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This author appeared at the 2009 festival. Please view the list of authors appearing at this year's festival or see our suggestions for similar authors below.
 Rebecca Rather
The native Texan, pastry chef, and restaurateur can't help but share her knowledge and love of food in her third cookbook, Pastry Queen Parties. In this fun and photo-filled volume of truly Texas recipes, anecdotes, and helpful tips for navigating the kitchen, Rather gives us great ideas for fantastic parties. We can pick and choose from a variety of dish ideas for a mélange of intimate and enjoyable shindigs. Rather reminds us that the state motto is "friendship," so it follows that Texans enjoy hospitality, whether on the giving or receiving end. "And what's a party but a pack of friends—old, new, and just-about-to-be friends—eating and drinking together?" she writes. The menagerie of game and ranch-raised livestock as well as the plentitude of vegetation in our vast state make for a nearly endless menu for any occasion. For example, if you want to throw a "San Antonio Tex-Mex Fiesta," you start with Pork and Tomatillo Quesadillas with Ancho Dipping Salsa followed by El Rancho de la Reina Casserole. Finish with a Cinnamon Crescent or a Pequeño Chocolate-Pecan Tarlet and keep the Silver Bullet Margaritas coming. Many of the recipes have helpful hints and variations; recipes marked with Rather's trademark crown are her "Party Express" dishes that "can be whipped up in 60 minutes or less." Pastry Queen Parties is more than a cookbook. It's a Texas-flavored photo-album and memoir. Rebecca Rather has been proprietor of the Rather Sweet Bakery and Café since 1999. Her previous books are The Pastry Queen and The Pastry Queen Christmas, winner of an International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award. She has been featured in Texas Monthly, Gourmet, Ladies' Home Journal, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Saveur, and O, The Oprah Magazine. She lives in Fredericksburg where she rides horses and tends her garden when she's not in the bakery.
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