Home Cooking

Getting a package first thing on a Friday morning is always fun, especially when you're not expecting it and it's from home. Many people have marveled at my ability to find and give personal, spontaneous gifts, and I learned from the master - my Mom.

Since it was Easter weekend, I was thinking a chocolate bunny, but I got something even better - an ADVANCE COPY of our church cookbook!



My Mom was part of the committee that typed, proofread, and sorted through 600 recipes to make this wonderful collection. So now I have everything from my Aunt Mary's Italian Wedding Soup recipe to my old high school classmate Lara Lee's Quick Shrimp & Scallop Pasta.

And way back in the back, filed under "This & That," the secrets to "Pop's Fresh Horse-Radish," submitted by Mom in memory of my Dad. I remember him stinking up the entire kitchen making that stuff from horseradish root he grew in his own garden. I would never eat it, and all he would say is, "You don't know what's good." He was probably right.

Well, I'm off to the store to get the fixings for grilled shrimp for a BBQ this weekend. But looking at page 26 of my new cookbook, I'm also adding the stuff for Pat Strickland's Chicken Corn Chowder. Mom already tried it and says it's amazing, plus it has received my nephew Mike's seal of approval. And with bacon on the list of ingredients, I can believe it!

If you're interested in a copy, they go on sale April 11th.