Texas Cooking Online * August, 2005 Newsletter *

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Feed the Addiction New York Strips | Ribeye Steaks Now is the Time to Mail Order Wine Take 10% off a case of wine with this coupon. Texas Cooking Food Gift Store. Free Beauty Samples Sign up to win free samples, bargains contests, jewelry in the August drawing These are truly the dog days of summer, and the less said about the heat the better. The least we can do is recommend one of the most delicious and refreshing drinks in the Beverage section of Grandma's Cookbook, Mexican Tropical Tea (Ponche). It will help get you through the rest of the summer. Hot as it is, we still have lots going on at Texas Cooking. Patricia Mitchell's article, Ice Cream Pies: A Hot Weather Treat will have you putting together some quick and delicious frosty desserts. Apparently, the many grilling-related questions that John Raven has been receiving spurred him to write Grilling Review, which is full of tips, tricks and good grilling advice. Randy Lankford continues to turn out great pieces on fine San Antonio restaurants and Texas wineries. This month he focused his reporting beam on the outstanding family-owned El Chaparral restaurant and Chisholm Trail Winery near Fredericksburg. The classic article is Eleanor Bradshaw's intriguing Sounds Weird, Tastes Good: Strange Flavor Combinations That Work, and our recipe is the tall, beautiful, amazingly good White Chocolate Cake & Frosting. Our Communities board is the perfect place to ask a question, answer one, or just take in someone else's predicament. And the Texas Events Calendar is chock full of goings-on. John Raven continues to set people straight in his Ask Dr. John column, there's a fresh trivia quiz for you, and the August T-shirt winners are announced at the bottom of the page. So let's get after it. Help Yourself to Our Weekly Recipe Email Sign up for our latest feature, the Texas Cooking Weekly Recipe Email. Nothing fancy, just a carefully selected recipe that's sure to please with maybe a link or two to some compatible dishes. Recipes range from savory to sweet -- the entire spectrum. At Texas Cooking, we have always focused on quality over quantity, and we carry that tradition to our Recipe of the Week email. Sign up here.

Roses | Perennials | Bulbs Houseplants | Hedges | Ground Covers Special Offer Keep only pure water in your life and in your body. Fresh, bottled water delivered directly to you. Special Features Ice Cream Pies: A Hot Weather Treat by Patricia Mitchell Ice cream lovers appreciate ice cream pie at any time of year. But nothing persuades like a summer heat wave when you want a cool, delicious treat that everyone will love. The cook need not do a whole lot of cooking. In fact, an ice cream pie can be prepared and stored in the freezer for up to two weeks prior to serving. You just may want to make two so you'll have an extra special dessert on hand. Grilling Review by John Raven, Ph.B. You just can't get enough good advice when it comes to grilling, and John Raven provides plenty of knowhow when it comes to the basics, all delivered with his signature Texas touch. He also shares a recipe for one of his favorite side dishes from the grill. Peace, Love, and Barbecue Book review by Patricia Mitchell Mike Mills and daughter Amy Mills Tunnicliffe have co-authored Peace Love, and Barbecue, a major work on the subject of barbecue, an important topic these days. Anyone presuming to author a book should have proper credentials, and Mike Mills has them in abundance. A great review of a great book, together with Paul Kirk's acclaimed Kansas City Brisket recipe. Chisholm Trail Winery Forges Ahead by Randy Lankford Paula Williamson and her husband, Harry Skeins, Jr., decided in the early 90s they didn't want to be litigation attorneys anymore. Instead they built their own winery from scratch. Still considered a work in progress by the owners, their talent and determiniation have already earned Chisholm Trail Winery awards and fans. El Chaparral: San Antonio by Randy Lankford In a city with more than 5,000 Mexican restaurants, it's hard for one to stand out. San Antonio has grown considerably in the 33 years since the Garcia family took over the restaurant and so has El Chaparral. Test your knowledge of Texas trivia This month's quiz concerns itself with a performer who is a Texas icon. Have you read John Raven's latest Q&A column, Ask Dr. John? A new online form has been added that makes "asking Dr. John" easier than ever. Not only does he field questions about barbecue, chili and outdoor cooking in general, but his downhome culinary knowledge extends to all parts of the menu. Cooking with Texas Highways: This collection of recipes from Texas Highway magazine is full of surprises. A trove of goodies, this new cookbook adds substantial Texas-style value to any kitchen. The college Fall semester is just around the corner. Great items for Longhorns, Aggies and Red Raiders fans. Visit today Discount Cigarettes Inexpensive shopping by the carton. Click on our link to find out more. Prime beef, dry-aged steaks, all natural, buffalo, filet mignons Sounds Weird, Tastes Good: Strange Flavor Combinations That Work by Eleanor Bradshaw If you've cooked for a family for any length of time, you probably have dishes in your repertoire