Last week I put out a call for fond food memories. It was for a sort of mini-contest, the prizes being three copies of the above book, The Epicure's Lament by Kate Christensen from Vintage & Anchor Books. I asked for you to send me your favourite special occasion recipe and story, that I would post a list of those I received and then the "top three" would get copies of the book sent to them.

Of course I had no idea how utterly difficult it was going to be to judge people's personal stories about food and memories...but...well...yeah, I did it anyway, and now I kind of have my work cut out for me this weekend on this particular project.

So, without further ado...the stories:

First to send me her entry was Carolyn of 18c cuisine; who although quite sick with the flu was able to write up this fond memory of making Hungarian Goulash for company.

Next in was Lizz who doesn't yet have a food blog, but might soon - judging from this story and a great recipe, pulled from her memory of a delicious spicy zucchini soup.

Then came Julie from a finger in every pie, who made me cry with her story about her mother and her recipe for potted chicken and meatballs. Seriously. I cried.

Next up was Sam from becks & posh, who although quite busy decided to enter her story about her own family's traditions for Shrove Tuesday. Although she wrote it before the contest was announced I think it still fits the bill quite well.

Last up is Zarah of food & thoughts, who shared this heart warming story of her mom's love of rye bread...and the beautiful mental image of years of faded yellow post-it notes boasting a mother's love.

That's it...five really well-written, beautiful stories with delicious recipes to go with them. I should have the finalists up by Wednesday this week and will contact the publishing company then as well to have them send out the books.

Thank you to everyone who participated - I hope you enjoyed writing these stories as much as I enjoyed reading them.