Cookin' Up a Storm

"Born on the Fourth of July into a hard scrabble life in the rural Deep South, Annie Johnson was a sharecropper's daughter with a generous nature and a desire to help those in need. Becoming fluent in the language of food, Annie mastered the art of Southern cooking. She came to work for the Rankin family as a cook and housekeeper when Lee Rankin was six weeks old. In a foreshadowing of the deeply affectionate relationship that would develop between the two women, Annie fondly referred to Lee as her "white baby." From a very early age, Lee turned to Annie as a friend, mentor, confidant, and someone she could count on to help calm the storms of childhood. Along the way, Lee also took cooking lessons from Annie. With Annie as her life's inspiration and cooking muse, Lee graduated with honors from the Culinary Institute of America in New York. She conceived of 'Cookin' Up a Storm' as a way of honoring Annie for a lifetime of selfless dedication to others, including her family, friends, and all who sampled the perfection of her cooking. 'Cookin' Up a Storm' is a unique cookbook that reveals Annie's secret recipes, accumulated over the course of almost 80 years -- most never before recorded in written form. The book also reveals the secrets behind the special relationship between Annie and Lee -- a bond that has endured through the entirety of Lee's life and continues to grow stronger every day."--