Stirring Prose: Cooking with Texas Authors

By Deborah Douglas

Book Overview

Stirring Prose: Cooking with Texas Authors is a delightfully revealing look at some of Texas's best writers. Initially conceived as a Who's Who of Texas authors, Deborah Douglas quickly realized that asking authors to write about their favorite recipes freed them from "the big toe-digging constraints of having to talk directly about themselves. The resulting off-center reflections are brilliant slices of their personalities and their writing styles." A traditional cookbook this is not. Each author contributed to Stirring Prose in a personal, distinctive way. Billy Porterfield reveals his fantasies about a voluptuous restaurant owner and a dream-enhanced recipe for "game hen fricassee with a French New Guinea twist." Sunny Nash gives us an enticing snapshot of her grandmother, Bigmama, and divulges the secret to beautiful skin with Bigmama's Mysterious Rose Water Splash. And John Erickson shares his Bachelor Cowboy's Delight, the meal he eats over and over when his wife and children are out of town, and which consists of steak, lettuce salad, and green peas. Robert Flynn, Liz Carpenter, Elmer Kelton, and thirty-three others also share their recipes and food stories. Some of these recipes, such as Dr. [Larry L.] King's Asian Flu Hot Liquid Life-Saver, almost beg for a "do not try this at home" warning. Others, such as Cindy Bonner's Bohemian Kolaches and Clay Reynolds's Tex-Mex Breakfast, will inspire readers to start cooking. All are enticing for their tasty prose. Each recipe is accompanied by a photograph, a publication list, and an engaging, personalized introduction by Douglas, herself a fine writer, funny and charming. Although not an exhaustive collection of Texas writers, Stirring Prose: Cooking with Texas Authors is a tantalizing peek at thirty-nine talented Texas writers and their work.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890968292
• ISBN13: 9780890968291
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

An entertaining who's-who of top Texas writers.

Some 39 of the best Texas writers get a chance to tell about themselves with essays about favorite meals, stories about growing up, and recipes that have special meaning. It's a wonderful way to showcase some of the best writers in the country -- letting us have a slice of their personal life. Entertaining stories from Kinky Friedman, Liz Carpenter, Naomi Nye, Robert and Jean Flynn, Molly Ivins and many others. And some of these folks can actually cook. The author, Deborah Douglas, writes witty, insightful essays as introductions to each of the writers' pieces. There's even a web site for the book.

A primer for Texas cooking and Texas spirit

This is a fresh look at some (most?) of Texas's most talented literary sons and daughters. Whether you're following Cindy Bonner's recipe for Bohemian Kolaches or soaking up some of Clay Reynold's Texas attitude, this book is an easy read. And Deborah Douglas's intros are insightful and funny.