Lent has just ended and if you observed it in any way, strictly or somewhere in the middle, you probably felt it. That slow shift in how you cook, what you reach for, and how often you stand in the kitchen wondering what else there is besides peanut butter and pimento cheese. But there is something about going through a season like that that resets your perspective.
You come out the other side appreciating things you did not think twice about before, and sometimes you discover a few new ones along the way.
As a kid, the frozen seafood we ate came in a rectangular box and answered to the name fish sticks.
They were breaded within an inch of their life, cooked until vaguely crisp, and served with enough ketchup to make you forget what you were eating.
They were not great. They were fine, which for a long time was about the best you could say for most frozen fish. And that stuck with me.

Read the full On The Table feature in your Thursday Bowie News.

See a shrimp ramen recipe (top photo) in On the Table this week.

There’s a certain kind of spring morning that only exists out here—where the air still carries a chill, but everything around you insists on blooming anyway.
The Mexican plums are the first to show off, soon their delicate white blossoms will be lighting up the yard like lace.
The peaches follow close behind, soft pink and hopeful, while the fig trees begin their quiet transformation—buds swelling, promising those beautiful figs we all wildly anticipate. It’s beautiful in a way that almost makes you forget how fragile it all is.
Almost. Because if you’ve ever had an orchard and watched the weather forecast dip just a little too low, you know the feeling—that slow, creeping panic.

Read the full story in On The Table in Thursday’s Bowie News.

Today is National Chili Day, and in our house, that’s not a suggestion — it’s a production. Now, for some folks, National Chili Day means popping open a can and calling it festive. And if that’s your plan, go on ahead. I won’t stop you.
But I will whisper, sweetly, “Bless your heart.”
Now, before you accuse me of culinary snobbery, let me confess: I have opened a can of Wolf Brand Chili in my lifetime. More than once.
We’ve even hosted full-blown canned chili taste tests at our house like it was the Super Bowl of sodium. And I’ll tell you right now — Wolf Brand didn’t win. H-E-B did—every time.
Which would be mighty convenient… if we had an H-E-B close enough to run to when the craving hits. But here’s the truth: canned chili may get you through a Thursday night. It does not prepare you for Terlingua.
Here I’ll give you a great recipe and share a bit about my chili upbringing and some fascinating recent events that took us to Terlingua three times to become champions.

Read the full On the Table story in your Thursday Bowie News.