At the Table with LBJ and Lady Bird: History, Humor, and True Texas Recipes

Welcome to the table! This is a love story about an ambassador and two Texans. Not any ol’ ambassador or any ol’ Texans. He was Lyndon Baines Johnson, and she was Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as Lady Bird Johnson. The ambassador is food. Food connects us. Food is culture and memory. We all have favorite recipes that we share with people we love. Lady Bird collected recipes her family loved, a lot of them exclusive to Texas cookin’. Two copies of each of her favorite recipes were always made: one for the Texas ranch she and LBJ both so dearly loved, the other reserved for the cookbook in progress that sat on her desk at the White House.

At the Table with LBJ and Lady Bird shares menus, events, weddings, and outrageously funny anecdotes from the lives of LBJ and Lady Bird. Included are LBJ’s favorite recipes for Texas beef barbecue, smoked ranch beans, sourdough biscuits, Lady Bird’s famous pecan pralines, lemon cake, and more. Homestyle illustrations illuminate the distaff side of the thirty-sixth presidential administration, with recipes galore, history, and humor throughout.