This book is a wonderful collection of tex-mex recipes and stories about the American Southwest, and Matt Martinez, the Lone Star state's most famous chef.

Get a taste of Texas culinary history with this quirky, diverse community cookbook from Austin’s nineteenth-century residents, plus photos and informative essays. Tacos and barbecue command appetites today, but early Austinites indulged in peppered mangoes, roast partridge, and cucumber catsup. Those are just a few of the fascinating historic recipes in this new edition of the first cookbook published in the city. Written by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1891, Our Home Cookbook aimed to “cause frowns to dispel and dimple into ripples of laughter” with myriad “receipts” from the early Austin community. From dandy pudding to home remedies “worth knowing,” these are hearty helpings featuring local game and diverse heritage, including German, Czech and Mexican. With informative essays and a cookbook bibliography, city archivist Mike Miller and the Austin History Center present this curious collection that's sure to raise eyebrows, if not cravings.

Matt Martinez, Jr., has his paternal grandfather to thank for his culinary success. A soldier in Pancho Villa's army, Delphino Martinez was captured by the Federales, but managed to escape across the Texas border, and eventually open, in 1925, Austin's first Tex-Mex restaurant, called El Original. The Martinez family has been in the restaurant business ever since. In "Matt Martinez'S Culinary Frontier, Matt has gathered all of the recipes that are closest to his heart, for cooking "the way it's been done in the Southwest since the days of the vaqueros and real cowboys, whose cast-iron skillets were used and used and used some more." Here you will find classics for every time of day, from breakfast Huevos Rancheros (as they were served to young Matt in the kitchen by his maternal grandmother) to Matt's Competition Chili (Chili, he claims, originated in San Antonio in the 1900s, and he has the story to prove it.), to Chile Rellenos (Lyndon Johnson's favorite), to Standard South Texas Fried Chicken (which his mother served at Matt's El Rancho from the day it opened in 1952) to Early Texas Chicken Fried Steak. And for each recipe there's a story, of Matt, his family, or of the dish itself. Not only are Matt's recipes easy and delicious, they are authentic and untouched by modern trends. As Matt says, "Dancing with the one that brung us has always been a rule of thumb in Texas. Staying close to what you hold dear, to what makes your little ol' heart pitter-patter, is what this cookbook is all about."

When a planned bank robbery in Drystone City results in the death of the owner's wife, Cage turns his back on lawlessness and heads home. But when he arrives in the border town of Nathan's Ford, he has been followed by his nemesis and rides into tragedy. With his family's ranch burned to the ground, and his parents and brother murdered by Mexican rustlers, Cage - aided by childhood friend Velvet Goodwine and reluctant bank owner Milton Guthrie - sets off in pursuit of the killers. A confrontation with the rustlers leads to the unmasking of the man behind the deaths, and a bloody finale which leaves Cage fighting desperately for his life, and the lives of the only friends he has left.

Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, Bonnie and Clydetrue love does not have to always be portrayed as having tragic endings. In reality, there are many that survive the trials of time and many long periods of prolonged separation. This is the story of a love affair that survived both, and in the end, the two people in this story lived to love each other as hard as they could. She was his hero and he hers. Come along for the ride in this story of true love winning out.

Newberry Honour Award Winner & National Book Award Winner. Matt is six years old when he discovers that he is different from other children and other people. To most, Matt isn't considered a boy at all, but a beast, dirty and disgusting. But to El Patron, lord of a country called Opium, Matt is the guarantee of eternal life. El Patron loves Matt as he loves himself - for Matt is himself. They share the exact same DNA. As Matt struggles to understand his existence and what that existence truly means, he is threatened by a host of sinister and manipulating characters, from El Patron's power-hungry family to the brain-deadened eejits and mindless slaves that toil Opium's poppy fields. Surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards, escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But even escape is no guarantee of freedom . . . because Matt is marked by his difference in ways that he doesn't even suspect. Praise for The House of Scorpions: 'It's a pleasure to read science fiction that's full of warm, strong characters... that doesn't rely on violence as the solution to complex problems of right and wrong. It's a pleasure to read.' Ursula K. LeGuin 'Fabulous' Diana Wynne Jones Also by Nancy Farmer: The Sea of Trolls Land of the Silver Apples The Islands of the Blessed The Lord of Opium

Who is trying to kill an ordinary New Mexican housewife? It's true that Ana Darcy Méndez has secrets even her husband and adorable twins don't know. One is that her countrymen have accidentally given terrorists a deadly new weapon which they are about to use. As she risks her life to prevent a massacre, the Russian Mafia, the American Mafia, the U.S. Special Forces, the F.B.I., and the C.I.A. learn one more of her secrets: she is no ordinary housewife!

A collection of recipes from Matt Martinez that combine traditional methods and native ingredients to create simple Tex-Mex dishes, including dips, quesadillas, sauces, fajitas, and more.