When German’s Chocolate Cake first appeared, everyone felt pleased — even proud. We all thought it was something special, something that connected us to our German heritage. Little did we know how little actual Germans knew about our cakes! Still, my mom baked one, as did most everyone else, and lik...

Tex-Mex was still Texas’ bestkept secret at the beginning of the 1960s. It remained largely unknown outside San Antonio and South Texas, and even those of us who grew up not far away didn’t realize what we were missing. My first real exposure to it came in Seguin, where I fell in love with salsa and...

We had three wood-burning stoves to heat our home in the ’50s. My mom built a fire in the kitchen stove before milking three cows and making breakfast. After frying eggs and cooking oatmeal, she sent four kids off to school. At four, I wasn’t yet going, so it was a surprise one winter afternoon to b...

I’d never heard of a rémoulade sauce growing up here in the 1950s. I doubt anyone had. The closest thing French in our home was the toast. Even that w...

No doubt Meusebach’s troopers were surprised to find apples growing here — Crab Apples! By late summer in 1846, red and yellow fruit was hanging in bu...

Perhaps nothing changed the way Americans ate in the 20th century more than television. It arrived in our home on Christmas Eve, 1954. Overnight, my p...