By Natalie Bright
I’m thrilled to announce that my essay about ranching legacy and traditions was accepted for This Book Really Cooks: West Texas Writers & Artists Reflect on Food. Part food centric and part gallery exhibit featuring both authors and artists, this unique anthology is available now. It hit #3 on the Hot New Releases Amazon List!
Traditions
My contribution, titled “Traditions”, is about chuck wagon food and ranching traditions, of course. I have always pondered about the history of our ranch. A judge’s daughter marries a range cowboy and sets up house in a dugout that is carved into the bank of Antelope Creek. I imagine that she cooked beans in a cast iron Dutch oven much like mine.
Not far from where we cook meals for the dayworkin’ cowboys in today’s Sanford Ranch cookhouse, that 1895 dugout still stands (but just barely). Sometimes when I look out the window and watch the light chase the shadows from the massive cottonwood trees, I imagine that Garland Snow Sanford stopped her work for a minute to admire the sunrise.
The wonderful artwork that accompanies my story is of a chuck wagon and cook painted by Nancy Neill, a Lubbock, Texas, based artist and photographer.
Foodie by Marriage
The editor and driving force behind this new series, Lubbock writer Lauren Cassel Brownell, is a foodie by marriage. Her husband is from Louisiana, “arguably one of the foodiest of food states in the US,” and Lauren soon discovered that food can be a really big deal for some families. She combined her love of cooking with her passion for artwork, which is a great combination for a book.
Submission Call Out: New Mexico Focus for Volume 2
There’s more on the horizon for the This Book Really Cooks series. The next book in the series will focus on writers and artists from New Mexico. If you are a New Mexico creative and would like to submit something for consideration, find out more by clicking the “Get In Touch” tab on Lauren’s website.
This Book Really Cooks Volume 1: West Texas Writers and Artists Reflect on Food
New Release: August 2026
eBook and Paperback Formats
The perfect gift if you need something unusual. READ A SAMPLE.
…is a content creator and author. Her two history-cookbooks won first place from the Will Rogers Medallion Awards. Her article about a devastating wildfire that destroyed their cattle ranch won first-place from the Academy of Western Artists. Natalie has a BBA in business, enjoys speaking about writing and the history behind her work. She is currently writing content for a museum exhibit about the American Quarter Horse.
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