The Homesick Texan's Family Table: Lone Star Cooking From My Kitchen To Yours

"When I gave my mother a copy of the first Homesick Texan cookbook, she turned up her homesick Texan nose. See, author Lisa Fain is from the Houston area and Mom’s from El Paso. As far as my mother is concerned, Houston might as well be New Orleans. But a few weeks later, Mom fessed up: “The recipes are fantastic.” Fain’s new cookbook — like her first — is based on her hugely popular blog and relies on her spectacular photography and personable authorial presence for much of its charm. (And, Mom will have you know, it attends to the state’s many cuisines.) The recipes in it are inventive, inviting, unpretentious and easy to follow: turkey enchiladas with sweet potato-chipotle sauce, black-eyed pea and Mexican chorizo soup, and jalapeno fried chicken, which calls for brining the bird with jalapenos for a long chili finish. Exactly the ticket for winter."