Who the hell are you? What is this thing? What is your food philosophy?
Good question; I’m glad you asked. This is a bit of a tough one, but see the About page for the quick and dirty. If you require a more existential answer, best start here.

What are your qualifications?
I love food, and I love history, and I love to cook. This is my creative outlet. I’m pretty good at it. Sometimes I wish I’d spent that $50,000 in federal student aid on culinary school instead of English literature, but I didn’t. Perhaps you will benefit from my qualifications yet. Hopefully, my stories and blurbs will be appealing enough to produce the occasional tear or guffaw. Thank you for bearing with me in the meantime.

Can I send you a free slab of beef/sample of tea/shrunken head for you to review?
Yes.*

*As a member of the Austin Food Blogger Alliance (and all-around decent human), I subscribe to that organization’s Code of Ethics. By accepting any free food or product, I do not guarantee a mention or review on this blog. I only talk about products I really like; and I generally only review products I really, really like. However, I am also very unlikely to spend time writing a negative review. Because of the blog’s focus on local and sustainable food, I am most interested in local and regional Central Texas producers, farms, and events.  Finally, if I mention or review any gift, sample, or freebie, I will disclose this in the post.  If you’re interested in sharing your product with me, please email me at stella cooks atx at gmail dot com.

What kind of camera do you use?
I use a simple little Canon PowerShot SD4000 IS Digital Elph (3.8 x IS zoom, 4.9-18.6mm focal length, 10 mega pixels), with a mini countertop tripod.

I also increasingly use my iPhone 4S 5S, especially Instagram.

Can I use one of your photos?
Probably.

But all photographs–both here and on my Flickrstream–are copyright-protected. Please contact me directly to ask for permission to use one of my photographs. If it’s for personal, non-commercial use, I’ll probably say yes. I might license it to you if it is for commercial use, so it’s worth asking, unless you want to use it in a Rick Perry campaign commercial, in which case, [REDACTED].

I am looking for that __________ recipe that I saw on here three years ago. Where the hell is it?!
Somewhere in here. Alternatively, there is a drop-down menu of categories both on the menu bar at the top of the blog and over on the right side of the main page.

What kind of kitchen do you work in?
All of the recipes you see here are created, tested, refined, photographed, and enjoyed in my approximately four-by-ten foot galley kitchen in Austin, Texas. It’s pretty Real. My building was finished in 1958, and my apartment still has the original stove! Even though it only has three burners, and one of them doesn’t really work anymore, I can’t bear to replace it with a new one. I’m used to its quirks, and I know just how far off the mark the oven temperature knob is. I also have no dishwasher. Betty Draper would probably have a psychotic break in here.

Where else can I find you on the web?
My Facebook page is here, and you can also find me on Google+. I post regularly, including links to interesting articles, notices of upcoming Central Texas events, and daily photographs of yummy food, including restaurant fare and recipes in progress.

My Twitter account is similar, but also includes timely retweets and pithy clichés.

If you want to see my photography, which in addition to food also includes graffiti, minimalist urban decay, cats, pictures of my foot in various international settings, and other edifying visual material, check out my Flickrstream. The food photos have their own collection, here. I love Flickr and update practically hourly. Again, if you’re interested in using any of these photos, just contact me.

Finally, I also have a Tumblr mirror site, and I’m on Pinterest!

Where are the very best places to eat in Austin?
Since I am a working class hero, I am not really positioned to recommend the very best places, since I’ve never set foot in most of them. I also generally tend to think that most restaurants with two-hour waits, dress codes, and/or menus that will set you back more than about $40 per person are probably overrated and filled with douchelords. Some of the very best food is found at mom-and-pop joints, trailers, bars, and taco trucks. Having said that, I do have some favorites, and some of them are categorized on the blog under the tag Reviews, with more being added every month.

Since I also care about you and your quest for tasty, tasty food, I should also recommend the Austin Food Blogger Alliance 2015 City Guide, a fantastic collective resource created by my fellow Austin bloggers (I did the coffee guide! In 2012, I contributed the Middle Eastern section.). And don’t miss the results of our latest bloggers’ poll.

What’s your favorite food?
An old school, Tex-Mex cheese enchilada plate with Spanish rice, refried beans, and a side of fresh guacamole. Washed down with a Shiner.