This isn’t the newer version, printed in 2002, with the pretty cover. The hardback of that edition seems not to be available now for less than a C-note,  but I’ll settle for the more “homey” version from 1987.  It is a reprint of the second edition of the Picayune Cookbook from 1901, which is considered the definitive collection.  This edition was edited by Marcelle Bienvenu, of St. Martinville, LA. She worked for the Brennan’s family of restaurants, as well as opening her own restaurant, Chez Marcelle.

I love, love, love this cookbook. After Hurricane Katrina, everyone was not only traumatized, but most of us were (and still are) scattered to the four winds. Entire neighborhoods that have stood for three hundred years disappeared, and some of those neighborhoods are still toxic piles of sticks today. I am especially distressed about it because in New Orleans going to a different neighborhood can be like visiting a different country. The entire city evolved like an ecosystem with the different cultures blending and overlapping in unique ways. It’s depressing to think that some of those ways of life could be gone forever.

New books and cookbooks have been published since Katrina in an attempt to preserve New Orleans culture and also to help the rest of the US understand why it matters so much that New Orleans is in such dire straights. It’s comforting for me, personally, to have such a tangible collection of Creole culture in my hands. It’s a substantial book, containing recipes I would never eat paired with recipes I grew up eating or remember from special occasions.

The Picayune Cookbook began in 1901, carrying on the tradition of New Orleans Creole cooking and household management. It actually began as the old Creole cooks began to die off after the Civil War (or as my old New Orleans History professor called it, “The WAW-uh”), leaving the ladies of the house (who could no longer afford cooks) to carry on. Can you imagine living without the family cook? The humanity! The horror! Actually, I have some older friends who had personal acquaintances who thought the kitchen was the place where the cook went in and the food came out, and that was rather much later than 1901.

Especially entertaining is the section with various menus: Under the heading of “Economical Menus,” The Picayune insists that a family of six can live “comfortably and with variety” on $1.00 to $1.50 per day, and proceeds to list menus with so much food on them that if I had to cook it, much less eat it, I wouldn’t have time to do anything else all day! Incidentally, the money with inflation would be around $25 or so. I don’t know if that’s what it costs to feed a family of six today.

I am especially looking forward to a brunch of grits and grillades (round steak) with red gravy. I ate this dish when I was a kid and gave my mom grief about it, but strangely my grown-up palate craves those flavors! My friend Eric asked me to explain how red gravy and tomato sauce are two different things. This one’s for you, Eric: red gravy is made when you make a brown roux over some onion and garlic, and throw in two chopped tomatoes in their juice. As it browns, put your meat on top, and cover it, turning after one side is browned. Then add a little vinegar and and simmer on low for around half an hour, still covered. Then you have meat and red gravy. The cookbook will give you exact proportions for doing so, and page 139 asserts that “[t]he great truth is that the Creoles knew how to fry meat.”

The are very few illustrations in the book, and what pictures there are have to do with Creole history. Just about every category of food item is covered, including syrups and cordials, as well as pickling and preserving, and even condiments! Caveat: Although I have always thought I would be an excellent book reviewer, I haven’t come up with any sort of rubric or rating system for books, much less for cookbooks. There goes that dream. I can say, however, that I haven’t been as excited by a secondhand cookbook find in some time, and anyone who wants to come over in the near future for a complete “Picayune Creole” meal is going to be pretty lucky!

I have a plan. If I start knitting now, By Christmas 2009 I can have 12 pairs of socks knitted. That could mean that 12 lucky people would get handknit socks for Christmas! On the list so far are 3 people. That leaves 9 slots open for sock-a-mania 2009.

If you are interested, please contact me via email or my contact form on this website. I will need color preferences and foot length from toe to heel. If you want, you can even buy your own sock yarn and send it to me. I would love to get responses from this and I think it could be really fun and interesting.

Oh, and Happy New Year, Y’all!

My first favorite is Noro Kureyon. I love this yarn so much that I had a long and drunken conversation about it with a random fellow knitter when I was at the 2006 Texas Renaissance Festival in the campgrounds. In 2007 she eventually remembered me. We camped near her and she was nice.

Kureyon is all wool and good for things like hats, scarves, hand warmers, and legwarmers. I have knitted all of these except legwarmers, which I am plotting as I write this. Why? because legwarmers are cool. Especially hand knitted ones. Some people knit vests and jackets and even blankets out of this beautiful yarn, but I can only buy a couple of skeins at a time. Here are some pictures of Kureyon in all its woolly goodness:

I wish I could buy bags and bags of it, but sadly, it is a bit on the pricey side. If anyone in a major city finds a pile of it for uber cheap (say 2-4 bucks per skein), buy it and I’ll pay you back. Even if it’s aqua and pink: someone will wear it.

My other favorite kind of yarn is self-striping sock yarn. I’m currently very happy with some Regia 4-ply sock yarn (75% wool, 25% Polyamide) that I picked up to make James some “Gentleman’s socks for evening wear” from the book Knitting Vintage Socks. Regia has several different hand painted color ways and it knits up very prettily. I will have to show pictures of my socks I knitted in similar yarn and also some Regia I bought for myself for Knitpicks‘ Two at once toe-up sock pattern. Some examples of Regia (I can’t show my own and my socks because I don’t have my own camera – James keeps it):

These yarns are so kickass. I have other yarns I like but it could be a long night if I listed them all. These were just on my mind tonight.

My point is that I’ve decided I need an entire set of double pointed needles, circular needles, and straight needles, and I also need cable needles of more than one size and I really really need a place to put it all. Right now all the knitting stuff is organized in plastic bags stacked up inside a wicker hamper thing with a lid I got at Big Lots.  My ferret Mab likes to scale it like MT. Everest, in hopes of reaching still greater heights, but I moved it away from the kitchen table, so she is routinely disappointed.

The only reason I say this is that I’m tired of getting a new pattern only to discover that I not only need yarn, but I also have to buy needles.  I guess that’s why James has all those drill bits.  He just likes to be prepared.