Texans know that a good bowl of chili can do many things: cure a cold, win a contest, fuel a cattle drive or mend a broken heart. The Rotary Club of Galveston’s chili also sends kids to music school, opens the doors at the Bryan Museum, and builds parks.

Just about the time that many cooks in the northern part of the country are wrapping up their grills and storing them away for the winter, the South reaches the sweet spot of grill season. 

Greek myths have enthralled many of us from the time we could sit still to hear a story. The heroics of Odysseus or the cautionary tale of Pandora still resonate after centuries. The Greek love of a good party, with great food and plenty of dancing is no myth, however. It’s very much alive a…

Food, like music and clothes, can cycle in and out of fashion. What was ubiquitous a few years ago gets replaced with something new, either to disappear forever or reappear in another context.

I’m here to report a break-in. Apparently, someone broke into my house and stashed a three-pound bag of flax seeds in my pantry. Sure, that sounds farfetched, but only slightly more improbable than the idea that I voluntarily bought a huge sack of flax seeds and put it there.

When you’re honoring one of the area’s best restaurateurs, you’d better have some pretty terrific plans for dinner. 

By law, Texas schools have at least 180 days of instruction. For parents, that means 180 lunches to plan for, whether by buying them at school or bringing from home. Sometimes it can seem more like 1,800 lunches to pack, when inspiration runs dry, mornings get hectic and yet another peanut b…

In a perfect world, all cooks would get the recognition that author Rick Bragg bestows on his mother. His new memoir/cookbook, “The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table,” celebrates the Southern cooking of his mother and five generations of her Alabama family.

Almost everything in local gardens starts to wilt a bit in August, but not okra. Hot weather just makes okra stand taller and get tougher. OkraFest, the annual fundraising celebration benefitting Galveston’s Own Farmers Market, celebrates this tenacity, and its own, on Thursday at the Garten…

If it’s mid-summer, there’s a good chance that potato salad will be making an appearance at the next barbecue, potluck or picnic. Potato salad is a hot-weather favorite, adaptable to a variety of add-ins, from bacon to fresh herbs.

Summertime is already synonymous with fresh corn, and in recent years, the second half of the summer has become prime time for exceptionally sweet, juicy corn from, of all places, Colorado. Like Hatch chiles from New Mexico, Olathe corn has put the small town where it’s grown on the culinary map.

Boudin, the Cajun meat-and-rice sausage, has always had its fans in Galveston County, but this summer seems to be the one when those fans multiply even faster than the temperature is rising. The boudin explosion comes from both ends of the food-industry spectrum, thanks to the marketing effo…

At this time of year, we can all agree that a cool drink is a wonderful thing. We may not agree, however, on whether to enjoy that frosty beverage with a straw. Last month, Sea World, Ikea and Royal Caribbean joined the growing number of businesses phasing out plastic straws. Local businesse…

Peach lovers are happily receiving news as sweet as their favorite fruit. According to fruit growers, 2018 is a banner year for peaches. A cold winter and dry spring helped to produce trees full of peach blossoms that turned slowly into succulent peaches that are ripening now and will be rea…