PUMPED UP Douglas Brown, the 29-year-old executive chef of Dallas’ Melrose Hotel and its Landmark restaurant, has some great pumpkin ideas for fall as well as tips for cooking with the real thing. His recipe for pumpkin gnocchi with apple-cider brown bbutter and pumpkin seeds takes this orange relative of
I’M JUST MAD ABOUT SAFFRON I know I’m in the company of grown-ups when I can say “tapas bar” and nobody feels compelled to crack, “What? You ate at a topless bar?” At the moment, my favorite tapas bar is San Antonio’s Saffron, a casual, three-month-old spot done up in
READ ALL ABOUT IT November is an ideal month for books: The weather is cooler, a perfect excuse for staying in and escaping into the world of your favorite page-turner. But if bumming indoors isn’t your style, then mind your p‘s and q‘s and hit the road for these literary
ATTENTION, SHOPPERS No doubt, holiday consumers who turn a sickly green upon hearing the word “mall” will search desperately this month for alternatives to the slew of chain stores. Some people will test their artistic capacities by creating their offerings; some will purchase presents online. Still others—thousands, we are told—will
THE HARD CELL Beaumont has the Texas Energy Museum and Kingsville has the King Ranch Museum. Likewise, Huntsville promotes its industry—incarceration—with the Texas Prison Museum. Since 1989 museum visitors have surveyed exhibits dedicated to prison art, contraband, and capital punishment, gawking at the decommissioned electric chair Old Sparky along the
DRUM UP SOME FUN Whether you’re a folk art lover, a foodie, or just ready for a fall frolic, here’s an itinerary that should make your mouth water. Head to San Antonio November 1 and begin with First Friday, a monthly art walk that takes over the funky Southtown neighborhood’s
This recipe is hotel executive chef David Bull’s adaptation of Texas cooking maven Helen Corbitt?s original cheese soup. He likes it a bit spicier and he uses Velveeta, which melts beautifully. If you substitute cheddar, which was called for in the original, be sure to grate it finely or it
There's no denying that a home with historyespecially when the former inhabitant was Santa Annais a big draw.
Senior editor Pamela Colloff, writer-at-large Suzy Banks, and others talk about this month's cover story, "Down Mexico Way."
Senior editor Anne Dingus relays some tales that are tall—even by Texas standards.
THIS 450-PAGE COOKBOOK IS LOADED with information—but not visuals. Don’t expect to put this on your coffee table, but do expect to keep it handy when you’re cooking. Put together by Steve Petusevsky and the Whole Foods Market team members, this cookbook is billed as a “guide to natural foods”
This recipe is hotel executive chef David Bull’s adaptation of Texas cooking maven Helen Corbitt’s original cheese soup. He likes it a bit spicier and he uses Velveeta, which melts beautifully. If you substitute cheddar, which was called for in the original, be sure to grate it finely or it
The northeast town of Hawkins remembers one of its small-town girls.
For a quick taste of Mexico, head south to Nuevo Laredo, where you'll find colorful people, wonderful shops, and fine restaurants.
Photographer Keith Dannemiller talks about Mexico City and the perfect shot.
Y'all come back now, you hear.
1 large ripe pineapple 1 cup heavy cream 6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar 12 canned cherries in syrup, chopped 1/2 cup pine nuts, finely choppedKeeping the leaves intact, cut a slice off the top of the pineapple and reserve. Scoop out the pulp, core it, and finely chop it. Whip the
A family-oriented resort outside Playa del Carmen, an eating tour of mole-obsessed Puebla, and three more of our favorite getaways south of the border.
MEXICO’S CAPITAL IS NOT ONLY bordered by volcanoes, rattled from time to time by earthquakes, and inhabited by nearly twenty million people. The megalopolis is also sinking so rapidly into the ground that its church steeples lean at odd angles along the skyline. “Embrace the insanity of the place,” a
When the City of Marshall wanted to pump millions of gallons of water out of Caddo Lake and sell them to the highest bidder, the state said, "Sure." Residents of Karnack, Uncertain, and other tiny northeast Texas towns said, "Hell, no." Guess who prevailed (for now)?
MY HUSBAND, RICHARD, AND I were sipping margaritas on the hillside patio at the Villa Montaña hotel. The sun was setting behind the mountains on our left and a midsummer thunderstorm, complete with rainbow, brewed over the mountains on our right. Spread out below us, in all its centuries-old charm,
AS MUCH AS I LIKE to think of myself as a grand adventurer, an explorer of all things exotic, I have to admit that when it came time for my Mexican vacation, I headed straight for a beach resort. I’m not talking about a tiny hotel on a remote beach
Beach palapas, blue water, angelfish, Gauguin sunsets, mahimahi al mojo de ajoand a frog in the shower.
