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Editorial Reviews

Chef Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen

Amazon.com
There was once a time when words like étouffée, tasso, and jambalaya were hardly known outside of the Cajun and Creole communities of Louisiana. Then along came Chef Paul Prudhomme, and all of that changed. Big enough to be his own force of nature, Prudhomme all but single-handedly turned Cajun cooking into a national food trend, changing forever the way many a cook thinks about spicing food. And Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen was the book that made it happen. But guess what? It's still happening, and so is the book!

Anyone looking for a primer on Cajun cooking need look no farther. Chef Paul takes the reader by the hand and opens up a world that includes four kinds of roux, Jalapeno and Cheese Rolls, Shrimp Étouffée, and the to-die-for Cajun Meatloaf. Good old-fashioned Red Beans and Rice and Sweet Potato Pecan Pie are not forgotten either.

Chef Paul tested all of his recipes in a home kitchen using common culinary tools--no professional equipment needed here. These are recipes that are high in spice, so remember to have a large vat of water on hand!

The Louisiana Purchase

nside Flap Copy
"An extraordinary new series intended to capture extraordinary moments in history."
–Chicago Tribune

In 1801, relations between the world’s only two republics, the United States and France, were at a low ebb. American merchants had just lost millions of dollars to French privateers in the "Quasi-War" of the late 1790s, and Napoleon was scheming to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Spain and create a "wall of brass" that would halt America’s westward expansion. Yet only a few years later, Napoleon agreed to sell Louisiana to the United States for $15 million. How did America manage to double its territory and end French colonial ambitions in the New World–without firing a shot?

This lively book by noted historian Thomas Fleming delivers the answers. Taking us behind the scenes in Thomas Jefferson’s raw "federal village" of Washington, D.C., and inside the duplicitous world of Napoleonic Paris, Fleming shows how Bonaparte haters in Spain, the French army’s disastrous failure in Haiti, some wily American negotiating, and Napoleon’s resolve to renew his war with "perfidious Albion" led to the momentous French decision to sell Louisiana–and cede 838,000 square miles of land to the United States. Along the way, we meet a host of fascinating characters as they attempt to advance their nations’ interests–and their personal ambitions–through diplomacy, threats, lies, bribery, and treachery:

President Thomas Jefferson, an impulsive ideologue whose Francophilia was slowly eroded in the face of French deceit
Secretary of State James Madison, a shrewd, realistic statesman and vital counterweight to Jefferson’s volatility
Minister Plenipotentiary to France Robert R. Livingston, a Hudson River grandee who was impervious to French insults and snubs
French Foreign Minister Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, a supremely corrupt aristocrat who regarded Americans with blasé contempt
First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, the "man of destiny" who had become the all but absolute dictator of France

The story doesn’t end with France’s agreement to sell Louisiana. The United States had only six months to ratify the treaty–and Federalists, with the exception of General Alexander Hamilton, derided the deal as a waste of money. Jefferson himself doubted the constitutionality of the purchase. But in October 1803, the Senate ratified the treaty and a tiny American army occupied sullen New Orleans. Jefferson’s devious rival, former Vice President Aaron Burr, failed in his attempt to utilize this resentment to revolutionize the new territories. The American republic was on its way to becoming a world power.

Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town
Town, a South Louisiana native and student of the South, offers a subtle salute to the region's heritage in the 25 homes featured in "The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town." Photographs by Philip Gould capture the subtle design and recurring patterns in Hays' design. The text by Cyril E. Vetter and a tribute by Andres Duany is reverential...It is tempting to pause over Gould's photographs of Town's work, treat them like Ken Burns treats Civil War photographs and follow the lines. An alley of crepe myrtles frames the brick archway entrance to a richly detailed courtyard...A weathered fence serves as foreground detail for a shot of a deep, brick-floored porch...These are elements of Town's style. His residences wear it well.

