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…
Ancho chile recipes
Carne de puerco en chile colorado
Carne de puerco, which is tender pork nestled in a heartwarming gravy made with red chiles, is welcome on a cold day.
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. But that’s OK. When Diana Kennedy said…
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 about Tex-Mex, and she showed me her…
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 was the first mention in the Texas…
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,…
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 such as bacon, flour, butter, and coffee….
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 town of Zapata, I spotted a sign…
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 of them different. So when I decided…
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 and operated by the late Tex-Mex pioneer…