Wherever you go, there you are, boots and all.
It took a move to Paris, France for Writer Ellise Pierce to discover how very Texan she was. And it took her running out of money and unable to find work to discover that she really is a caterer and cook at heart.
Pierce took her Parisian culinary self-education seriously, cooking and teaching classes out of her tiny Paris apartment.
In her head, she carried the recipes of Texas and the south with her: breakfast tacos, Ro-Tel dip, tortilla soup, okra and tomatoes, squash casserole, fish tacos and pimento cheese. Then she learned to cook like a Frenchwoman, and when she ran out of jalapenos, Velveeta, and tortilla chips, she improvised.
She offered it all up for hometown and newfound friends in a blog, Cowgirl Chef, that led to her cookbook, Cowgirl Chef, a collection of French-inspired Tex-Mex and Tex-Mex-tinged French.
Maybe you are wherever you go, but in cooking, you really can be in two places at once. Try these recipes out for their Texas-size flavors.
Cowgirl Chef by Ellise Pierce (Running Press, 2012)
—By Nicki Pendleton Wood