Milk punch
Last spring, my friends and I sat on the porch at Mattie’s in Austin. We shared a fried chicken dinner and enjoyed the unseasonably cool weather. With the sparkly lights,…
Appetizer recipes
Texas chili powder cheese ball
The first time I wrote about cheese balls on this site, I featured a character named Aunt Betty. She was a fancy relation who impressed everyone with her culinary prowess,…
El Paso-style chile con queso, 1947
El Paso has long been one of my favorite cities. When I considered where to live upon my return to Texas, El Paso was high on the list, and eliminated…
Fried green chile strips
After a weekend at a friend’s ranch house in the Panhandle, I decided to stay in the area a couple more days. That night in Amarillo, I went to a…
Fried green tomatoes
The first time I encountered fried green tomatoes was via the film of the same name. I had never heard of the dish and at first thought it was a…
Guacamole with corn (guacamole con elote)
Some things never change and that old saw about Texas weather being predictably unpredictable still holds true. Take last Sunday, for instance. In the morning, the sky was clear and…
Shrimp nachos, San Antonio style
The other day I was at a restaurant, and we ordered the nachos. When they arrived, I was shocked to see that they were a pile of chips with the…
Pigs in jalapeño-cheddar pretzel blankets
Many years ago, a friend from Austin and I were taking the train from New York to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to see another friend in a play. When we stopped in…
Texas caviar chile con queso
This time last year, I was asking people for black-eyed pea recipe ideas. Most shared with me dishes that involved lots of pork and peas, a common combination as the…
Crazy nachos
Whenever I fly into Dallas, my first stop is Herrera’s on Sylvan. It’s a family-owned Tex-Mex restaurant that I’ve been eating at almost my entire life. The original Herrera’s, which…
