After hurricane Katrina, many thought the ability to enjoy fine New Orleans style cooking might be gone forever. Fortunately, the culinary experience tourists and locals alike expect from New Orleans and South Louisiana has been captured in an elegant new cookbook entitled, "Ruby Slippers Cookbook: Life, Culture, Family and Food After Katrina". This 219-page coffee table style volume is now available, enabling food lovers the opportunity to enjoy fabulous New Orleans and Louisiana style cuisine at home while also helping a good cause.

New Orleans resident and emerging author, Amy Cyrex Sins, is supporting the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana through her full size, four-color, hardbound cookbook. Amy has included her personal journey after the floodwaters ravaged her home, as well as stories from people she has met along the way. Included throughout the book are interesting facts about life in New Orleans. While pairing both traditional and inventive menus with heartwarming stories from rescue workers, residents and friends of the region, Amy creates a book truly capturing life in New Orleans and South Louisiana both before and after Katrina.

Ruby Slippers not only offers over 140 family recipes from throughout Louisiana, but also several recipes from 14 of New Orleans’ finest restaurants. The menus are sure to keep readers busy entertaining family and friends with traditional New Orleans dishes and a few new family favorites.

The book is filled with lavish photography, sure to evoke strong emotions, depicting both devastated and untouched areas of the city. Readers will find the book heartbreaking, heartwarming and uplifting all at the same time. The resilience and strength of the people living in the New Orleans area is evident in the pages of "Ruby Slippers". This book is a small step in the right direction to preserve something all hold dear - life, family, and food that are uniquely New Orleans.