My food memories: ‘Sandy sandwiches on the beach and milky tea in jam jars’

It’s funny how many of my fondest childhood memories revolve around food. Sandy sandwiches on a windy beach, digestive biscuits with milky tea from a jam jar on my granddad’s vegetable plot and the excitement of getting a Superquinn birthday cake with your name gently and elegantly piped across the top.

Every bite, every smell, every taste brings with it a flash back of joy and happiness. True the memory of the food is just a trigger that marks different moments in time, but for me they symbolise happiness, a bond with family and a sharing of stories and laughter.

Now I’m older and now I’m someone’s mum, I’ve carried my fondest food memories into my son’s life.

Domestic goddess I am not. When friends come for dinner I'm barred from the kitchen, when we've cake sales in work I make a pit stop in Avoca, ditch the box and produce the most wonderful apple tarts on a chipped porcelain plate from home.

However, I make a mean ham sandwich and you’re always guaranteed to find a windy beach in Ireland. Birthday cakes from Superquinn are still an essential ingredient for a good birthday party.

True, traditions will always live on and as I watch my son help his Grandad in the garden, I wonder if they’d fancy a digestive biscuit and a cup of milky tea in a jam jar?