RECIPE SWAP BOOK DEBUTS THURSDAY

Who are the best cooks in the area? Many of them share their recipes each Wednesday in the Southeast Missourian's Recipe Swap column.

Recipes from more than a year of the column will be featured in a brand new cookbook that will debut Thursday at the Southern Living Cooking School. The spiral-bound book, featuring nearly 630 recipes, will sell for $5.

If copies remain, it will be available Friday at Southeast Misourian offices. About 2,000 copies will be available at the show, but about 6,000 people are expected.

As a bonus, the cookbook features the winners and finalists from all five Southeast Missourian cooking contests over the last five years. These include Devilish Desserts, Meatloaf, Pie in the Sky Bakeoff, Colossal Cookie and Chili Cookoff.

The cookbook features the entire columns from November 1998 to March 2000, including the names of all the cooks who submitted the recipes.

Susan McClahanan, who authors the Recipe Swap column, will be at the cooking show to hand out samples of Oyster Cracker Snack Mix, which was recently published in her column. She'll also try to sign as many cookbooks as possible.