Mandelbrot & Memories

Louise, 87, and I were whiling away some time waiting for a repairman and sitting in her cozy kitchen. I had been thinking about my grandmother’s cooking, specifically how she made mandelbrot, a traditional Jewish cookie similar to biscotti. Grammy served mandelbrot at the end of a holiday meal, always with coffee for dunking.

Louise began pulling down cookbooks to look through her favorite recipes. First she grabbed Favorite Recipes of Famous Musicians by Charlotte Morris. Louise is a member of a famous family of musicians who emigrated from Russia and played with the New York Philharmonic. As she leafed through the cookbook, two $20.00 dollar bills floated out from the pages. Louise was delighted. “Ah ha” she exclaimed “ I forgot where I kept my tip money!”

Next, she chose The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden where we scanned the index and quickly found our mandelbrot recipe. But better still were the collection of handwritten recipes that were secured into the cover; plum torte, noodle kugel, macaroons. We loved tucking into stories around Jewish celebration, traditional family gatherings and life on the Upper West Side. Naturally, we had to enumerate who were the best and worst cooks in the family! Soon the repairman had completed his job and Louise smiled and ceremoniously handed over one of her $20s. We had come full circle.