Tag Archives: cooking

Calling All Cooks!

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Do you have a favorite recipe that brings up good memories? Perhaps a cookie recipe that reminds you of your dad, or a chili recipe you remember from a best friend? Now’s your chance to share them with your fellow talking book patrons.

Our partner libraries in Florida and North Carolina are compiling a cookbook of recipes and memories from patrons across the country. They will turn these into a cookbook available in audio and in braille for any NLS patron to check out!

We would love for you to submit your own recipe and related memory to be included. The deadline is February 1, 2025.

You can submit your recipe via this online form: https://forms.office.com/r/L5E7fGRGY0

Or by mailing a copy of the full recipe with your name and related memory to:

Talking Book Program
Texas State Library and
Archives Commission
PO Box 12927
Austin TX 78711-2927

Summer Reading Program Presents: Texas Cuisine

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Featured Collection: What’s Cooking, Texas? Texas Cuisine through the Ages

By Aly Head, Reference Librarian

Food is the great unifier, a staple of every major occasion from celebration of life to mourning of loss. It reflects culture, socioeconomic status, and history. As such, by looking at the food of a people, researchers may learn more about them. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) is therefore celebrating Texas food in all its forms with a new featured book display.

  • [Chili Festival]. Texas Tourist Development Agency photographs and audiovisual materials, 1991/077-703-1. TSLAC.

TSLAC has a variety of artifacts related to dining throughout Texas history. Many of these artifacts were included as part of our exhibit, “Setting the Texas Table.” Want another taste? Check out our blog post, “Setting the Texas Table: ‘Dishing’ on the Artifacts Collection at the Texas State Archives,” which explores some of the dishes intertwined with Texas history at the Governor’s Mansion in detail.

  • [Chili Festival]. Texas Tourist Development Agency photographs and audiovisual materials, 1991/077-703-10. TSLAC.

Whether you believe beans belong in chili or not—a debate for the ages—TSLAC has materials relevant for a variety of diets, historic and modern. Food can be viewed through the lens of genealogy to build a timeline into the past, affected by availability of certain foods and spices through trade, exploration, climate, and times of economic hardship or prosperity.

  • Military Plaza-Chili-Con-Carne, or Mexican Supper. Places Collection, 1/103-628. TSLAC.

While food isn’t allowed in the Reference Reading Room, the collections at TSLAC hold a wide variety of materials highlighting Texas cuisine, both historical and modern. Some of these materials are currently on display in the Reference Reading Room through July. Other items, listed below, are available remotely via E-Books. More information about our location and hours can be found on our “Visit Us” webpage. For more information about access to the titles on display, please contact TSLAC reference services at ref@tsl.texas.gov or call 512-463-5455.