Ron McAdoo - Great Firehouse Cooks of Texas

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McAdoo, Ron. Great firehouse cooks of Texas / Ron and Caryl McAdoo. p. cm. Includes index. 1.

Cookery, American. 2. CookeryTexas. I. McAdoo, Caryl. Title. TX715. TX715.

M47416 2001 641.59 21dc64 00-0445699 CIP 2001 Ron and Caryl McAdoo All Rights Reserved Republic of Texas Press is an imprint of Wordware Publishing, Inc.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any means without permission in writing from
Wordware Publishing, Inc. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-55622-790-5 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
0010 All inquiries for volume purchases of this book should be addressed to Wordware Publishing, Inc., at 2320 Los Rios Boulevard, Plano, Texas 75074. Telephone inquiries may be made by calling: (972) 423-0090

We lovingly dedicate this book to our children,
Gods best blessings of our life besides finding each other. Matthew and Janis McAdoo Gregory and Melissa McAdoo Timothy and Cathryn Bailey and Russell McAdoo Not to mention these precious people are directly responsible
for our most wonderful ELEVEN grandchildren! Our whole clan enjoyed trying these recipes, which made for lots of
great Sunday afternoon gatherings with family and friends. What could any Grami and OPa enjoy more? Dale Alexander / Calvin Allison / Mark Anderson / Elizabeth Atchley / Markus Benys / Jonathan Boyd / Eddie Brown / Etor Castillo / Don Cigainero / Joseph B. Condon II / Walter Couch / Donna Couch / J.

Clay Deatherage / Randy Doan / Malcom Foster / Clay Garcia / Ernie Goode / Bret Holbert / Bill Hughes / Leonard Joy / Mark Klingele / Tim LaFuente / Erasmo Lopez / Max Mcginnis / Danny Mummert / Sam Nawrot / Travis Ownby / Marty Penney / Alfonso (Poncho) Perez Jr. / Gary Pick / Lee Sanders / Robert Simmons / Mike Slay / Alex Stadthagen / Terry Tolar / Lee Toler / Sisto Trigg / Mark Ward / Raymond Wright / Ron McAdoo /

Without the seven years of care and nurturing the DFW Writers Workshop provided, our dreams of becoming authors might be lived out only on our pillows. To our friends and colleagues at DFWWW who never gave up on us, a heartfelt thank you for your mentoring, encouragement, and support. And to workshop member and friend Pat Krapf, thank you for helping in that inevitable crunch time right before the manuscript goes to the editor. We must also mention the wives of our firehouse cooks who helped get much of the information gathered. Without them, the opportunity to enjoy many of these great recipes might not have come around until 2010! Bless you, ladies. And last, but never least, a big ol Texas Thank Ya to all our Firehouse Cooks for sharing their favorite recipes.

Every one of these community servants are heroes in our book!

During my thirteen years with the Dallas Fire Department, I cooked full-time at two stations. The first one because I transferred into a single company house with four old geezers who wouldnt boil water. Preparing two big meals every third day, I soon found out you either better be thick-skinned or a good cookall the more when youre a lowly second-year rookie. I got busy and learned the art from my mother and my wifes mama, who were both great cooks, but the old geezersand they know who they arerode me hard anyway. I never lived down my paper-thin chocolate meringue pie, which also tasted a little on the bitter side. No. No.

They only remembered my mistakes and seemed all too happy to mention them at every opportunity. Nine years and two promotions later, the troops at Twenty-fours, a double company house with a chiefs car and a Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU), persuaded me to accept full-time kitchen duties again after some serious negotiations. They eventually offered no houseworkyes, firemen have to sweep and mopand being taken off the watch list. Powerful enticements, especially skipping the watch, since by then I was stone deaf in one ear due to surgery to remove a brain tumor. Many stations rotate cooking responsibilities. Planning a couple of meals once every six weeks or so is no big deal.

Steaks to order, fourteen-ingredient salad, baked potato, and Texas toast was my standard dinner. Everyone loved it, except the eat-fund moneybox. With ten lunches and ten evening repasts to prepare monthly on a limited budget, I had to save up with a lot of good but inexpensive meals, then we could enjoy a blowout once a month. A shame our wives and kids couldnt have eaten as well as we did every third day. Least ways, thats what we always said. The diversity of this book is one thing I love about it.

My wife, Caryl, organizer extraordinaire, and I gathered a wide range of recipes from a distinct group of firefighters. Of course, there are many more great firehouse cooks in Texas. Weve just scratched the surface, but I know youre going to enjoy trying some of their station recipes. And just so youll know Im not all brag, I stuck in a few of my own favorites from the good old bad days. Since Ive walked through those good old bad days and been with Ron since we were teenagers, I can testify hes a great cook. At home hes at the stove (or grill) lots more than this ol lady, mostly because when we were younger, he stayed hungrier.

I could always wait him out. Of course, I pretty much do ALL the dishes since he says the firehouse rule applies: The cook doesnt clean up. But thats only when HES cooking of course! I do have three girls who take responsibility for putting everything back in order when we have a big ol family dinner. Daughters are so wonderful! During the school year, Ron fixes a big country breakfast on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the whole gang. Everyone but a few of our adult children who have to leave too early for work gathers for breakfast at seven. Sometimes my dad and his new wife come by or a nephew walks up from down the street.

We usually have fifteen with gusts to twenty. Hes really tweaked his biscuits to perfection. Wait until you try them! From the get-go I thought this project was a super idea because firemen are just the greatest. Everyone loves them; I cant think of a single exception. As the recipes started coming in, the opportunity to try them all thrilled me. Now you can try them! We guarantee lots of good food awaits and would love to hear your comments.

Send mail to 2438 Tenth Street, Irving, TX 75060, or e-mail us at . We just know youll enjoy this fantastic collection of favorite recipes. I Thessalonians 5: 23-24 The McAdoos Far left: Matthew (first born), Janis, Naomi, Seth; Left seated: Tim Bailey, Cathryn (only birthed daughter), Caryn and Anna (twins), Joy, Wesley; Under porch: standingRussell (youngest), Ron, and Caryl; Around bench: Gregory (second son), Melissa, Michael (in tree), Mercedes, Mathew, Gregory (Cain, number eleven, born two months later)