Singer Dolly Parton knows how to whip up a tasty banana pudding, and she explains how to make the dessert and more than 125 other recipes in a new cookbook to help raise money for her Imagination Library.
Advance sales for "Dolly's Dixie Fixin's" began last week, and people who buy a book will be entered to win a backyard barbecue and bluegrass festival with Parton as a special guest, Dollywood Foundation officials said.
All the proceeds from the cookbook go toward Parton's Dollywood Foundation, which supports the Imagination Library. The program providing a free book a month for children from birth until age 5 has been established in 42 states since it first started in 1996.
Parton's cookbook features recipes from her late mother, Avie Lee Parton, and her mother-in-law "Mama" Ginny Dean as well as Dollywood restaurants and the Dixie Stampede Dinner and Show. It also includes recipes inspired by restaurant dishes she discovered while touring over the last 40 years.
The book will be sold only at Dollywood and Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge, Branson, Mo., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., and online at http://www.dollywood.com, http://www.dixiestampede.com and http://www.imaginationlibrary.com.
People have until Sept. 1 to qualify for the barbecue with Dolly prize.