The history of 613 Rue Royale, the site of New Orleans' famous Court of Two Sisters restaurant, dates back to 1732--just fourteen years after the founding of the city, when it was the site of the home of Louisiana's second governor. Beginning in 1886, the legendary "two sisters," for whom the building and courtyard are named, operated a notions shop on the ground floor of the mansion. Located in the very center of "Governor's Row," 613 Royal became the focal point of Creole society. In many ways, the romance and history of the largest courtyard in the Vieux Carre epitomize the charm, the ambience, and the lifestyle of "America's most European city." A tribute to the history that has made the restaurant famous throughout the world, the cookbook has been revised and updated with new recipes from the acclaimed kitchens. The history of the courtyard and the French Quarter offers an intriguing background for the recipes that follow--recipes that are Creole-inspired and taste-tested by the discriminating palates of tens of thousands of customers. Although originally from New York, Mel Levitt became a fixture in New Orleans television on WDSU in the 50's and 60's. Considered one of New Orleans' leading historians and foremost television and radio personalities, he died in 1997. In 1963, the late Mr. Joe Fein, Jr., an established local restaurateur, acquired the restaurant and immediately began steps to preserve the building's historical integrity. Mr. Fein's sons, Joe III and the late Jerry Fein, continued with their father's dedication to The Court of Two Sisters and now their children, the third generation, are directing the day-to-day operations and maintaining the legacy of the property's history and reputation. With the Fein family's expertise, The Court of Two Sisters has become known worldwide for its live Jazz Brunch, romantic Creole dinners, friendly service and beautiful, open-air courtyard.

When seventeen-year-old Elizabeth hears that her twin, Isabel, has been murdered, she slips into her place and tries to find the murderer.

Introducing a very funny, slightly edgy, winning new kind of cookbook Jessica Harper—that Jessica Harper, star of Minority Report, Stardust Memories, Love and Death, Pennies from Heaven, and more—is a working mother of two who faces the same problems of every other woman who's the designated home cook: How do you feed a family of picky eaters when you're not crazy about being in the kitchen in the first place? A natural-born storyteller and terrifically engaging writer, she does what she's done all her life—entertain us—while at the same time offering 100 not just easy but really easy-to-make, really tasty recipes. Her stories are filled with charming crabbiness—of cooking early in the day for the two kids who eat only six things, then later for the husband who eats only about eight things, none of which share common ground with those first six; of inviting her mother-in-law for dinner and handing her an apron; of suffering HAS—Hostess Anxiety Syndrome—having the book club over and picking The Good Earth because it matches the neighborhood's great new Chinese take-out, so no cooking involved! She wants to give a Nobel Prize to the person who invented bagged salad, and she recounts a wonderful story of making homemade turkey pot pie for the very first time—its crust tasted like rosemary-scented Play-Doh—to serve to Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford. But crabby or not, she's found a way to make it work, and work brilliantly. The Crabby Cook is about how to change your food-i-tude—no more garnish guilt, for example, and why “sort of homemade” is just as good as homemade (ie, knowing when to go all out with Pain-in-the-Ass Minestrone and when to settle for the almost-as-tasty Lazy-Ass Minestrone). It's how to identify those Miracle Foods—the stuff that everyone loves, like Gobble-It-Up Turkey Chili and Tony's Rigatoni. And even a whole survival guide—despite her HAS—to entertaining, including drinks, Whore's

Food studies, once trendy, has settled into the public arena. In the academy, scholarship on food and literary culture constitutes a growing river within literary and cultural studies, but writing on African American food and dining remains a tributary. Recipes for Respect bridges this gap, illuminating the role of foodways in African American culture as well as the contributions of Black cooks and chefs to what has been considered the mainstream. Beginning in the early nineteenth century and continuing nearly to the present day, African Americans have often been stereotyped as illiterate kitchen geniuses. Rafia Zafar addresses this error, highlighting the long history of accomplished African Americans within our culinary traditions, as well as the literary and entrepreneurial strategies for civil rights and respectability woven into the written records of dining, cooking, and serving. Whether revealed in cookbooks or fiction, memoirs or hotel-keeping manuals, agricultural extension bulletins or library collections, foodways knowledge sustained Black strategies for self-reliance and dignity, the preservation of historical memory, and civil rights and social mobility. If, to follow Mary Douglas’s dictum, food is a field of action—that is, a venue for social intimacy, exchange, or aggression—African American writing about foodways constitutes an underappreciated critique of the racialized social and intellectual spaces of the United States.

This cheery cookbook is the brainchild of the Red Hat Society, a nationwide organization of women who like to wear silly hats, enjoy each other's company, and eat dessert first. "Life is short; eat dessert first," says Sue Ellen Cooper, Exalted Queen Mother of the Red Hat Society, which is the most fun phenomenon to happen to women over 50 in this century. This cookbook has more than 250 desserts at the beginning of a collection of more than 1,000 recipes. Red Hat editors selected the best recipes, stories, and photographs submitted by members from all over the world. In The Red Hat Society Cookbook, you’ll find recipes including: Cantaloupe Chiffon Pie Ice Cream Crunch Torte Cookie Dough Cream Cheese Puffs Strawberry Yaya Cake Popcorn Candy Cake Their compilation has the feel of an enormous community cookbook, with the same lack of focus, mixed bag of recipes, and overriding spirit of goodwill.