Champagne at the holidays—nostalgia, history, mythology

Nothing like war to make a fellow crave a good drink. Gervais Raoul Lufbery (1885–1918) was a French-American flying ace in WWI. He served in both French aviation and, later, the US Army Air Service, but all but one of his more than 17 combat victories came while flying for the French. He was famous for his pet lion cub named, appropriately for the topic of this post, Whiskey. Lufbery is often credited with having created a most delightful drink called the French 75, purportedly named after WWI’s powerful French 75mm howitzer artillery piece because the drink blew you away like you'd been shelled by one. 

Lufbery - 94th Aero Squadron

Other sources claim the drink was created earlier in 1915 by Harry MacElhone, owner of Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. The original version contained a potent combo of champagne, gin, lemon juice and sugar. It was popularized in America at New York City’s famous Stork Club. For another note of nostalgia, in the classic movie Casablanca, Yvette is drinking French 75s at the bar.

Now I can’t drink gin—can’t even stand the smell of it—but a variation arose at some point in its evolving history that replaced the gin in a French 75 with cognac, and that’s the drink I remember drinking back in the days when holding a cocktail in one’s hand seemed the height of sophistication. Now it just seems like a good beginning to a celebration or a well-deserved ending to a tough day. I love a glass of very dry champagne at any time, but there is something very party-ish about making it a French 75 or a Kir Royale (adding crème de cassis)—sort of like adding red stilettos to that traditional little black dress!

Cheri Loughlin, who writes the Intoxicologist blog, wrote a nice piece about French 75s, including her personal favorite recipe for the drink, at http://intoxicologist.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/tweaking-the-french-75/. That could be a place to start if you want to try this holiday drink at home or instruct a young bartender on how you’d like one made.

What are your favorite holiday drinks—alcoholic or not—that you traditionally serve or imbibe this time of year? The holidays can be stressful and/or joyful—I say, whatever the character of yours, PARTY ON!

-- Rosemary Carstens

http://www.FEASTofBooks.com

Roux Memories: A Cajun-Creole Love Story with Recipes

This delightful book from Louisiana native Belinda Hulin opens a window on Cajun and Creole cooking and the family memories that surrounded the author’s life as the gumbo pots bubbled, women sat with big bowls in their laps shelling peas, and crawfish, shrimp, jambalaya, pork cracklins, dirty rice, and an array of other foods were prepared in the kitchen. Not to mention those melt-in-your-mouth pecan pralines that cause us to sigh with sweet-lovers’ satisfaction!

Roux Memories (Lyons Press 2010) offers up more than 250 home-tested recipes along with her family’s tales of four decades rooted in New Orleans’ food and culture. Her mother and father, Audrey and A. J. Hulin, were married for 46 years, raised five children, welcomed grandchildren, experienced life’s ups and downs and, through all those years enjoyed what Hulin calls “some of the best food on earth.” Generations of relatives contributed recipes and stories to this cookbook and we are the lucky recipients!

There are so many things that are lost in a devastating crisis that you never think of until you need them. When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed homes and neighborhoods and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, bonds were stretched, and many recipes lost. Imagine the consternation on any holiday if you couldn’t lay your hands on that time-worn, stained recipe for the special traditional foods your family has enjoyed as long as you can remember!

Hulin tells the story about being at her mother’s house in suburban New Orleans about a month after Hurricane Katrina, shoveling wet, moldy bits of unrecognizable belongings out on the lawn. It was a sad time, seeing all that had been destroyed and lost forever. Checking back through the house, imagine her joy when she found, just above the high water mark, her mother’s dry, undisturbed recipe box! The thought of all those recipes not written down, not surviving, throughout the region, set the author on the path to writing this book. It’d make a great gift for any cook--

For more details and a sample recipe: http://www.rouxmemories.com/
For more about author Belinda Hulin: http://www.belindahulin.com/bio.htm

Rosemary Carstens, Editor

http://www.FEASTofBooks.com