This cookbook puts a Southern accent on flavor

I 'm always looking for something new and interesting to write about.

My sister, Janet, recently gave me the scoop on a couple of really quick and easy recipes she'd heard about on National Public Radio's "Splendid Table" show.

So I checked them out. Certainly inventive, the recipes for pickled grapes and radish butter instantly intrigued me. Both sounded like perfect appetizers for a party or an impromptu happy hour, when we get together with neighbors.

The recipes came from the kitchen of Matt and Ted Lee in their most recent book, "The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor."

I immediately ordered the book online.

Quickly perusing my new arrival, I found that every recipe called for just a few ingredients. "Cool," I thought. "My kind of book!"

Using lighter cooking methods, the brothers are in the forefront of a movement to make Southern food healthier. For example, skillet green beans call for fresh navel orange segments to substitute for the chunks of really good bacon they grew up eating in Charleston, S.C.

It's a fun cookbook - lots of good ideas for party foods, as well as recipes to make any night of the week.

Its magenta-speckled radish butter couldn't be simpler to make, and it has been a knockout on my appetizer table. Serving six people, the dish takes less than 10 minutes, if your six tablespoons of unsalted butter are already at room temperature. Best of all, it is dirt cheap.

There is little that hasn't been pickled in the South. This 256-page cookbook includes eight unusual pickle recipes, such as watermelon, onion and radish and the grapes with rosemary and chilés I've included as this week's recipe.

The red and green grapes look like olives, once pickled. Tangy and tart, they are quite addicting, not to mention one heck of a conversation piece at my happiest happy hour in the neighborhood. Just try them.

You can read more about the Lee brothers at www.simplefreshsouthern.com.

PICKLED GRAPES WITH ROSEMARY AND CHILES

6 cups stemmed, mix of red and green seedless grapes
2 cups distilled white or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
3 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
Leaves from a 4-inch sprig of rosemary
1/2 teaspoon crushed dried, red chili flakes
Pack the grapes into 3 pint-size glass containers with lids. Pour the vinegar and 1 cup of water into a saucepan, set it over medium-high heat and add the salt, sugar, garlic, rosemary and chilé flakes. When the mixture starts to simmer, remove the pan from the heat and divide the hot brine among the pints of grapes. Cover loosely and let cool to room temperature.
Cover tightly and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour before serving. The pickles will keep in the refrigerator for about two weeks.
Makes 1 1/2 quarts.
Source: The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern by Matt Lee and Ted Lee