The Commander's Palace New Orleans Cookbook
Inside Flap Copy
There is a quiet culinary revolution going on at Commander's Palace a one-hundred-year-old restaurant in the center of New Orleans' Garden District. Here diners gather to enjoy a fabulous "new" New Orleans cuisine. dubbed "Haute Creole." New Orleans is the birthplace of many fine classic dishes -- such as shrimp remoulade, seafood gumbo, oysters Rocketeller, trout amandine, and pompano en papillotte. At Commander's Palace this classic cuisine has been changed to fit today's more health-conscious lifestyles. Only the freshest local ingredients are used, heavy sauces have been replaced by light sauce reductions that intensify spicy Creole flavors. and nouvelle French and Chinese cooking techniques and Japanese modes of presentation have been adapted. The results have been glowingly praised. As Bon Appetit magazine said in its cover story on Commander's Palace, "The Brennans are simply attempting to add an element of originality to a style of American cookery which has already made its mark in the annals of gastronomy but which is now ready for innovative reappraisal."

The leaders of the Haute Creole revolution in New Orleans, and the owners of Commander's Palace, are Ella and Dick Brennan. Brother and sister, they are part of the famous Brennan elan that started Brennan's restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans forty years ago. The name Brennan is synonymous with the finest in New Orleans food. In 1974 Ella and Dick took over Commander's Palace, renovated it, and turned it into one of the most innovative, imaginative dining spots in New Orleans. This book brings together for the first time the fabulous recipes and secrets of this exciting restaurant.

There are more than 175 recipes in all, including drinks, appetizers and soups, salads, seafood, chicken and game, beef and veal, and desserts and coffees.

Regional American cuisine has never been more popular. This book should be a welcome addition to the cookbook library of anyone interested in fine Southern cuisine.

Red Cross, international humanitarian agency dedicated, in time of war, to alleviating the sufferings of wounded soldiers, civilians, and prisoners of war. In time of peace, it renders medical aid and other help to people afflicted by major disasters such as floods, earthquakes, epidemics, and famines and performs other public service functions.

The International red cross and Red Crescent Movement consists of the International Committee of the red cross (ICRC), a group of up to 25 Swiss citizens, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the more than 160 national red cross societies; and the Geneva-based International Federation of the red cross and Red Crescent Societies (known until 1993 as the League of red cross and Red Crescent Societies) which coordinates peacetime activities of the national societies. The International Conference of the red cross, usually held every four years in different countries, brings together representatives of the red cross organizations and those governments that have ratified the Geneva conventions. In 1986 the Movement's name was changed to include the Red Crescent, the organization's name in most Muslim nations.

Initiative for founding the red cross came from the 19th-century Swiss philanthropist Jean Henri Dunant. Appalled by the almost complete lack of care for wounded soldiers, he appealed to the leaders of nations to found societies devoted to the aid of the wounded in wartime. Five Swiss citizens formed a committee, which later became the ICRC, and issued a call for an international conference, which was held in Geneva in October 1863 and was attended by delegates from 16 nations. Another conference was held in Geneva the following year, and official delegates of 12 nations signed the first Geneva Convention, laying down rules for the treatment of the wounded and for the protection of medical personnel and hospitals. It was also at this meeting that the famous symbol of the movement, the white flag bearing a red cross, was adopted. (This symbol was later modified in non-Christian countries.) The principles enunciated in the first Geneva Convention were subsequently revised and amended at conferences held in 1906, 1929, and 1949. In 1977 additional protocols were added to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to protect all non-combatants in all types of conflicts, international as well as domestic.

Hurricane, name given to violent storms that originate over the tropical or subtropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, or North Pacific Ocean east of the International Date Line. Such storms over the North Pacific west of the International Date Line are called typhoons; those elsewhere are known as tropical cyclones, which is the general name for all such storms including hurricanes and typhoons. These storms can cause great damage to property and loss of human life due to high winds, flooding, and large waves crashing against shorelines. The worst natural disaster in United States history was caused by a hurricane that struck the coast of Texas in 1900.

Tropical cyclones form and grow over warm ocean water, drawing their energy from latent heat. Latent heat is the energy released when water vapor in rising hot, humid air condenses into clouds and rain. As warmed air rises, more air flows into the area where the air is rising, creating wind. The Earth’s rotation causes the wind to follow a curved path over the ocean (the Coriolis effect), which helps give tropical cyclones their circular appearance.

Hurricanes weaken and die out when cut off from warm, humid air as they move over cooler water or land but can remain dangerous as they weaken. Hurricanes and other tropical cyclones begin as disorganized clusters of showers and thunderstorms. When one of these clusters becomes organized with its winds making a complete circle around a center, it is called a tropical depression.

