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When I posted my last Cookbook Giveaway entry for a cake book, one diabetic reader felt left out. And I can only imagine how hard it must be to see recipes for rich, decadent desserts when you are not allowed to enjoy them. I have two loved ones who suffer from diabetes, and I'll bet almost every one of us knows at least one person who is affected by the condition.

Fortunately, in this day and age, there are relatively good artificial sweeteners on the market. I have also read an article or two lately that suggested blue agave nectar, a natural sugar substitute, can be safe for diabetics, but please check with your physician about this before adding agave nectar to your diet if you are diabetic or borderline diabetic.

I have also been learning that some recipes can contain sugar but still be safe for diabetics simply because the amount of sugar is drastically lowered. The dessert recipes in Holly Clegg's "Trim & Terrific Diabetic Cooking" and Tom Valenti's "You Don't Have to Be Diabetic to Love This Cookbook" fall into this category.

I'm going to share a recipe from each of these books. Got a wonderful low sugar or sugar-free dessert recipe to share? I'm sure some readers would greatly appreciate that.

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Those crazy kids at Sur la Table are at it again, this time with a cute little handbook called "Tips Cooks Love."

I've been flipping through this book and while some of these ideas may not seem very novel (smash garlic under your knife blade; use room-temperature eggs in baking - meh), others really do have me saying "Aha! What a great idea!"

A sprinkling of those gems:

* After you are finished processing herbs in the food processor and have removed most of the bits, toss a slice of bread in there and pulse a few times. Voila! Herbed bread crumbs.

* Chopping sticky things like crystallized ginger? Coat the knife with a light layer of flavorless oil.

* For parties where you will be scooping lots of ice cream, line a baking sheet with wax paper ahead of time, place ice cream scoops on wax paper and put the whole tray in the freezer. When it comes time, all you'll have to do it pluck the scoop off the wax paper and put it on the cake.

* Out of cooking twine? Use unflavored dental floss. Just don't tie the meat too tightly or you might cut it with the floss and lose juices during cooking.

* If you are out of tea bags but have loose tea, line your mug with a coffee filter, then put in the desired amount of loose tea, fill with hot water, let steep and carefully remove the filter, which will collect the loose tea.

* Finally, if you are worried about pesticides on store vegetables, here is a list of the "dirty dozen," or the 12 veggie types that had the highest amounts of pesticides on them when tested. It might be good to buy these particular vegetables in the organic section. On the other hand, the second list is of vegetables that do not tend to be sprayed much, so you can feel good about saving money buy skipping those in organic.

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Every time someone mentions in my presence that they don't like grits, I have to struggle not to look at them as if they are an alien.

Seriously, what's not to like? We aren't talking about something strongly flavored, such as brussels sprouts. Or something that once had big, soft eyes, such as venison. Or even something that once filtered the waste out of a body system, such as liver or kidneys. Grits come from corn. They're cooked in water or milk, like hot cereal. Basically, they are baby food.

I don't disparage anyone for having personal preferences, though - Lord knows I have some bizarre preferences. But this blog entry is for all of my fellow grits lovers, and it's about a new cookbook from Southern Living magazine called "Glorious Grits: Fresh, Flavorful Recipes for Grits, Cornmeal & Polenta."

Grits are just fine with a pat of butter, a spoonful of apple butter, some cheese or a topping of shrimp. But boy, just imagine the wondrous possibilities for new recipes. Especially with talented chefs across the country finally learning to appreciate what we Southerners have appreciated all along. Examples from the book: Mini grits quiche cups, a grits frittata with herbs and shallots, grits primavera or even a pecan-grits pie!

Before I share a recipe or two, a few definitions from "Food Lover's Companion":

Grits: Commonly used to refer to hominy grits, but grits can actually be coarsely ground corn, oats, rice, etc. Cooked in water or milk and served as a side dish, usually at breakfast.

Groats: Generally thought to be a coarser grind than grits, but actually the two words are synonymous, because grits can come in a variety of grinds, from fine to coarse.

Cornmeal: Dried corn kernels that have been ground into one of three textures: fine, medium or coarse.

Polenta: A staple of Italy. A mush made from cornmeal that can be eaten hot or cooled until firm, then sliced and fried.

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A gingerbread "Cockaigne?"

