One of my favourite food memories is of cooking with my Nan as a child.
She loves to bake and every Saturday our kitchen was filled with the smells of pastry and apples as she baked tarts for the weekend. Our kitchen table would be covered in flour and spilled egg wash and I would get in trouble for stealing slices of apple! I love sour flavours so I adore Bramley apples! Yum!
Late summer and autumn was a time for making jam in our house, I grew up in the country so me and my cousins would get sent out with buckets, empty lunchboxes or whatever was to hand to go and pick blackberries. We would all be racing about to find the best berries! Then my Nan would make delicious jam and homemade bread to go with it! Mouth watering… Nan always encouraged me to cook as well, with left over pastry she showed me how to make little jam tarts which I loved! I was always so proud seeing them come out of the oven, golden and delicious. Looking back, there is really no mystery as to why I was a chubby kid!
Like most households, Christmas was always a special time for food in our house. Nan always baked a Christmas cake for each of her daughters (that’s seven cakes). The preparation started in September. Each week with the groceries she would buy some of the ingredients for each cake. Then towards the end of October the baking would begin, over the course of weeks the cakes would take shape! Our kitchen smelled like a Christmas wonderland! My favourite part of the process was helping to mix those fabulous rich cake mixes, the smells of the Guinness, fruits and spices… There is really nothing like it! The icing part was fun too but I was not allowed help with that because Nan was a perfectionist when it came to the lovely white royal icing! I did get to lick the spoon after though and really that’s the most important thing!
My Nan is nearly eighty now and is not able to cook as much as she used to. I have inherited her love of cooking and when I am back in Waterford I take over as head chef in the house! She loves trying new foods so I always try to make new things for her! She loves curries and different cheeses so I always try bring home a selection from the English Market for her to sample!
I have also inherited my Nan’s recipe collection. She has a folder stuffed with recipes, with clippings from magazines that date back to the seventies, I turn to it when I want to make something traditional like a hearty soup, a stew or soda bread. It never lets me down! 
I think everyone who enjoys cooking has had a cooking role model and my Nan is mine. Who is yours?
Chantelle Wallace
http://thelifeandtimesofchantelle.blogspot.com/
