On Saturday, we often had home made pizza on our menu for supper. If the children were outdoors, they kept coming into the house to see if they could detect the smell. The pizza was made in a biscuit pan so it was “all you can eat” when they sat down to supper.

Christmas left us with even greater smells. There was the dark fruit cake, which the children christened “HUSH”, for everyone had to be quiet during the baking process, or the cake might fall. Then there was the heavenly smell of loaves of raisin bread, which I made by the dozen. To the children it tasted like no other, because it had an abundance of sticky raisins all through it. Another reason why they liked it was because it was fresh, and did not have time to become stale. The Christmas pudding was placed in a bag and boiled on the top of the stove in a pot of boiling water for three hours. It left our kitchen filled with the rich smell of spices. It was served with a brown sugar sauce that tasted fabulous.

There was always the homey smell of the wood burning in the kitchen range, and the kindling drying in the oven for the morning. Although we are older now, and are left with an empty nest, the aromas from our country kitchen will remain in our memories for a lifetime.

Blair and his friend, Kevin Hughes

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