The Roanoke Times will have a booth at Dickens of a Christmas in downtown Roanoke tonight, where we’ll be sharing some tasty samples (first come, first served!) and selling copies of our 150th anniversary cookbook, “Flavors of Home.”

Our table will be located in the parking lot area of the market near farmer Mark Woods.

Here are some of the amazing local recipes you’ll find in the cookbook, which benefits Roanoke Area Ministries: Liberty Station cheese sticks, Elsie Wertz’s potato salad, Hotel Roanoke Brunswick Stew, Angler’s Cafe chicken Senegalese stew, Nair family Thanksgiving stuffing, Zorba’s falafel, Miller & Rhoads’ Missouri club sandwich, Angler’s Italian cream cake, and Thelma’s meatloaf sauce. The book is a great gift for anybody who loves to cook and wants some Roanoke flavor! It makes a great teacher gift, too, for just $15 per copy plus tax.

If you cannot get to Dickens tonight but are interested in buying a cookbook, here is a link to the online order form.

Here is a link to an earlier article about Dickens of a Christmas with details about the event. In addition to these Friday night activities, the “Shop Differently” campaign means that many downtown shops are open for extended hours on Thursday nights until 9 p.m. this season. After 4 p.m. on Thursdays, the city is offering free garage parking. Here is a list of participating merchants: http://www.downtownroanoke.org/.

Have a great weekend!