Shop Local For The Holidays: Cookbooks

I often tell people that this website is my love letter to the city of Dallas. I love shining a spotlight on the people, places and events that make Dallas special. We have many creative and talented designers and manufacturers right in our own backyard. Their contributions not only bolster our local economy, but impact our image around the world. Throughout the holiday season, I will be bringing you a series of posts called Shop Local, giving you great gift ideas from Dallas-area designers and retailers. Support local companies this season by considering their wares.

If home is where the heart is and the kitchen is the heart of the home, then it would stand to reason that a great cookbook is the perfect gift to show your love. Because we all know that nothing brings a family together more than a great meal. I am a big fan of church cookbooks because these women pull out their best family recipes. The ones that have been handed down for generations, tweaked and updated over the years with tender love and care. There are a couple of new community cookbooks out this year that I can't wait to get my hands on for the holidays. Bon Appetite!

Each day during the State Fair of Texas brings new and exciting cooking competitions to the Competition Kitchen. Popular events include cake and cookie baking, one-pot meals, a Red River Rivalry-themed biscuit challenge, and much more. Home cooks from all over Texas bring in their best recipes to compete. Not for the cash (prizes range from $5-$15 generally) but for the bragging rights and the chance to have their receive immortalized in annual The State Fair of Texas Cookbook!

The State Fair of Texas Cookbook is filled with a collection of prize winning recipes from the 2014 Creative Arts Competition. This cookbook is a must for every State Fair fan. The State Fair of Texas Cookbook features recipes from 24 different competitions. Whether you want to make “Chocolate Peanut Pretzel Cupcakes” or “Bourbon Pecan Pie,” there is something in this cookbook that everyone will enjoy.

The State Fair of Texas Cookbooks are $25 (plus $5 shipping and handling.) Click here to download your order form.

Savor more than 400 of SMU’s smartest recipes from the University’s top foodies in the new cookbook Hilltop Courses: Then and Now, a delicious compendium of recipes collected by the SMU Woman’s Club to benefit the group’s scholarship fund – and just in time for SMU’s Centennial Celebration. The 260-page book (Morris Press, $20), is available online and at the SMU Bookstore located at 3060 Mockingbird Lane. Nearly 100 contributors include current and retired SMU faculty and staff, as well as parents, friends and alumni. Worth noting: Readers will find the recipe for Cowboy Cookies from First Lady Laura Welch Bush ’68 on page 213.

 The durable, easy-care cover, styled to look like parchment paper and linen, features an original watercolor illustration of SMU’s iconic Dallas Hall by “First Lady” Gail Turner, wife of SMU President R. Gerald Turner. Eight tabbed sections within the three-ring binder offers quick access to chapters ranging from appetizers to desserts. There’s even a section with recipe ideas for “Boulevarding” (that’s “tailgating,” for those who don’t speak “Mustang”). 

Each chapter opener, depicting the University’s seven degree-granting schools, was digitally designed by John Gibson before Mrs. Turner added a colorful finishing touch. Other visual treats including decade-by-decade history vignettes, the SMU seal (old and new), photos of historical landmarks and two indexes – one of recipe names, the other of contributors. This is the first time the SMU Woman’s Club has published a cookbook. Proceeds benefit the SMU Woman’s Club Scholarship Fund, providing an annual stipend to help an SMU sophomore through her graduation year.