Some of my great memories of my time in Portugal and Spain were all the meals of fresh seafood—really fresh seafood. On one of those days of walking by the Portuguese coast, I passed by a fishing village. Not long afterwards, I stopped at a restaurant where they were grilling the fresh catch. I think I ordered sea bass and was amazed when the waiter brought it and filleted the fish at my table. What a delicious meal; I was too caught up in eating it to take a picture 🙂

I had taken a picture of the calamari I ate in Porto–along with a glass of port that was produced in one of their vineyards. What a relaxing treat that was, eating by the Douro River. While I’m not a huge fan of calamari in the restaurants in my home area, it seems to be too chewy, what I had in Porto was different, like a cleaner, crisper bite. I’m not a food writer so I’m sure these aren’t quite the right words. Just know that the calamari there was really good.

There were desserts that were popular, but none of them made me want to return home and try to copy them. That wasn’t true of a dessert that made a lasting impression on me two years ago when I went with my cousin to Scotland. Our first night in Edinburg, we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. The waitress suggested we try the Sticky Toffee Pudding. Neither of us had heard of that and put in an order.

We both looked at each other, our faces incredulous, with the first taste of that warm, yummy, decadent treat that had been kept secret from us. We ordered it several other times on our trip and when I returned home, I found a recipe and purchased ramekins to give it a try. Since it was pretty time consuming, and very rich with dates, brown sugar, corn syrup etc, I’ve only made it a few times for special occasions. Those first bites always remind me of when we discovered it in Edinburg. www.foodandwine.com/recipes/sticky-toffee-pudding

After we visited Scotland, we spent four days in Dublin. There, we took a tour of the Guinness plant and visitors center. While I care for that dark beer, I did like the rich taste of it in the Guinness and Beef that I had in a pub. On the way home, waiting in the Shannon airport, I had Euro coins I needed to use since the US bank would only refund bills. I had just enough to buy a cookbook that had a recipe for Zesty Guinness and Beef.

As I’m writing this post, I’m making this dish for the weekend along with an Irish Soda Bread. I haven’t always liked that kind of bread because the soda tastes too strong to me. But I found a recipe that is a little sweeter and even my grandsons like it. The six-year-old, Baker asked for “more bread” and the four-year-old, Parks asked for “more jam” as he licked it off of the bread—and eventually ate both. When I searched online for Irish desserts, Soda bread with Strawberry Preserves was listed in the top ten; how could warm bread not be listed? https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16947/amazingly-easy-irish-soda-bread

This time of year, as the days grow shorter and cooler, I’m more interested in cooking, in filling my home with comforting aromas. As the holidays approach, I’ll be remembering favorite family dishes and pulling recipes from the church cookbook. Now, I can add in favorite foods tied to memories of places I’ve visited.

Best to you as you pull out those recipes that bring back special memories for you and make your house smell like home.

Connie