
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 25, 1994                   TAG: 9406010041
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By ALMENA HUGHES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOMEY AND HEARTY

There's nothing mundane about meat and potatoes. With a little imagination, they can easily become the basis for dishes ranging from soups and salads to desserts; from homey to haute cuisine.

If your lifestyle is homey but hectic, two free brochures geared to quick and simple meal prepartion might help you reach a happy medium. To obtain them, send self-addressed, stamped business-sized envelopes to: Fast Family Favorites, Meat Board Test Kitchens, Dept. FFF, 444 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611; and Colorado Potatoes, A Mountain of Easy & Nutritional Recipes, Colorado Potato Administrative Committee, P.O. Box 348, Monte Vista, Calif. 81144.

If you equate homey with Hillbillies - as in Beverly - check out "Granny's Beverly Hills Cookbook" by Jim Clark and Ken Beck ($12.95, Rutledge Hill Press). The book, loosely based on the popular TV sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies," which first aired in 1962, compiles traditional recipes from the Ozarks and Tennessee (where Granny Clampett grew up), as well as favorites from the show's cast members and quite a few reprints from "Granny's Hillbilly Cookbook," (1966) written by Irene Ryan, who portrayed Granny.

Photos, character profiles, trivia and dialogue from the show, recipes for all kinds of potatoes and meats such as possum, squirrel, groundhog, wild boar, goat and beef are included in this fun to read and to cook from cookbook.

It's hard to get more homey than at cartoon character Ziggy's favorite eatery, Mom's Diner. In "The Ziggy Cookbook: Great Food From Mom's Diner" ($16, VanTine Publishing Co.), Ziggy creator Tom Wilson and syndicated humor food writer Robin Benzle team the nostalgic and the new into 160 comfort-food recipes for breakfast to dinner and snacks in between.

Author Benzle says his main goal in compiling the 250-plus page book was "to create a user-friendly cookbook...that would become food-stained and tattered in no time." The diets-be-damned fare and cute cartoon clips make it likely that will happen.

At the haute cuisine end of the table, there's Diane Rossen Worthington's "The California Cook, Casually Elegant Recipes With Exhilarating Taste," ($27.95 Bantam). These recipes are indeed elegant, but also easy to follow. They play up the freshest produce in over 200 imaginative dishes designed for the busy cook who loves exciting food.

Worthington, the author of two previous award-winning cookbooks, uses simple ingredients, reinterpretaions of classic combinations and a sophisticated yet casual touch to make meals ranging from quick everyday dinners to grand-scale dining.

CHILI MEATLOAF & POTATO CASSEROLE

SALISBURY STEAK WITH MUSHROOM GRAVY

WIDOW BODINE'S BODACIOUS BEAN CASSEROLE

CORNED BEEF on POTATO PANCAKES

GRILLED STEAK AND POTATO SALAD

CREAM CHIPPED BEEF ON POTATOES

MEAT & POTATO QUICHE

SOUR CREAM CHOCOLATE CAKE

NANCY'S ONE-POT DINNER RECIPE

by CNB