The Heart Of Texas

Growing up in Houston, Texas we spent countless hours exploring the farms, lakes, streams and bayous in and around this great city. On some of our explorations we found lakes, streams, tanks and bayous brimming with crawfish or as we used to call them, crawdads. We used to spend many hours catching 50 to 100 crawdads big enough to eat. It did not take long before we recognized the potential of a seine. With a seine we could catch a meal in short order. My mother would boil up our crawfish very much in the same way we had crab boils. We were always proud of the fact we provided a meal for the family. Over the last 30 years crawfish have caught on here in Texas in a big way. We used to trap and seine our catch for free. These days crawfish are big business. Prices per pound rival that of lobster. Folks in Dallas are even in the mix. Competition has become fierce in the quest for a sack of crawfish. Typically, my family attends several boils per season. On special occasions w

My father used to take us squirrel hunting on the Brazos River bottom. One morning my father let me shoot his old Winchester .22 pump. My father’s old Winchester would take .22 longs, long rifles and .22 shorts. On this particular morning my father wanted me to shoot .22 shorts. As I was very young at the time, I was just glad to get to hunt with my father. Before daylight we walked to a huge oak tree and sat about 20 yards away to search the tree for any signs of squirrel activity. As the sun began to rise a cavity in the trunk of the old oak tree about 15 feet above the ground became visible. I told my father I thought a squirrel was looking at us from the cavity in the tree. My father said if I was sure it was a squirrel to go ahead and take a shot. I raised the old .22 to my shoulder and carefully aimed. I squeezed off a .22 short and to my surprise it appeared the squirrel had dodged the bullet. I carefully looked at the hole in the trunk of the tree and sure enough a

Many years ago blue crabs were plentiful. So plentiful in fact, it was very common to catch 100’s of male crabs in a matter of hours. Even before it was illegal to keep female crabs we never did. We knew taking the females would hurt the harvest. We used to fill large igloo coolers with male blue crabs and clean them in the surf. Catching blue crabs was a family event. Everyone would participate. Our primary method of catching blue crabs was to push a round stick about the length of a broom handle into the sand with a thick twine tied to it and a chicken neck and weight attached to the twine. We would set out about ten of these lines at a time. When the twine straightened out we would slowly pull the twine in and scoop up the blue crabs with a crab net. This method was very effective and produced many blue crabs for the boil pot. After the big haul we all would sit around the dinner table as the crabs went into the boiling pot. The smell of crab boil spices would fill the air

Southeast Texas is greatly influenced by the Cajuns to our East. During the oil boom many Louisiana Cajuns moved to Texas. With the Cajuns came their way of life and the way they cook. Cajun food is of the field, bayou and the air. Famous Cajun chefs have mastered the chemistry of cooking. Paul Prudomme almost single handedly brought the redfish population to its knees. When Prudomme introduced the world to his blackened redfish many people could not resist his creation. Prudomme is also famous for turducken. Turducken was copied by thousands, but never duplicated. Paul Prudomme’s recipe is very labor intensive. His stocks alone take days to prepare. That is the reason he is often copied, but never duplicated. Cajun dishes have long been favorites here in Southeast Texas. Boudain, gumbo, etouffe, andouille sausage, oyster po-boys, rouxs, dirty rice, jambalaya, are some local favorites. Native Houstonians tend to love their mother’s version of all of the above. Gumbo recipe

In Texas we believe the legendary Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas, head bartender Santos Cruz created the Margarita for singer Peggy (Margaret) Lee in 1948. The Balinese Room was opened in 1941 and was Texas's finest nightclub with A/C, casino gambling, superb food and drinks, and stellar entertainment until the Texas Rangers finally shut it down in 1957. Although in 2008 Hurricane Ike demolished any remnants of the Balinese Room. The Margarita is going stronger than ever. The 3 primary ingredients in a Margarita are tequila, Triple Sec and lime juice. Like with any drink bartenders and individuals alike modify ingredients to their tastes. Other popular ingredients are simple sugar, beer, wine, Sprite or Seven Up and many others. Diet Seven Up works remarkable well for those wanting to cut out the sugar. Tex-Mex Restaurants are not the only place you can find a Margarita. Just about anywhere you can buy an alcoholic beverage you can find a Margarita. Margaritas are big bu

From the time I was a baby I spent on my mother's hip watching her create fabulous dishes from the world over, I was bound to be a chef. Houston, Texas has a very diverse population including influences from Mexico, Louisiana, France, Italy, Greece, Asia, The Mediterranian, Africa, not to mention the old west. It was not uncommon to eat a dish influenced by different cultures every night of the week. Some of the various dishes are etouffée, sauce piquant, gumbo, fried okra, pecan-smoked shrimp, mesquite-smoked fish, pecan pie, chop suey, tender to the bone BBQ spareribs, ring of fire BBQ sauce, collard greens, green beans with ham hocks and almonds, Chappell Hill pinto beans, homemade potato salad, cracker pie, pot roast, fried chicken, whole fried turkey, boiled crawfish, tacos, enchiladas, tamales, burritos, fajitas, pico de gallo, smoked brisket, bbq'd corn on the cob, chili, just to rattle off some of my favorites. Houston, Texas has some of the finest restaurants in the wo

Here in southeast Texas we take for granted the fact we enjoy the best Tex-Mex food in the world. Ask anyone who has been away from home very long what they missed the most and you will hear time and again the fact they can not wait to get their Tex-Mex fix. There is no place in the country where so many Tex-Mex restaurants doing Tex-Mex so well in so many different ways. It is truly incredible how long patronized restaurants put their signature on the basics. Family secret chili sauces smothering enchiladas are down right addicting. Many Tex-Mex restaurants have their own recipe to create ground beef in which they fill enchiladas, tacos, burritos, chalupas, tamales and taco salads. The old guard restaurants have been doing it well for decades. Patrons of these restaurants do not want them to change a thing. A discerning pallet will detect the slightest change. It is very possible to eat at different Tex-Mex restaurants for months and never have a bad meal. If you are like me, you have

25 years ago CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International) was bigger than ever. Sponsored Chili cook-offs were every where I turned. At the time, the big chili cook-offs were in San Marcos and Terlingua. Before you could compete in Terlingua you had to qualify. To qualify for the Terlingua cook-off you had to have the points. In a CASI sponsored chili cook-off your chili had to be meat and gravy only. No fillers or other ingredients could be seen. The big winners on the CASI circuit never used ground beef. In order to please the judges most cooks used mock chuck tenders. Needless to say, it was expensive to buy 10 pounds of mock chuck tenders. To prep the tenders for the chili pot they needed to be cut up into perfect little squares. To accomplish this you need to partially freeze the tenders and slice with a very sharp knife to 1/8th inch. This method was used by many chili-heads back in the day. The San Marcos, Texas chili cook-off was known as the Chilimpiad. Terligua, Texas was