A BIG-ASS COOKBOOK

Or how to cook your husband's goose?

Can you believe I have gone all these years and never read the most Southern of contemporary authors, Jill Conner Browne, of "The Sweet Potato Queen" fame? I picked up her cookbook and it is funnier than heck; well worth the buck I paid for it at The Friends of the Library bookstore. It is certainly light enough that it soothes my overtaxed "rewrite" brain.

One story she shares is about one of the Potato Queen's dilemma with laundry as a newly wed. It seems her husband didn't know what the laundry hamper was for, dumped his clothes on the floor, and did not take instructions well at all. She made the decision not to wash his clothes; in fact, she put them away in closet and dresser--dirty. Her mother-in-law finally noticed and pulled the bride aside, offering to teach her how to do laundry as her precious son was going around with stains on his clothes.

The bride assured her mother-in-law that she knew how to do laundry; in fact, she showed her that she washed all the dirty clothes in the hamper. Whether mother dear spoke to her precious son, or he finally ran out of clothes entirely, we don't know. But today he not only does the laundry, he helps her with other household chores.

Then there's the guy who dumped his wife and kids to move in with a younger version of what his darling once looked like. He had the nerve to call her up one day, tell her he wanted his pickup truck and his clothes to be delivered to the girlfriend's home. And, on the way, she could wash the truck.

The wifey obliged him so sweetly. She moved his clothes out of the closet, leaving them neatly on the hangers, placed them in the truck bed, piled the kids in the cab, and drove the truck through the drive-through car wash. Well, she did everything he demanded, didn't she?

Great book!  Good lessons. I think the guys should read this one.