PUBLISHED WORKS
THE LITTLE LOCAL TEXAS COOKBOOK
Countryman Press
Chicken Fried Steak
I have known people (Texans, even!) who serve chicken fried steak with ketchup instead of gravy. While I can't sanction that blasphemy myself, go on and do it if you want to. You will probably still get into heaven.
GRANDMOTHER
Pawing through fragile collections wrapped poorly in newspaper, I was struck repeatedly by the familiar smells I hadn’t smelled in what felt like decades. The scent of Keri lotion, Flex shampoo, and Pears vegetable glycerine soap. The decomposing plastic smell of 1970s-era artificial poinsettias. Boxes marked “Linens” stuffed with towels and sheets, all in her favorite color (purple) called me to put my face inside and inhale. Sure, I was inhaling dust and dirt and probably mites and god-knows, but I was also breathing in her house and her bathroom and her bedroom where I slept on the floor on a pallet of blankets when I’d spend the night. (read more)
LEARN TO COOK: A DOWN AND DIRTY GUIDE TO COOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO NEVER LEARNED HOW
Hilah Cooking
Egg Salad
Here's a recipe to make enough egg salad for one sandwich. It doesn't keep super well, so I recommend just making what you want for the day. If you're making sandwiches for your boss, too, then just double the recipe and don't forget to put poison in the one for your boss.*
*Never put poison in food or drinks
MY PARENT HAS BECOME MY SECOND CHILD
My dad and I are a lot alike. We appreciate the arts and science equally. We both like to write. Above all, though, we both have the near-magical ability to manifest a problem right out of thin air, spend the next several hours mulling it over, teasing it apart, drawing it out until it’s as big and puffy as a dandelion, and then blowing the seeds of doubt all over everyone else in the room-- (read more)