King Ranch hominy casserole
There are several ways to make a cheesy, creamy hominy casserole, and my grandma’s is the simplest method of all. While some recipes have you make a roux and others…
Side dish recipes
Hatch chile creamy rice casserole
In the mid-1990s, some Texan friends and I made the trek to the Upper East Side of New York City to eat at Zarela Martinez’s namesake Mexican restaurant. Zarela is…
Frito squash casserole
Whenever I post a summer squash recipe, inevitably someone will ask if I have a recipe for squash casserole with Fritos. In the past, I would shake my head and…
Chipotle cream corn
During a summer outdoor gathering, a friend offered whole ears of corn he had slathered with butter and red chiles. The creaminess, sweetness, and earthiness of the three ingredients were…
Curried broccoli salad
A few years ago, a friend’s husband cooked dinner for a group of us. Along with salmon and potatoes, he included a broccoli salad on the plate. In the past,…
Potato salad, Oak Cliff style
My dad’s side of the family loves hard-boiled eggs. They fold them into their salads, plop them into their giblet gravy, and whip them into deviled eggs, dishes that were…
Carrot and green onion salad, Hill Country style
In 1976, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson held a barbecue at her family’s ranch in the Texas Hill Country. It was for old friends and former DC colleagues, and she billed…
Mashed sweet potatoes with chipotle chiles
Growing up, not a holiday dinner or church potluck supper was complete without a casserole dish filled with baked sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows. If you’ve never seen this dish,…
Pumpkin cheese grits
In 1958, Mrs. C. A. Oney submitted a cheese grits recipe to the San Antonio Light. It was a baked dish that called for cooked grits, cheese, milk, and eggs….
Fried potatoes with green chiles
When I was writing my first cookbook, I wanted to include a carnitas recipe that had been on my site. It was adapted from the late cookbook author Diana Kennedy’s…