lived on a farm in Kansas and he has fond memories of roaming around, picking (and eating) blackberries, and his grandmother's blackberry cobbler. (He actually asked if it was a Kansas girl thing--we were all born knowing how to make great blackberry cobbler.)
I swear, he was almost teary-eyed. It's amazing how some scents and flavors can do that, isn't it?
I've been puzzling all day to identify a food scent that can do that to me.
P.S. They ate it all up!
I'm not sure there's any flavors/smells that have quite that effect on me. But then, I haven't had a proper mushroom/barley soup since my Grandmother passed away, either.
Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on it comes close.
But there's something about learning to make the stuff myself that's taken a little bit of the emotion out of it. Like pecan pie, which ought to do that, or some of my passover dishes: it's not emotional, it's just what we do. It's in the DNA and I don't miss it because I still do it.
posted by: Jonathan Dresner on 05.12.09 at 07:07 AM [permalink]Hey! That's what I almost said! That I thought I used to have more emotional resonance for some food smells before I started cooking those dishes myself.
That's an interesting twist on the phenomenon.
posted by: Anne on 05.12.09 at 08:16 AM [permalink]I don't have any foods/dishes that can do that to me, but there are a few that when I make them, bring back fond memories. The sugar cookie recipe I remember making as a kid where we almost ate more raw dough than we cooked is one of them. I still have the exact recipe, and I make it around the holidays, which brings all the combined memories...
I wish I could make fudge like my Dad did. He did it the old fashioned way in a double boiler and there was no marshmallow goo in it.
It's all your fault. I'm going to have to go find my Mom's old recipe file which has all the old family recipes in it...
posted by: Dail on 05.12.09 at 09:39 AM [permalink]The R.C. uses the same sugar cookie recipe that Mom used to use. I'll have to ask her if it still has childhood associations for her or not.
We weren't a fudge family, but my mother used to make something we called "bitty balls." It was a huge production that took the entire kitchen and a full day. I'm not sure what went into them. Peanut butter and some kind of cereal and something else, rolled into balls and then covered in melted chocolate.
posted by: Anne on 05.15.09 at 10:33 AM [permalink]