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Kay Shaw Nelson has learned that the weather isn't the only topic to bring up when conversation lags. She discovered that a recipe for holiday cranberry-walnut bread can make for fine fodder, too.

The CIA intelligence officer turned to cooking as a way to connect with people even though she couldn't tell them much about herself.

"Once in the CIA, I was unprepared for a lonely life, telling falsehoods to cover up what I was really doing and living in two worlds," she explains.

Nelson, a Bethesda resident since 1959, has documented her life as a spy and the recipes that got her through those isolating times in her latest book, "The Cloak and Dagger Cook, A CIA Memoir." Tales of her globetrotting life as a CIA operative are interspersed with recipes that boast a variety of international flavors — among them, Greek Vegetable-Cheese Salad, Roman Peas with Prosciutto, Spanish Almond Sighs and Korean Kimchi.

The author of 20 cookbooks, Nelson began her love affair with cuisine while on a deep cover mission with her husband — also a CIA agent — in Istanbul. There, she explored local markets, learned about Turkish food and gleaned cooking skills from her Armenian maid.

"As I often say, an interest in food introduces you to the agriculture of the country, to its history and to its religions, but most importantly, food introduces you to the people," she observes.

Although she has no single favorite recipe, Nelson loves Turkish eggplant dishes, like the book's Turkish Eggplant-Yogurt recipe.

Nelson landed in the CIA almost by accident. In May 1948, the New Hampshire native and Syracuse University senior — soon to be one of the first seven students in the United States to earn a degree in Russian studies — went to Washington, D.C. Her Russian history professor had given her a piece of paper with a name and address of a man to talk to about an unspecified job.

The man who interviewed her wanted to know why she was interested in working for the CIA.

"In all innocence, I had to reply that there was no reason," Nelson writes. "It was simply because my professor had sent me to see him and that I wanted to work in Washington and hopefully go abroad some time in the future."

To be able to write about her experiences, Nelson had to wait until her late husband retired from the CIA and get approval from the CIA Publications Review Board. Several interesting stories of intelligence operations that took place when she and her family were living in Greece had to be deleted.

Nelson says she chose to work for the CIA not only for the opportunities for adventure and travel, but also because she was part of a generation that "got caught up in the exhilaration and importance" of serving their country.

To date, she has traveled to 70 countries.

Despite her unusual experiences, Nelson thinks of herself as "typical."

"I believe that I did have a traditional life as a wife, mother and writer," she says. "...we in [the] CIA were ordinary, friendly people — not the scary spooks that some thought."

"The Cloak and Dagger Cook" is available for purchase at major booksellers.