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

Outside a hulking, beige structure shaped like a barn, a few miles northeast of downtown Tyler, Karen Combs spots something glossy and red on a gloomy January afternoon. “There was your Skittles,” she says, pulling a shredded candy wrapper from one of several waist-high sacks sitting next to a conveyor belt and filled to the brim with plastic. Combs shows the red fragment to her company’s chief operating officer, Ron Nussle, who had earlier that day noted that misprinted Skittles wrappers were among the waste plastic they’d recently received from suppliers.The hum of a furnace blower provides a constant din at the plant, which does what’s known as advanced plastics recycling. The conveyor belt carries remnants of Skittles wrappers, padded Amazon mailers, bags that held…

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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.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s now clear why Beyoncé showed up to the Grammys in a Stetson. Exactly one week later, Houston’s favorite daughter chose to one-up the Super Bowl with the surprise announcement of Act II, her follow-up album to Act I: Renaissance, and immediately dropped two singles. The first, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” had the Texas Monthly staff sprinting straight to Slack. With the second, “16 Carriages,” which comes with visuals of Bey luxuriating in the act of putting on a rhinestone cowboy hat, it became clear that come March 29, we’re going to get the long-awaited Beyoncé country album.Staffers Doyin Oyeniyi, Emily McCullar, and Dan Solomon convened to discuss the singles, their hopes and predictions for the album, and the singular joy…

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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.

One day in late January, I was awed by the desserts under the glass case at Thomas Craft Confections, in Brenham. The selections ranged from cupcakes iced with mountains of swirled buttercream to more-delicate sweets like pastel-colored macarons and tartlets made with fresh seasonal fruit. On the countertop sat big chocolate chip cookies and still-warm canelés de Bordeaux, with crisp, caramelized outsides and chewy insides flavored with rum.On the shelves along the walls were holiday season stalwarts of nicely packaged chocolate bars, toffee, and other confections. Back in the kitchen, the staff was preparing artisanal truffles and breakable chocolate hearts for Valentine’s Day.Such a bounty might be taken for granted in a big city, but the high-quality sweets of the expertly led Thomas Craft Confections…

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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.

A female shooter opened fire on Sunday afternoon at pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, in Houston, which has one of the nation’s largest congregations. She was fatally shot by off-duty officers. No one else at the church died.The woman, who was between 30 and 35 years old, entered the church at 1:53 p.m. wearing a trench coat and a backpack and carrying a long rifle, Houston police chief Troy Finner said during a press conference Sunday after the shooting. A young child who police said was approximately 4 to 5 years old accompanied her.The woman began shooting upon entering the church. After the officers shot her, she died on scene, according to authorities. The child was also shot and is in critical condition at Texas…

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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.

Rap legend Bun B and his wife, Queenie, the Houston supercouple whose Trill Burgers won Good Morning America’s award for best burger spot in America, have been married for more than twenty years. That means two decades of Valentine’s Day celebrations and gifts—some extravagant, some sweet, and some, as Bun says, “that can’t be talked about.”There was that time he filled her room with hundreds of roses. “It was a grand gesture, and she appreciated it,” says Bun, whose conversation regularly veers back to the many things he loves about Queenie. “But then she was sad they were all going to die. So she took the leftover roses to the nursing home and gave them to elderly people. . . . She’s a deeply thoughtful person.”“And now he’s not…

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