Dori Sanders' Country Cooking: Recipes and Stories from the Family Farm Stand

Narrative and cookery blend delightfully in this mix of recollection and old-fashioned family cooking. Sanders, a novelist (Clover) and grower of peaches, gives her readers a taste of her childhood, growing up with her family on one of the oldest black-owned farms in upstate South Carolina. Some chapters focus on a single ingredient, e.g., corn, peaches or ``Wild Spring Greens''; others center around the foods served at country events, from ``Family Reunions'' to ``Hog-killing Time.'' With the help of Willoughby, senior editor of Cook's Illustrated magazine and coauthor, with Chris Schlesinger, of The Thrill of the Grill, Sanders provides recipes for food as simple as Skillet Crackling Bread or as sweet as Pecan Pie with Black Walnut Crust. Such recipes as Pickled Pig Lips serve more as curiosities than cuisine, while others, like Yankee Okra (with basil, garlic and olive oil) have been adapted for Northern tastes: ``Serves 4 to 6 Northerners or 2 Southerners.'' The heart here is in Sanders's memories: the introduction to ``Box Suppers'' describes the set menu prepared by single women for the boxes: ``four pieces of fried chicken, four biscuits or rolls, two pieces of pie, and two slices of cake.'' Recipes, from Buttermilk Southern Fried Chicken to Sweet Potato Custard Pie in Orange Crust, provided. 50,000 first printing; 25-city author tour. (Nov.)