Life's goodness in one red pot

[Gormy Cuss]

A different sort of Katrina survival story.


Turcotte holds the bright red 12-inch Le Creuset Dutch oven

Life's goodness in one red pot
In Katrina's aftermath, couple wonders when they'll watch 'Columbo' and cook shrimp gumbo again

Sandy Barnett-Ebner, Special to The Chronicle
Saturday, August 26, 2006


A 5 1/2-quart Le Creuset dutch oven weighs just over 13 pounds. If one were dropped on your foot, your foot wouldn't stand a chance.

The pot however, would be just fine. That's because it has been cast in molten iron, polished and sanded by hand, scrutinized for the slightest imperfection and in general treated as if it were made of solid gold. It has been sprayed with two coats of enamel in one of several bright, cheerful colors, then fired in an 800-degree oven -- twice. You might think that one of these pots could survive just about anything. And you would be right.

My mother lives in Waveland, Miss., a place where cooking means a lot to most people, and where a pot of red beans and rice is pretty much synonymous with happiness. She had always wanted a Le Creuset pot to cook her red beans in and for years had dropped hints to me and my sisters that we largely ignored. (Le Creuset may be nice, but it is also not cheap.) Several years went by before we finally chipped in and bought her a bright red 12-inch Dutch oven.

Now she could fix red beans and rice or whatever else she felt like. Life was good for Mom, and even better for my stepfather, Turcotte, who loved to eat almost as much as Mom liked to cook.

Then Hurricane Katrina slammed into Waveland, transforming it from a lovely Gulf Coast town into a 10 square miles of devastation. Along with just about everyone else in Waveland, my mother and stepfather lost their home and everything in it. Their house was two blocks from the water; the storm surge ended up an astonishing 7 miles inland. After the storm, the lot where their house once stood was nothing but a huge mound of debris. ...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/26/HOGVNKNRE81.DTL

[catnhatnh]

1. A fine story and timely too....

...probably sounds funny for a post to cooking and baking, but K&R for a hopeful tale of redemption.....

On edit-actually, it is not permisable to recommend posts here for "greatest page" but take what comfort that you can from this- A.I have never tried to recommend a thread here before, and B.I learned I couldn't from your's...regards, Cat

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Thanks for the thought, Cat.

It didn't feel right to post this story out on GD because it's a fluff story compared to all of the others on issues left unaddressed for the Gulf area.

[wildeyed]

5. Aw, go ahead an post it anyway.

They can use some lightening up in there.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. I love stories like this. I also agree with cat ... I wish we could

recommend this one for the greatest page.

[Warpy]

4. Maybe a nuclear warhead would destroy it

maybe not.

I'm glad they found something they treasured. I can imagine picking through ashes and rubble here and finding my cast iron frypan and Le Creuset soup pots and nothing else.

I can imagine being happy to do so.