Despite the rainy weather, I headed out with my in-laws for a nice day in the Hill Country. We first stopped at Driftwood Winery where we tasted some of their fare. I love that place! It has a great view overlookin the rolling hills, it's unpretentious, and they have really spectacular wines. I really enjoyed the 2004 Reserve Cabernet. We bought a bottle of Syrah (Kendall's fave) and a their Chardonnay (also lovely) and went on the patio for a picnic. My mother-in-law, Kathy, is a great picnic packer, so we chowed down on turkey or ham roll-ups, a salad of greens with sliced almonds and dried cranberries in a vinagrette, carrot sticks, tortilla chips with guac and salsa, plus a few apple slices. She also brought some cookies for dessert. 
I had one turkey and cheese roll-up, about 1 C of salad, I hogged the carrot sticks (sorry guys!), two slices of apple, about 8 chips (I started with 4, went back for more) with about 2 Tbsp guac and 2 Tbsp salsa. I probably should have lessened the guac and went with more salsa, but there's nothing I can do about it now. I sipped the Syrah, and then later had a bit of sparkling pomegranite juice, a bite of Kendall's cranberry oatmeal cookie and a chocolate chip cookie. At the end, I had a taste of the chardonnay. Whew!
We packed up and hustled over to Becker Vineyards. We didn't taste there, but did peruse the booths that were out for the lavendar festival. I tasted some cedar plank salmon and couscous with Madgascaran pepper. It was nice, but nothing revolutionary. The lavendar soaps smelled really lovely and I thought of gifts for others, but didn't buy.
Then we hit up Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg. I really recommend it for great plants, gardening ideas, and gift shopping. They have lots of local jams and jellies and salsa, plus soaps, ornaments, plates, etc. We had to have some of their peach ice cream, so Kathy, Fred, Kendall and I had a cone.
It started to rain, so we drove on over to Luckenbach. I had never been! It was really quaint and had that old-time Texas feel. We didn't dance, didn't drink, but sat and watched the band for a while. Then we headed home.
We stopped in Dripping Springs at Nutty Brown Cafe for dinner. After the wine and the ice cream and chips (oh my!), I ordered the salad (about 2 cups of greens) and a bowl of tortilla soup. It really hit the spot!
Then we went home, invited everyone in for another glass of wine, before settling in for the evening. We watched the British Comedies on PBS and had some chamomile tea.
No comments:
Post a Comment