Labelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing about

""From the time I was a little girl,"" says LaBelle, ""I knew there were two things in this world I was born to do: sing and cook."" Admirers of LaBelle's Grammy-winning vocal style are sure to find her Southern dishes just as dynamic. Starting with such chapters as Sensational Salads, Soups, and Sandwiches, she cooks and talks her way through Meat, Poultry and Seafood entr es, Fabulous Fixin's and To-Die-For Desserts and Breads. Her famous jalape o-spiked Potato Salad, Pass-It-On Pot Roast, Screamin' Mean Greens and Wicked Peach Cobbler make colorful appearances, along with practical cooking tips and plenty of exuberant attitude. This is high-style down-home cooking, sophisticated, flavorful, mostly calorie-laden and generally irresistible; the fact that Patti has fixed her Luscious Liver and Onions and Over the Rainbow Macaroni and Cheese for the likes of Mick Jagger, Oprah and Elton John just adds to the fun. LaBelle (author of the bestselling autobiography Don't Block the Blessings) believes in cooking for pleasure and therapy: as she says, ""Usually when people are stressed out they want a pill, but honey, give me a pot!"" Readers will want one, too, by the end of this book, for LaBelle's enthusiasm is infectious. 15-city author tour. (Apr.)