2008 Tabasco Awards

Every year the McIlhenny peeps, the saucy ones who make the even spicier Tabasco Sauce products, issue the Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards.

This year, Favorite Recipes Press has five titles on the list of awards recipients.

Peeling the Wild Onion from the Junior League of Chicago of Chicago, IL earned second place in the national competition. This modern cookbook with its chic design also draws on the Windy City’s historic roots, as Chicago means “wild onion” in local Native American culture. With recipes organized by the four seasons that are so intensely experienced in Chicago, this book is a culinary trip through the great city.

A Thyme to Entertain: Menus & Traditions of Annapolis from the Junior League of Annapolis, Inc. of Annapolis, MD earned third place in the national competition. Loaded with amazing local recipes and highlighted by symbolic watercolor graphics throughout, this is a genuine community cookbook because it inspires the reader to experience Annapolis and surrounding areas firsthand. Upon pouring over its pages, one can’t resist the desire to spend an afternoon in a Chesapeake Bay vineyard, or to enjoy a crab feast and then stroll through the historic bay town of Annapolis.

Sunny Days, Balmy Nights – Entertaining Miami Style from the Young Patronesses of the Opera of Miami, FL earned the Southern regional award. Talk about serving up culture: this book is a fun, colorful, and diverse culinary trip to paradise. Sunny Days, Balmy Nights offers up summer year-round with its tropical influences, tastes of Cuba, tons of brilliant entertaining ideas, and wonderful recipes for savoring seafood.

California Mosaic from the Junior League of Pasadena of Pasadena, CA earned the West regional award. California is truly a geographical mosaic, from its people and their histories and cultures, to the diverse landscapes and cities. California Mosaic celebrates this flavorful existence with a beautiful selection of recipes that are like taking a trip around the world.

Stir Ups, which the Junior Welfare League of Enid of Enid, OK published in 1982, was one of two books inducted into the honorable Walter S. McIlhenny Hall of Fame. Stir Ups was honored for having sold more than 100,000 copies.

All of the books except Sunny Days, Balmy Nights are available online at The Cookbook Marketplace: www.cookbookmarketplace.com.