Memories

Cooking and food for me is something the evokes memories.  The smell of chocolate chip cookies baking reminds me of making them with my step-mom while growing up.  Banana bread makes me think of my dear friend (and co-blogger) Jen.  Pumpkin pie reminds me of my grandma and the lovely dinners that were had at her house over the years.  Making Rodeo Ranch Chicken Salad reminds me of my aunt who introduced me to that wonderful recipe on a visit home.  I remember going to Long Beach every summer and eating salt water taffy and ice cream from a wonderful restaurant (now closed).  One of my favorite memories of a trip to California was eating at a fancy (to an 8 year old) restaurant and getting to eat not only my chocolate mousse dessert, but my uncles too.

  Why was I thinking of this and decided to blog about it?  It made me think of the memories that I can start making with my little girls.  We make brownies together (in matching aprons lovingly made for us) and muffins.  The girls love the smell of food in the crockpot when we get home from church.  My older daughter loves her treat of going out with her grandpa weekly for lunch and an ice cream.  Sharing my cooking moments with the girls can help them have good memories too, and I can share my memories with them also.  I regret the times that I missed out not learning to cook with my grandmas.  They are from the generation that starts with a basic recipe and over the 60 years of cooking, they perfect it.  I never learned the special little changes made to make it "just right".  So I'm making notes now when I use a recipe that I will pass along someday.

My half-year resolution is to make some good memories this summer.