Texas Book Festival

With Melinda in the "living room" of the TCU Press booth

Estimates are that 35,000 people attended last weekend's Texas Book Festival, and I think every one of them walked by the TCU Press booth, with a goodly number stopping to browse and buy. Melinda and KK had set up a "living room" in the doorway by our booth (note the trees in the background)--folding chairs and a small coffee table. There was usually a good breeze, whereas some of the tents got crowded, hot and stifling. The living room was a perfect place for people watching, and people we didn't know sometimes sat down to rest. Melinda says she spent a long time one day watching the boots go by (make a line from a song go through your mind?). I sat there a lot because it gave me a great view of the crowd, and I spotted friends I hadn't seen for a while.

The festival offers all kinds of activities--panels, readings, talks. But I usually stay around the booth and visit with people. Seeing friends is the big draw for me. This time I met for the first an author I've corresponded with for several years--a special treat. I did sign books at the Texas A&M signing tables--our booth is part of the larger A&M tent--and I sat at the Texas Institute of Letters booth for an hour. Actually sold one copy of Skeleton to an old friend. All in all I sold seven copies this weekend and gave one to Megan and Brandon--thought I'd already done that. Brandon is offended because there are characters named after several members of the family but no Brandon! But I digress. I also signed several copies of Elmer Kelton: Memories and Essays, our tribute to the late great Texas author.

The festival began in 1998, with Laura Bush as the prime mover behind it. Now in its twelfth year, it is one of the largest and best book festivals in the country. In its first years, I thought  it should be all about Texas books and authors, because that was always my focus at TCU Press. Instead, the festival has grown steadily by featuring nationally prominent authors. Maybe the idea is more to show that Texans are readers than writers. This year, Paula Deen was a big draw. I don't mind that I didn't hear her--I watch her on TV a lot--but one of the TCU Press interns bought a copy of her new book. I leafed through it and instantly wanted a copy--will put it on my wish list. I usually don't buy books at the festival--if I allowed myself to do that, I'd end up broke.

Another digression: family friend Ralph Lauer took the smashing photographs in a new Louis Lambert/June Naylor cookbook: Big Ranch, Big City. Scrumptious recipes--I gave it to Megan for her birthday and spent some time this weekend browsing through it.

The Texas Book Festival is the one professional event I still attend in retirement, and I look forward to the 2012 festival.

Food Network, Star Cafe, and how to know when you can leave a book behind

One way I got through all our snow and ice days--five in the last two weeks--was to watch the Food Network channel. When I was doing idiot work at my desk, I kept the volume on; when I needed to concentrate I muted it but kept the picture so I could check every once in a while. Some of those chefs have become friends of mine, though they don't know it. Ina Garten is cheerful, soft spoken, and the kind of person you'd like to eat lunch with (if she catered it of course). For any who've read the Diane Mott Davidson catering mysteries, I've decided Davidson had Garten in mind when she created Goldie the caterer. In my mind's eye, Goldie is Ina. Then there's Guy Fieri with the spiky hair and all those weird concoctions he eats at Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dumps. It makes the mind boggle that any one man could eat so many high fat, high calories, high everything concoctions, but I've heard that he says the bite you see him take on TV is the only bite he takes. Still, the old-time, down-home, far-out cooking he discovers is mouth watering.
Lately I've been fascinated by two Robert Irvine programs: one is America's Worst Cooks, in which people who claim they can't cook apply for the class. Irvine and his fellow chef, a woman whose name escapes me, are merciless on these people, but those who aren't dropped out of the program end up  pretty good cooks. I think I'm a good cook--and most people who eat at my table agree--but I don't think I could live up to that program. Irvine also does a program where he has 48 hours to rescue a failing restaurant. He redecorates, re-invents the menu, trains the staff, and generally turns a failing restaurant into a new one. Last night, he demoted the head chef, derided the prepared foods they were using (the canned corn beef hash tasted like dog food [I love it with ketchup] and another prepared item was costing them ten times what it would if made from scratch in the kitchen). And, of course Bobby Flay is everyone's hero these days. I wish the recipes they cook were more accessible. I'm often too pressed for time to check them on the  web.
And who can talk about Food Network without mentioning Paula Deen --I have never seen one woman, even with that outrageous southern drawl, use so much butter, sour cream, heavy cream, you name it and it's fattening. I would never dare cook--er, okay, eat--half the things she cooks, but they do look delicious.
I admit a few cooks irritate me, like the lady who prides herself on the inexpensive menus she cooks--too cute. But then Giada and her Italian food--yum!
While I'm on the subject of food, Betty and I wanted comfort food tonight, so we went to the Star, the restaurant she and her husband own and where I used to work once a week for several years. We both had our mouths set for a bacon cheeseburger, which we split, and a salad. Wonderful! Bino cooked it just right, so it was pink in the middle and juicy. I have sent an email to Guy Fieri saying he needs to check out this restaurant--I may send another describing the Star Burger, which tops a burger with cheese, chili, onion,  pickles, jalopeno, and bacon. Now who could eat that?
I read today about a longtime boookseller who invented the rule of 50. Read 50 pages of a book, and if you decide it's not for you, you can set it aside without guilt. But as the woman aged, she realized her time to read was limited and there were still so many books, so she changed the rules. After you reach 51, subtract your age from 100 and that's the number of pages to read before you decide a book is not for you. I so rarely abandon a book--it has to be really bad--but I have been known to do it.

