Wednesday, January 26, 2005

A la recherche du temp perdu

Ok from that title, it may sound like I'm gonna do another super serious post but I'm not.

Suffice it to say Marcel Proust took an awful lot of words to tell us...

Our senses of smell and taste are powerful memory triggers.

In his case it was madelaine biscuits and a particular kind of tea. For me this week it has been the cooking of marmalade.

When my mum was alive she made seville orange marmalade every year and as stocks of the house vintage have now dwindled, I decided that I needed to explore this curiously domestic-goddess-like activity.

As my seville oranges were cooking, the smell that wafted through my house reminded me of watching my mother cook in a way mere recollectioncould not possibly conjure. It was a pleasant recollection that made me smile.

Yet it was not only this memory that it triggered. It also reminded me of one of mum's rather curious sandwich creations. Now I have never grown a desire to eat her most incredible combination of cheese, lettuce, marmite and peanut butter but some of the others did tickle my fancy.

Now I'd remembered raisin sandwiches and condensed milk sandwiches but until I smelt that marmalade cooking, I had forgotten about one of my favourites:

Marmalade and cheese.

Now I can HEAR you now AND see those little faces scrunching up in horror but trust me... They're scrumptious. I had one today for the first time in, well at least three years. I may well have another tomorrow!

4 comments:

Kathryn said...

Sarah - don't worry, it is actually normal - and quite tasty!! Colin's family love jam and cheese sarnies, and I thought that was really gross - until I tried it! MMM, might go and make one just now!

Sarah Brush said...

I had brie and cranberry in my sandwiches today in fact - which is practically the same thing!

hearts81 said...

Raisin and condensed milk... now that is one combination. I remember once having done something to tick off my Mom, my sister and I were royally grounded. At some point in the day, I guess she decided that she was being too hard on us and made us a plate of brown sugar sandwiches. she thought that they were a treat, but my sister and I thought that she was still in a bad mood and those sandwiches were part of our punishment. Funny the things you remember. Your sandwiches reminded me.

A Touch of Style :)

Anonymous said...

Hello dear,
the correct orthograph of time in french is "temps" not "temp"
Florent, french guy