The first thing you notice about Barbara Michelson's "Leave Nothing on The Back Burner: My Happy Cooking Life" is the size and heft of the bright yellow hardback book. Then the title catches your eye, making you aware that this is a different sort of cookbook. That fact is brought home in the author's dedication: "This is my last will and cookbookament. It covers everything I would want everyone to know if I were suddenly struck by a bus and killed, including stories of many of the friends and family members who have nurtured my love of food—both preparing it and consuming it. Of course there are a few other people I have also loved. But since in their lifetimes they weren't able to produce one interesting, amusing or delicious dish, I'm sorry, they'll have to be in someone else's memoirs."
Humor, family anecdotes, cooking memories and recipes abound in the 380-page book. Michelson, raised in Manhattan, trained in Paris at the Cordon Bleu, cooked in and around New York City and now owns and operates Divine Country Cafe, a catering and baking establishment, in Southold, N.Y. Her book is divided into several sections, titled "Growing Up On Pepperidge Farm," "Blue Collar Work in a White Collar Shirt," "The Family We Made," "My Repertoire By Repetition" and "No Secrets to Success," as well as an Index with recipes catagorized by title and by type of food.
Within the section "Growing Up On Pepperidge Farm," you learn bits about Michelson's parents Horace and G. G., her sister, and extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins as well as family friends.
Right off the bat, Michelson lets us know that she didn't learn to cook at her mother's knee—"At home we always had help to handle the cooking, and my mother finessed the weekends with restaurants, Sunday diner at my grandparents' house, and her two specialties"—"Scrambled Eggs" which she refers to as the gold standard, and "Mueller's Spaghetti with Del Monte Tomato Sauce," her comfort food even when she was older and feeling ill or sad.
Other recipes include ones from other people who cooked in her home or in the homes of relatives, "Lossie's Fried Chicken," "Olga's Mushroom Phyllos" and "Miss Brumm's Barley Pilaf." There's her grandmother Michelson's "Apple Pie with and without Raisins," her dad's comfort food, "Chocolate Sandwich," the recipe short enough to explain right here: "2 slices of Wonder Bread; butter, at room temperature; very thin bar of top quality dark chocolate, preferably Suchard. Generously butter bread. Put chocolate between slices." No further instructions needed, right?
In order not to mess up with the family, Michelson includes "Six Ways of Looking at a Beef Brisket," from relatives Aunt Sadie, Aunt Betty, their daughters-in-law and one of the author's own based upon her grandmother's recipe. The other brisket recipe, "Stella's Brisket with Coca Cola," Michelson explains thusly: "This is one (from my husband's side) I refuse to try, so the recipe enters this book untested. My children and Jim tell me it's great, but I feel the need for a few principles in life, and not cooking with Coca Cola is one of them. ... By the way, in spite of this recipe, Stella Heffron is an outstanding cook, and some of the best recipes in this book are hers!"
For most all of us, food is indelibly connected with family and friends. Be it growing it, shopping for it, preparing and then cooking it, and finally eating it, food evokes special memories. Read this book, cook these recipes, share with your family and friends as Michelson has done.
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