Sense of security

Last year sometime, my mom had told me about an article in Parade magazine linking food memories and smells with kids' sense of self. The article basically said that kids who grow up in a home where there are home-cooked meals and good smells of food being prepared can relate those things later in life to where they came from. It said that even if you make your kids a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, toast the bread a little to get those olfactory senses going.

I've written on this blog several times about how powerful my food memories are, and how even just thinking of certain foods can take me back to a time and place of long ago. And make my mouth water.

I figured out some time after we moved into this house that I love the smells from the kitchen wafting through the house. So much so that I have pretty much stopped burning scented candles of any kind. Because no matter how good they smell, they still don't smell half as good as a pot of soup cooking on the stove. Or a pork tenderloin, smothered in a honey mustard glaze, braising away in the slow cooker. Or yesterday's homemade spaghetti sauce slowly simmering for half of the day. The smell still lingered this morning. I hope I'm providing that feeling of security for my kids, even if they won't realize it for years to come.

I have a large bag of candles I need to give away, if anyone wants them.