Holiday Recipes

It is that time of year again! Visit TexasCooking.com for the best selection of tried and true recipes for the holiday season.

Turkey & Most of the Trimmings

Brining the Turkey

Grandma's Cornbread Dressing & Giblet Gravy

Texas Pecan Pie

Order Your D'Artagnan Organic Free-Range Turkey Today
New Ultimate Gingerbread House Kit at SurLaTable.com

Food Features:
Quick Breads for the Holidays: Easy and Versatile
by Cheryl Hill-Burrier
These days everyone has to multi-task just to keep up, but is it possible that bread can do the same and be quick, easy and fail-safe to make? You bet your buns it is! Quick Breads are so simple and so incredibly versatile that I call them the Yeastless Transformers. That's right; many quick bread recipes can be transformed into delicious edibles other than bread. So read on and be amazed.

Empanadas and Empanaditas: A Terrific Meal or Appetizer
by Lori Grossman
Empanadas are a tasty Tex-Mex / mexican food delicacy, and Lori Grossman explains how to make them from scratch in the kitchen. Includes recipes for pumpkin empanadas and crab empanadas.

Traditional Texas Fare:
National Hog Lard Month Explained
by John Raven, Ph.B.
November is promoted as National Hog Lard Month, John Raven dives right into the discussion of the fat, which is very popularly used in Tex-Mex tortilla making. From greasing wagon axles to preserving meat to frying supper, the rendering of hog fat has served America well. He also shows its many uses in making soaps.

Texas Wineries:
Pedernales Cellars Winery
by Randy Lankford
Fredrik Osterberg and David Kuhlken thought they were going into the wine business back in 2006 when they broke ground on Pedernales Cellars in Stonewall. Little did they know the hillside on which Kuhlken's parents, Larry and Jeanine, had chosen to plant their 17 acres of grapes back in the early 1990s would turn into the marriage proposal capital of Gillespie County.

Food Features:
Day of the Dead: A Time to Eat, Drink and Be Merry
by Cheryl Hill-Burrier
Almost everybody does something for Halloween, but the closer you get to the border, more and more folks observe another holiday that can be even more fun and interesting: The annual Mexican celebration, Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos. Cheryl Hill-Burrier discusses this holiday which is traditionally observed right after Halloween, and the many great foods associated with the event.

Traditional Texas Fare: Chicken Fried Steak: One-third of the Big Three by John Raven, Ph.B. The Big Three of Texas cooking are chili, barbecue and chicken fried steak. I have expounded on chili and barbecue often. Recently a reader asked why I had not shown chicken fried steak the respect it deserves. I was remiss and will now attempt to atone for my oversight.

New Book Review: America's Best BBQ Book Review by John Raven, Ph.B. Ardie Davis and Paul Kirk do not just cook, eat and write about bar barbecue, they live barbecue. Now they have teamed up to bring us "America's Best BBQ". The book is soft cover but tightly bound and, for its size, is heavy.

New Cookbook Review: Texas Hometown Cookbook by Patricia Mitchell Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker pen an exciting series of cookbooks devoted to the home-style cooking in all fifty states. Their Texas cookbook is over two hundred pages of many great recipes that all cooks and cookbook fans should enjoy.

New Book Review: Fearless Critic Austin Restaurant Guide, 2nd Edition Book Review by Lucas Everidge A brutally honest guide to 480 restaurants in the Austin, Texas area. Highly entertaining, as well as informative, this just released second edition takes aim at everything across the board, proving once again how Austinites cannot get enough of their restaurants and local food culture.

Texana Book Reviews

The Pioneer Women Cooks
Read about how the The Pioneer Woman can do it all.