Many years ago, we were approached by the owner of the Oasis Restaurant on Lake Travis, created by Beaux Theriot, to manufacture a line of products under his Oasis trademark. We did, but eventually we bought the brand and even hired his brother-in-law, Jay Gans, to come to work for us. He had great connections…
Tag: #foodie
Spicy Mustard Fish Tacos
I can never speak of tacos without thinking of my good friend Rusty Fenton. He was a very important part of my life, in fact, he helped me create the Original Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce. However, this isn’t a story about that – it’s about Tacos. Rusty spent most of his life in pursuit of…
The Beauty of a Stuffed Baked Potato
There isn’t a lot of written history on the stuffed baked potato, so I’m pretty sure I invented it. And as usual with me, economy was the true mother of invention. There I was, many years ago when Wendy’s and I were young, pondering that the fast-foot burger chain made famous by Dave Thomas offered…
Spanokopita Squared
Spanokopita, the savory pie one authority praised as the ultimate Greek “soul food,” might be the first word I ever tried to understand when arriving in Greece coming up on half a century ago. Surely I heard a few other words, enough to climb off the overnight ferry from Italy, find a late dinner of…
Return of the Bread Bowl
Only a few months back, a national bread-centric chain called Panera introduced a “hot new trend” – yet another version of soup served in a bowl of hollowed-out bread. It was a “hot new trend” because Panera, along with many food journalists, told us it was. Which is great – since soup served in a…
‘Tis the season….Holiday Scones
The holidays are upon us and, with them, the cold chill of winter’s breath. It is time for sweaters, wool socks, a fire in the fireplace and, of course, warm weekend breakfasts, the kind that fill the house with welcome aromas and warm comfort. Maybe it’s a sweet potato hash with candied bacon and caramelized…
The Joys of Homemade Food Gifts
Just try doing what we did. Try gathering internet advice on making homemade food gifts this holiday season. Everybody and his Aunt Lucy has recipes – oh yes, plenty of recipes. And online these almost always take the form of a “slideshow” you have to click through, invariably with some silly number that somebody decided…
Cajun Corn for The Holidays
The new settlers floundered initially, failing to recognize or locate enough of anything good to eat. Finally, as much out of desperation as brotherly love, they asked the native Americans who’d lived off this land a lot longer. And they, known as “Indians” since the geographically challenged Columbus called them such, pointed them to the…
THE GREAT SWORDFISH OF SICILY
It was the most memorable lunch on a cruise ship in my three decades of lecturing on cruise ships. It was especially so because quite a few passengers took one look at what was being grilled in the open air and ran not-quite-screaming to the familiar indoor lunch buffet. Somehow, while the ship had been…
Hungary’s Signature Beef Stew
By JOHN DeMERS If you stay in the beautiful capital on the Danube, Budapest, or wander from one remote corner of Hungary to the other, you won’t get a straight answer asking if goulash is really a soup or a stew. We’ve begun to suspect it is neither, or perhaps it is both. All we…
THREE CHEERS FOR CHALLAH
A reoccurring theme in all that I do is the importance of community – of recognizing the beauty in others and celebrating that beauty over the joy and comfort of a meal prepared as much for the soul as for the stomach. As a child and then a young man, I put little thought into…
BUILDING THE BEST BISCOTTI
Showing every sign of good sense and more than a little good taste, the world has finally embraced the ancient Italian confection known simply as Twice Cooked. You might be wishing for a more romanticized, less workaday sort of name. Still, ever since the Roman legions discovered that these cookies retained their quality for days…