I grew up in Texas. I don't live there any more. Aside from very close friends and family, the thing I miss the most about it is the food. The saucy sizzle that permeates nearly all "Texas" dishes is just something that I have not found anywhere else. Other places that I have lived like San Francisco and New York City and North Carolina sport some yummy food (and I am certain that someone from any one of these places--or from anywhere else for that matter--could write this post about the food coming out of their home), but my taste buds are still loyal to the Lone Star State.
I have learned not to try to get Mexican on the east coast. I leave the establishment so sad and homesick and totally unsatisfied. There is one chain restaurant, On the Border, which I frequent in desperation but even its food is vastly inferior to its On the Border cousins in Texas.
Over the years I have started making more of the food out of my home state. Typically I am a recipe user, but the funny thing about making this food for me is that recipes were totally irrelevant. I added and subtracted and remembered and enhanced to turn our meals into something that said home to me and from me to my kids.
On the table this week:
: fajitas with sauteed Cubano and red peppers and onions
: black beans
: jalapeno poppers
: guacamole
: slow-cooked pork ribs
What foods remind you of home?
7 comments:
i can smell the goodness from your photos...i actually don't eat anything like i did growing up! lol. i grew up outside D.C. and it was always salad, meat, vegetable. period. for me i like spreads of hummus, tabbouleh, huge salads, burritos, rice bowls with veggies etc. i don't do meals, more of plates!
:)
jen
I want to come for dinner!
I grew up in Iowa so, ah, pork?!?!
What? Jalapeno poppers can be made not from a deli at a grocery store? :)
From Alaska. Salmon. Halibut. Those will always remind me of home.
You're making me hungry; those jalapeno poppers look incredible.
I'm a Pacific NW lifer . . . so maybe fresh-picked raspberries?, and I always love a good bowl of mashed potatoes.
The jalapenos especially sound yummy to me right this minute. Yours look very good. I love Tex Mex and east Texas cookin'....black eyed peas with ham, sliced homegrown 'maters and onion with a side of sweet cornbread, pinto beans with bacon, fried chicken, turnip greens....oh yeah!
Oh yummy, yum, yum! When I was little we lived in Atlanta. My parents weren't from the south originally, but my mom did make terrific corn fritters every once in a while and I still love fried okra so very much! My embarrassing weakness... Chick-fil-a sandwiches! Miss those like crazy. Every once in a while we can get to the ONE that they have in Des Moines if we're passing through. Mostly though, we're there on Sunday when it is closed. ;)
How do you make jalapeno poppers? I have some extras in the fridge right now and don't know what to do with them.
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