Food in my life

Growing up in Gelvandale, Port Elizabeth, I can remember my mum as the smell of my favourite food. My mum woke up most days and made porridge, maize meal or mieliemeel cooked over a medium heat at first and then simmering over      a low heat until it was shiny ,then finished off with a dollop of butter and sugar before Serving it to us and watching us tucking in and scoffing it all up.

Sometimes we had sausage ,boerewors ,with a tomato and onions on a hotdog roll as an afternoon meal and my brothers and I would eat it slowly to see who could savour The taste The longest. It was finger licking good.
 I love cakes ,Victorian sponge With jam in the middle and butter icing with a hint of vanilla essence .Last week Sunday I missed my mum's jam tarts so I made some shortcrust pastry ,filled the cases with All Gold's Apricot jam and finished it  with Coconut mixed through with beaten egg whites,sugar ,desiccated Coconut  and vanilla then baking it for twenty minutes in the oven.
Mmmm....I can smell it now As if it was yesterday in my 8 year old sandals, standing  in the kitchen waiting for the tarts to come out of the oven so that my brothers and I can fight over who would get the first one. 
Sunday was the big roast off,chicken,leg of lamb,accompanied by, roast potatoes,  boiled cabbage,with some real butter  and sprinkled with
grated nutmeg, fried and sugared grey sweet potato, cauliflower and cheese, beetroot salad, tomato and onion salad  ,some telephone pudding and custard or baked pears and custard.
This was followed by an afternoon nap and then we would wake up to the smell of mum's baked bread or a cake. They say smells can transport you to happy or sad memories, but these memories fill me with a sense of belonging and happy childhood memories ,because it is a place where I felt safe in the comfort of familiar smells and people. 

My grandmother or ouma as I knew her,made great stews, our version of soul food or food that hit the spot ,my smell for my ouma is baked bean and chicken stew with a reddy- orange colour soaked into the potatoes after the Koo baked beanswere added .