Prep time: 30 minutes / Bake Time: 15 minutesEmpanada Crust1 package (15 oz., 2 crusts) Hill Country Fare Refrigerated Pie CrustsFillingsPumpkin 1 can (15.5 oz.) Hill Country Fare Solid Pumpkin for pie 2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice 1/2 cup H-E-B Sugar or Granulated Sugar Replacement (Splenda)Banana 2 bananas, mashed 1/2
Stuffing4 tablespoons olive oil 1 yellow onion, peeled and diced into 1/8-inch cubes 1 pound whole farro grain (or spelt) 4 cups chicken stock 1 fennel bulb, diced into 1/8-inch cubes 1 butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1/8-inch cubes 1 celery root (celeriac), peeled and diced into 1/8-inch cubes
Duck3 cups kosher salt 1 cup packed brown sugar 4 inches canela sticks, or substitute 2 inches regular cinnamon sticks 12 whole allspice 6 bay leaves 40 peppercorns 4 five-pound ducks kosher salt and pepper to taste cilantro or flat-leaf parsley, for garnishPrepare brine: Four hours to a day ahead,
Dove2 green apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled and cored 1/2 large onion, peeled 2 thumb-size knobs of ginger 2 cups white vinegar 1 cup salt 1 cup sugar juice and rinds of 2 lemons 2 tablespoons each of whole juniper berries, coriander seeds, star anise pods, and black peppercorns
Missing an Obama yard sign in West Houston.
A web-only interview with the Austin violinist.
NAME: Jim Morris | AGE: 51 | HOMETOWN: Flower Mound | QUALIFICATIONS: Masterfully mimics the past seven presidents, from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush, as well as a range of presidential candidates, from John Edwards to Al Sharpton / Has provided voices for Saturday Night Live’s “The X-Presidents” cartoon
I’m a fifth-generation Texan and mad as hell at T. Boone Pickens for his rape of our beautiful land [“There Will Be Boone,” September 2008]. And for what? To line his pockets even more? Apparently, a billion dollars isn’t enough.A year ago, my husband and I purchased 93 acres
Texas Book Festival; Latin Grammy Awards; San Antonio Opera.
Mulberry, Austin and Lake House, Houston
To those who insist all journalists are pinot-swilling, Bibb-lettuce-nibbling, four-hundred-thread-count-Egyptian-cotton-pillowcase-coveting elitists, I say: Meet Michael Hall. It’s not just that the soul-patched, ratty-flannel-shirt-wearing Army brat doesn’t present as Bill Buckley or Tom Wolfe. It’s that, in word and deed, he more than transcends the “man of the people” cliché. This
With his twenty-second book, Traitor to His Class, the acclaimed historian and University of Texas at Austin professor brings yet another political giant into focus: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.Do you explode any myths in Traitor to His Class?The rich of Roosevelt’s day blamed him for selling them out to the
Applegate was raised near El Paso. He is a full-time predator-control trapper on ranches in Big Bend. For the past ten years, he has served as the president of the Texas Trappers and Fur Hunters Association. He lives in Marfa.When I was eight years old, I was in my grandpa’s
The PartyAs at most holiday functions, there’s no escaping your kin at a tamalada, or tamale-making party. For generations, Latinos have gathered at Christmastime to cook, assemble, and eat the age-old dish (tamales date back to pre-Columbian times). “A tamalada is a multifamily, multigenerational event,” says Sylvia Cásares, who owns
Vince Young, off his game.
Chapter Eleven of “Twin Wells,” by Stephen Graham Jones.
With a natural, beguiling style, the 25-year-old songwriter and violinist has been a fixture on the Austin roots scene for nearly a decade, carrying on the legacy of his late father, Champ, of Uncle Walt’s Band. He has just released his eponymous solo debut.Why a solo album now?It took
Why everyone in Dallas is talking about a depressed elephant.
San Angelo’s frontier chic.
How I came to know the hermit of Echo Hill.
Houston.
Austin’s Cotton Mather ended its nine-year run in 2003. The group’s Beatles-esque power pop had garnered praise from NME and bands like Oasis in the UK and inspired a following in Asia, but in this country, not so much. Still, everyone wondered what leader Robert Harrison would do next. The
Lots of indie-rock bands wear their influences on their sleeve. Austin’s White Denim betrays elements of the visceral rock of the Stooges, the minimalism of the Velvet Underground, and even the weird fusion of groups like the Minutemen or the Meat Puppets. But what White Denim possesses, unlike so
Lucinda Williams’s West, in 2007, was a stunning effort, her strongest in nearly a decade. Yet it was an emotional downslide, and its cathartic declarations of unrequited love no doubt took their toll in the ensuing months onstage. At some point, she must have longed for a way to
The Glen Rock Book of the Dead is a quiet tour de force from former Austinite Marion Winik, who ruminates on the meaning and messages to be culled from the deaths (and lives) of fifty-plus individuals who have crossed her path. Within a slim 108 pages, she provides
First the bad news: Alan Govenar’s Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound is maddening, a six-hundred-page patchwork of illustrations, interviews, and essays adapted and expanded from his previous works. Sometimes organized by place (East Texas, Austin) and sometimes by theme (zydeco, the saxophone), it affords such
The stereotypical image of America’s middle class—successful adults shepherding worthy children toward better lives—is turned on its head in Andrew Porter’s beautifully executed short story collection The Theory of Light and Matter. Porter, who teaches creative writing at Trinity University, pulls us through the looking glass into a
With his twenty-second book, Traitor to His Class, the acclaimed historian and University of Texas at Austin professor brings yet another political giant into focus: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Do you explode any myths in Traitor to His Class?The rich of Roosevelt’s day blamed him for selling them out to
I have updated the daily totals for early voting through Thursday, the tenth day. Please scroll down if you are interested.
