She’s in love with the boy; that’s for sure.

 

And country music superstar Trisha Yearwood knows the way to her man’s heart. Lucky for best-selling solo album artist of all time Garth Brooks, Trisha not only has the voice of a song bird, but has also become a noted cook.

 

Her Emmy award-winning Food Network show, “Trisha’s Southern Kitchen,” is in its eighth season and she has released a trio of cookbooks, the latest – “Trisha’s Table” – in March of 2015. Written by Yearwood with the help of her sister Beth and including a forward written by her country/pop crossroads megastar husband, the book has been pretty well received; debuting at No. 7 on The New York Times Bestsellers List.

 

While the performing pair were in the Mountain State this past weekend to wow fans at Charleston Civic Center, the songstress shared with me just how that cookbook came to be.

 

“I actually went to New York to meet with a publisher who wanted me to write an autobiography,” she said. “I said that wasn’t something I wanted to do now, but maybe a long time down the line.”

 

So the publisher asked her: “What do you like to do?”

 

“I told him I liked to cook,” she said. “It was out of thin air. It really was a simple answer to a question.”

 

By the time she left New York, she said she had to call her mom and sister and spill the news: That she had volunteered them to help her write a cookbook.

 

Still, Yearwood said she never dreamed that the project would be such a huge one.

 

“I just thought the book would include all those recipes that were in a shoebox – or in my mom’s head – that they would all be in one place and I was so happy about that,” she said. “I never thought it would turn into this.”

 

As has happened through the years with both her and her husband’s string of albums and subsequent hit singles, the cookbook was a success – and paved the way for yet more culinary projects.

 

“The cookbook was a success and then the show came along,” she said. “The show was successful and so I got so many other opportunities.”

 

Following a line of cookware, Trisha’s Precious Metals, came lines of furniture, home accessories and rugs all under The Trisha Yearwood Home Collection.

 

“I’m just trying to do things I thought would be fun,” said the artist with a big smile.

 

So what’s cooking in the kitchen when her husband is hungry?

 

“Garth loves anything in one dish – something he can take a spoon to,” she said. “I make a black bean lasagna he loves and also a chicken rice broccoli cheese casserole he loves. Every southerner has that recipe.”

 

And I bet our favorite Grammy-winning vocalist turned cooking celebrity signs it all with XXX’s and OOO’s. 

 

Julie Perine can be reached at julie@connect-bridgeport.com, 304-

848-7200 or follow @JuliePerine on Twitter!

 

See a show clip - with a special appearance by Garth Brooks - below. The couple just happens to be making black bean lasagna.