Never underestimate the importance of kindergarten. After all, says Karyl Bannister, it was Miss Gregory back in Needham, Mass., who introduced her to the “joy of cooking.”

The teacher would gather her young charges into little green chairs and let them take turns using an egg beater to turn a bowl full of heavy cream into butter.

“The bowl went out onto the wide granite windowsill in the cold to let the butter turn hard. And then – and then – she brought it in and spread the butter on Ritz crackers for us to eat. O magic thing! O frabjous day!”

This smidge of writing from the April 2001 issue of Cook & Tell illustrates the enthusiasm for cooking that has brought Bannister a solid 1,700 subscriptions to the newsletter she writes 10 times a year from her restored farmhouse in the coastal town of Southport.

Further, it is the spirit that has produced her first book called, appropriately, “Cook & Tell: No-Fuss Recipes and Gourmet Surprises,” published by Houghton Mifflin Co.

A popular newsletter, a nice book – others have done it. But get this. The agent for the book came looking for her.

It happened in 1995, some 13 years into the life of the Cook & Tell newsletter, which goes to readers in all 50 states and several countries.

A Boston newspaper did a story on Bannister, prompting an agent who specializes in cookbooks to contact her and ask for about five years’ worth of newsletters.

The agent read them and promptly pitched the book to Bannister.

“I still was not enthusiastic,” she recalled. “It took from about ’95 to ’98 before I finally finished the proposal.” Within a few weeks, two publishers were vying for the project, and Bannister chose Houghton Mifflin.

Sixteen months of steady work produced the manuscript, and now the book is a reality, with a colorful cover wrapping 387 pages of easy-on-the-eyes blue print.

The chapters are organized with titles such as “Soulful Bowlfuls,” “Cook It Easy,” “Saltwater Summer,” “Born to Bake” and “Chocolate Chitchat.”

“I test everything,” Bannister is quick to say. Between the newsletter and the book, she doesn’t really have time to remember one favorite recipe any more. “I just keep having to move on to the next issue.”

A perfect memory isn’t really what her readers want, anyway.

What they respond to is the warm, breezy style of the essay the effervescent Bannister writes for each issue, and the efforts she makes to gather what’s nourishing, what’s easy, what just tastes good for both newsletter and book.

“I love cooking. I relax cooking,” said Randall Decoteau, who has subscribed to Cook and Tell for more than a decade. “And I often give gift subscriptions,” he added.

An antiques dealer in Warren, Mass. – he is a member of the Maine Antiques Dealers Association and will participate in the group’s July 22 show in Portland – Decoteau has been known to organize his schedule so that he can take the day off when he’s preparing for a dinner party.

“Afterward, I send Karyl a copy of the menu, and a critique of the recipes I used. It’s a wonderful thing for me to put it in writing,” he said.

Bannister often shares his comments in the newsletter, and Decoteau has recipes in the book – “a cranberry-glazed pork roast, and a mushroom tart with an incredible taste,” he said.

There are countless food magazines and newsletters on the market, Decoteau acknowledged, but he subscribes to just four. Bannister’s is one of them.

“One of the things I like best is comfort food,” he explained. “I like hearty, hearty meals. Often I cook pork roasts, meatloaf or fried chicken and potato salad. Then I’ll fuss with the first course or appetizer, do something exotic.”

Cook & Tell recipes are often a springboard for his own creativity, Decoteau said, adding that he really enjoys the networking opportunities the newsletter offers.

Writing about cooking is nothing Bannister expected would become her passion.

At the Massachusetts College of Art, she majored in advertising design, and later worked for an ad agency in Boston. She eventually did illustrating for a sailing magazine, The Skipper.

Before her wedding, her mother did give her a crash course in cooking, and the bride took “The Joy of Cooking” along on her honeymoon.

Bannister moved to Maine nearly 30 years ago and focused on raising her daughter, Amie, who now lives in Arizona.

The food writing started with a cooking column she did for a local weekly. Inspiration for the column, which earned her $5 a week, sometimes came from strange places.

“One time I had three flat tires in a month, and I thought, what the heck. What about stuff that depends on air? Mousses, mayonnaise. I was a writer, not a cook, really,” she said.

After three years, the paper replaced the column, but did offer her the opportunity to write a household column.

“I said no, and just went into action,” Bannister said. “I sent out a prototype of a newsletter to my Christmas card list and various so-called fans of the column. I started with 50 subscribers, and by the end of the year had about 100.”

Readership grew steadily – with occasional surges thanks to stories in publications such as Yankee Magazine, as well as Jane and Michael Stern’s column in Gourmet – to the point that “the whole thing went out of the back yard and into the world. There was a universe that would talk to each other, send gift subscriptions to each other,” she said.

