Texas Cooking Online * June, 2005 Newsletter *

How to Make Sure You Get Your Newsletter If you use spam filter rules or special email filters, please use the domain "texascooking.com" (not the entire "from" address, which varies).

Food Gifts for Father's Day Surprise Dad this year with a Father's Day gift he will really love. Our gifts include fine Omaha Steaks and gourmet dinners from A la Zing. See these and other great specials in the Texas Cooking Food Gift Store. Atkins Products Atkins Baking Products | Atkins Bars Now is the Time to Mail Order Wine Take 10% off a case of wine with this coupon. Summer hasn't even officially arrived, but Texas is feeling the heat already. Not all of it is being generated by the sun. Lots of heat is radiating from grills and barbecue pits all over the nation and, if that's your pleasure, there is plenty to choose from on Texas Cooking. Patricia Mitchell's Not Your Average Burger offers a number of tasty alternatives to the Plain Old Burger, while John Raven provides relief from the heat with his article, Cool Drinks for Hot Days. Randy Lankford begins his series on Texas wineries with Texas Hills Vineyard in Johnson City, Texas, including some dynamite recipes and wine pairings. Our classic article and recipe continue our hot and cold theme with John Raven’s Grilling It All, a mini showcase of what a good cook can do with a grill, and Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream. Drop by the Communities board and check out the new thread on Fiestaware’s newest, bluest shade, and make a little time to wander around in the Texas Events Calendar so you'll know what's really happening in Texas. And, of course, there’s always the latest Dr. John Q&A column, not to mention the new trivia quiz, and the June T-shirt contest winners at the bottom of this page, so better get started now. 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 Features Not Your Average Burger by Patricia Mitchell Grilling has advanced to a fine art. And grills, not to mention grilling accessories, are sophisticated and often expensive. With all that in mind, however, the single most popular item emerging "hot off the grill" in millions of American backyards and patios this summer is the Plain Old Burger ("POB" for short). Cool Drinks for Hot Days by John Raven, Ph.B. Along about this time every year, the Texas weather starts getting hot. June is the tune-up month for July and August when Mama Nature really sees if anyone is serious about living in Texas. Fortunately, there is relief from the heat. For the outside of the body there is the old swimming hole. The body can also be cooled from the inside, and that's the route we are going to investigate here. Texas Hills Vineyard by Randy Lankford "If you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly." That was Gary Gilstrap's philosophy ten years ago when he pulled up stakes in Colleyville, a suburb of Dallas, and moved his wife, Kathy and their dog, Natasha, to Johnson City and opened the Texas Hills Winery. It all began with little more than a big idea and a small soil sample. Test your knowledge of Texas trivia Our quiz this month concerns itself with a piece of well-known Texas history. You may be able to guess the correct answer if you give it a little thought. 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. 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. Looking for free stuff? Participate in contests, get product samples, trial offers and information Grilling It All by John Raven, Ph. B. John Raven breaks out his grill and puts it through its paces with a variety of grilled entrees and sides, including Pork Chops Adobo with Tomatillo Sauce, Garlic Shrimp a la Southwest and Grilled Salmon Steaks with Lemon Butter accompanied, as always, by his grilling tips and insights. Pure Ice Cream Indulgence Make delicious ice cream Cuisinart ICE-30BC Only $79 Classic Recipe: Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream 2-2/3 cups sugar 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon salt 4 cups whole milk 5 large eggs 5 cups puréed fresh strawberries (about 4 to 4-1/2 pints) 4 cups whipping cream 4 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon almond extract Wash, trim and semi-hull the strawberries; cut the larger ones in half. Transfer strawberries to a blender and purée. Put the purée in a container and refrigerate. Combine 2 cups of the sugar, flour and salt; set aside. Heat milk in top of a double boiler until hot, but not boiling; add a small amount of the hot milk to the sugar mixture, stirring to make a smooth paste. Then stir sugar mixture back into the remaining milk. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat, until slightly thickened. Lower heat to medium-low, cover, and cook 10 minutes. (Make sure you have sufficient water in your double boiler.) Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl. Stir about one-fourth of the hot mixture into the eggs; mix well. Stir the egg mixture back into the hot mixture, and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Allow to cool. Mix together the strawberry purée, the remaining 2/3 cup sugar, whipping cream and extracts. Stir into the custard. Refrigerate until cold. Pour custard mixture into the freezer can of a hand-turned or electric ice cream freezer. Freeze according to manufacturer's directions. Makes about 4 quarts. You can find this and over 500 more recipes in Grandma's Cookbook. 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) 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. 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! June T-Shirt Contest Winners Maxine B. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Judy E. of McAllen, Texas Marcy F. of Denver, Colorado J.J.H. of Arlington, Texas Greg J. of Charleston, West Virginia Daniel M. of Cincinnati, Ohio Allison P. of Tulsa, Oklahoma Stephanie S. of Santa Ana, California Tom T. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin John W. of Odessa, 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.