I love food that brings back great memories. Apparently “food nostalgia ” is a thing! When we eat and cook foods that bring back happy memories, it makes us feel comforted and identifies more of who we are.
I’ve been going down a memory lane more than usual lately. With food in particular, I cook so many dishes that were my favourite for as long as I can remember myself. I am not sure whether it’s because I haven’t seen and hugged my parents and sis for over 3 years, because it’s Christmas time and I wish I had them here with us , maybe I am getting older and sometimes I wish I was that little girl again… No matter what the reason is, I enjoy making this special food immensely.

My Napoleon cake defines that food nostalgia term. Every winter holiday, every birthday, every important date was celebrated with a Napoleon cake. There’s hundreds of recipes and I’m sure many of them are wonderful, and they might be even better than the one I make. But to me, my mom’s recipe, created by her and handwritten in an old recipe book, over 40 years ago is the best there is, and always will be. Today my holiday Napoleon cake is filled with wonderful fresh cranberry compote that added some pleasant tartness and made the cake more suitable for holidays.