Country music star and cooking show host Yearwood (Trisha's Table) serves up a solid helping of 125 comfort food recipes. She begins with breakfasts; moves through hearty mains, including a tender steak with blue cheese compound butter and cornflake-fried catfish; then finishes with desserts, and throughout pairs dishes with stories of her Georgia childhood, her life on tour, and her days laying low in Nashville with husband Garth Brooks. The cheesy beef and potato hash reminds her of the meals she'd eat at the truck stop diners where the tour bus would stop early in her career. Fried pork chops and white gravy bring back memories of childhood dinners ("they were a 'thing' in my family"), while lobster mac and cheese conjures Las Vegas room service she and Brooks's girls would enjoy while he was off performing, and her blueberry pie bars are inspired by the ones she provided at a tailgate during Brooks's stadium tour in 2019. Though Yearwood nodded to healthier eating in her previous works, she returns here to family mainstays with enough cream, sugar, Crisco, and bacon to keep the lights on in the cardiologist's office. Fans of Yearwood's Food Network show and those in search of tasty Southern fare are bound to be won over. Agent: David Vigliano, Vigliano Assoc. (Sept.)

Country singer Yearwood (Trisha's Table; Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood) invites us into her kitchen with her fourth cookbook, focused on her family's comfort foods; her husband Garth Brooks contributes a foreword. Yearwood showcases family recipes like Garth's Breakfast Lasagna and Grandma Yearwood's Hundred Dollar Cupcakes. Fans of her Food Network show will be familiar with her eclectic style. Recipes range from Galaxy Doughnuts for breakfast to Peanut Butter Pie for dessert. As in Yearwood's other cookbooks, appetizers and entrees for gatherings feature heavily (including Baked Gouda with Dried Cherries and Walnuts). Her personal touch is evident; Yearwood introduces each recipe by explaining how and why she enjoys it, while rich color photographs show her family and friends sharing the cooking experience. "Trisha's Tips" accent the text along the way. VERDICT A variety of comfort food ideas that will please Yearwood's fans and attract new foodies. These dishes will find an eager audience in home cooks of all levels.--Barbara Kundanis, Longmont P.L., CO

Everything bacon and biscuits here, with more than one twist. Embarking on her fourth cookbook, country-singer Yearwood, with her sister Bernard (and a little help from husband Garth Brooks), presents 100-plus ordinary recipes that are anything but. Try buttermilk cheddar corn cakes, ricotta tartlets with cherry tomatoes, potato-chip bacon brownies, and chocolate gravy (!)--all explained in a down-home, comfortable style that's as much city as country. Plus, running commentary on every dish, peppered with tales of relatives, friends, and family and a handful of experience-showing sidebars (a description of tomatillos, substitute ideas--like bacon instead of pancetta) prove that this is more than a celebrity hobby. The seriousness is apparent in top-notch color photography, in a very common-sense approach to equipment, and the embracing of shortcuts and store-bought items that don't detract from flavor. Trisha's tips, too, are geared to average home cooks; she provides step-by-step photographs and how-tos for more difficult maneuvers (e.g., making gnocchi). Music that sounds even better in the kitchen.