A hurricane consists of bands of thunderstorms that spiral toward the low-pressure center, or “eye” of the storm. Winds also spiral in toward the center, speeding up as they approach the eye. Large thunderstorms create an “eye wall” around the center where winds are the strongest. Winds in the eye itself are nearly calm, and the sky is often clear. Air pressures in the eye at the surface range from around 982 hectopascals (29 inches of mercury) in a weak hurricane to lower than 914 hectopascals (27 inches of mercury) in the strongest storms. (Hectopascals are the metric unit of air pressure and are the same as millibars, a term used by many weather forecasters in the United States. Hectopascals is the preferred term in scientific journals and is being used more often in public forecasts in nations that use the metric system.)

In a large, strong storm, hurricane-force winds may be felt over an area with a diameter of more than 100 km (60 m). The diameter of the area affected by gale winds and torrential rain can extend another 200 km (120 m) or more outward from the eye of the storm. The diameter of the eye may be less than 16 km (10 m) in a strong hurricane to more than 48 km (30 m) in a weak storm. The smaller the diameter of the eye, the stronger the hurricane winds will be. A hurricane’s strength is rated from Category 1, which has winds of at least 119 km/h (74 mph), to Category 5, which has winds of more than 249 km/h (155 mph). These categories, known as the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, were developed in the 1970s.

In the tropics, hurricanes move generally east to west, steered by global-scale winds. Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones usually “recurve” in the direction of either the South Pole in the Southern Hemisphere or the North Pole in the Northern Hemisphere. Eventually the storms move toward the east in the middle latitudes, but not all storms recurve. Hurricanes travel at varying rates. In the lower latitudes the rate usually ranges from 8 to 32 km/h (5 to 20 mph), and in the higher latitudes it may increase to as much as 80 km/h (50 mph).

In addition to generating large waves that travel out in all directions, hurricane winds pile up water. This piling up of water is known as a storm surge, and it can raise the sea level more than 6 m (20 ft) when the storm hits land. The deadliest natural disaster in United States history was the 1900 Galveston, Texas, hurricane, which killed an estimated 8,000 people. The storm surge accounted for most of the deaths. The worst tropical storm disaster since the 20th century began was a 1970 cyclone that struck East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) when a storm surge killed an estimated 300,000 people. Advances in computer forecasting, along with emergency evacuations, held the storm surge death toll to fewer than a dozen people in the United States from 1970 through the 2003 hurricane season.

During the last third of the 20th century, floods and landslides from heavy rain were the leading cause of hurricane and tropical storm deaths. In October 1998 Hurricane Mitch’s torrential rain caused floods and landslides that killed more than 9,000 people with another 9,000 missing and presumed dead in Central America, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Although the hurricane death toll steadily declined in the United States during the 20th century and at the start of the 21st century, the costs of damage soared as coastal populations grew and the value of property outstripped population growth. The costliest U.S. natural disaster was Hurricane Andrew, which hit the Miami, Florida, metropolitan area in 1992, causing $26.5 billion in damages, including both insured and uninsured losses.

Since 1943 U.S. military and civilian aircraft have been flying into hurricanes to measure wind velocities and directions, the location and size of the eye, air pressures, and temperatures in different parts of the storm. A coordinated system of tracking hurricanes was developed in the mid-1950s, and steady improvements have been made over the years. In addition to reports from aircraft, geosynchronous weather satellites (since 1966) and ocean buoys that automatically record and transmit data such as wave heights and wind speeds furnish information to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.

The National Hurricane Center is part of the U.S. National Weather Service and is the main forecast center for storms that originate over the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the northeastern Pacific Ocean west to longitude 140° west. The Hawaiian Hurricane Center at the Honolulu National Weather Service office handles storms from longitude 140° west to longitude 180° west. Hurricanes rarely hit Hawaii. The centers of only two hurricanes moved ashore there from 1950 through 2003, although three others came close enough to cause wind or wave damage. Hurricane Iniki in September 1992 was by far the worst, killing six people and doing an estimated $2.3 billion in damages.

In the past, hurricanes often hit land without being detected beforehand. Today, weather satellites ensure that this never happens. As a storm begins to threaten land, forecasters call on military or civilian aircraft for detailed storm data that satellites cannot supply. When a storm comes within about 160 km (100 m) of land, weather radar images also become available. Forecasters use several computer models, which combine observational data from all around the world and mathematical equations, to make forecasts. But since forecasts from different models often disagree, they are merely tools to help humans make predictions.

