Spring is nearly here! Fresh produce available from local sources is increasing in both quality and variety! It is nicer weather and a great time to visit your local farmer’s market. Although the following items are listed as being available here in March you have to remember that we had some snow and stuff that may have messed with some of the crops so they may be more expensive or not available.
Collard Green Jambalaya
Here is what is available in March in Texas. Continue reading
Filed under What's In Season?
You know, I spent my formative teen years in Duncanville and I can tell you that it has changed A LOT. Back in the day there was a McDonalds, a Patton’s grocery store, TWO 7-11, a Moses 5 and 10, and a Char-burger… Oh, and Gibson’s. Life was less than exciting for teenagers in Duncanville. We pretty much hung out in the 7-11 parking lot or migrated to Kiest Park.
Today Duncanville is not a sleepy little bedroom community. There are some pretty cool looking restaurants and you can even buy your favorite wines and beers but the sign that brought me the most excitement was Toshio’s.
Toshio’s is a sushi bar and it also serves a variety of Japanese inspired platters. It is open for lunch on weekdays and dinner all week long.
The decor is tastefully fresh and simple with nothing to take your attention away from the food. I went with a friend on a weekday at lunchtime, in fact at noon exactly. Continue reading
Filed under Places to Go
Growing up my family always had a vegetable garden in the back yard. My dad could’ve grown a car by planting a spark plug, I swear. I grew up in the 1960s-1970s and my parents were very in to organic gardening before it was even the cool thing to do. It was my job to pick the fat, squishy tomato hornworms off the tomatoes and make sure that they did not live to eat another plant. It wasn’t much of a problem, I liked to fish and the fish like hornworms. Mornings were spent collecting bait and afternoons were spent “drowning worms” as my dad liked to call it.
Roasting beets brings out the sweetness
The reward came in the evening when fresh tomatoes still warm from the sun were sliced on my plate or crisp leaf lettuce with sugar and vinegar was waiting on my plate. I learned to love vegetables as long as they were fresh and flavorful. Continue reading
Filed under Texas Gardening
Cooked carrots are often the least favorite vegetable on anyone’s menu. Often overcooked and mushy, cooked carrots can go from sweet and fresh to bland and insipid in a matter of moments.
This is a side dish I came up with to make the most of those sweet, first carrots of spring. It sounds unusual – and it is – but the vanilla and anise add layers of flavor and while the tangy lemon juice keeps this dish from being too cloyingly sweet.
Continue reading
Cabbage is in season locally and it isn’t hard to find good sausage anytime of the year here in Texas…
When you are looking for something that is basic comfort food you can’t go wrong with this. Tangy, sweet, spicy, savory….it’s all here.
This is one of those meals that warms you up when you need it most; big time comfort food. Continue reading
Filed under February
Chicken fried steak is thought to have been brought to Texas by the Czech and Germanic immigrants who moved to the Hill Country in the mid 1800s. A popular German food, Weiner Schnitzel is prepared very much like chicken fried steak, and would have been well known to the settlers of the time.
But seriously? Who cares! This stuff is rockin!
It is just thin cut round steak pounded with a mallet until you don’t want to strangle your family anymore it is tender. The fibers in the meat are broken up and result in a cheap yet tender piece of meat. Once you put real Texas cream gravy on it, well, as I said on RestlessChipotle, “…you could bread and fry a slice of skunk and put cream gravy on it and it would be wonderful. Almost. Maybe.”
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Filed under Recipes, Texas: Just Good Food
Apples are still in season right now, and onions are as well. Grab a couple of Texas onions, a few apples, and some thyme. If you don’t happen to grow it on your window sill you may be able to find it at farmers market. You can for sure find fresh thyme in the produce section of most grocery stores but it may not be local.
Apples and onions just go beautifully together and if you add a cider-bourbon reduction? Amazing. This is a perfect side dish for any poultry or pork meal. In fact, after I made it I thought that cut in a small dice it would be perfect over grilled chicken breast.
Remember that roasting vegetables gives them a sweetness that can’t be achieved in any other manner. Continue reading
Filed under February
Why oh why is February in Texas so cold and icy? It is hard to believe that we can still have seasonal items anywhere in the state but we do. It is not any fun to hit the farmer’s markets in this weather but often you will get the very best deals, so if it is safe to drive you should go for it.
Caramelized Apples and Onions
February is the last month for beets. They will be in season all month so take advantage of the chance to get them fresh. Eat them or preserve them for eating later in the year. They won’t be back in season again until November. Knowing what’s in season now is the best start to creating the best meals ever.
Filed under What's In Season?
One of the classic things that everyone should do at least once in their lives is to go to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. Experiencing the excitement, the foods, and the sights is not to be missed… for real Texans anyway.
This real Texan totally forgot her camera and so all of the images I took were on my iPhone or on my son’s iPod. Sigh.
Here is the trick. The last week of the Stock Show is almost always blessed with frigid temps and plenty of ice. Ironically, the week before is usually quite balmy. When you plan on when to go schedule your day in the balmy week not the frigid week. Trust me, this is a fact of Texas weather. We went on Friday, January 28 when temperatures were in the 70s and it iced on Tuesday February 1 with temperatures in the 20s.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Continue reading
Filed under Places to Go
I got a care package in yesterday that smelled remarkably like coffee. In fact, I think I’ve caught the UPS guy and the Fed Ex guy AND the postman all huffing the boxes a time or two. They might want to stop that. If I ever start writing about compost regularly they are sunk.
But this wasn’t compost. It was coffee. Hawaiian coffee from Texas….well not really. Kohana coffee is located in Austin and they use a slow roasting technique that was developed in Hawaii. And…How cute is this package?
Do I need to go over what it is I love about indy roasters again? Here we go… Continue reading
Filed under Texas Artisans
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