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Good Food · Honest History · Strong Opinions

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KARACOOKS
KARACOOKS
Good Food · Honest History · Strong Opinions
  • a square pitcher of sun tea, brewing on the front door step. There is purple catmint and a cream rosebush in the background. The tea is a light golden color with green tags hanging out of the pitcher.

    What Cinco de Mayo Actually Is (and Why I Still Make Enchiladas)

    Bykara May 3May 16 Food & Politics, Personal

    I did not grow up observing Cinco de Mayo. Nobody in my Texas family did. It wasn’t a holiday in the way Christmas or Thanksgiving or even the Fourth of July was a holiday; it was a date on the calendar that occasionally meant something at school and otherwise didn’t. In college it became an…

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  • The open lid of a white Mill food recycler with its bucket full of food scraps: celery ends with leaves, an overripe black avocado, orange and lime peels, red onion skins, and other vegetable trimmings.

    How I Became the Person Who Named My Food Recycler

    Bykara April 6May 16 Food & Politics, Garden

    Let me tell you about Millicent. Millicent lives in my garage, next to the door to the house and the glass recycling bin. She is white and rounded and about the size of a regular trash can – think one of those fancy simplehuman cans that a lot of people have in their kitchens –…

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  • Michael Twitty's Cooking Gene - the hardback version.

    Black History Month: Essential Reading, Viewing, and Voices

    Bykara February 12May 16 Food & Politics

    This month on the blog, we’re honoring Black History Month by talking about African American foodways and the history of Southern food. If you want to learn more – and you should – here’s where to start. Essential Reading and Viewing Books: Television/Streaming: Writers and Food Historians to Follow: This is not an exhaustive list….

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  • A grove of tall pine trees, with a few fallen over, brown leaf and needle-strewn ground, and a scattering of small green undergrowth plants.

    Being Authentic

    Bykara February 8May 16 Food & Politics, Personal

    This is the forested area behind our house. It’s the part of our property that the creek runs through. It’s where I go when I need peace and calm and to escape from the world for a little bit. If you’ve been reading this blog since I restarted it this month, you’ve noticed something: this…

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  • Michael Twitty at an historical cooking reenactment at Smith Farm in Atlanta. Michael is sitting behind a wooden table loaded with food and ingredients. He's in front of a blazing cooking fire. There is a man to his left who is ready to enact his directions as the head cook in the room.

    What We Owe: Black Southern Foodways and the History We Need to Know

    Bykara February 2May 16 Food & Politics

    This is the first in what will be an ongoing series called Food is Political. I thought it was appropriate that this first post come during Black History Month and gives me a chance to talk about attribution, appropriation, and giving credit where it’s due It’s Black History Month. And on this blog, that’s going…

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  • a pile of chocolate chip cookies on a white plate with a blue design on it. The plate is sitting on a red tablecloth.

    The Cookies I Bake When Everything Is Too Much

    Bykara January 27May 16 Food & Politics, Recipes

    I baked these cookies on Saturday. The day Alex Pretti was shot and killed by ICE thugs in Minneapolis. These are my comfort cookies. The ones I make when I need the repetitiveness. The rhythm. When I need to not think about anything past the next 8 to 12 minutes. I don’t actually make cookies…

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  • Here We F****** Are Again

    Here We F****** Are Again

    Bykara January 25May 16 Food & Politics, Personal

    I had a whole other post planned for today. A fun one. One talking about our favorite seafood restaurant in Atlanta. It was written, scheduled, and ready to go. And yesterday morning cos-playing ICE thugs murdered another American citizen. This time a man. A nurse. 37 years old. A good man. His parents told him…

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  • The New Dietary Guidelines: I Hate Admitting They’re Not Completely Wrong

    The New Dietary Guidelines: I Hate Admitting They’re Not Completely Wrong

    Bykara January 18May 16 Food & Politics, Personal

    I’m going to say something that physically pains me to type: the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030, released by the Trump administration under RFK Jr.’s leadership at HHS, are not completely wrong about everything. There. I said it. I hate it. And now I need to explain why this makes me so uncomfortable. This…

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  • A scattering of blue and white flowers - Texas Bluebonnets - growing around a fallen tree limb.

    Welcome to 2026: A Fresh Start

    Bykara January 4May 16 Food & Politics, Personal

    Subtitled: State of The Blog & Where I Stand Those of you who have been around for a while know I’ve tried to restart this blog multiple times since it first went quiet around 2014. I’d get excited, plan content, write posts, even publish a handful of them. And then… silence. Rinse and repeat for…

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  • Home
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  • Garden
  • Writing
    • Friday Roundup
    • What Got Lost
    • Cooking
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    • Personal
    • Our Creek House
    • Travel
    • Restaurant Reviews
    • Kitchen Disasters
    • Behind The Blog
    • Holiday Menus
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