The girls of the Richardson Woman s Club gave me a preview of the recipes

in this wonderful collection. And I was inspired to go to the kitchens at Tolbert s

on McKinney and try several of them, such as the formula for "avocado

margarita appetizer."

You peel the avocados, cut them in half, remove the seed. You douse them

generously with lime juice and sprinkle a little salt and pepper. Then you fill

the twin cavities with tequila and let it soak for a spell before savoring.

The girls have imagination. And many of the recipes, such as the avocado

margarita appetizer, will give your taste buds fresh and pleasant memories.

The Richardson Woman s Club comes out stoutly for Texas cooking.

Now old time Texas cooking is rated poorly by some newcomers to Dallas,

especially the hordes from the eastern reaches of the U.S. They speak as if the

many French chefs who have migrated to the big Texas cities arrived just in time.

Truth is that French cuisine was introduced in Dallas in 1885 when the La

Reunion colonists from France settled on bluffs over the west fork of the Trini-

ty River and a few miles west of the village of Dallas.

Just for another example, there was so-called continental cooking in the village

of Pampa, near my Grandfather Tolbert s ranch in the Texas Panhandle in the

early 1900 s. (Some of the biggest ranches in the Panhandle were owned by

British noblemen in the old days but I m glad they didn t force English cooking

on us. In fact, they soon became converts to chuck wagon style fare.)