by Phil Houseal | Feb 29, 2024 | All Articles, Education, Food, History, Philosophy
Feb 28, 2024–As a kid I remember first seeing the Jeopardy category “Potpourri.” I was not familiar with the word, but after watching I soon learned it meant “place to use up leftover material that all together wasn’t enough to make up an entire category with one...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 10, 2024 | All Articles, Food, History, Philosophy
Jan 10, 2024–I have come to the conclusion there is no more perfect universal human food than the egg. For some of you this might seem obvious. But it’s a case of forest and trees, as most of us grew up with eggs everywhere, so much so that we don’t see them. It...
by Phil Houseal | Nov 8, 2023 | All Articles, Events, Food, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy, Venue
Nov 8, 2023–For the semi-pro party planners that lurk among us, the holidays are their Olympics, Super Bowl, and Academy Awards, wrapped in a bow with a Christmas carol soundtrack. No group is more motivated to create a memorable event from scraps of paper and...
by Phil Houseal | Jul 5, 2023 | All Articles, Education, Food, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
July 5, 2023–Soap in a sock, batteries in the dishwasher, and banana peels on burns. These are a few of your favorite hacks, according to responses to my online request. I always regret crowd-sourcing my column, but sometimes it’s fun to let people try at home what I...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 22, 2023 | All Articles, Food, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Feb 22, 2023–A native Texan who worked one summer for a farmer in Iowa was describing the experience: “I’d help during the soybean harvest. At noon, his wife would drive out into the field in the family station wagon, open the tailgate, and there would be a full...
by Phil Houseal | Dec 21, 2022 | All Articles, Food, History, Philosophy
Dec 28, 2022–How many spices and seasonings do you have in your kitchen? How many do you actually use? I’m guessing those are wildly divergent numbers. I’m working on a theory that the hidden culprit in unhealthy eating is the amount of seasoning we use. Whenever I...
