BLOG

The squash in my garden became like Proust’s madeleines, taking me back through time to my grandmother’s kitchen; to the tastes, and to the memories of friends who brought her fresh vegetables from their gardens, and their recipes to share. In my mind I could see the food, even smell and taste it. I knew I could figure out how to recreate the recipes, but wanted to learn about other people’s attempts. No New York Times recipe collection or fancy cookbooks, even the authentic Italian ones, hit just the right flavors. So I searched for websites and there, more like biscotti than a madeleine, I found the missing key to my memory – a word! These omnipresent green veggies were not “zucchini” according to Jack, the blogger, but “cocozelle,” the name on his grandfather’s seed package. Suddenly, the Italian-American/Upstate New York name, “cogoots,” came to me unbidden, flooding my mind, my memories, my taste buds, my smiles.