Get to know seventh-generation-Texan Lisa Fain, who blogs from her home in New York City under the moniker “the Homesick Texan.” Her sassy, popular website centers on how much she misses Texas, especially Texas foods. Now it has now given rise to The Homesick Texan Cookbook, with traditional dishes and contemporary interpretations of same.

Fort Worth resident June Naylor has collaborated on many cookbooks, including this, her latest, Big Ranch, Big City, written with chef Lou Lambert. The Texas-born but classically trained Fort Worth chef calls his style “elevated ranch cuisine”; its preparations are refined but full of Texas gusto.

Austin journalist Ellen Sweets had the fortune to be a great friend and cooking chum of the late liberal columnist Molly Ivins. Her readable remembrance, Stirring It Up with Molly Ivins: A Memoir With Recipes, focuses on personal anecdotes but still includes plenty of recipes, fancy and plain.

Austin home-food-delivery entrepreneurs Crystal Cook and Sandy Pollock celebrate the kitschy American kitchen of the fifties with The Casserole Queens Cookbook. They bring back the classic American casserole, along with other familiar recipes, updating them with “retro-chic gourmet flair.” Easy-to-prepare everyday dishes are bolstered with a few fancy party favorites.