Texans for Lawsuit Reform, through spokesperson Sherry Sylvester, responded to my post from yesterday, “The Judicial Races.” I may make some remarks at the conclusion of TLR’s letter, but I am not going to engage in a rebuttal. I had my say, and TLR is entitled to its say. The
It makes sense. Having presided over the decline of the Republican party in Texas, she has the experience to take her expertise to the national level. The source is Marc Ambinder’s generally excellent blog for the Atlantic Monthly. Here is the complete text: More dispatches from
AP’s Jay Root broke the story, which has been picked up by Business Week, yahoo.com, and the International Business Times, among others. The lead says it all: At a time when Gov. Rick Perry is ordering state agencies to cut their budgets and brace for economic decline, the
I’m going to give you my personal opinions here. Chief Justice, Supreme Court Wallace Jefferson (R) Jim Jordan (D) Tom Oxford (L) The all-Republican Texas Supreme Court is an intellectually corrupt court. By this I mean that it is infused with the appearance of impropriety and inequity. Who you are
On Sunday, October 19, the two candidates for district 82, incumbent Republican Tom Craddick and Democratic challenger Bill Dingus met in a debate in Midland. The complete debate may be viewed online here. The online version has separate segments for each question that was asked and for
NOTE TO READERS: The Quorum Report’s Daily Buzz has an update on Craddick’s cash on hand. Please refer to it for the latest information. I am not going to post it here because I don’t want to seem to be taking credit for Harvey’s work. The bottom line is that
After posting this item yesterday, I received a number of calls saying that it was wrong. The first came from a Democratic operative who has been working with Democratic members to help prevent the very concern that I was writing about. The second came from Mike Villarreal. Later, the operative
This is a report from a Democratic operative who is involved in the race. “If you add up the early voters with previous Democratic primary history, and ad up the early voters with previous Republican primary history, and then give Republicans 70% of the voters with unknown primary histories, [Wendy]
Full disclosure: These numbers came to me over the phone from a lobbyist. I scribbled them down on a napkin during lunch. Make of them what you will. I do not vouch for their accuracy. But I will vouch for their significance, if accurate they turn out to be: Harris
For those, including me, who think that the presidential race is over, the online political journal Salon has an interesting article about the Bradley effect and Obama’s vulnerability. Written by veteran GOP political operative Bill Greener (he was, among other things, manager of the 1996 Republican convention), its
Not surprising, except for the size of the margin. Pete Olson used to work for Cornyn, and the Cornyn people told me last week he had it won. As one Democratic operative reminded me yesterday, this is a district in which Shelley Sekula-Gibbs got 30,000 write-in votes in 2006. Also,
As Dallas goes, so goes Houston. Two years after Democrats swept Republicans out of control in the Dallas County courthouse, it appears that the D’s will do the same in Harris County, with one exception: county judge, Ed Emmett, whom many will remember as a former legislator in the eighties.
In a Zogby poll taken for the Houston Chronicle to coincide with the start of early voting, the results showed Barack Obama with a 7-point lead over John McCain in Harris County and Rick Noriega with a similar lead over John Cornyn. The poll was published by the
Fort Bend County is off the charts: up 142% compared to the votes cast here in 2004. Harris County is up 117%. The lowest six of the top fifteen counties (based on registered voters) have combined to cast just 4,000 votes more than Harris County. The six are Fort Bend,
With Election Day quickly approaching, it has become clear to many conservatives that a Democratic takeover of the Texas House of Representatives is a very real possibility. What was once a 26-seat Republican majority in 2003 has dwindled to an eight-seat majority today, and that number will almost certainly shrink
I spoke with Dr. Richard Murray, the director of the University of Houston Center for Public Policy, and a veteran analyst and numbers-cruncher of Harris County politics. Here are some of his observations about the early vote: * Hispanic and African-American voters are outperforming Anglo voters in the percentage increase
I have asked Democratic insiders how their slate of candidates will fare in races for the House of Representatives. Their answer is that the D’s will pick up one to three seats, with a possibility of winning enough seats to capture control of the House. I have asked Republican insiders
This was released earlier today. Cornyn 55 Noriega 40 Noriega hasn’t gotten much traction, but I’ll take the “under” on the margin. It looks more like a 10 point race to me. Cornyn 55-45.
This is an amazing story. In short: Boone gave $165 million to Oklahoma State, his alma mater, for an upgrade of its athletic facilities. The gift came with strings attached, that Boone would stipulate how it was to be managed. OSU regents wanted to put the money in the bank;
No, that’s not the Austin Chronicle. It’s the Houston Chronicle. The main reason that the Chronicle gives for the endorsement is one from the distant past of Texas politics, when bringing home the bacon was more important than ideology: that the Democrats are going to be the majority party and
Here is a look at early voting in the fourteen most populous counties. The Secretary of State’s office compiles the numbers for the top fifteen counties, but no comparison is possible for number 15, because Cameron County has replaced Jefferson County since 2004. (Mail-in ballots are included.) Perhaps the most
