By BOB BATZ JR., Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Suddenly hot: Roasts.

Browned-on-the-outside, juicy-on-the-inside cuts of every kind of meat are glistening from the covers of magazines.

In today's ever-exploding food scene, it's not a surprise that someone would write and get published an entire cookbook about gobs.

But it is a surprise that a Western Pennsylvania native could make a living making and selling these indigenous, quirky confections in, of all places, San Francisco.

Just when you think there isn't a food that already has its own cookbook, you open your mail and get "Grilled Cheese Please!

Anything "giant" might sound out of place in a "small-batch" cookbook, but you only make three cookies with this recipe from "Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers."

Lots of cookbooks land on my desk and eventually move on to other piles and shelves without getting a second look. But "Easy Tasty Italian" caught my eye, and not only because of the pretty blonde on the cover.

The modern-day obsession with celebrity is ... not so modern, of course.

In her recently updated and provocative cookbook, "Glorious One-Pot Meals," Elizabeth Yarnell writes, "It has been said that there are only nine cooking methods on this planet: saute, fry, bake, broil, grill, slow-cook, braise, boil and steam."
But Yarnell makes it 10 with her process for "infusion cooking," a term she's actually patented.

Here are some recipes to consider making for Passover, the eight-day Jewish festival marking the ancient Hebrews' deliverance from slavery in Egypt. This year, Passover begins at sundown on April 8 and continues until sundown on April 16.

ROASTED GARLIC ASPARAGUS

(Tested by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Rick Rodgers not only wrote the book on Thanksgiving dinner, he also updated it.He's freshened his "Thanksgiving 101," which was first published in 1998. No doubt many readers have their gravy-stained originals.

If you seek inspiration in your quest for foods to eat before you die, get your hands on the book "1,001 Foods to Die For."