I have excellent food memory.

Tell me a place or an event, and I’ll tell you what I had for dinner. And what you and everyone else at the table had, no matter how long ago it was. This is opposed to my much more frequent standing in the doorway of a room in my house, forgetting why I walked into it. I was thinking the other day about late August 2006. Popovers.

The family drove to Maine for a week of hiking in Acadia National Park, which we had done since my son, now an excited-to-be-going-on-a-trip 10-year-old, first experienced hiking in Maine, asleep in a baby carrier on my husband’s back. We stopped on the way, as we always did, at Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro for a slice of blueberry pie. I will always associate Maine blueberries with this iconic diner. Each generous slice was stuffed with blueberries surrounded by flaky homemade crust that served as a vehicle to get the mass of tiny berries floating in sugary filling to your mouth. We laughed at our blue-stained teeth and scraped every bit of dessert from our plates.

Back on the road, we drove to The Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor and settled into our cottage. In the tiny kitchen, I heated up a clam pie we picked up at a nearby shop and made a salad with fresh tomatoes and radishes. I recall the sweet, sharp taste of the radish sprinkled with salt that danced on the end of the tongue.

The next morning, we prepared for a day of hiking, stuffing compartments in our backpacks with nut bars, gorp and apples. I made a quick breakfast of toasted local bakery bread with sweet butter and local jam we bought from a roadside stand on the way to the hotel. Our destination this day was the Jordan Pond Path in the morning, and the Bubbles Nubble Loop in the afternoon. The reward for all this hiking was a midday stop at the Jordan Pond House, to sit outside at rustic tables in sight of the pond to enjoy popovers, jelly and lemonade.

It was a perfect summer day. We got an early start to ensure we would finish our hike around Jordan Pond in time to get one of the coveted tables on the lawn. There was much to see as we circumnavigated the pond, stopping periodically to grab a handful of gorp, the chocolate burst from the M&M’s mixing with peanuts, almonds and dried fruit.

Finally, the dazzling green lawn was in sight, and about half the picnic tables on the lawn occupied by expectant hikers. We were seated close to the shimmering pond, pots of jam around which a yellow jacket or two would appear, hopeful for a sip of jam, and a napkin container. We ordered our two popovers apiece with blueberry lemonade and waited, watching enviously as the people at nearby tables dug in.

The aroma of freshly baked goods, with a little eggy accent, preceded their arrival. Our server balanced a tray with plates of popovers, drinks and silverware. The popovers were majestic, and we each grabbed one greedily as soon as the plates hit the wooden table and tore off their crowns, brushed away the yellow jackets, and smeared the pieces with jam. The outside of the popover was crusty. The insides were soft and revealed flaky, buttery layers. The strawberry jam turned this pastry into a sticky dessert. We chewed and gazed at the pond. I will always love popovers.

Here is the recipe I use to make them at home. While they are light, flaky and don’t quite rise to the level of perfection as those turned out at Jordan Pond, you will be proud to serve these, and maybe, under the right circumstances, create a lasting food memory. Though popovers are most often served as accompaniment to roasts in fall and winter, I highly suggest you eat them outside at a picnic table in the summer with lots of strawberry jam.

POPOVERS

Prep time: 20 minutes

Baking time: 30 minutes

Yield: 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS

5 tablespoons butter, melted

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 475 F. Spoon about a teaspoon of melted butter into each cup of your popover pan. Put the pan into the heated oven while you make the batter. (If you don’t have a popover pan, use a regular muffin pan. They won’t rise as high, but will taste just fine.)

Whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, 1 tablespoon of melted butter and salt. Whisk in the flour, a bit at a time, and continue to whisk until the batter is very smooth.

Take the pan out of the oven and fill each cup half full of batter. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce oven heat to 350 F. Bake 15 minutes more, until the popovers are puffed and nicely browned. Resist the urge to open the oven until 30 minutes have passed. Better yet, don’t open it at all until they are finished.

Remove the pan, pop out the popovers and serve hot, preferably with good jam.