Go here. Buy this.

available here

I am warning you. I am going to harp on this for a long time. Not only because it is the right thing to do but because this is a beautifully well-conceived book.

The plan was to get the book, cook from the book, and start writing on it for you in May. But the book arrived and was so moving in purpose, I began cooking wherever I could squeeze it in, in order to post now and not later.

It is a brilliant stroke, the concept of Cooking up a Storm, and one I can appreciate as all our family recipes were lost in a catastrophe as well: The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans, in what may have seemed like a small step in helping local people recoup what they lost in Katrina, began a recipe swap in the pages of the paper. One resident could write in asking for a recipe they had lost and the paper and other readers would respond with their recipes. Thus creating a link to one another, the warm family kitchens of their past (many of which were destroyed), and to you and I now that they have been compiled in Cooking up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from the Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

I have made the blue cheese gorgeres to date. They were perfect and wonderful paired with a red wine with some depth and zing. I continue reading and cooking and will return to this book again often in these pages. When I next do, I would be very grateful to the readership if they could read along with their own copies. New Orleans still needs our help. In exchange for a great cookbook, it is a good thing to do. Did I mention already that you can buy it here? Do. Please, do.