Although he sports a cowboy hat, boots, and a leather vest, W.F. "Bronco Bill" Pakinkis is not your average cowboy. In the '80s he worked in a rodeo and rode horses, but now the man who got his nickname from being flung off a horse and friends yelling "Nice going, Bronco!" has been domesticated. Bronco Bill, 65 years old and recently retired, has traded in his spurs for a soup ladle.

"I have always been passionate about cooking," Pakinkis said. "I really got into it, though, when I came out west for [Marine Corps Air Station] Yuma where I was stationed in the Marines. I got involved with lots of things, but especially cooking. I knew a lot of former cooks and they shared their so-called secrets with me, and then I started to create my own western food."

Pakinkis calls his creations "cowboy grub," a mixture of southwestern and Mexican flavors. While stationed in Yuma, Pakinkis got involved with the community there and started to write his own cooking column as well as cook live for an NBC affiliate television station.

However, it was when Pakinkis met former "Family Affair" actress Kathy Garver at Tombstone's Wild West Film Festival four years ago that his cooking career really took off.

"I was on the committee for the Wild West Film Festival when Kathy and I met and struck up a friendship," Pakinkis said. "Kathy and her son came over to my house and I cooked them a real old western meal that consisted of barbeque chicken, steak, beans, what I like to call my 'cowboy caviar' (black eyed peas, onion, green chilies, garlic and Tabasco sauce) and a fresh loaf of home cooked bread."

After tasting Pakinkis' food, Garver asked him if he would like to be part of a cookbook she was assembling titled "The Family Affair Cookbook," featuring recipes from the cast of "Family Affair," as well as some others.

Pakinkis agreed, and four of his recipes are now available in Garver's cookbook - specifically his western steak and sausage, southwest slaw, Arizona cowboy caviar and his summer pasta salad.

Friends and family are some of Pakinkis' biggest fans.

"Everything he cooks really is excellent, but I especially love his candied carrots. The seasonings he uses are just great," said Sylvia Prysant, former owner of the Lamplight Room Restaurant. "He even makes his own bread. Always accept an invitation from Bronco Bill."

Pakinkis' wife of four years and "food tester" is also his harshest critic.

"I'm his guinea pig," said Victoria Rhodes-Pakinkis. "He has his good points. Some of his cooking is really good, but I'm not afraid to tell him when it's bad. I don't like his chili because it doesn't have beans in it."

"He hates my cooking," said Rhodes-Pakinkis.

Pakinkis has plans to publish his own cookbook titled "Bronco Bill's Cowboy Grub," which he hopes will hit bookshelves this fall.

"I try and create a new recipe every month," said Pakinkis. "The food of the west is full of very interesting concoctions and suitable to the palate. My favorite dishes to make are probably my English wassail, a hot punch, and poultry because it's very versatile.

"Everything I cook I try and keep very healthy by using lots of seasonings, herbs and spices instead of fat."

Even though being a cowboy did not work out very well for Pakinkis, he doesn't seem to regret his new calling.

"What I love most about cooking is the experimentation, creativity and serving a meal to my friends and family that they enjoy," he said. "To live good is to eat good."