Food for thought

Tonight 's dinner was sloppy Joe, an old stand-by recipe.. I make it with ground bison (low fat), beans (good for you), onion, ,canned tomatoes, and a bunch of other things including red wine. I figure it's good but fairly low in calories and fat content. I often eat it in a bowl like stew but tonight, for company, I put it on whole wheat buns. I like it better without the bun. But with salad, and the Weight Watchers hummus Jean brought for an appetizer, it was a great, easy and satisfying meal.

Today I was watching the Food Network--I often keep it on but muted when I work, glancing up every once in a while to see if it's something interesting. But today I had the volume on for one of those programs about how to feed a bunch of people on the cheap. The absolute indifference of these programs to healthy eating amazes me--fatty hamburger, inexpensive cheese, etc. I love to save a penny as much as anyone, especially these days, but I won't sacrifice nutrition and taste. Anyway, this chef said she chose corn tortillas rather than flour because she saved $2.20, but there was no mention of the fact that corn tortillas are much more nutritionally sound. I kind of lost track here, but I think I have to give her credit for making her own tortilla chips out of those corn tortillas. But then she was making salsa and raving about how much she saved by using bottled lime juice instead of buying limes--excuse me? The tastes are worlds apart. I can't imagine using bottled lemon or lime juice--when I do I'll know for sure it's time for the kids to cart me off to the old-folks home.

Next came Paula Deen with her total disregard for fat and calories and her absolutely scrumptious-sounding recipes. Today, she and her son were cooking steaks--the steak she proposed to eat would have fed me for at least four meals. But she was making stuffed zucchini. I often hollow out a boiled zucchini and stuff it with celery, onion, bread crumbs, the scraped-out part of the zucchini, and maybe a little cheese. First of all, Paula roasted the zucchini--much better than boiling--and then instead of bread crumbs she used chicken-flavored stuffing mix. She added spinach--great idea--and sour cream, of course. Oh, well, you would use low-fat. It looked scrumptious, and I plan to go on the food network to find the recipe if I can. Paula was in the next half hour too where she had a guests--I can't even remember what she was serving, except that she pulled out a pan of potatoes au gratin and asked the young man to dish them both up some. When he handed her a plate, she looked at it and said, "Are we on a diet?" It looked like a good helping to me. Lord love her, I don't know why she isn't as big as a barn. Sometimes I get bothered by that kitchy southern-ness, but on the whole I like her. My granddaughter Edie and I started watching the food channel together about three years ago, and apparently she still watches it. She's skinny, too skinny, but I hope she doesn't follow Paula's recipe.

My gripe of the day: the new Cowboy Stadium. There was no news on tonight--it was all the Cowboys big first game in the stadium, and the fans going wild. Get a grip here, people--by the end of the evening, most of you will have spent $500--tickets, parking, food, beer, etc. To me, the stadium is a great big symbol of all that's wrong with our culture these days--the bigger-the-better mentality, Jerry Jones making a fortune off it, when he already has several fortunes and lower middle-class people lost their treasured homes to make way for this monstrosity. Somehow, to me, it's linked to the self-absorption and rudeness that marks so much of our public life today. I did laugh when Jim said at dinner that it was like the '70s all over again. My response was that it was like the bouffant hair that lasted so much longer in Texas than anywhere else. Bigger is better--or that's what a lot of people seem to believe. Don't get me started on secessionists, tea-party people, or rude politicians--my blog would turn into a book.