Home Is Where the Heart Is.

I know that the title is cliched, but that does not make
it untrue.Home is where your heart is. For me, the
way I identify home is through smell. I know, it sounds
weird, but it's true. When I walk into my home
there is a very distinct smell, it's a good smell, that
just rushes over me and I instantly feel better. Besides
the smell of my house, there is only one other smell
in the world that causes that instant feeling
of ease. It is the smell of my grandmother's home-made
clam chowder cooking that cause the same euphoric feeling.
To give you a little background, my paternal grandmother
created a clam chowder recipe when my dad was younger. This
recipe has been passed down to my aunts, my cousins, my sisters,
and myself. Where ever you might find a large gathering of Kaufers,
you are sure to find the smell of clam chowder cooking on the stove.
We serve my grandmother's famous chowder at Easter,
Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. We always eat before the main meal and it
is always delicious. I, myself, have even made it for a gathering or two
and apparently it turned out pretty well, so yeah for me. I always loved
the fact that my family had a traditional recipe, home made recipe to
boot, that was pasted down. I think that recipes like my grandmother's
clam chowder are important to family. Maybe not the recipe itself, but
what it represents. The recipe represents tradition. Though a simple
bowl of clam chowder may not seem very important, it is something
that ties my family together because everyone loves my grandmother's
clam chowder and we all feel a certain warmth when we eat it. So here
are some questions for those of you who are reading this: Is there a
certain smell that you associate with home? Is there a traditional
recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation? If
nothing else, I hope that you will think about these questions and
realize that there is a small tradition of food within your family.