Dad called me last night to ask a food question; it's not an uncommon occurrence for either of us to ring up the other and talk food. I usually buzz him because he's a great, experienced cook, and he usually calls me because he lives in the Bath County boondocks with dial-up and can't Google the answer.

Last night's question: "What does the cooking term 'Cockaigne' mean?"

The answer wasn't in the food Bible, "Food Lover's Companion." And once I wrote it down (because you can imagine the array of unfortunate mispronunciations) and stared at it, it looked really familiar. I was sure I'd seen it within the past few days - In "Joy of Cooking," it turns out.

The word is sprinkled liberally throughout "Joy," appearing at the end of various recipe names, such as Almond Torte Cockaigne or Fruit Cake Cockaigne. So I Googled it for Dad, my cell phone crunched between my ear and shoulder. Oddly, the first hit was "A great place for winter fun." Then Wikipedia, with "a medieval mythical land of plenty, an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease."

Where were the official food and cooking sources? Merriam-Webster dictionary defined "Cockaigne" as a 13th century invention, indeed a magical land of wonderment and riches. And the word itself, some believe, derives from "cake."

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Chroniclebooks.com

I absolutely adore the title of this new book by Anita Chu, "Field Guide to Candy." I can't help but picture someone with the binoculars out, spying on a marzipan pear perched on a tree branch. Or a herd of gum drops slowly making their way across an empty field. Or a school of Swedish fish flitting in clear waters.

OK, so I spent way too much time as a kid flipping through the Audubon guides to plants, trees, birds and insects. Candy is oh-so-much tastier than insects, so flipping through this field guide to candy is even more delightful. And it's out just in time, folks. Because what better time of year for accurately identifying and making candy than the holiday season?

I know I'm probably freaking out those of you who hate any mention of Christmas before Halloween. Or before Thanksgiving, for that matter. I'm usually like that myself, but I just can't help but get excited about the cooking possibilities. Just the other night I read "About fudge" in "Joy of Cooking." Getting my mind in the right place.

I want to share a recipe from "Field Guide to Candy," but since it is a little early for winter holiday ideas, how about a recipe that'll be perfect for fall: candy apples! I know my co-worker and author of the Happy Wag blog, Nona Nelson, will appreciate this one. She was just craving candy apples the other day.

Chu offers up some great tips about candy making in this book. I'm not very adept at candy making, so I may invest in a candy thermometer. But she says if you don't have a candy thermometer, you can use the old-fashioned "cold water method," which involves dropping a drop of your hot sugar syrup into a bowl of cold water. What happens next determines the stage of your candy. Read on:

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www.amazon.com

I have run across the perfect gift idea for your favorite foodie. And if that happens to be you, well, now you'll have an excuse to spend a little money on yourself!

The ever-vivacious Rachael Ray has come out with a new product called "Make Your Own Takeout." But I can't call this a cookbook in the standard sense because the recipes actually come in a little box and are printed on removable cards that are categorized by the cuisine. There are categories for Thai, Chinese, Indian, pizza, burgers and sandwiches and Tex-Mex. At a time when lots of us are trying to spend less money on entertainment, this strikes me as a genius idea!

The question is, do the recipes look good and do they cook good? Well, here's a sampling of what the M.Y.O.T.O. deck has to offer (she really likes those acronyms for some reason).

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Well, we've talked about planting tomatoes and caring for tomatoes, so it feels like the right time now to talk about EATING tomatoes! Some of us are just now getting our first delicious, vine-ripened 'maters. But before long, conversation will turn to dealing with an overabundance of the things. The same good ideas are passed around each year -- freeze them, can them, make spaghetti sauce or salsa out of them, eat tomato sandwiches, fry them green, etc.

But wouldn't it be nice to hear some different ideas? We all know tomatoes are versatile, but consider for a moment that cultures all over the world eat tomatoes in ways many of us have never thought about. Asian cooks stir-fry with them, Africans make a dish with chicken and peanuts, Turks create a casserole with lamb and potatoes and Mexicans make a stew with tripe called menudo.

All of these recipes and more can be found in a new cookbook called "The Too Many Tomatoes Cookbook" by Brian Yarvin. It is packed with both basic and exotic recipes for tomatoes. I'd like to share a couple of recipes from this book. While we are on this topic, does anyone have an unusual tomato recipe you could share with the rest of us?

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Courtesy of Ten Speed Press and Mrs. Rowe's restaurant.

