b'food builds communityOne of my favorite activities was going to the local panadera and looking at all the brightly colored pastries, cookies, and bread filling the shelves to the brim. Pan dulce is as synonymous with Texas as BBQ and pecan pie. Almost every town from Amarillo to Laredo, El Paso to Beaumont has access to a local or semi-local pandera. We are lucky. Texas has a rich heritage of food and culinary practices from many different places. Still, to this day, on any trip along I-35, I have to make it a point to stop for kolaches, fried pies, and marranitosmany times, you can find these all in one place. As an educator, I was lucky enough to work in an area with many students from diverse backgrounds. Every year, as a significant project, we would work to create a communal cookbook. Although my original idea was to include family recipes, the students, over the years, added to the project. One year, students thought it would be a great idea to include recipes from their friends who werent in the class. Another year, students decided to go out into their neighborhood and collect recipes from friends, family, and neighbors nearby. Finally, the students added stories, memories, and anecdotes related to each recipe they collected. The result was a community cookbook that included a collection of community histories and cultural memories that might otherwise be forgotten.TRENDS // PAGE 36PAGE 37 // TRENDS'