I promised Bea we'd make jam tarts; we chose fillings of raspberry, blackcurrant and lemon curd.
These take me back to family tea time at my Grandma's house. Of all my Grandparents, I had 4 sets, my paternal Grandmother is the person that I most associate with smell. And no, not old person smells although she did overcook cabbage whenever we had a roast, but the smell of bacon frying, cakes baking, Imperial Leather soap and cucumber. That's the strongest association, cucumber. Whenever I slice one, which is almost everyday for Bea's lunch, I am transported back to her tiny little kitchen chopping vegetables for a salad. I would help her to prepare buffet lunches and the whole family would arrive to eat, drink, talk loudly and find our points of commonality. There would always be a huge bag of shell-on prawns and from an early age I was extremely adept at removing the shells and tiny orange eggs. Bea has inherited this skill and recently we had lunch with some friends at The Victoria in Holkham where she ordered a 1/2 pint of shell-on prawns which she was happy to peel; she was then dared to eat a prawn eye - in it went!
Back to Lyndhurst Road and my Gran certainly knew how to lay on a spread. Sweet treats were always in plentiful supply and her old fashioned larder, with marble slab, always contained cakes, biscuits and chocolates. Making pastry with her and then filling the cases with an assortment of preserves is a fond memory. She died nearly 20 years ago but I still really miss her. She was modern in that she worked almost until she died, keeping the books for the family business and travelled regularly, mainly throughout Europe with her sister. A remarkable woman. I think she'd have picked raspberry.
