Notes from the Lake

Cowgirl Chef: Texas Cooking with a French Accent is about the adventures (and mishaps) of a displaced Texan in Paris - yes, it's a cookbook, but one with stories - and it chronicles the struggles of dealing with the French (including Ellise's picky eater boyfriend, X) and her own homesickness for Texas, which she cured by making salsa, tortillas, and starting a Tex-Mex catering and cooking class business out of her teensy, subterranean 16th arrondisement apartment... The result: A…

As a fourth generation Texas rancher, Chef Nicole Davenport is dedicated to ensuring the finest quality of dining for guests. At her restaurant, Sugar & Smoke, located in Fredericksburg, Texas, all of the food is prepared daily from scratch without MSG or processed additives and features local meats and produce. Nicole's triumphs in slow cooking are well established stateside and abroad. She is competing in the upcoming season of the Food Network's Chopped Grill Masters, has been…

Can the way you answer a question determine if you stick with your diet?

According to the results of recent research, yes it can!

When faced with temptation, 80% of those who declined by saying, "I don't eat that" were able to resist tasty treats compared to only 10% who declined by saying, "I can't eat that."

Some might wonder how the simple substitution of one word ("don't" versus "can't") could make such a huge difference in the effectiveness of the refusal. The author of the study,…