Taste the Memories is dedicated to the memory of my mother.
Tobe Cohen (z”l) December 2, 1932 – June 6, 2016.
In 1989 my mother compiled a book of her numerous recipes. These recipes were written on index cards, cut from magazine articles, newspapers, etc. She diligently gathered them together and hand typed them one by one. She then created a cover, made copies, bound them and passed the finished book to family and friends. The book is entitled “Taste the Memories”. This website contains all of the recipes from the original book plus several more collected throughout the years. My mother used to always tell us that “if you can read, you can cook”. I guess it’s true because she became a fantastic cook!
Created by Peter Cohen 2018
The following sections are recreated here from my mother’s recipe book:
Rememberances
My mother was the best cook ever. Everything she prepared from the humblest meatloaf, chicken salad, rugelah and strudel, to elegant luncheons and dinner parties, was incredibly good. She was unsurpassed as a hostess and cook.
Unfortunately, she didn’t write anything down. I’ve been trying for thirty-five years to duplicate some of the wonderful things she served us and I can’t quite capture all those taste memories. So,I’ll keep trying and maybe you will too.
My thanks go to my friend (and sister-in law) Helen Mellion for all the great recipes she provided and to all my friends whose recipes I’ve “borrowed”. To my mother-in-law, Rose, for providing the mainstay for Mort’s youth with potato knishes and baked macaroni, among many others, and to Betsy, the family chef and all the other family and friends – thank you!
Introduction
The recipes in this book are mostly originals. They are, however, a compilation of those tried and true recipes which I have used over the years. They are not the only ones I use, but a good representation. It would be a much greater task and perhaps rather silly to copy all the recipes I have used from such sources as Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”, Craig Clairborne’s “New York Times Cookbook”, and Phyllis Frucht’s “The Best of Jewish Cooking”, to name only a few of my favorite cookbooks.
I’ve always said if you can read you can cook and I truly believe that and hope you will too. However, if you can watch someone prepare a dish and then eat and remember it —- then you can taste the memories.
This book is dedicated to my children, David, Peter and Cyndi.
Tobe Cohen
Potomac, Maryland
March, 1989