When I receive a cookbook as a gift, it’s most likely a gag gift because my friends know when I cook, I use the smoke alarm as a timer. But I fell in love the moment I cracked the spine of the Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-Ass Cookbook (and financial planner.) Not only were the recipes easy, you’ve gotta love a book where the four major food groups are “sweet, salty, fried and au gratin.”

I hope the ladies don’t mind, (or decide to sue me) but here’s a recipe I copied word for word from Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-Ass Cookbook. Not only can I make this, I make this and I don’t share.

Pig Candy recipe

You start with bacon - and don't y'all just know how I purely love a recipe that starts with bacon. The fat is the whole point of the bacon. If you're interested in the red part, get a ham or something. I mean, really.

So anyway, you start with bacon, and the only other ingredient is brown sugar - and do I really need to say the dark brown kind? You just roll the bacon in the dark brown sugar and then you bake it (at 350 F. for about 20 minutes or so, depending on your oven and also how you like your bacon - put it on a rack on a cookie sheet, and you don't even have to turn it over!) - and voy-ola! Pig Candy!

Instead of stuffy and impossible, this book gave me a bunch of recipes that are sassy and smart-assy. I’m grateful for the Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-Ass Cookbook (and financial planner) because finally there’s a cookbook out there that won’t ask me to poach, chiffonade, acidulate or do much more than what it takes to prepare a TV dinner.

That’s why I’m grateful for Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-Ass Cookbook (and financial planner.)