New Orleans, one of North America's most distinctive and culturally diverse cities, located in southeastern Louisiana on the Mississippi River, about 180 km (about 110 mi) from the Gulf of Mexico. The city was founded in 1718 on a site mostly below sea level on the east bank of the Mississippi and south of Lake Pontchartrain. New Orleans, named for Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans, regent of France under Louis XV, has been a leading commercial center since its founding and has one of the most active ports in the United States. Since World War II (1939-1945), the city's rich cultural heritage has contributed to its emergence as a major international tourist center. New Orleans has a semitropical climate, with an average daily temperature range of 5°C (42°F) to 16°C (61°F) in January and 23°C (73°F) to 33°C (91°F) in July. The city averages 157 cm (62 in) of precipitation per year.

Mississippi, state in the Southeastern United States, bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. Early explored by the Spanish and colonized by the French, Mississippi’s warm climate and rich soil proved ideally suited to cotton, which became the main crop even before 1800 and remained the mainstay of its economy until the 20th century.

Anglo-Saxon settlers from the older seaboard states flocked to Mississippi’s virgin lands, bringing black slaves to work their fields, and until 1940 blacks outnumbered whites. Even today Mississippi has a larger percentage of blacks than any other state. Relations between the races have tended to shape Mississippi’s history and to foster a conservative political philosophy and an insistence on state’s rights among its white majority. In recent years, however, blacks have begun to enter political and economic realms formerly virtually closed to them. At the same time, “king” cotton has made room for a more diversified agriculture, and Mississippi has undergone an industrial boom. Although Mississippians still cherish the columned mansions and hallowed traditions of their past, they can now boast a diversified industrial and agricultural economy.

Mississippi entered the Union on December 10, 1817, as the 20th state. Jackson, Mississippi’s capital and largest city, was founded at about the same time. The state takes its name from the Mississippi River, the great waterway that forms the state’s western boundary. The river’s name was derived from an Algonquin term for “big river.” Mississippi is commonly nicknamed the Magnolia State because of the great number of magnolia trees that grow within its borders. The blossom of the magnolia is the state flower.

Hurricane Katrina was the third most intense hurricane to hit the United States. Early on August 29, 2005, the eyewalls of Katrina grazed New Orleans, Louisiana, and made landfall in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The consequent humanitarian crisis appears to have been deepened by the general failure of the New Orleans levee system, and by what are widely regarded as shortcomings in the disaster response by many levels of government. Katrina is believed to have killed thousands of people, and is known to have displaced more than one million — a humanitarian crisis on a scale unseen in the U.S. since the Great Depression.

As the hurricane approached landfall near New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin placed the city under a mandatory evacuation order. Many residents remained in the city. The vast majority of those who stayed were reported to have been unable to leave because they did not have vehicles, money for gas and other transportation. Also, many residents were unable to travel because they were elderly or infirm. As a result, the Louisiana Superdome was opened as a shelter of last resort for those that were to stay in the city. Federal disaster declarations blanketed 90,000 square miles (233,000 km²) of the United States, an area almost as large as the United Kingdom. The hurricane left an estimated five million people without power, and it may be up to two months before all power is restored. Disaster relief plans are in operation in the affected areas.

Early in the morning of August 30, 2005, breaches in three places of the levee system on the Lake Pontchartrain side of New Orleans caused a second and even greater disaster. Heavy flooding covered almost the entire city over a sustained period, forcing the total evacuation of over a million people. Because 80% of the city's area is below sea level, all water that goes into the city must be directly pumped out--even water from an average rainstorm. Consequently, the city is now uninhabitable until the water is removed.

On September 3, 2005 US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as "probably the worst catastrophe, or set of catastrophes" in the country's history, referring to the hurricane itself plus the flooding of New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina may be the deadliest hurricane in the United States since the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which is estimated to have killed 6,000-12,000 people. As of 7 PM CDT September 1, 2005, more than 20,000 are still reported missing. Local mortuaries have been told to prepare for "up to 40,000 bodies" [1]. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin stated on August 31 that the death toll of Katrina may be "in the thousands", an estimate also provided through a statement by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco on September 1. Accurate numbers are not known. Damage was reported in at least 12 states. Hurricane Katrina will be remembered for its vast devastation of the Gulf Coast regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and especially for the massive flooding of the historic city of New Orleans.