Salted butterscotch oatmeal cookies
There is one cookie that reminds me of Dallas in the 1970s—a chewy oatmeal cookie laced with caramelized butterscotch chips. When I was young, a plate of these was seen…
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New Year’s Day grits and greens
A few years ago, I woke up on New Year’s Day with a craving for collard greens. While I ordinarily prefer coffee and banana smoothies for breakfast, I went with my urge and prepared a pot….
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Rosemary bacon spiced pecans
In a novel I was recently reading, a character had friends over for dinner. While she cooked she offered her guests bacon rosemary spiced pecans. Her guests loved the smoky,…
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Champurrado brownies
The other day, I saw on a Dallas food forum a request for places that serve champurrado. This is a Mexican beverage that combines hot Mexican chocolate with masa harina…
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Carne adovada
Many years ago when I wrote about asado, a West Texas stewed pork and red chile dish, I heard from a linguist based in El Paso. He said that grammatically…
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Tortellini loco
The first time I heard of a Tex-Italian tortellini dish, it was referenced on a restaurant menu that has a reputation for this type of fusion. It’s in Lubbock, and…
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Spiced pumpkin muffins
“How can you eat that so early in the morning?” asked my friend. She gestured with a fork at the plate in front of me, which contained a softball-sized muffin…
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Chicken calabacitas stew
For the past few years, I’ve been drawn to creating a dish using chicken and yellow squash. In several of my South Texas community cookbooks, this dish appears in several…
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Blue corn sugar cookies
A few years ago when I was at a bookstore in West Texas, I met a longtime reader. She asked me what my plans were, and I admitted that for…
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Table salsa, Dallas style
If you were to come to my house, you’d find in my refrigerator a pot of pinto beans, a stack of flour tortillas, a jar of pickled jalapeños with carrots,…
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Hot dog tacos, Dallas style
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Dill pickled jalapeños
When I lived in New York, the fresh dill at the grocery store usually came from Texas. More famous Texan offerings, such as peaches, pecans, or cantaloupes, were absent at…
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Bacon blue cheese deviled eggs
When you get together with my father’s side of the family, you can be assured that hard-boiled eggs will be on offer. They stir them into gravies, slice them into…
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Lavender peach cobbler ice cream
For the past few summers, I’ve been tinkering with a recipe for peach ice cream pie. The combination of sweet fruit, cinnamon crust, and cool ice cream works in theory,…
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Chorizo cheese grits casserole
A few years ago, a Brooklyn friend announced she was going to smoke a pork shoulder for pulled pork. She’d provide the meat and the rest of us could bring…
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West Texas corn dip
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Lemon yogurt poppy seed muffins
In 1975, my grandma baked a loaf of poppy seed bread. While this may not seem worthy of mention, it was an unusual act in that she never repeated this…
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Cracker macaroni and cheese, North Texas style
The last dinner my grandma made for me was in November 2017. I was in town for a book signing, and while she hadn’t felt energetic enough to attend the…
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Chipotle lime boursin
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Chicken-fried catfish
For years, I’ve had the notion of chicken-fried catfish on my mind. While typically, I eat my fried catfish dredged in a cornmeal coating, I wondered if treating the fish…
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Sausage queso, Tex-Italian style
When I was making plans to visit Lubbock, a friend gave me some advice. “Go to Orlando’s Italian restaurant, and order the mafia queso,” she said. “It’s outstanding.” Lubbock, Texas…
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Tex-Mex enchilada beans
A few years ago, Deb Perelman of the Smitten Kitchen blog introduced the world to a dish she called pizza beans. It was a pan of beans baked with tomato…
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Green chile pork and pinto bean stew
At the Indianapolis 500 race in 1970, Texas and New Mexico were pitted against each other, both on the track and off. In the lineup of drivers was Lloyd Ruby…
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Garlic rosemary beef ribs
Over the past year, as I’ve been learning to cook meat on a smoker, I’ve had the revelation that smoking meat is not much different from cooking meat in an…
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Chicken soup with rice, Dallas style
My hairdresser asked me why I lived in Dallas. “You’re not like most of the Dallasites I know,” he said. “In fact, when I first met you, I figured you’d…
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