Modern ranch-to-table cowboy cuisine.

The Wild West Cookbook brings you a new taste of cowboy comfort food, inspired by the chuckwagon and homestead cooks of the Old West, and today's western ranch house and restaurant fare. It's a celebration of both historic and modern cowboy cuisine -- homey and uncomplicated but refined recipes featuring today's farm-to-table ingredients, from heirloom potatoes and beans to artisanal sausages.

Dig into some cowboy nostalgia and learn to cook Texas-style BBQ and the kind of cowboy bean dishes that can win a chili cook-off. Try some homestyle meals and desserts, too, whether it's an old-fashioned rhubarb pie, reminiscent of grandmother's kitchen, or a spicy bean salsa to enjoy around the campfire or on the deck.

The Wild West Cookbook brings together a collection of 90 classic and modern recipes from Tex-Mex Smokey Cowboy Quesadillas or Cowboy Beef Jerky to ranch-classics like Prairie Oysters, Stampede Rodeo Beef on a Bun, and contemporary favorites like Flank Steak with Rye Whisky Marinade, and Spicy Caesar Salad with Smoked Chicken and Chilli Croutons.

So, grab your ten-gallon hat and discover the regional histories and foods that blend to create the familiar and delicious comforts of Wild West cooking.

Cinda Chavich is an award-winning food journalist and author of The Girl Can't Cook, Double Dishing: Women Entertain and other books A former food editor and senior feature writer, she now writes for several newspapers and magazines across North America Her food, wine and travel pieces have appeared in Cooking Light, Wine Spectator, Avenue and WineAccess

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