A Cowboy In The Kitchen

A haute take on one of America's most traditional cuisines--that of the Texas ranch. Don't be thinking this book is just full of ribs, beans, and biscuits . . . . unless, of course, you're thinkin' South Texas Venison Ribs with Peanut Dipping Sauce, Black Bean Nachos with Chargrilled Chicken, and West Texas Biscuit Pudding with Southern Comfort en Glace. You see, at the Reata Restaurant in West Texas, hot chef Grady Spears is cooking cowboy cuisine with an emphasis on the cuisine. Filled with fresh, strong flavors, fascinating ranch memorabilia (these Texans take their history seriously!), gorgeous full-color food photography, and truly marvelous, utterly real food, this is American cooking at its kick-off-your-boots-and-get-down-to-business greatest.

Almost 100 recipes celebrating the cowboy lifestyle, plus cooking secrets, photos & stories from real cowboy cooks, ranchers & locals across North America. Life in the saddle, on the trail, and in the outback has forged a style of living that cowboy-turned-chef Grady Spears calls the Cowboy Way. In Cooking the Cowboy Way, he takes you on a journey around the country to amazing places full of food, history, and people who have an appreciation for the land. These places where life and living (and that always includes cooking and eating) come alive in the spirit of the cowboy. In Cooking the Cowboy Way, you’ll have a ringside seat at the rodeo as Grady wrestles down new recipes from some incredible cowboy cooks and kitchen wranglers who know what hungry cow folks want to eat. And in the process, you’ll be carried away by the magic of starry nights by the campfire and seduced by the heritage of the chuck wagon and ranch kitchens, where the menus are still stoked by the traditions of the Old West just as they have been for a century or more. Cowboys live life by a simple code that is shared through their rustic lifestyles and the delicious recipes found in Cooking the Cowboy Way. Cowboy cooks, ranchers, and locals from across North America share their recipes, cooking secrets, photos, and stories about their unique and proud way of life. From the Lone Star State to the Grand Canyon State, and from Florida to Alberta, Canada, cowboys have a way with the land and the food that comes form it. Each chapter focuses on a different location, including the Wildcatter Cattle Ranch in Graham, Texas; the Bellamy Brothers Ranch in Darby, Florida; the Homeplace Ranch in Alberta, Canada; Rancho de la Osa in Tucson, Arizona; and more. Praise for Cooking the Cowboy Way “Cooking the Cowboy Way is not a guide to old-fashioned ranch and trail grub. And that’s a good thing. The book is an homage to the cowboy legacy, which Spears finds evolving on the nation’s ranches.” —Dallas Morning News “[Grady Spears and June Naylor] went all over the country, with a heavy emphasis on Texas, of course, drawing inspiration from cooks on and around ranches large and small. They then took these recipes and adapted them for regular kitchens and modern uses (i.e., dinner parties and backyard cooking). The results sound great.” —Texas Monthly

In this sweet contemporary romance, something’s cooking between a beautiful chef and a widowed cowboy. Rancher West Montgomery thought he needed Annabel Hurley’s help just with cooking lessons. But the widowed single dad required more than great culinary skills to secure custody of his young daughter. Her maternal grandparents wanted little Lucy in a more stable environment. What could be more perfect than West’s loving home . . . with his new wife? Marry West Montgomery? That had once been Annabel’s dream . . . until West had up and wed someone else. But now the cowboy needed her help—and was willing to save her family’s business in return. She’d do anything to keep Hurley’s Homestyle Kitchen open. Still, living in the same house with West, and adding his adorable daughter into the mix? This was surely a recipe for another broken heart.

A collection of authentic cowboy recipes with an uptown flavor, including such dishes as venison chili and ranch beans

Originally published: Austin, Tex.: Texas Monthly Custom Publishing, 2003.

His past…or her future? From the moment Gillian Moore set foot in Temple Territory, she knew it was the perfect place to open her boutique hotel. The fact that it's also the ancestral home of currently out-of-work Texas cooking sensation Hunt Temple seems like fate. With the cowboy chef in her kitchen, success is practically guaranteed! Too bad their visions of his family land couldn't be further apart. Hunt can't let Gillian destroy his family legacy—not before he and his brothers have a chance to rebuild it. Hunt's prepared to challenge Gillian at every step and make sure she embraces the local Texas flavor. But despite their differences, they make an amazing team. And not just in business. Yet when Hunt's own opportunity knocks, even Texas may not be big enough for both of their careers.

Cooking up an instant family Widower West Montgomery thought he only needed Annabel Hurley’s help with some cooking lessons. But what could be more perfect than providing a loving home for his little daughter Lucy...with a new wife?

A cookbook with essays, photos and innovative recipes celebrating the mythology, culture and food of the American cowboy. As at home on the coffee table as it is on the kitchen counter, this definitive cowboy cookbook features historical essays and photographs depicting life on the Chisholm Trail alongside fresh takes on cowboy cuisine. Cowboy-turned-chef Grady Spears reinvents chuckwagon dishes from Barbecued Quail Tamales to Pork Tenderloin with Watermelon Salsa to Butterscotch Pie by elevating them to haute cowboy cuisine. Equal parts cookbook, history lesson, and photographic essay, The Texas Cowboy Kitchen blends Spears's distinctive culinary recipes with June Naylor's narrative of life on the Chisholm Trail and Erwin E. Smith's award-winning black-and-white cowboy photography and four-color culinary shots. Divided into 10 chapters ranging from “Campfire Cocktails” to “Things You Don't Rope” to “Chuckwagon Secrets,” The Texas Cowboy Kitchen contains 100 original recipes perfected at Spears's renowned former restaurants, the Chisholm Club in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Nutt House Restaurant in Granbury, Texas—both of which satisfied wags of hungry customers. “Grady's probably the only guy I know who could dress up a Frito pie and make it look pretty, and the only cook who'd think of marinating skirt steak in Dr. Pepper. . . . [He is equally] at ease in a worn pair of leather chaps as he is wielding a saute pan..” —Nolan Ryan, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher and lifelong cowboy