Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood: Stories and Recipes to Share with Family and Friends »

TRISHA YEARWOOD started off her recording career as a receptionist at MTM Records and has since had nine number one songs, ten albums, four Gold Record winners, four Platinum Awards, a Double Platinum seller, and a Quadruple Platinum blockbuster. She won back-to-back Country Music Awards as Female Vocalist of the Year in 1997 and 1998 and has been honored with three Grammy Awards. In 2005, Trisha married superstar Garth Brooks, and they currently reside in Oklahoma.

Country music star and bestselling cookbook author Trisha Yearwood is back with an encore of recipes that once again share her family traditions and warm home-grown cooking style.
 
In her debut cookbook, Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen, Trisha proved that there’s much more to her than an award-winning country music career, as she welcomed us into her kitchen and served up a feast of flavorful meals and heartwarming personal anecdotes. Now, in Cooking for Family and Friends, Trisha opens her life and her kitchen once more with a trove of recipes from a lifetime of potlucks and colorful gatherings.
 
Trisha has that southern hospitality gene and she’s a big believer that cooking for someone else is an act of love. From breakfasts in bed to hearty casseroles and festive holiday meals, Trisha’s delicious recipes are dedicated to her loved ones, including her husband Garth Brooks (who’s her number one cooking fan and the contributor of a few knockout recipes of his own).
 
Trisha knows how good it feels to bring something to the table. It brings everyone closer together if they’ve had a hand in preparing a meal. These recipes all come with memories attached—of potlucks with good friends, church suppers, family fish fries, and beach picnics, Mother’s Day, and Christmas gatherings. Many are handed down from her mother, her aunts and cousins, or longtime friends, while others are her own contemporary improvisations on classic southern fare. Each one—whether a main dish, a tasty side, or a decadent dessert—comes with a heartwarming story from Trisha’s life that may remind you of some of your own favorite family foods, or inspire you to create new traditions.
 
You don’t have to be a southerner to enjoy Yearwood family specialties such as:
 
• Hot Corn Dip
• Cornbread Salad with French Dressing
• Baked Bean Casserole
• Jambalaya
• Pumpkin Roll
• Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake

Plus, Trisha (and her sister and mother) offer up loads of practical advice, on everything from easily icing a cake to cutting a slice of pie, time-saving tips; and ingredient substitutions. With full-color photographs taken at Trisha’s home, this soulful and sincere testament to a southern life well-lived will delight both country music fans and home cooks everywhere.

Publishers Weekly

Singer Trisha Yearwood has found another way to reach her audience—with this follow-up to her successful Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen, she serves up more homey, Southern-inflected fare from her country music kitchen. And this newest is every pinch of salt the sequel—from the foreword by her husband, Garth Brooks, and her intimate personal anecdotes to the recipes donated by family and friends (her grandmother's strawberry cake; Brooks's mother's cabbage rolls, her mama's homemade waffles). Yearwood jumps off with some helpful hints, such as the importance of fresh-shredded cheese and how to use scissors to release a stubborn piecrust. The meat of the book is rib-sticking classics for both special occasions and weeknights, like sweet potato pudding, jalapeño hushpuppies, and a Lowcountry boil. Yearwood's ingredients are not for the faint of heart or high of cholesterol (Garth's Breakfast Bowl, for example is a mix of eggs, frozen tater tots, sausage, bacon, and packaged cheese and garlic tortellini). But Yearwood's enthusiasm and warmth come through, particularly in the “handwritten” notes at the bottom of the pages. Photos. (Apr.)