Our history in Texas has brought us so many different cultural influences in food. After a bitter fight with Mexico, Texas formed the "Republic of Texas". We were at that time an independent country. Due to the fact that the people of the land were part of Mexico, our food reflects that influence. We also have a strong German influence, and there is the ever present Southern "down home" influence.
Growing up in a small town near Ft. Worth I have fond memories of my mother's cooking. My little town had a population of less than 500, so there was not much to do but plan the next meal. I never really cooked in my early years, but took a lot of mental notes of how my mom and grandmother cooked.
I really never cooked until I went to work as a firefighter. I am now retired, but the guys at my station always made the new "rookies" cook to pay their dues. For some it was a big mistake. In my case I found that cooking was something that I really had a "handle" on. There were a lot of meals that I put on the table, about the time we recieved a call, that ended up in the guys pockets as they grabbed what they could on the way out. As time went on I found that more and more of the foods I cooked were not from recipes, but just a combination of things that were just meant to be together. When I started putting this website together I realized that all the recipes were in my head, so I had to start writing a recipe everytime I cooked something.
I don't include many dishes with red meat. I feel that there are many much healthier alternatives. I also don't do any fried dishes. Pan sauteing is as close as I get to frying.
I am in the process of writing a cookbook that will contain all of my recipes. It will be for sale on the Good Eats website.
