SPOONBREAD AND STRAWBERRY WINE

A downhome treasury, collected by fashion model Norma Jean and Wiltwyck counselor Carole, which generously shares family memories and recipes--Aunt Maude's divinity fudge, Uncle Glen's Eight-Year Black Fruitcake, peanut butter ice cream (acquired from neighbor George Washington Carver). The original Dardens and Sampsons haft from Wilson (N.C.), Opelika (Ala.), and other sleepy towns, and many of the recipes reflect their southern sources--roast opossum, collard greens, corn bread, pot likker. The families moved around and settled elsewhere, some (like the authors' father) moving north suddenly--an angry Klansman was after him. For the most part, this is big-happy-family fare, warmly anecdotal and highly likable but no culinary competition to Edna Lewis' The Taste of Country Cooking (1976).