Brody recalls the memories (and recipes) of growing up Jewish in Hartford, Connecticut: Rugelach, Aunt Bessie's Babka, Honey Cake...

She describes her life in chapters like "The Ladies' Nostalgia Dinner," "The Toni Girl," "Doughnuts and Coppertone," and "Get Well Food."

About the book: A kitchen is suffused with the aroma of stew simmering on a low burner. For Lora Brody this fragrance doesn't simply register in the present. It flings open the doors of yesterdays, when other stews bubbled and other kitchens smelled as welcoming. It stirs a string of memories, of smells and tastes, of places far away, of home and of childhood.
In Cooking with Memories the spark of memory kindled by wonderful food illuminates long-forgotten family episodes; funny, poignant, tender, and treasured. Twenty-one stories, supplemented by over 100 recipes, recall the times and flavors of Lora's life: from her mother's chicken soup to Aunt Bessie's babka, served after sundown on Yom Kippur; from potatoes baked in a winter's fire to picnic baskets at the beach in August; from get-well food for a sick child (challa, broth and sweet custard) to holiday fare of salmon salad, roast turkey, and mile-high Nesselrode pie.
Lora's recipes and recollections transport the reader from Hartford, Connecticut, where she grew up in the 1950s, to present-day Chicago, where she judges the entries in a Velveeta Cook-Off. She travels to northernmost Vermont for a memorable weekend of food and fun with an upcountry New England family. She celebrates holidays with unforgettable meals, recounting Passover at home, Christmas at a friend's, a son's birthday, another's bris, a week of sitting shivah for a departed relative, and other times both sweet and sad.
Collected here are special memories sprinkled with much-beloved recipes from days gone by. With a liberal dash of humor, a dollop of nostalgia, and a generous seasoning of wit, Lora Brody serves them up to her family, friends, and to you.