Talavera tiles, tacos árabes—and mole mania.
Why has it taken so long for my sons to get married? Is it the wet towels mildewing on their apartment floors? The pocket change accumulating on every flat surface? Or is it that I've given them a skewed idea of what women expect?
Julián and Joaquin Castro's résumés look as similar as they do: degrees from Stanford and Harvard, billable hours logged at a tony law firm, and now, promising careers in San Antonio politics. Nothing could please their mother more.
Well, the vice president of the United States was a mediocre CEO, but the company will be just fine. And, despite what you've read in the papers, so will he.
A sleepover at George and Laura's.
Another installment in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise?
Losing your breasts but keeping your dignity.
Where Latino journalists come down on Tony Sanchez
The year of demographic inevitability.
Novels about college classmates reconnecting and rekindling at reunion time are nothing new, but Tim O'Brien's July, July succeeds with honors.
Was the sacred image of the Virgin Mary in Mexico City painted by miracle or man? Even science can't say for sure.
When I went back to Galveston to inspect the renovation of the famed Balinese Room, I turned up a bit of my own history.
A kayaking trip offers close encounters with the ecosystem of the wetlands near Port Aransas, where still waters run shallow.
The truth about the Lady of White Rock Lake, the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe, and other seemingly tall Texas tales.
HOT WHEELS Whether you like to ride low and slow, in high style, or with the wind in your face, this month offers several events that will get your motor running. Start your engines at San Antonio’s Low and Slow Classic Car Show, where more than two hundred flashy vehicles
Pop artist Peter Max brings his psychedelic stylings to Fort Worth’s Milan Gallery for a month-long show beginning October 26. Max will christen the exhibit with an appearance. What can people expect to see in the exhibit? Well, my exhibitions are sort of semi-retrospectives. What you will see are works
COMING ATTRACTIONS For thirty years El Pasoan Willie Varela has been best known for his avant-garde super 8 films. This month, however, the 52-year-old debuts his other artistic undertakings. On October 31 the El Paso Museum of Art and the UT-El Paso Fox Fine Arts Center open a two-part exhibit,
JAZZ IT UP Jazz, the great musical art form invented in the U.S., became a part of world culture, fusing different rhythms along the way. This month sample the new sounds beginning October 6, when Calle 54, a musical performance based on the film of the same name about Afro-Cuban
CUISINE ART If your pocketbook can spare the $125-a-plate charge, then pull up a seat for Cena Con Frida—Dinner With Frida. The flavorful fare of saucy Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, passionately dished up by La Mansión del Río Hotel executive chef Scott Cohen, is the main course at this fiesta
THE REAL DEAL In 1902 Dell and Charlie Wunsche built a small saloon and hotel in Spring, a wide spot in the road north of Houston, never dreaming that their modest enterprise would last long enough to celebrate a centennial. Score one for longevity: On October 18, 19, and 20
BACK TO THE FUTURE I had no idea how much I was yearning to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a Victorian dining room until the 1886 Cafe and Bakery opened in Austin’s Driskill Hotel, a mere block from my office. I’ve been all but boarding there since August. Early
I’D BEMOAN THE LOSS OF the Baytown Tunnel, an icon of my childhood (on the drive through it, my sister and I kept our eyes shut and our feet off the floorboards to avoid misfortune), if its replacement, the Fred Hartman Bridge, weren’t such a marvel of engineering. A cable-span
OVER AT THE HOUSTON ARBORETUM and Nature Center, in Memorial Park, I asked Ruth Milburn, the center’s executive director, what she liked best about the place. She looked at me indulgently and said, “Why, I’m here for the trees.” As I navigated the well-marked trails and boardwalks that weave through
THANKS TO A LIGHT-RAIL PROJECT scheduled for completion in 2004, much of downtown’s historic district appears to have been rooted up by a monster armadillo. Still, with its shady parks, outdoor sculptures, busy theater district, chic restaurants and clubs, and seven miles of air-conditioned tunnels (in essence, food courts for
WILLIAMS TOWER (FORMERLY TRANSCO TOWER), a 64-story office building designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee that soars above the Galleria area, is impossible to miss even when you’re zipping down Loop 610. But you need to get out of your car to appreciate the architects’ splashiest touch, the freestanding
