This Week in Houston Food Blogs: Tex-Mex Brunch and Summertime Doughnuts

El Tiempo Cantina locations around Houston recently started serving brunch, so, naturally, Dalida of Brunch & Conversation had to go check out the new offerings, like huevos y tamales, chilaquiles and pecan pancakes y huevos. The tamales were a stand-out, of course, but the surprise of the day was the pancakes, which were soft, fresh and just sweet enough.

Although doughnuts have become somewhat of an anytime food, they're still ostensibly for breakfast. However, these pink lemonade doughnuts from Alyssa of Sugar & Cloth are way closer to dessert than to early morning eats. Cooks who want to try these at home won't need a deep fryer, since these are baked doughnuts, but you will need a doughnut pan. Alyssa suggests topping them off with some candied lemon peel, dried lemon slices or edible flowers to really increase the cute factor.

Houston's king of meat, Ronnie Killen, recently brought his newest concept, Killen's Burgers, 2804 South Main in Pearland, into the world. Its offerings were enough to satisfy Russell of Eat More Burgers, who was served a bacon cheeseburger with a well-seasoned, crusted patty and a fluffy bun but fairly underwhelming toppings. He was overall still pleased and thinks that perhaps Killen's Burgers still needs some time to become a well-oiled machine like Ronnie Killen's other offerings.

Speaking of meat-and-bread concoctions: Do you need to spice up your sandwich life? Robin Sussman of Zagat put together a list of eight hot Houston sandwiches to take your lunch break to the next level. Some newcomers are featured on the list, like State Fare's fried catfish sandwich, and there are a few vegetarian-friendly options, too, like the pimento cheese sandwich from Relish Fine Foods. Don't settle for lackluster 'wiches when your bread could be stacked with short rib, chipotle aioli, bacon, green tomatoes, avocado, lettuce and an egg over easy.

Crafty Cantina just popped up at 17125 Tomball Parkway near Willowbrook Mall, and Hank on Food paid it a visit to bring us the inside scoop. The cantina has many standard Tex-Mex offerings, plus some unusual offerings such as portobello mushroom fries and more than 40 beer taps. Another interesting option is the pollo loco, which is chicken tenders with white cheese, jalapeños and bacon, served on a fajita skillet. As unusual as that is, Hank loved it, and gave it an A+ for flavor, especially when he rolled it up in a tortilla and spooned some salsa verde onto it. 

Finally, Nishta of Blue Jean Gourmet shared a recipe for tomato chutney, which she says is better if you grow as much of it as you can yourself. We bet she's right. It's got plenty of specialty Indian spices in it for an authentic kick. Nishta got the recipe from her mom and she passed on her advice with the recipe: Don't overthink the measurements too much, just go with your gut and your taste buds!

That's all we've got for this week's food blog revue – thanks for stopping by, and feel free to leave us a comment or send us an email if you know of a blog that you want to see featured!