Go small town and minimize shopping excess
When you move from the city to a small West Texas town, grocery shopping is disconcerting at first. Then you feel a surge of joy. You no longer have to buy bread at one store, meat at another, produce at the farmers’ market, cheese at the-best-place-in-Texas, non-perishables somewhere else. You have the choice of Store […]
Giving and receiving from The Cookery
When almost all is well and The Cookery is up and running at full speed, we give gifts for the table at Christmas and all year through. This year, we’ve been on the receiving end of a variety of gifts of food. Thank you friends, family and neighbors, for your spirit and kindness.
Latkes lighten up with apple sauce
There were no leftovers, certainly no latkes, at the home of our gracious host and hostess this weekend. The fabulous latkes at their Hanukkah table started as a mountain of golden brown potatoes, but served with apple sauce, the latkes all but disappeared and sustained grateful guests. Many thanks to Ms. P. for treating us to her family […]
Hummus dries up in Southwest Austin
We knew the owners were facing a make-or-break situation at Dimassi’s Southwest location in Austin, and unfortunately, we found a farewell notice on the doors of the restaurant when we arrived to take in a buffet meal this week. I’ll miss the convenient location as well as the hummus and Arabic music feeds. It’s back to making hummus if I want it […]
The recipe’s in the mail
They always catch you at the busiest time – those emails that expect you to ‘send a recipe to 20 of your best friends.’ So you wait for the sky to fall, and feel guilty and move on. Last week I received one that was manageable. There were just two people on the email. One […]
Past and Present-Pa’s Famous Fudge
It’s true, we saw a few flurries of snow in Austin last Friday. But proof of the season, a Christmas present from Pa and Gram, arrived on our door step this week. The Austin “snow” didn’t last long and neither will our tin of fudge. Here’s an invitation to make your own batch of Pa’s Famous Fudge.
Holly Jolly Dirt Cake
Holly Jolly Dirt Cake Here’s another no-bake adventure for kids who enjoy cooking. Little kids, if making this for an adult, like to pretend the cake really is dirt! I’ve modified it as the quantity of sugar would have the ‘cooks’ standing on the table throwing the mix at each other and the amount of […]
Praline recipe passes test of Austin pecan expert
Once I stood in line in the grocery store behind a woman whose cart had a pretty ho-hum selection – except for the fourteen boxes of butterscotch pudding. I couldn’t resist asking why she was buying so many and she told me that she lived in Marble Falls and couldn’t buy them there. What an […]