Texas’ home cooks are well-known for good food now everyone can enjoy that special flavor in the new Texas Hometown Cookbook by Kent Whitaker and Sheila Simmons. Published by Great American Publishers (www.greatamericanpublishers.com; Kosciusko, MS) the book is available locally in bookstores and gift shops.
The 256-page cookbook contains more than 300 of the Lone Star State’s favorite recipes submitted by hometown cooks throughout Texas. In addition to selecting recipes that represent Texas’ signature style of cooking, the editors chose recipes that are easy to prepare. “We pay particular attention to the way the recipes are presented to ensure the ingredients are presented in order of use with instructions that are clear and concise. We focus on good old-fashioned home cooking and bring you recipes that can almost always be made right from your pantry,” says Simmons.
“Don't expect a lot of difficult, gourmet recipes that require a special trip to the grocery store,” adds Whitaker. “Because these are just down-home recipes like your Momma and her Momma made.” Simply reading a few of the recipe titles makes it obvious this is truly a Texas cookbook with recipes for the Texas "Big Three"—barbecue, chili, and Tex-Mex— including Chili Cheese Empanadas, Lip-Burning Meat Lovers Chili, Baby Back Ribs with Coffee Bourbon BBQ Sauce, and many more. Central Texas brings you the down-home flavor Chicken Fried Steak with White Gravy and Cast-Iron Skillet Okra.
Beyond the traditional favorites, a new generation of hometown cooks will enjoy updated favorites like Black-Eyed Pea Jambalaya, Pink Peanut Patties, and Dr. Pepper Cocoa Butter Sheet Cake. From frontier campfire cooking, to spicy Tex-Mex fare, from old-fashioned cowboy cooking, to the German influence of Central Texas, to southeast Texas’ own style of Cajun and Creole cuisine, Texas Cooking is diverse and delicious and this cookbook brings a taste of it all.
Those of you who confess to reading your cookbooks like novels, will enjoy the sidebars found throughout the book and containing a generous helping of stories about food-related festivals across the state. From the Seymour’s Fish Day to the Texas Rio Grande Valley Onion Festival in Weslaco, from Hot Diggity Hog Fest in Odessa to the Black-Eyed Pea Fest in Athens, there's a celebration to suit every taste.
Texas Hometown Cookbook is great for the armchair traveler as well as the perfect addition for any home cook’s library. It is a collection of tried and true recipes that will be enjoyed by Texas natives, visitors or anyone who enjoys a good cookbook. With so many recipes for dishes that families have enjoyed over and over again, Texas Hometown Cookbook, the latest book in the State Hometown Cookbook Series, meets the series’ goal of “preserving your recipes for the next generation of hometown cooks.”
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For more information, to request a review copy of the book,
or to schedule an interview with the authors, contact
Melissa Webb toll-free 1.888.854.5954
or by email mwebb@gapublishers.com
