Geez, I’ve been slacking on the cookbook contests. It’s been weeks since I last gave away a decent cookbook.

This time around, in honor of mid-summer, I think I’ll offer up Martha Hall Foose’s “Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook.”

I love this book because the first time I cracked it open, I was greeted by a huge picture of brown beans cooked with green beans and a big, glistening ham hock. My grandmother always used pinto beans to mix with canned green beans. It was one of my favorite country side dishes (green beans are also wonderful cooked with tiny new potatoes).

In “Screen Doors,” Foose doesn’t just stick to the old standards like fried chicken and collard greens. Her recipes for stuffed sweet onions, sweet potato dumplings, cornbread crusted white chili and root beer-glazed ham made me want to shut down this computer and go home to cook.

Below the jump, I’ll share a recipe for her Tallahatchie Tomatoes, a zesty casserole dish that she recommends as an atypical offering for Sunday brunch.

Want to win this book? Be the first person who e-mails me a picture of your tomato plants, whether they look good or not, at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com.

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Hey folks, as you might have noticed at the end of my Front Burner column today, I’ve got Sunday brunch on the brain again.
Ever since before I started this food beat, I’ve been dismayed by the lack of a truly unique Sunday brunch experience in Roanoke. I’m craving something quirky and cool that doesn’t just serve standard breakfast options until 2 p.m.
Until recently, the best brunch I’d experienced around these parts was at Cafe Succotash in Vinton, which has long since closed. I can remember having some kind of twist on eggs Benedict with spinach and fresh tomato, all washed down with a poinsettia (champagne and cranberry juice).

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