Tupelo Honey book helps the Blue Ridge Parkway

When it's hot like this, it's nice to have an excuse to at least think about something cool: How about the misty blue beauty of the Blue Ridge Parkway?

After the successful launch of its first cookbook last year, Asheville's popular restaurant Tupelo Honey is helping out the Blue Ridge Parkway with its second book. Tupelo has signed with Andrews McMeel Publishing to release a book in spring 2014 that will focus on the regional cooking traditions of the Mountain South, with a focus on the 469-mile parkway.

The Tupelo Blue Ridge book will include 125 recipes, full-color photography and historical and culinary tradition information. The writing and recipe team will be Elizabeth Sims and chef Brian Sonoskus, who produced the first Tupelo book.

Particularly nice: In the first year, the Tupelo Blue Ridge book will donate $2 from every book sold to Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which oversees volunteers and promotes stewardship of the road.

There's more news, as well. Tupelo Honey is planning to branch out from downtown Asheville with a new restaurant opening later this year in Knoxville and a third planned for somewhere in the vicinity of Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport, Tenn.

You reckon adding two more Tupelo Honeys will make it easier to get a Saturday morning table at the Asheville original? Nah, me neither.

How much do you love pimento cheese?

I know some of you aren't exactly reasonable on the subject of pimento cheese. So I'm just going to put this one out there and back up a few steps:

The restaurant Tupelo Honey in Asheville has started something the world is surely waiting for: A Pimento Cheese of the Month Club. For $199 (with free shipping if you order before Mother's Day, not that they're making a hint), you get six shipments, one every other month for a year.

Each shipment includes 16 ounces of "gourmet hand-crafted pimento cheese" from the restaurant, 7 ounces of grass-fed charcuterie from Hickory Nut Gap Farm, and artisanal vegan crackers from Roots and Branches.

For more information or to sign up, go to www.tupelohoneycafe.com.

And before you get all het up, remember: I did not willingly type the words "gourmet hand-crafted pimento cheese." I'm just the messenger, people.

Cookbook giveaway: Who won "Tupelo Honey"?

Rhonda Mathis of Charlotte is the winner in our random drawing for a copy of the cookbook "Tupelo Honey Cafe," by Elizabeth Sims, featuring recipes from the little restaurant in downtown Asheville.

While we're on the subject of Asheville, here's a question for you: What's your don't-miss eating experience there these days? I'm making a trip over there soon. On my list: 12 Bones and Doc Chey's, and a return visit to The Admiral.

I've already been to Barley's Taproom, Chocolate Fetish, Early Girl, Tupelo Honey, The Market Place, the Laughing Seed and Zambra. And of course, I've made many trips to the French Broad Food Co-Op and the Grove Arcade.

What else should be on my list, Asheville fans?

Let us now praise 4 GREAT Southern cookbooks

And yes, we'll give one away. Read to the end to find out how.

The thing that keeps me endlessly interested in writing about Southern food is how it takes so many guises: It can be as down-home as a Paula Deen-knitted afghan, and as cutting-edge as sous vide pasture-raised pork. It can be soul food, it can be tea room food. And it's still all good.

And this year, we have a particularly fine crop of cookbooks from authors right here in North Carolina. Consider, and definitely consider buying:

"Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes," by Andrea Reusing (Clarkson Potter, $35). Quite a year for the chef of Chapel Hill's Lantern. She got the James Beard medal as Best Chef Southeast, and she turned out this terrific book. She writes more as a food lover than a chef, with a natural and warm style. The result is both a cookbook and a vibrant portrait of the food culture in the Triangle. Even better: She's cooking with the food that's all around us, right here and right now. There is serious inspiration to be had here.

"Sara Foster's Southern Kitchen," by Sara Foster (Random House, $35). The owner of the Foster's Market cafes in Durham and Chapel Hill has written several cookbooks. This feels like her most personal book yet, and much more Southern. Like the food in her cafes, the recipes are good-times dishes with comfortable style. Lots of tips for working with ingredients and changing up the dishes. Lots of great pictures, too, for those who need to see it before they'll cook it.

"The New Southern Garden Cookbook," by Sheri Castle (UNC Press, $35). If you're a CSA member or a farmer's market regular, you need this. It's broken down by ingredient, from apples to zucchini. This is the book for those times when you stumble on really great figs or green garlic, or a dozen others. The recipes are a mix of old favorites, like "kilt" lettuce (an Appalachian version of a wilted salad) and more contemporary tastes, like garlic custard, collard pesto and smoked tomatoes.

"Tupelo Honey Cafe," by Elizabeth Sims with chef Brian Sonoskus (Andrews McMeel, $29.99). It's as much a celebration of the "Foodtopia" of Asheville as it is about the sweet cafe near Pack Square. This is not one of those "postcard to me" chef books with food you'll admire but not make. The recipes here are completely doable and kitchen-friendly. For proof, see the recipe below for Warm Pimento Cheese And Chips.

OK, a giveaway: I've got a copy of "Tupelo Honey Cafe" to share. Send me an email with "Tupelo Honey" in the subject line and I'll pick a winner at random. Deadline: 9 a.m. June 9.

Warm Pimento Cheese And Chips From "Tupelo Honey Cafe," by Elizabeth Sims.

8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon stone-ground mustard
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup finely diced roasted red bell pepper
Tortilla chips

Combine all the ingredients except the tortilla chips in a large bowl to mix. Transfer to a microwaveable dish and microwave about 20 seconds, or until hot. Or put in a baking dish in a preheated 350-degree oven about 15 minutes, or until heated through. Serve with the tortilla chips.