I have been doing absolutely nothing today except flipping through cookbooks. I'm sure there are a hundred other things I should be doing, but family night supper is coming up at church and I'd like to take something other than the usual chocolate meringue pie I always make. Of course it's delicious, but I'm in the mood to try something snazzier.

I suppose I could look up recipes on the Internet, but you never know where those recipes come from. For all we know, some paper-pusher who has never even cracked an egg made up some recipes and slapped them on a web site. No, take my advice: The place to go for recipes is the old fashioned fundraiser cookbook. Talk about tried and true, taste-tested recipes. These recipes have people's names attached to them, for heaven's sake. If a recipe doesn't turn out, believe me you'll hear about it in Sunday school.

I have about 30 of these cookbooks from various churches, sororities, and civic organizations. Some of them are new and some are ancient, passed down from my grandmothers. That's why it's taken me all day to look through them. You can always tell the best recipes because those are on the pages that stick to your fingers and are splotched with grease or gravy or chocolate sauce.

These books are a good place to find classic recipes like Brown Betty, salmon loaf, macaroni casserole, and tomato aspic, but mostly they're plain fun to read. Just look at these adjectives: Zippy Carrots, Thousand-Dollar Cake, Festive Turkey Cups, Infallible Rice, Onion Supreme. Who knew "onion" and "supreme" would ever be used together in a single phrase?

And get a load of these recipe names: Rummage Relish, Chicken Goop, My Boy's Favorite Cookies, Trash, Parson's Delight, Cabbage Scramble, Green Glop, Stay-A-Bed Stew, Party Meat Loaf, Gumdrop Bread, Presbyterian Casserole, Broken Glass Torte. I am not making these up, folks. These titles leave the reader not only wanting to know what in the world is in these dishes, but also the story behind them.

The recipes with somebody's name attached have a certain appeal too, like Uncle Lumpy's Secret Gumbo, Elsie's Sure-To-Please Deviled Eggs, and Annie's Famous Baked French Toast. If it starts out with somebody's name, you know it's going to be extra special.

If you can get beyond the titles, you'll also find a treasure in the recipes themselves. The cooks may be demanding (Granny's Yeast Rolls -"No substitutions allowed!!"), laid back (Dump Salad-"Dump all ingredients together"), overly sweet (Mint Freeze-"Combine pineapple, jello, marshmallows, crushed buttermints, and whipped cream"), competitive (Even Better Than Sally's Chocolate Cake) or funny (Rabbit Stew- "some people simply do not like hare in their stew").

The problem with having so many gems available in these cookbooks is narrowing them down to the best one to try. Will it be Betty's Caramel Biscuits, Purple Lady Salad, Spanish Noodle Delight, or perhaps Sissy's Toasted Orange Fingers?

On the other hand, Merl will be in town for Family Night Supper and he loves my chocolate pie. Maybe I should just stick with what I know best. Yes, I could do that, but instead call it Aunt Ida Mae's Sinfully Scrumptious Million Dollar Chocolate Meringue Pie.

Now, that's snazzy.

Aunt Ida Mae's Sinfully Scrumptious Million Dollar Chocolate Meringue Pie

Ingredients: 3 eggs (separated), 3 tbsp cocoa, 1 cup milk, a pinch of cream of tartar (if you have it), 2 tbsp flour, 1 cup sugar, plus another 1/4 cup sugar, one baked pie crust - preferably homemade!

What to do: Put 1 cup sugar in saucepan. Add flour, then cocoa and cream of tartar and stir until well mixed. Over this mixture pour the 3 egg yolks. Add the milk slowly, stirring until lumps are out. Cook over low heat, stirring, until just thick. Remove from heat and pour into eagerly waiting pie crust. Beat 3 egg whites until a little stiff. Add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until very stiff. Spread meringue over chocolate filling. Bake in preheated 325-degree oven just until meringue is golden brown.

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