Cheese enchiladas: the essence of Tex-Mex
Tex-Mex is not Mexican food. That’s right, even though many of the restaurants you see across Texas often call themselves Mexican they’re not.…
Chili Queens chili
The first time I heard about the San Antonio Chili Queens, I was on a plane. A friend wanted to make a documentary…
Chicken tortilla soup
In the 1930s, a Dallas cooking school advertised its course offerings, stating that it would be teaching how to make tortilla soup. This…
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…
Smoky chili beans
A few months ago, I was looking at grocer ads from the late 1800s and early 1900s. As expected, the offerings were provisions…
Chicken-fried steak with red chile gravy
One summer day, while driving along the Rio Grande from Laredo to McAllen I began to get hungry. As I passed through the…
Spicy applesauce cake
My great-grandma Blanche loved applesauce cake. In fact, her recipe collection has no less than five versions of this classic snack cake, all…
Felix queso
So, first things first. I never had the famed Felix queso at its original home, a Southeast Texas regional chain of restaurants owned…
Texas turkey chili
The other day someone asked me what I always keep in my refrigerator. After going through the usual list of things such as…
