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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Hal LindseyOf all the places to wait for the apocalypse, one could do worse than the Texas Hill Country. In rustic Bandera, inside one of five ranch-style houses sprawled across acres of waving golden grasses, Houston-born evangelical author Hal Lindsey seemed to have sequestered himself while doing just that. The self-appointed “father of modern-day Bible prophecy,” who died on November 25 at the age of 95, spent a half century accruing fame and fortune by predicting the end of the world. I made the trek to the Cowboy Capital of the World in March 2022 hoping to speak to the man. Because I could not get the operator who answered the phone for Hal Lindsey Ministries to help coordinate an interview (aptly, the number is 1-888-RAPTURE), I…

The post Hal Lindsey: The Agony and Ecstasy of Biblical Prophecy appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

The far West Texas desert is not a subtle place, and the flora that live there aren’t subtle either. If plants could talk—cacti such as the prickly pear, the horse crippler, and the Chihuahuan fishhook; thorny shrubs like the ocotillo and the allthorn; rolling balls of thistles like the tumbleweed—they would all say one thing: Stay away or I will hurt you.And so, if you’re like me, you keep your distance. You wear gloves and boots. You don’t walk barefoot in a cactus patch. You also don’t walk barefoot in your home. Because out in far West Texas, there’s a plant that is sneakier and more insidious than the ones with the dramatic names. This plant bears a fruit that hides in plain sight where you…

The post My Never-Ending War on the Weed From Hell appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

tamale christmas shipping photo illustrationEvery holiday season, Texans’ favorite gift wrap is a steamy corn husk. A chill is in the air and a craving for masa-wrapped treasures suddenly surfaces. Tamales are historically synonymous with Christmastime, but those who’ve left the state for less delicious pastures have a harder time indulging in the tradition.Many Tex-Mex restaurants around the state—and plenty of industrious online-only operations—are gearing up for their busy season, and each has its specialty filling, whether it’s classic spicy pork or sweet strawberry. So order ASAP to have as many as fifteen dozen or as few as half a dozen tamales, precooked and frozen, at your door by Christmas Day—even if you’re across the pond. If you’re not lucky enough to have an abuela who has spent decades perfecting…

The post Texpats, Rejoice! These Tamales Will Get to Your Door by Christmas. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

wrangler x whataburger collab photoshoot photo“What’s better than a great combo? That’s right, a Texas combo!” Legendary rodeo announcer Bob Tallman stood at the counter at a seventies-era Whataburger in Mesquite, about fifteen miles east of downtown Dallas. His made-for-the-arena voice boomed through the dining room in one of the chain’s last A-frame buildings in the state. Fresh-faced professional cowboys named Gus, Kash, and Pecos stood next to him, surrounded by swirling smoke from burgers searing on the flattop. They’re all clad in cowboy hats, big belt buckles, and crisp denim shirts, and they looked ready for a day of riding broncs and eating burgers. But instead, the rodeo pros were stepping out of their comfort zone to model a new apparel line: a whimsical Western collaboration between Whataburger and Wrangler.You…

The post Exclusive: Whataburger and Wrangler Are Pardnerin’ on a Rodeo-Themed Clothing Line appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

cybertruck collageIt’s high July in Mason, in the heart of the Hill Country. Several thousand have turned out for the town’s annual rodeo roundup parade, a splendidly small-time procession that circles the county courthouse twice before dispersing into a subworld of barbecue, corn dogs, funnel cakes, and handicrafts. Flags flutter. Floats rumble by featuring the camo-themed Yonker Brothers Meat Market & Processing, the rodeo queen’s court, and, in case you have forgotten what part of the country you are in, “Texans for Trump.”The parade is picture-perfect. It is also perfectly predictable, except for one wildly singular participant: a blinding collision of dystopian triangles known as the Cybertruck. Though it’s hard to tell by looking at it, the vehicle is an electric pickup made by Tesla, one…

The post I Was a Cybertruck Skeptic. Then I Got Behind the Wheel of One. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

cybertruck collageIt’s high July in Mason, in the heart of the Hill Country. Several thousand have turned out for the town’s annual rodeo roundup parade, a splendidly small-time procession that circles the county courthouse twice before dispersing into a subworld of barbecue, corn dogs, funnel cakes, and handicrafts. Flags flutter. Floats rumble by featuring the camo-themed Yonker Brothers Meat Market & Processing, the rodeo queen’s court, and, in case you have forgotten what part of the country you are in, “Texans for Trump.”The parade is picture-perfect. It is also perfectly predictable, except for one wildly singular participant: a blinding collision of dystopian triangles known as the Cybertruck. Though it’s hard to tell by looking at it, the vehicle is an electric pickup made by Tesla, one…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Favorite Mexican and Tex-Mex Bites of 2024What a taco year it’s been! I traveled thousands of miles across the state for “The 50 Best Tacos in Texas,” so you’ll see some of the taquerias from that project featured here. I didn’t journey much outside of Texas, but the places I did go—Mexico City and the Phoenix area—yielded plenty of gems. Some dishes, such as the barbacoa de borrego at Barbacoa Renatos de Horno and the trompo negro at Tacos Del Valle, both in Mexico City, would have had places on the list if they’d been served in Texas. So I wanted to give a shout-out to the refreshing, thrilling, and out-of-this-world tacos—and related items—that I ate in 2024.Aguacate Tatemado Tizne Tacomotora, Mexico CityThe smoking specialists at Tizne Tacomotora treat avocado right. The…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

vietnam buddhist center photoThe Detours series celebrates lesser-known locales worth visiting across the state. When you stand at the midpoint of the red-railed footbridge that arches over the pond at the Vietnam Buddhist Center, you’ll likely smell the incense before seeing tendrils of smoke curl up from a nearby altar adorned with fresh apples and oranges. Lush green lotus plants blanket the surface of the pond, and their flowers—some as tall as six feet—nod their pink and yellow heads in the breeze. Listen and you’ll hear the sonorous tolling of the metal bonshō bell outside the temple at the other end of the twelve-acre property. Ring that bell and remove your shoes before entering the building, with its ornate three-tiered pagoda roof. A 72-foot-tall statue of Quan Âm, the Vietnamese…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

bullock museum photo exhibit rosenwald schools photoIn the early 1940s, Elroy Williams attended third grade in a simple wooden building in rural Bastrop County. The structure lacked indoor plumbing and relied on a wood stove for heat. But the walls were lined with windows that let in plenty of light and could be opened in the warmer months to create a pleasant cross breeze. The students’ parents brought firewood to the school in winter, and some of the older kids, in seventh and eighth grade, helped cut it to size. This was a Rosenwald school—one of nearly five thousand schools built between 1912 and 1937 in a historic initiative that transformed public education for African Americans in the rural South.Williams’s future wife, Sophia, went to another Rosenwald school a few miles…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

hunting hogs photoIt was almost 2 a.m. on a moonless October night at a ranch in Caldwell County, just northeast of San Antonio. I sat next to Eli Smith in his small utility terrain vehicle, the engine off. Behind us, the cargo bed held a kennel containing six dogs he had trained to track feral hogs. Smith is a large man with a keen appetite for killing invasive swine—he hunts them as often as four days a week. “I kill ’em any way I can,” he told me. “I shoot ’em with the AR-15. I set the dogs on ’em and catch ’em and stick ’em with the knife.” He prefers the second method, which hunters call pig stickin’.To my right sat Smith’s friend Patrick Plant, clutching…

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