Tailgate season is upon us. Since a Texan can never have too many recipes for queso and cheese dip, herewith are three magnificently gooey ones from three great new Texas cookbooks published this fall.

Fort Worth chef Lou Lambert’s Big Ranch, Big City, cowritten with collaborator June Naylor ($40, Ten Speed Press), is an outgrowth of Lambert’s cooking classes, catering, and two eponymous restaurants, in Austin and Fort Worth. Lambert calls his style “elevated ranch cuisine”; another way to describe it is refined but full of gusto and big flavors. (Lambert and Naylor will be doing book signings and some Central Market cooking classes this fall: Sept 15, A Real Book Store, Dallas; Sept 19, Central Market Fort Worth; Sept 20, Central Market Dallas; Sept 21, Central Market, Austin; Sept 22, Central Market Houston; Sept 23, Central Market San Antonio; Oct 1, Texas Fall Fest, Horseshoe Bay; Oct 13, Market Street, Colleyville; Oct 22, Texas Book Festival, cooking tent, Austin; Oct 29, Fresh, Tyler.) Photograph, left, by Ralph Laurer; used by permission.

Seventh-generation-Texan Lisa Fain blogs from her home in New York City under the moniker “the Homesick Texan,” and her sassy, popular website, which centers on how much she misses Texas, especially Texas foods, has now given rise to The Homesick Texan Cookbook ($29.99, Hyperion). (Fain will do book signings on Sept 22, Cookbook Gala, San Angelo; Oct 20, Le Crueset on Lovers Ln, Dallas; Oct 22, Texas Book Festival, at the Capitol, Austin; Oct 24, BookPeople, Austin; Oct 25, Twig Book Shop, San Antonio; Oct 26, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston.)

Journalist Ellen Sweets had the fortune to be a great friend and cooking chum of the late liberal columnist Molly Ivins. Stirring It Up with Molly Ivins: A Memoir With Recipes ($29.95, University of Texas Press) focuses on personal stories and anecdotes but still has plenty of recipes, fancy and plain. (Sweets will do book signings on Oct 23, Texas Book Festival, at the Capitol, Austin; Nov 4, BookPeople, Austin; Nov 13, Savory Spice Shop, Austin.) (more…)

Tagged: Big Ranch Big City, Cookbooks, Ellen Sweets, Homesick Texan, june naylor, Lisa Fain, Lou Lambert, Molly Ivins, Queso

When your aggravatingly hip friends brag, “Ooooh, we just ate at Boeuf and Stuff, and it’s soooooooooo fabulous,” resist the urge to shove them into a large, steaming vat of creme brulee. Instead, get up to speed your own clueless self.  If you live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, hire Texas Toast Culinary Tours to lead you around by the hand.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to confess that Texas Toast co-founder June Naylor is a big friend of mine. But that’s also why I know that her tours will be great. (She’s a restaurant critic and cookbook author.) The Toast’s culinary excursions come in several lengths (short, medium, and long) and sizes (personal, small-group, and bus-size). It depends on what you want.  To dip your toe in the water, try the Seventh Street Shuffle, in Fort Worth, on November 17. Starting at 6:30 p.m., tourees will visit three restaurants  for noshes and drinks, for $75 per person. (Think of it as a progressive dinner/cocktail hour.) If you like it, watch the web site for other, more-extensive Texas-wide tours now being planned, focusing on wine 101; barbecue & beer; food, wine & art;  and much more. Sounds like fun to me.

Tagged: june naylor, texas toast culinary tours