Not as if anyone needed an excuse to indulge in pastry, today, December 9 is National Pastry Day. Celebrate with an eclair, a Napoleon, a cream puff…

Today is National Gazpacho Day.

The city of New Orleans was colonized by the French and Christmas was celebrated as a religious holiday. Beginning in the early 1700s, the community attended midnight Mass, then gathered for a meal in the wee hours. The tradition continues today with the celebration known as Reveillon, derived from the French very meaning “to wake up.”
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A friend of mine brought me a coobkook—MEALS, TESTED, TASTED AND APPROVED, by Good Housekeeping Institute that was published in 1930. Recipes were very much simpler then.
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THE PICAYUNE’S CREOLE COOK BOOK, first published in 1901 in New Orleans, offered this suggestion for a Christmas dinner menu.
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I love receiving a box of candy as a gift anytime of the year, but especially so at Christmas. I still have the first box (not the candy but the gold-papered box) of Lady Godiva chocolates given to me by a beaux many years ago.
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I come from a family who loves a big breakfast. On weekdays as well as weekends, we often had biscuits dripping with homemade butter and cane syrup, grits swimming in butter, and yard eggs—poached, fried or scrambled.
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I collect old and out-of-print James Beard cookbooks and I struck gold at a recent library book sale.
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Ch√†teaubriand (which can also be spelled with a final “t” rather than the “d”) can mean different things to different people.
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A FINE COGNAC

After an especially special six-course dinner at Emeril’s Delmonico in New Orleans complete with complementary wines, I strolled into the bar to stretch my legs and allow my meal to digest. I was thinking that a snifter of cognac might aid my digestion and perused the bottles lined up behind the bar. One, in a beautifully shaped bottle, caught my eye.

The bartender brought it over to me and explained that this Kelt Petra Cognac (a Grande Champagne Cognac) has an interesting story behind its aging.
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