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(N.B.: I’d be making this post today even if I weren’t feeling guilty about missing Sunday Dinnah this past weekend . . . )

Holy moly, have I got a cookbook for y’all! A kind reader/proud momma just sent me a copy of her daughter Martha Hall Foose’s BOFFO new Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, which I found sitting on the roof of my car this morning and happily hauled to a doc’s waiting room. Got to thumbing through it and can’t think of another occasion when I was so sorry to hear my name called.

I’ve asked riddenword to put it on our Amazon list so it’ll be handy for y’all to check out, but while we wait, here’s a sample of page 18 (I just opened it to that one at random, but they’re all at least this good). Before the recipe for “Sold My Soul to the Devil-ed Eggs (Cooking to the Blues),” Martha writes:

The tales of Robert Johnson and other mystic blues men meeting Papa Legba, the trickster god, at the crossroads, and trading their eternal soul for fame and fortune, are the mythologies of this land, echoing across the open spaces like the moan of a freight train in winter. Legend and evidence have it that Robert Johnson was buried three times before his bones had a final resting place, just outside of town out on Money Road, at the small white clapboard Little Zion Church.

These deviled eggs are featured in a cooking class I teach, accompanied by a blues man by the name of Terry “Harmonica” Bean. It is an amusing tribute to our local flavors and rhythms. Mr. Bean’s business card informs the recipient that “his band or himself” is available for gigs. He plays the guitar, drums, and obviously the harmonica all at the same time, a one-man blues band. I think this self-sufficient musical talent may have cut into the need to book a whole band. It also gives me confidence that he never cut a deal with that old trickster, Papa Legba.

Let’s see here, I’ll just flip a few other pages for you . . .

Pecan-smoked Catfish (Shell Game)

Greens and Cornbread Croutons (Pot Likker)

Fried Okra (Morgan Freeman and Ground Zero Blues Club)

Refuge Crawfish Pies (For Shade Seekers)

Mother of the Church Ambrosia (A Labor of Love)

Double-Cut Pork Chops (Apple Grilled)

Muscadine Lamb Chops (Grilled and Glazed)

Country Fried Steak (The Brown Gravy/White Gravy Divide)

Sweet Potato Biscuits (Pass the Ham)

Big Black Skillet Cornbread (Codicil to the Will)

Biloxi Banana Bread (The Great Banana Train Wreck)*

Sweet Tea Pie (With Candied Lemon and Mint)

Get the picture? Lotsa photos (dishes and milieux), and every recipe has a headnote and excellent sidenotes too. I’m telling ya, it’s a dee-light.

* This headnote alone is worth the price of admission!

UPDATE: Oh cool! Dragoman just sent me this link to the C-L’s story on Martha (note upcoming appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America”). Thanks, Drago!