I'd Forgotten

When people talk about the smells of the holiday, you will frequently hear about nutmeg and clove. Ginger. Sugar cookies. Pumpkin and cinnamon. Maybe pine and cedar. If you had asked me this morning, I would've said my grandmother's dressing recipe, butter coffee cake, pecan pie, and roasting beastie. I would have been right, mind you, but I wouldn't have been complete.

Recently, I was emailing an old college roommate and asked for her recipe for chocolate covered peanut butter balls. In her email, along with the recipe for peanut butter balls, was my dad's recipe for peanut brittle. Wow.

My dad was known throughout town for his peanut brittle. He made batches and batches of the stuff and gave it away like, well, like candy. The mechanics at the garage. The folks at the bank. The dry cleaner. The postman. His hairdresser. Folks at the college. The post office. The Mail Boxes. Anywhere he was a regular or had casual business relationships ended up with peanut brittle.

He would take over the kitchen for an entire day, keeping three of four batches going at a time until he had enough. Plastic bags and red yarn was as fancy as the wrapping got. I don't even think he put a card saying who it was from after a while. If it was peanut brittle, it was from him. And everybody knew it.

Last night, I made Lithus peanut brittle. My kitchen smelled of...my childhood holidays. And damn, it was good stuff. As good as I remembered, even if I'd forgotten.

So tell me, what does your holiday kitchen smell like?

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.




Ps ~ be sure to check out the robot parade over here.