I could have licked the plate!

A few of us have been able to celebrate with either a birthday, wedding or an anniversary recently. It’s often strange as the quality of the food increases, the portions get smaller. However, our taste buds are interlinked to our other senses. The eye is mesmerised by the way that food can be served, and our smell can cause us to reflect on the past or take us – in our mind’s eye – to those places we have been on holiday.

Are you a fan of Oysters? Is that the one you eat with a dainty fork or bravely swallow them whole?

What’s your preference?

I’m told that you can smell the sea on the coast, which must really add to the sensory experience. I wonder how much the other senses add to our enjoyment of the food. Do we touch our food, would that enhance our eating?

Recall the smell of the bonfire or the barbecue as we cook sausages or burgers. The smoke, which always gets into my eyes, pervades on our clothes – but that smell can conjure up memories from the past.

We commented about the programme The Repair Shop which looks to rejuvenate so many items from the past. They use so many different types of material including leather and wood. Some loved the rich smell of that leather.

We noted, reading the back of a passing lorry on the motorway, that salt was required for the ongoing production of leather. Large amounts of salt are used in the production process and there are demands now that the wastepaper are controlled.

Recipes

We also recalled how certain smells reminded us of our grandparents.

Before our minds race away with unpleasant thoughts, most of these are linked to cooking!

From making pickling onions or wine in under the stairs cupboards, to rich rice puddings – all remind us of the past. Some have collected seeds and herbs from the garden and made wreaths to hang on the back of doors around the house so that when the door opens or closes, those lovely smells of nature also float in the air. So the likes of lavender, marjoram and sage can really take us from the Summer into the following seasons – a link to warmer days – and when those midges were present!

So take that opportunity to collect seeds and flowerhead now, dry them in paper bags, ready for rekindling your crafty skills in fresh new ways over the cooler months.

A new recipe to some was the use of courgettes in fruit cake, although chocolate cake is very moist when courgettes are added to the mix. Here’s a recipe we have used, and no one has negatively commented as yet 😉 although our cake, shown on the right, didn’t have any green flecks, such as shown on the left.

Welcome

Our regular Circuit celebration was held on Sunday evening, people from across the Strathclyde area meeting together, to welcome people into Methodist membership. We had 9 people welcomed, despite the pandemic restrictions over the past 18 months. Here’s the service (you can flick through it as you wish): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t03-94b1OJ8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t03-94b1OJ8.

And you are most welcome to join us, in a fortnight’s time, via the delights of Zoom.

Cover photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash