The Kitchen Sink Cookbook

Book excerpt: Food columnist and junk-food fan Carolyn Wyman has unearthed a treasure trove of unconventional, surprising, and just plain weird recipes sure to provoke even the most jaded palate. From community cookbooks, food manufacturer promotions, recipe contests, and local lore come dishes that get their "zing" from secret, unexpected ingredients (chow mein candy, twelve-tea-bag soup); delicacies that make the most of nature (dandelion mini-pizzas, rattlesnake chili); concoctions that evolved from food fashions and obsessions (Velveeta fudge, apple lasagne), and other landmarks - and land mines - of culinary experimentation. The Kitchen Sink Cookbook also includes food art projects - great rainy-day activities for kids of all ages; memorable recipes for holidays and special occasions; instructions on creating food-based health, beauty, and household-cleaning products; mail order sources for rare delicacies like emu jerky and grilled steak-and-onion potato chips.