If It Smells Good, Do It!

For as long as I can remember I have been a student of the philosophy of Yum.

My earliest memories were baking bread with my Mum; standing on a stool at the massive island in our kitchen, kneading my own little gooey bit of dough, smelling the sweet, yeasty fumes as it rose and eating more raw than I cared to bake in my tiniest of bread pans. I still can't smell one of those yeasty black permanent markers without being transported back to that oven-lovin' time in my childhood!

Once I was old enough not to have to stand on a stool, you could find me toiling over a pot on the stove. My Dad would have gone out to do errands and left me to add herbs and spices to his current culinary concoction. I would salt and season soups and sauces as I saw fit - sometimes sewering supper completely and other times sussing it out. I discovered early on that if I put one jar from the spice rack up to one nostril and a second jar up to the other and inhaled, I could tell how they would taste when combined and whether or not they were complimentary. This is a trick I employ to this day, whenever I try a new flavour combination.

Our sense of smell is our most primal sense. One honed over millenia of evolution. So the next time you find yourself slaving over that stove...take a chance! Shove that semi-sweet chocolate up your nose while making chili and smell what happens! Trust it...your nose knows!