My mother is a fantastic cook. Growing up we almost always had roast and potatoes and gravy for Sunday dinner (following our Church services). We always looked forward to those tasty Idaho potatoes, topped with scrumptious brown gravy and a roast cooked to perfection. Now I’m trying to watch my carbs (so don’t have potatoes as much), but this meal takes me back to the kitchen counter and reminds me of parents who still truly care, siblings that still support and love me, and family memories that will never fade. A favorite dessert was Mom’s mint fudge–no one can make fudge like she still does. YEAH FOR MOTHERS!!!!!!! We also shared some of the things we learned in Church that day!

Funny – my food memories are also connected with my mother. She was a great cook. But it is more the sounds and smells that bring back memories. Our family spent about half the year living on our farm. My mother used her pressure cooker almost daily to prepare a huge noon meal for dad and the hired men. It cooked food quickly and tenderized even the toughest meat. The pssst, pssst, pssst, pssst sound of that cooker takes me right back to that old kitchen, filled with light and always a warm and comforting place to be. We didn’t have electricity so when she would make a cake she always counted the beats. I can remember the combination of her counting along with the soft slap slap slap as she stirred the cake batter. Another favorite memory is the smell of pancakes. She used a cast iron frying pan to make those pancakes and there was a unique scent that made its way downstairs to my bedroom, kind of a nearly burning doughy smell mixed with a bacony scent. That doesn’t sound very appetizing but it was a wonderful fragrance and signaled to me that it was time to get up, eat, and get the day going. Now mind you, the pancakes weren’t always very good. Often they were overly done on the outside and raw in the middle but even though they were that way it still gives me a warm happy memory of home, family, and carefree days of youth. Maybe there is a lesson in that, life doesn’t have to be perfect to be good and happy! The last food fragrance that never fails to bring back a flood of memories is the scent of coffee. Although my grandma was a strong and faithful member of the LDS Church she drank coffe every day of her life (I guess it was her Swedish heritage). It was the first smell that hit me when I walked into her kitchen. She would sit down with a cup of coffee and a spoon of sugar and would take a little taste of the sugar followed by a sip of hot coffee and we would talk and talk. I loved her so much and miss her so much. I am always reminded of her when I walk down the coffee isle of the grocery store.

Ice-cream! My Dad was a big ice-cream fan, and we always had several flavors in our freezer – vanilla being his favorite and a staple of the household. I have 4 brothers, and we all walked to and from school each day. As an after school snack, my mom would make us an ice-cream cone if we made it home by a certain time- this would help to encourage us to come straight home and not dawdle or take side treks to friend’s homes. (On rainy days, we would have popcorn.) It was also a given that whenever we had hamburgers for dinner, we were also having root beer floats! I have fun memories of us sitting around the table with our long handled spoons in our tall glasses, and quickly slurping at the edge of the glass after pouring in the soda before the foam erupted over the side! The old Shasta commercials would temp us to blow the foam across the table at each other when we could get away with it. If we had company in the evening, mom always offered a bowl of ice-cream, and would tuck a cookie in the side of the bowl. I remember sitting with friends or relatives in the front room chatting and slowly enjoying a bowl of yummy cold stuff (this was a great honor as a child to be allowed to eat in the front room!) I still love ice-cream, and we certainly have ice-cream for birthdays, but I don’t have the freezer stocked full of different flavors like my folks do. I won’t forget the one time my parents came to visit and they were shocked to open my freezer and not find any ice-cream there. After that, I always make sure we are stocked up for their visits. Today, my children enjoy visits to grandma’s house where they get all the ice- cream they can eat. It is fun to see them sit with their cousins in the kitchen trying all the different flavors. For me it always warms my heart as I sit in the front room with family, and I hear my mom ask, “Who wants ice cream?”

“Patio Chicken” – for the 4th of July my grandmother would marinade tons of chicken and my grandfather would barbecue it on a big rotating spit. We would smell it cooking all day while we played in the lake. It would be completely black and crispy on the outside, but so juicy inside. We would have crispy bits of blackened chicken in our teeth, in our hair, on our clothes…everywhere! It is still one of my favorite smells of summer.

“Nuclear Meatballs” – made with a mustard and vinegar sauce. Called ‘nuclear’ because if you inhaled the aroma, it would clear your sinuses and make your eyes water. My brother still giggles whenever he smells them.

Tuna sandwiches on Wonderbread – my grandpa used to bring them to me and my cousins when we spent days on the beach at Lake Michigan. Sometimes they had olives, or pickles – he never made them the same way twice, but we loved every single variation. Served in an old styrofoam cooler with lukewarm rootbeer on the side, life was pretty darn great!

I have to say bacon! Whenever I spent the night at my Grandma’s home she would cook as much bacon as I wanted for breakfast the next morning. She was a great cook (other stuff besides bacon tee-hee). I only have one handwritten recipe card of hers and I treasure it.

My mother is also a fabulous cook, and when my son was younger, gave him cooking lessons each year for a Christmas present, which he loved. One year she gave him all of ‘his’ recipes in an antique wooden recipe box which was *my* Grandma’s….so it was *his* Great-Grandma’s. He treasures it to this day.

So whenever I smell bacon cooking, or see that recipe box, I think of my wonderful Grandma.

Root Beer Floats – whenever my Grandmom would say “Josie, let’s go shopping” it meant that it was too hot and she wanted a root beer float. It didn’t matter were it came from. We would sit and talk over those floats. Everytime I have one I think of her.

The taste and texture of my grandmother’s fudge…chocolate with pieces of pecans…peanut butter with pieces of pecans…smooth with that little crunch and whipped to perfection…dryer than a lot of traditional fudges but perfect in my eyes! I have tried without success to get it right. At 84 she can no longer make it because it requires a lengthy whipping stage. I think this is where I go wrong. I just don’t have the will power to whip it long enough to reach the desired texture because all I can think about is how amazingly wonderful it is! What I wouldn’t give for a piece right now!!!

A bowl of ice cream while watching the news and the first of the Late Show with David Letterman with my dad. After my mom passed away that is what we did every night for over two years! I have no idea how that man is still as fit and trim as he is after almost 60 plus years of that but I still love to go over there late and see the same scene.

Food is in every day of our lives. As a Hispanic is a tradition to have home made meals every day. I am from Argentina and my grandma was Italian. I have some great memories cooking together pasta and having great BBQ (asado) and eating in a long table with the entire family every single Sunday. We connected and enjoyed in long conversations. This is something that I treasure in my heart. We just had a great event The International Business Dinner and it was great, we learn from other’s people culture by trying their food a fun way of learning