by Melissa Marie

Created on: June 01, 2008   Last Updated: June 04, 2008

The smell of fresh-baked apple pie, the sound of sizzling peppers and onions, the feel of kneading dough for fresh-baked bread, the taste of gooey mac-n-cheese, is there anything more satisfying? Incorporating the senses into food provides the best foundation for memories. The more sense involved, the more vivid and greater the permanence of days gone by. Science and Psychology have proven it. There is a definite link between our senses and our memories. Recalling the better days of the past are just one sense away. These are the reasons that comfort foods exist. It is also the reason that said foods are as varied as every individual. The sights, smells, feels, and tastes remind us of better days gone by.

Who can't recall their grandma's snicker doodles or monkey bread or cinnamon rolls? How about grandpa's pancakes or special dinner on Sunday with red gravy? Standing in the cafeteria of school as a child the smell of these or anything similar will certainly bring back the days of "remember when..." For certain, I have my own memories. Every Christmas I require a pan of my grandmother's magnificent fudge. And, I will certainly make Shepherd's pie and English Rose cocktails whenever I want to be whisked away to my vacation at Epcot Center as relief from everyday stresses. Not to mention my mother's meat loaf and how that transports me back my childhood.

This is why food is so intoxicating and powerful. The memories that food can, and does, conjure are a grand way of not only remembering our past, but, more importantly, by invoking those memories it makes them a part of our present. Every dinner that we spend introducing our memories into the present makes a new and special memory for the next generations. For me it was brownies. I didn't even realize what I was doing. I was making a pan of my mom's special fudge brownies for a comforting snack with my little one, and the next week from school came a report home that one of my daughter's favorite things to do was to make brownies with mom. We pass the spoon, as it were, on to the next generations and imprint their memories as much as we have been affected by ours.

This is how food connects us and completes us as people. It makes us whole through our past, present, and future. And, it will continue to do so for the rest of recorded history. Go, make your own memories today. Ask your elders for their secrets. Buy the cookbooks from the garage sale. Experiment in your own comfort foods. But most of all, eat well. Bon Appetit!

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