Today's Front Burner column includes a Q & A with the author of "Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies." Those of you who have been to Mrs. Rowe's restaurants in Staunton and Mount Crawford ought to know that pies were one of Mildred Rowe's specialties. Now, you can have an entire collection of those recipes at hand.

Here is the Q & A with Mollie Cox Bryan. Any thoughts?

By Lindsey Nair

The Roanoke Times

For more than 60 years, Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant in Staunton has been luring hungry travelers and townspeople with its authentic, homemade Southern entrees and desserts.
Mildred Rowe (rhymes with “wow”) died in 2003, after 89 years of working her way from the hollows of Alleghany County to behind the counter of one of Virginia’s most successful and well-loved eateries.
Her legacy lives on not only in the Staunton restaurant and the newer Mrs. Rowe’s Country Buffet in Mount Crawford, but also in several cookbooks intended to inspire home cooks to whip up great comfort food themselves.
The most recent of those is “Mrs. Rowe’s Little Book of Southern Pies” by Mollie Cox Bryan, an author and freelance writer who lives in Waynesboro with her husband, Eric, and daughters Emma, 10, and Tess, 8.
Bryan wrote the pie cookbook on the heels of “Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant Cookbook,” a sort of biography-cookbook that published in 2006.
I talked to Mollie recently about getting to know the famous Mrs. Rowe, learning her pie-making skills and what she thinks the strong-willed businesswoman would think of her restaurant dynasty today.

Q: How did you first find out about Mrs. Rowe?
I started hearing stories about Mrs. Rowe mostly from my husband who works for the Frontier Culture Museum. Her son, Mike, was on the board, and I started hearing these incredible stories.
I was intrigued by the stories and said you know, someone should really write this stuff down. I approached Michael, and Mrs. Rowe was not interested in me doing anything, but Mike was.
I wrote a biography, and to try to make a long story short, when she passed away, I was quoted in the local newspaper as being her biographer. I was contacted from all over the country. I got an agent and began to shop it around and it ended up morphing into a cookbook.

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Isn't that an oxymoron?

Apparently not, according to Bryant Terry, the Oakland chef who authored "Vegan Soul Kitchen," a new cookbook I received recently in the mail. Terry boasts that his recipes are "fresh, healthy and creative African-American cuisine."

When I think soul food, I think fried okra, chitterlings or hog jowls, gravies, greens cooked with fatback and cornbread. None of those foods could even remotely be construed as vegan -- or healthy --  under normal soul food cooking conditions. That's why Terry's book is so wonderful. He seems to have spent quite a bit of time thinking about his own background, the backgrounds of his ancestors and all the ways he could lighten up some of that delicious cooking.

For example, Terry writes in his introduction that collard greens were always a staple at his family table. His grandmother simmered them for hours until they were tender, but they had also lost all of their bright color by then. So Terry decided to experiment with a different cooking method that involved blanching in salted, boiling water, shocking in ice water and then sauteeing quickly with olive oil, garlic and sea salt. The resulting dish was healthier and more vitamin rich than the old school way.

Examples of his other creations include Wilted Swiss Chard and Spinach with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, Blackened Tofu Slabs with Succotash Salsa, Quinoa Cornbread and Smoky Pickled Purple Okra.

I'll share a few of those recipes here. Let me know what you think!

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Some ribs on my dad's smoker.

I am excited to announce the winner of "Grill It! Recipes. Techniques. Tools" by Chris Schlesinger & John Willoughby is Julie! Julie was the winner by random drawing, and only one of her comments counted toward the drawing. So, way to go Julie!

Reading about all of your delicious grill creations was a superb way to spend a few cold, rainy days. I know the serious grillmasters never let the weather stop them, but some of us find it hard to get motivated to cook outside with an umbrella and a winter coat. Spring is about to be sprung, though! So here's a recipe from "Grill It!" that we can all enjoy! It's for grilled "super-fiery West Indian" chicken breasts with a sour orange mojo sauce.

It calls for Scotch bonnet peppers, the small, bright orange ones. And WHOLE ones, at that, seeds and all! If you aren't big on super hot food, I suggest maybe de-seeding those bad boys before you put them in the blender. Or use less than four. And don't touch your eyes while working with them, whatever you do. If you're not careful, you might light your arse on fire!

Julie, e-mail me at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com with your mailing address and I'll put this book in the mail for you. Thanks for playing, everyone!

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