whose ingredients you wisely keep secret. If they knew that moist, rich chocolate cake contained mayonnaise, for instance, they might not eat it. I wonder, in fact, if that same psychology is the reason behind the ever popular buttermilk dressing being dubbed Ranch Dressing most everywhere. Pure Ice Cream Indulgence Make delicious ice cream Cuisinart ICE-30BC Only $79 Recipe: White Chocolate Cake & Frosting 4 ounces white chocolate, broken into small pieces 1/2 cup boiling water 2-1/2 cups sifted cake flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 eggs, at room temperature, separated 1 cup butter 2 cups sugar 1 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour three 9-inch cake pans. Pour the boiling water over the chocolate pieces and stir until melted. Set aside and allow to cool. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form; refrigerate. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar, allowing mixer to run for 4 to 5 minutes. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer running, add the vanilla and the chocolate/water mixture. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, combining well. Gently fold stiffly beaten egg whites into cake batter. Pour batter into three prepared cake pans. Bake at 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on racks. Frost and fill between layers with White Chocolate Frosting. White Chocolate Frosting 3 egg yolks, beaten 1 cup sweetened condensed milk 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup butter, melted 4 ounces white chocolate, grated 1 cup chopped pecans Combine the egg yolks, condensed milk, sugar and butter in the top of a double boiler. Bring water to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Add grated chocolate, stirring until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Stir in pecans. Makes about 3 cups of frosting. You can find this and over 500 more recipes in Grandma's Cookbook. Martini Gifts Martini Glasss Gift Packs. We have the most unique martini glassware online. Shipped FREE, Gift Wrapped FREE, and FREE Gift card. We are sure to please. Cookie Gifts Our sponsor Chip-N-Dough offers a sweet selection of cookie gift tins. You can order them now for the holidays. Custom designed gift tins are very popular, no lead time. Texas Cooking readers get $5 off regular price. (coupon code AFF5 at checkout) More Great E-Mail Newsletters Texas Cooking's Recipe of the Week email is great for people who enjoy our new and classic recipes from our cookbook. Cooks, recipe collectors and fans of Texas will enjoy this brief, weekly email that contains a carefully selected recipe with maybe a link or two to some compatible dishes. Sign up here. Stop Spyware! Kazaa, Gator and other similar programs have been sneaking onto people's computers wreaking havoc to their systems. These malicious programs are difficult to remove. They flood the screen with their own pop-up ads and open up the computer to a host of viruses. If you have programs like Kazaa, TopText, Gator, WhenU and others on your system, take a moment to learn about the problems these programs cause. We have written a useful and quick tutorial that will inform you about these programs and how to uninstall them from your computer. Free Catalogs Enjoy Great Savings from Free Catalogs Clothing Bridal / Wedding Invitations Wine & Brew Sporting Goods Hobbies / Crafts Pets _________ Cosmetics, samples, DVDs, promotions Gratis! August T-Shirt Contest Winners Betsy C. of Carrollton, Texas Lionel D. of Chicago, Illinois Kayla H. of Canton, Ohio Michelle J. of St. Paul, Minnesota Jonathan L. of Savannah, Georgia Al M. of Addison, Texas Terry P. of Shreveport, Louisiana Mark S. of Memphis, Tennessee Sarah W. of Reno, Nevada Judy W. of Abilene, Texas Congratulations winners! We are frequently asked if we award T-Shirts to non-US residents, and the answer is Yes. We have had quite a few Canadian winners, and have also sent T-Shirts to winners in England, Australia, Ireland, Switzerland and Germany. The Rules Since we began our T-Shirt giveaway seven years ago, our contest rules remained unchanged. Readers have been able to enter as many times as they like, and their entries were retained in our database. As you can imagine, our contest database has become very large (which is good), BUT much of it consists of old email addresses that are no longer valid. Therefore, we are making the following change in our contest rules: Readers can still enter as often as they like; however, each contest entry will expire three months following the date it was entered and will disappear from the database. This will greatly reduce the number of "names in the hat" and improve the odds of winning. We think this change will result in an even better contest. We are frequently asked how one goes about entering the T-shirt contest. Sign up here. Subscription / Unsubscribe Help This newsletter is sent to you because you, or someone on your behalf, indicated you would like to receive it when you signed our Guest Book or entered our T-Shirt Contest. If you wish to stop receiving the Newsletter, click here or point your browser to http://www.texascooking.com/unsub1.ihtml If you would like to change your email address, please send an email to txmailbox@texascooking.com. ©2005 Texas Cooking Online. All rights reserved.