About May I began collecting and assembling a cookbook of the far-flung Comer family recipes. I intend to self-publish the book and make it available to anyone,but it is intended for the descendants of my Grandmother, Rosa Comer, my mother's Mom. Rosie was a traditional cook who never saw a microwave, used an electric can opener or bought a potato in a store.

My Grandmother was a legendary cook. She raised many children and most of what they ate came from the garden and our of the smokehouse or ice box. She made and baked pies for many friends and made egg noodles and dough for many dishes, which people bought from her for a pittance.

It took me while to get anyone interested, but gradually the recipes came floating in on emails. I found several hand-written recipe cards that Grandma wrote in her own hand and they are in the book.

The big contributors have been myself, my sister and my youngest uncle and a few people in his family. That is not counting the recipes I collected that were my Grandmother's own. They are many, too.

In late July I sent an email to everyone that the final deadline would be September 15. That is today.

I repeated the deadline announcement in August and again today.

My cat Hobbes bet me seventy cents that nobody will submit recipes by the deadline when I shut off this computer tonight. I took the bet, because I have faith in people.

He only trusts "fur" or so he claims.

We'll see.

Any way, the cookbook would be a treasure for the cousins and their children and their children's children. It would make a nice Christmas gift. I am going to do it via "publish-on-demand" at Lulu.com, where I published my novels. There will be no profit for me. I will incur the up-front charges to publish it - about $150.00.

We'll see.