Food for the Soul

Hummingbird Cake is one of those recipes that’s uniquely Southern, and found nearly every springtime at someone’s baby shower, wedding, or barbecue.

Rumor has it the cake’s name comes from its over-the-top sweetness – so sweet that there’s no way a hummingbird could resist it’s sugary lure.

Personally, it reminds me a lot of carrot cake, but instead of getting its sweetness from carrots, it gets it from fresh pineapple, ripe bananas, and warmly roasted walnuts. They’re each equal stars of this show.

Earth Day is about celebrating the planet that we live on. The Nature Conservancy came up with the idea of having a Picnic for the Planet. They’re encouraging communities around the globe to come together and enjoy the great outdoors, good food, and each other and celebrate the beauty that is Nature this Earth Day. …

You might be asking yourself, what the heck is a cascarone (Cask-ca-roe-neh)? A cascarone is a hollowed egg that has been dyed and filled with confetti, and then resealed using tissue paper. What is the purpose of cascarones, you might now ask yourself. In South Texas and Mexico, cascarones are as synonymous with Easter as dyed hard boiled eggs are in the rest of North America.

In doing research for this pots, I found that cascarones have actually been around hundreds of years, maybe even thousands. Some people believe they even started in Roman times. The egg symbolizes fertility, which is what Spring is all about. No matter which era we’re talking about, to have a cascarone broken on top of your head (covering you in confetti) is meant to be a sign of good will and good fortune for the rest of the year.

Plus, it’s really fun to break eggs on top of your friends’ heads and cover them in brightly colored confetti!

There is nothing more divine to me than a warm and fresh tortilla. When I am in San Antonio, it is one of the things I look forward to most – stepping foot in a Las Palapas or Casa Rio and being served with a tortilla warmer full of steamy, perfectly pillowy flat breads to go with my carne guisada, migas, or fajitas.

That I spent years buying in-store tortillas for home use kind of depresses me, now that I know how easy they are to make. You don’t need much: flour, lard, salt, water, and a food processor or your own two hands.

Cheese enchiladas are comfort food to me the way matzo ball soup might be to someone on the East Coast. It\’s just one of those satisfying meals that sounds good no matter what time of day it is, where you are, or whether or not you\’ve just eaten.

I just got my Texas Monthly magazine yesterday (thanks to my hubby for subscribing), and this month is dedicated to \”How to Cook Like a Texan\”. Of Cheese Enchiladas, Katharyn Rodemann writes, \”They say our palates memorize flavors. If that\’s the case, every Texan has enchiladas learned by heart.\”

Amen.

Two of the best things about baby showers: teeny tiny adorable white fluffy baby socks and FOOD. I don’t know what it is about the socks. I just melt when I see them. Sure, onesies and bibs with tongue-in-cheek phrases are adorable, but they’ve got nothing on the socks. Just thinking about the teeny tiny feets that will go in those teeny tiny socks makes me squee like a 14 year old at a Justin Beiber concert.

Y’all, I’m a bad Texan.

March 2nd was the 175th Anniversary of Texas Independence Day, and there was not one mention of this by me, anywhere on the Internets. I had plans, OH I had big plans to talk about it extensively. And then March 2nd came and went, and I confess: I forgot. I plain ol’ forgot what date it was (a hazard of working from home), and not a word was said.

What would I have told you about? I’d have told you that Texas has some of the greenest national parks, some of the most beautiful rivers in the United States. That when you envision Texas, if you envision dust and dry desert, you’ve got it wrong (until you get to West Texas, at least).

Sam Houston (a Texan hero, legend, and its first president) once said:

I don’t know about you, but some nights I am wiped from work and the temptation to succumb to take out, eat out, or something in a box is almost too much to resist. One meal that James and I are happy to eat any time of year is chicken noodle soup. You may think that homemade soup is something you need hours and hours for, and yes, sometimes that’s true. But on a weeknight, it really is possible to have homemade soup in under an hour.

There are a few pantry items you need to keep on hand in order to make this possible, but believe me, once you’ve done that, when you go to stare into the depths of your fridge, and suddenly realize you’ve got everything you need for this filling and healthy supper, the wash of relief and hunger might just be at equal measures.

When it comes to shortbread, I’m a purest. I don’t really pander to things IN it other than butter, sugar, flour and salt. I don’t even like it dipped in chocolate. I’m weird, I know. But there’s just something reverent in those 4 ingredients that come together into a perfect, crisp, buttery biscuit that I would choose over a chocolate chip cookie every time.

Okay, so Strawberry Heart Cake isn’t the most complicated of things to make. But I can’t claim to be the world’s best cake decorator. That title can be battled out between my friends Amanda and Kristan. But maybe you’re like me. You wish you could make the beautiful things those talented women make. Plus, I think we can all agree strawberry cake can overcome a lot of homeliness.