Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) is in, but unavailable at the moment, his assistant politely explains.

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Elissa Eubanks/AJC (ENLARGE)

John (left), 11, and Quentin, 16, help their dad, Rep. Earl Ehrhart, cook dinner at home in Powder Springs.

Elissa Eubanks/AJC (ENLARGE)

Capitol staffers show off creations that appear in 'What's Cooking Under the Dome,' which went on sale last year: Dona Woodham (from left) with Dona's Grits Casserole, Leah Tatum-Dick with Lemon Meringue Cake and Mary Anna Meeks with her Redneck Caviar.

GET YOURS • Copies of "What's Cooking Under the Dome" can be ordered for $15 each (price includes shipping and handling). To order, e-mail gastaffcookbooks@gmail.com. RELATED STORY: Check out recipes from "What's Cooking Under the Dome" • More photos

This probably happens a lot, some stranger barging into Ehrhart's office, which is tucked between the third and fourth floors of the state Capitol like the pulled pork filling in an architecturally ornate bun. He is the chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, after all. And right now, he's dashing off to an important appointment.

Unless ...

About that Spicy Bacon-wrapped Quail recipe of yours, Mr. Chairman?

Ehrhart stops short. And grins like a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who's finally been asked about his real passion for collecting baseball cards.

"That's a weekend dinner," he emphasizes, then proceeds to spend the next 10 minutes talking culinary shop. It includes some good-natured smack directed at the Senate's "chefs": "The House is better when the heat is on."

Who knew that "What's Cooking Under the Dome," a new cookbook where Ehrhart's recipe appears alongside a hundred others submitted from all over the Legislature, would prove such a conversation starter? Not to mention the way it, uh, tenderizes the image of a place that seems to be made up mostly of nameless, faceless bureaucrats. Or worse.

"All the public usually hears is stuff like how the governor, lieutenant governor or speaker can't get along," said Senate human resources director Jason Fleury, who helped a bipartisan group of House and Senate administrative assistants organize the project. "It's nice to hear the other side of what goes on here."

From idea to reality — fast

Maybe someday the state's top pols will come together over a shared recipe for slaw. Their assistants' goals were more modest, though, when they conceived of the soup-to-nuts (with stops along the way for Redneck Caviar and Mama Ann's Slap Somebody Cookies) cookbook: doing good by others while building team spirit among themselves.

"The year before, we'd done a toy drive and sock tree for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta along with the Senate staff," said Susan Ruthven, who works for three House members and is widely acknowledged as the driving force behind the book. "This year we wanted to do something that would build on that."

Retailing for $10 a copy, "What's Cooking" raised enough money to fund holiday bags stuffed with Kroger gift cards and other goodies for 82 elderly, mostly inner-city participants in the Adopt-a-Grandparent program. They also funded a catered, sit-down dinner just off the soaring Capitol rotunda that 40 "grandparents" attended in December. They got a private tour and even brushed up against one of the rarer ceremonial honors the state bestows.

"We were there the last day before Tom Murphy was in there," said Adopt-a-Grandparent director Linda Langstraat, referring to the legendary former House speaker's lying-in-state in the rotunda. "It was an incredibly special thing all around that they did for us."

It was late October when the idea for "What's Cooking" first began simmering and phone calls and e-mails began flying back and forth between and within the two chambers. This being government, "We had meetings to discuss when the cookbook meetings would be," Fleury joked. Still, "It went from concept to production in six days."

That's right, six days. Meanwhile, their bosses in the House and Senate have been known to spend an entire 40-day session arguing over whether we should be able to buy a bottle of cold duck on a hot Sunday.

Just one taxpaying citizen's observation.

The first 500 copies of "What's Cooking" sold like hot Coca-Cola Cakes (Page 61). In fact, it's just gone back for a second printing of 300 copies. Some legislators bought them for constituents, while other Gold Domers snapped them up for friends, family or themselves. That's brought unanticipated side benefits. After all, when co-workers get their hands on the recipe for Dona's Grits Casserole (Page 38) or Pumpkin Pie Dip (Page 9), conviviality can't be far behind.

"I know my people pretty well, but it's nice to be able to stop by and say, 'Hey, I bought this for my mom and she tried your recipe,' " said Fleury, who's represented in the cookbook by his mother's recipe for Smothered Chicken (Page 46).

Yet you don't have to know Alva's Baked Beans (Page 23) about the Capitol or anyone who works there to eat up "What's Cooking." Like lifting lids at a covered dish supper, nosing around a bit for the stories behind the stories of the recipes yields all sorts of intriguing stuff.

For instance, Ruthven describes her Butter Tart Bars (Page 59) as being "a lot like pecan pie, except they don't put the raisins in that down here." Yes, it turns out the mastermind of "What's Cooking Under the Dome" and one of the hardest-working people in the state capitol is a native of Canada who met her husband at Fort Drum in upstate New York in 1992.

Leah Tatum-Dick contributed a whopping 12 recipes, from Pink Cadillac Margaritas (Page 8) to Peanut Butter & Chocolate (think 'Smores, substituting peanut butter and a hot dog bun for the marshmallow and graham cracker, Page 84). Apparently she can't say no to a good cause, not even when called upon to drive one of the borrowed 15-passenger vans to pick up guests for the Adopt-a-Grandparent dinner.

"I drive a two-seater Honda Insight alternative-fuel car," Tatum-Dick, the legislative assistant for the Senate Labor and Insurance Committee and its chairman, Ralph Hudgens (R-Hull), said with a laugh. "I told Sen. Hudgens. He told me, 'Swing wide.' "

Looking to next year

Ehrhart sometimes hunts quail with his two sons. A single father, he also goes home every night to cook dinner for Quentin, 16, and John, 11.

Even during the frenetically paced General Assembly session?

"There'd be no dinner during the session if I didn't," Ehrhart said with a laugh, admitting it involves some planning. "Tonight, it's pork chops."

Ehrhart is one of only three elected officials with recipes in "What's Cooking." But extra points should go to Rep. John Heard (R-Lawrenceville), whose destined-to-be-a-Thanksgiving-classic Drunken Turkey (Page 38), begins: "Remove giblets from turkey and have a sip of wine." And so on.

All three are members of the House, but don't read anything into that, Fleury cautioned. The cookbook simply came together too fast for any senators to get involved, but things will be different next year, he vowed: "I would be very surprised if we didn't have some good cooks."

Good enough, perhaps, for an "Iron Chef"-like Capitol showdown? Senate vs. House, winner takes all by having its version of a bill become law?

"You'd have to get it by the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house," Fleury said. "I'm not sure they would go along with it."

Maybe it depends on how much Drunken Turkey they've had. ...