Why do some smells evoke such strong vivid memories?

We at Casa Euesden today ate chicken salad for lunch – a good part of our staple diet due to its ease especially at quarter end and also for its low calorific value.

However we enjoy the next meal that we make even more – Grandad’s soup, made from the chicken carcass.

.My Grandparents were as poor as church mice – we may not have had money for the “leccy meter” however my Grandma, a good Catholic girl, always found money for the daily collections at the church – a regular bone of contention even after nearly sixty years of marriage.

So as money was in  such short supply my Grandad had to be able to feed the family and its partners and friends and all their children on very limited funds and for that matter ingredients.

His chicken soup was simply to die for – he used to make it on a Monday and we were still slurping its diluted version on a Tuesday.

As the publishers of the Euro Weekly News we are privileged to eat at some of the finest restaurants and indeed at the best tables at friends’ homes. In fact our last outing was to the birthday party at the home of some really great friends of ours where the chef who was sat at our table was none other than Anthony Worrall Thompson – it doesn’t really get much better than that.

The thing is though there is very little to beat the famous Brogan broth – whether it is the memories it stirs up of a close knit family who stuck together through thick or thin or it’s the soup itself I really do not know. The only thing that I can tell you is tonight our house smells delicious and the whole feeling going throughout the house is of love, security and happiness. So Thank You Grandad and God Bless – no matter where we travel or what we have to face we know that you are never far away. I bet Ramsey or the like cannot make that claim.

Do you have any family dishes that give you such comfort – if you do why not send them in – along with your story – we could perhaps all then fill our kitchens with love and happy memories? It will also be a great way of continuing traditions. So get writing!

This blog tonight is dedicated to our great friends John and Jim – of the Mijas Playa – the suppers at their house after a hard day on the road have saved our sanity on many an occasion. Hope you have a great mini break guys – you deserve it.

Mx