by Laura Miklowitz

Nothing stirs the soul at the holidays like good old-fashioned home cooking. (If you don’t feel like cooking, find out where to buy your holiday meal on page 16.) But if you have the time and energy, local, home-cooked food is worth the effort, and these regional cookbooks serve up recipes from kitchens past and present. Each cookbook tells a story, and each offers a novel, often personal, approach to cooking, from the radicchio to the sublime.

Chef’s Table: Mountain Flavors from Asheville’s Most Celebrated ChefsCompiled by: The Asheville Citizen-Times

What’s cooking: Fifty regional restaurants—from 12 Bones to Weaverville Mining Company—strut their culinary stuff with recipes for Fried Pickle Chips, Lobster Mac and Cheese and Gator Burritos, to name just a few.

You’ll relish: The variety of victuals, scrumptious photos and easy-to-follow, upscale recipes, peppered with chef bios and tasty tidbits.

Appeals to: Asheville foodies, aspiring cooks and adventurous palates.

Sublime Soups: Vegetarian Soups and Quick Breads
by Lenore Baum

What’s cooking: Lenore began her vegetarian voyage with a pot of boiling water and a vivid imagination. If you don’t know beans about broth, this is a good place to start. There’s also tasteful quick bread, along with sauces, stews and casseroles.

You’ll relish: Easy-to-prepare healthy recipes like fennel bisque, cream of shitake soup and homemade curry powder.

Appeals to: Anyone who’s ever warmed herself (inside and out) over a steaming bowl of gracious goodness.

Elsie’s Biscuits, by Laurey Masterton

What’s cooking: The author (and owner of Laurey’s Catering and Gourmet-to-Go in Asheville) grew up in a quaint Vermont inn where food and family came first. She lost her parents at age 12 but took comfort from her mother Elsie’s zest for life. The book is four parts delectably unpretentious “culinary memoir” and one part recipes.

You’ll relish: Her homespun homilies of simpler times and simple food. Try the Portobello Wellington and Elsie’s Sour Cream Waffles.

Appeals to: Those who grew up on Marshmallow Fluff and TV dinners and know better now but still long for the food of their past.

The 1st American Cookie Lady: Recipes from a 1917 Cookie Diary
by Barbara Swell

What’s cooking: While perusing eBay, Swell found baker Anna “Cookie” Covington’s pristine 76-page handwritten cookie journal. If you’re itching to bake from scratch with pure old-timey ingredients, whip up some Scottish Petticoat Tails, Rum Raisin Peek-a-Boos or Castor Oil cookies.

You’ll relish: The 208 recipes, exactly as Covington wrote them, plus updated interpretations, helpful hints and charming period illustrations.

Appeals to: Bakers and history buffs. How many cookbooks devote an entire chapter to World War I cookies?