Now, there is the “Cook & Tell” book, which not only brings Bannister’s work to new readers, but shares favorite recipes from some of her subscribers.

“In keeping with the definition of receipt, the old-fashioned word for recipe, I have been but one receiver in a chain of receivers,” she said. The book includes an entry by the winner of the “pea soup olympics” contest Bannister once held.

She will continue to publish the newsletter 10 times a year, one issue a month except for January and July.

Whether there will be another book, or a cooking project that takes off in a totally new direction, Bannister doesn’t know yet.

“I have no idea what is next,” she said. “If anything comes along, fine.”

Karyl Bannister’s Cook & Tell newsletter is available for $16 a year, ($18 in Canada, $23 overseas, U.S. funds) from Cook & Tell, Love’s Cove, P.O. Box 363, Southport, ME 04576. Back issues are available. Check the Web site at www.cookandtell.com. The “Cook & Tell” book is available in bookstores.

Barbecued Salmon

Contributed by Pam Pingree

11/2 1-pound salmon fillets, skin on

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

? teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons prepared mustard

1 small onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings

Barbecue Sauce (see recipe)

Preheat grill. Sprinkle the fleshy side of the fillet with the salt, pepper and garlic powder. Mix mayonnaise and mustard in a small bowl and spread on the same side of the fillet. Cook the fillet, flesh side down, on a covered grill for 7 minutes. Keep a squirt bottle of water at the ready for flame dousing, in case of drippy mayonnaise. Turn the fillet flesh side up. Scatter the onion rings over the fish and cover it lightly with foil. Grill, covered, for 15 minutes more, or until the flesh flakes with a fork. Serve warm with Barbecue Sauce. Serves four.

Barbecue Sauce

2 cups ketchup

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt (Lawry’s, lemon-dill, or your favorite)

Combine the ingredients in a medium bowl, cover, and heat in the microwave until warm. Stir and serve on the side. Makes a little more than 2 cups.

Curried Coleslaw

with Peanuts and Bacon

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/2 medium cabbage, finely chopped

4 bacon slices, cooked crisp and crumbled

1/2 cup chopped, salted peanuts

Combine the mayonnaise, sugar, curry powder and salt in a small bowl. Whisk in the vinegar. Pour the dressing over the cabbage in a large bowl, add the bacon and peanuts, and toss to evenly distribute the goodies. Serves six.

Scallions and Peas

4 bunches scallions, nasty ends trimmed, but with lots of green left

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pinch of sugar

2 cups frozen baby peas

Cut the trimmed scallions into 11/2-inch lengths, separating the white and green parts. Put the white scallion pieces, salt and sugar in a medium saucepan with 1/2-inch boiling water. Simmer over medium-low heat, covered, for 2 minutes. Add the green scallion pieces, increase the heat to medium, and simmer for 3 minutes more, or until almost tender. Add the peas and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes more. Serve hot. Serves four.

Rhubarb-Cherry Crisp

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, plus more for casserole dish

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

(about 10 graham crackers)

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 pound rhubarb, cut into 1-inch lengths

1 cup dried cherries

? cup orange juice

Vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 11/2-quart casserole dish. Combine butter and graham cracker crumbs in medium bowl. Pile – don’t pack – half the crumb mixture into the casserole dish. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl; reserve 1 tablespoon for topping. Add rhubarb, cherries and orange juice to the brown sugar mixture in large bowl and toss to mix. Dump fruit mixture into casserole dish and top with remaining crumb mixture. Sprinkle reserved sugar mixture over the top. Cover loosely with foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 30 minutes more, or until the rhubarb is tender and the crumbs are lightly browned. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Note: To make graham cracker crumbs of the proper gauge, put the crackers in a paper bag and stomp on them. You don’t want fine crumbs; some larger crumbs will be dandy.

Cantaloupe Ice

2 cups fresh cantaloupe cubes (about 1/2 cantaloupe)

1/4 cup sugar

1 12-ounce can ginger ale (11/2 cups)

1/4 cup sweetened lime juice, such as Rose’s

Put cantaloupe, sugar, 1/2 cup ginger ale and lime juice in a blender jar, cover, and whir until completely blended. Pour in remaining ginger ale – it should just fit – and stir with a spoon. Pour into two aluminum ice-cube trays with the dividers removed, or another shallow pan or dish, and place in the freezer. Stir with a fork after one hour, and every so often thereafter for two more hours, until frozen but flaky. That’s the proper texture for serving, and it should remain that way. If you’re making the ice in advance, pile it lightly into a 1-quart container, cover and leave in the freezer for up to two weeks. Shortly before serving, remove the ice from the freezer and give it another stir and toss, if necessary.

Reprinted with permission from Cook & Tell by Karyl Bannister, Houghton Mifflin Co., May 2001.