Lisa Fain is a seventh-generation Texan who currently resides in New York City. When she’s not on the hunt for chile peppers, she writes and photographs the popular food blog Homesick Texan, which has been named one of the top fifty food blogs in the world by the Times of London and the Best Regional Food Blog by Saveur. It has also received recognition from the New York Times, Bon Appétit, and Gourmet. Lisa’s writing has appeared in Saveur and Edible Austin and on SeriousEats.com, and her photographs have been exhibited worldwide, with two in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress. An active member of Foodways Texas and the Southern Foodways Alliance, Lisa is also a certified barbecue judge.
UPCOMING EVENTS
9/13: Brooklyn, NY
POWERHOUSE ARENA
In conversation with Deb of Smitten Kitchen
37 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
7:00 PM
When Lisa Fain, a seventh-generation Texan, moved to New York City, she missed the big sky, the bluebonnets in spring, Friday night football, and her family’s farm. But most of all, she missed the foods she’d grown up with.
After a fruitless search for tastes of Texas in New York City, Fain took matters into her own hands. She headed into the kitchen to cook for her friends the Tex-Mex, the chili, and the country comfort dishes that reminded her of home. From cheese enchiladas drowning in chili gravy to chicken-fried steak served with cream gravy on the side, from warm bowls of chile con queso to big pots of fiery chili made without beans, Fain re-created the wonderful tastes of Texas she’d always enjoyed at potlucks, church suppers, and backyard barbecues back home.
In 2006, Fain started the blog Homesick Texan to share Texan food with fellow expatriates, and the site immediately connected with readers worldwide, Texan and non-Texan alike. Now, in her long-awaited first cookbook, Fain brings the comfort of Texan home cooking to you.
Like Texas itself, the recipes in this book are varied and diverse, all filled with Fain’s signature twists. There’s Salpicón, a cool shredded beef salad found along the sunny border in El Paso; Soft Cheese Tacos, a creamy plate unique to Dallas; and Houston-Style Green Salsa, an avocado and tomatillo salsa that is smooth, refreshing, and bright. There are also nibbles, such as Chipotle Pimento Cheese and Tomatillo Jalapeño Jam; sweet endings, such as Coconut Tres Leches Cake and Mexican Chocolate Chewies; and fresh takes on Texan classics, such as Coffee-Chipotle Oven Brisket, Ancho Cream Corn, and Guajillo-Chile Fish Tacos.
With more than 125 recipes, The Homesick Texan offers a true taste of the Lone Star State. So pull up a chair—everyone’s welcome at the Texas table!
This is a list of all of the bloggers who are joining me in The Homesick Texan Cookbook Spotlight and Cook-Off (in no particular order):
The de la Mare household, filled entirely with women, is not unlike many households on the tiny British island of Guernsey during World War II, where most men have left to join the army in its fight against the encroaching German forces. Vivienne feels little difference, however, in her husband Eugene’s absence from the life they lived when he resided at home as she raises their two daughters and cares for her ailing mother-in-law. He may have slept in the same bed, but the distance between them, then, was just as great. (more…)
On the eve of her sixth wedding anniversary, Isabel Gillies found herself on a plane with her two toddler sons in tow, flying away from Oberlin, Ohio, and from her husband Josiah—her boys’ father—back to her parents’ apartment in New York City. Her husband had just left her for another woman, and she had nowhere else to go. (more…)
The Wild Rose, Jennifer Donnelly’s third and final installment of the Rose series, is a sweeping saga of love, passion, and betrayal that unfolds over four continents during the course of World War I. Incorporating historical figures with fictional characters, The Wild Rose examines the themes of exploration, espionage, global conflict, and women’s rights in vivid, impeccably researched historical detail. (more…)
These five friends came to Dexter to get a college degree.
What they’ll really get is an education.
“Gossip Girl goes to college in this tart satire . . . crisp and surprisingly steely.”
—Publishers Weekly
When five freshmen arrive at Dexter College, a small liberal arts school in the quiet town of Home, Maine, the drama unfolds as quickly as the first keg is tapped. There’s Shipley—blonde and beautiful, the object of envy and more than a little lust. Her edgy roommate, Eliza, came to Dexter to get noticed, and she has the attitude and the mouth to prove it. Tom is a jock-turned-artist—handsome, privileged, used to getting his own way. Sensitive Nick is Tom’s wake-and-bake, pot-smoking roommate. And then there’s Adam Gatz, a freckle-faced local boy and his not-so-little sister, Tragedy.
As Shipley, Eliza, Tom, Nick, and Adam find out, the first year of college is more than credits and cramming. It’s a time of lust, love, secrecy, and scandal.
Originally founded in 1988 as a weekly college newspaper, The Onion is the world’s most popular humor publication, misinforming more than 1.5 million readers in print and 7.5 million online each month. More than a million copies of its various books have been sold to date, beginning with Our Dumb Century, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
The Onion’s sports website, The Onion Sports Network, was named one of TIME’s 50 Best Websites of 2011.
From painfully obvious steroid revelations to sex scandals and superstars who announce trades in over-the-top TV specials, the wide world of sports can often seem too ridiculous for words. Well, attention sports fans: In The Ecstasy of Defeat, the editors of The Onion offer the laugh-out-loud funny and long overdue lampoon of sports culture you’ve been waiting for.
Filled with the very best of The Onion’s bench-clearing sports coverage, this book includes such classics as:
p. 46 Lip-Reading BCS Computer Kills Officials Who Want to Shut It Down. p. 65 Barry Bonds Took Steroids, Reports Everyone Who Has Ever Watched Baseball. p. 118 Report: Cheap Chinese NBA Players Falling Apart After a Few Seasons. p. 155 Barbaro’s Doctors: “A Horse This Good You Don’t Eat All At Once. p. 179 Lance Armstrong Wants to Tell Nation Something, But Nation Has to Promise Not to Get Mad.
No topic escapes the satirical slap of America’s Finest News Source, and the book covers not only mainstream sports—such as baseball, basketball, and football—but also lesser sports, sports culture, and special events like the World Cup and the Olympics. Featuring all the players, teams, and sports we love—and love to hate—The Ecstasy of Defeat is a must-read for sports nuts and Onion fans alike.
