By Marian Betancourt
The Associated Press

CROSS CREEK, Fla. - "My literary ability may safely be questioned as harshly as one wills, but indifference to my table puts me in a rage," wrote Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in her 1942 memoir, Cross Creek. She claimed that cooking was her only vanity.

Ms. Rawlings, who died in 1953, is famous for her 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Yearling.

She is less well known for her cooking. Yet, her Cross Creek Cooker (Simon & Schuster; $12), published the same year as her memoir, is still in print. The late food critic Craig Claiborne called it, "One of the best and most concentrated and authentic books on Southern cooking."

A visitor to the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park, where her Cross Creek farm is an historic landmark operated by the Florida state park system, immediately gets a sense of the importance of food in Ms. Rawlings' life.

In the small, old-fashioned kitchen, you'll find a basket of freshly picked vegetables. A pot of greens may be simmering, or some corn bread cooking on the wood stove.

Tour guides wear 1930s house dresses, ankle socks and clunky-heeled period shoes. A kitchen garden with vegetables, herbs, and flowers reflects the seasonal crops Ms. Rawlings planted, harvested, cooked and canned.

Ms. Rawlings wrote and cooked until she died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 57. She is buried near Cross Creek.

The following, quoted with permission from Cross Creek Cookery, are based on using fresh hearts of palm (canned can be used). Canned hearts of palm, packed in water, are available in gourmet markets and supermarkets

Swamp Cabbage, Camp Style

Boil (hearts of palm) slowly in as little water as possible, with several slices of white bacon. The bacon will probably provide sufficient salt. Pepper may be added if desired. If palm heart has any tendency to bitterness, parboil for 5 minutes, drain off water, and cover with fresh boiling water. Otherwise, cook, tightly covered, for 45 minutes or until meltingly tender, and until most of the moisture has been absorbed.

Swamp Cabbage, Cross Creek

Instead of white bacon, add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to sliced palm heart and cook in very little water until dry and thoroughly tender. Add 1/2 to 1 cup of cream, heated, quantity according to amount of palm heart. Heat to simmering and serve at once.