Yesterday was a beautiful, rainy, chilly day in Minnesota. The leaves in my yard have turned to bold tones of light green and yellow. The temperature was dropping at a rapid pace yet I still cracked my windows just enough to capture a slight chill and the wonderful smell of the autumn rain. It was the most perfect day to fill my home with the comforting smell of homemade cookies.

Do you have those smells that just bring you back to home? That bring you back to your childhood? The smells that the minute they hit your nose, you are instantly brought back to memories. It is interesting how that works, isn’t it? Every now and then a smell will trigger a memory so strongly that I could even tell you what I was wearing when it occurred.

My mom baked. My mom not only baked, but she baked amazing foods! Breads, pies, cookies, crisps; if it had flour in it, she baked it! And oooooohhhhh…was she marvelous at it.
It has been almost 5 years since I have been able to indulge in one of mom’s homemade masterpieces. While her recipes are still here, they just don’t seem quite the same when I make them. Even when she was still here I would often laughingly accuse her of leaving out an ingredient every time she gave me a recipe just to ensure that hers would always taste better!

While my end results of baking may not always taste quite like my mom’s; the smell of pretty much anything baking in my kitchen…well, that wonderful comforting aroma will always be the same. It will always be memories. It will always be love. It will always be mom…