Many photos shot this past week and can’t even begin to put a sample of all in here. We were in Fredericksburg and surrounding area the whole week, shooting styled shots both at Terry’s house and other locations.

We also photographed at Twin County Lamb Farm, and then came back and had a lovely lamb dinner in the company of Lloyd Wendell and Isabelle Lauriere from TCL at Terry’s. Great lamb! They raise Dorper sheep from South Africa.

I photographed Dan Garrison of Garrison Brothers Distillery near Hye, Texas. What a beautiful location and set up! He graciously gave me the grand tour and explained the interesting distilling process.

We headed out to near Boerne to shoot an incredible Paella dinner prepared by Leslie Horne with her amazing Aurelia’s Chorizo. She invited all her wonderful friends and neighbors to  fill out the table. Beautiful, delicious paella! 

We shot a couple of styled photos at Boot Ranch grace à Julie’s friend, Sarah. Gorgeous place with incredible vistas!

I rushed back home on Friday night with less than 12 hours before we left in the plane, tandem with Chris, Kathy and Sam for an overnight trip to the fantastic new Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, AR. A true must see on many levels. A quaint little town with beautiful flowers, nice restaurants, lots of hotels, walking path to the museum from “downtown”, definitely worth a weekend in my opinion.

So with a mere 24 hours to spare in Houston, I’m off to Austin and surrounding area one more time, hoping to be back at home by Friday night.

So, I figured that at least I’d get some decent photos from our venerable Saturday ride. From the setting up of the Dragon Boat races on Buffalo Bayou at Allen’s Landing to the EastSide Festival, including a trip to the Port of Houston, a stop to see this scrap yard somewhere on the bike trail and our usual taqueria breakfast this week at our old haunt, Dona Maria’s on Navigation, it was the first really hot ride of the year, but fun thanks to our bike ride guru, Ron.

Oh, and my dear, sweet husband suggested that we fly to Brenham for dinner and see the SuperMoon from the plane on the way back. Not the best photos of it, but it looked really cool. No photos this week except with the iphone…for fun. Enjoy!

And I’m off to the Hill Country again, this time with Julie Hettiger, the food stylist, in tow to start shooting the recipe shots. Busy week ahead!

Mmmm….tasty!!

Scrumptious!

Spicier with each batch!!

From JuHa Ranch I drove on into Granbury to a nice hotel for the night….realized I should have brought my swimsuit! Ah, Walmart, $15, what a bargain! Off to Eagle Mountain Farmhouse Cheese first thing in the morning. Mmmmm, Gouda! Nice aged Gouda! Dave sells it through Houston Dairymaids and at Central Market. Buy some!

I made my way with the help of my Tom-Tom to Ft. Worth’s lovely West Magnolia Avenue where I was to meet Molly McCook, appropriately named, at Ellerbe Foods. She made this beautiful tomato tart with some great looking fresh Brandywine tomatoes! Tomato season begins at last!

The Dallas/Ft. Worth area sure makes Houston look small! As I weaved through the maze of freeway, tollways, etc. to find my hotel near Love Field, I passed more road construction than I’ve seen in years.

Wednesday found me at Inwood Estates Winery. What an economically spaced winery and vineyard! But great wines! I’ll shoot their other facility in Florence, north of Austin before long as well.

I finished up early at Smoke Restaurant and wandered around Dallas, but got tired of fighting the traffic and went back to the hotel for a swim.

My last day in the area started in Deep Ellum at the Mozzarella Company with Paula Lambert’s handmade cheeses. She was the first handmade cheesemaker in modern Texas. She studied in Italy and France for years to make this wonderful cheese. Now she teaches others to do the same. I have to gather some friends to join me for a class once this book gets done!

I had a tasty lunch at All Good Cafe just around the corner, recommended by Mozzarella Company. I’ll put them on my list in case I ever get back there!

So, back on the highway heading home, stopping by Full Quiver Farm where they make luscious homemade cheeses, as well as many other products from their eggs to food from neighboring farms that they sell in their family market on the farm.

I made it back home in time for sushi with friends. What a week! I still had the crawfish boil to make on Saturday night. It will take its own post though! Look for it later today or tomorrow.

Thursday morning I still had to leave early for Pedernales Cellars in Stonewall. I met with winemaker David Kuhlken who showed me around the beautiful new winery and their newly expanded tasting room. Though it was early, there were plenty of visitors to taste their luscious wines!

After finishing up there I hurried up to Fredericksburg to stash some of my stuff at Terry’s house, pick her up and head back to Marble Falls to shoot at Wines of Texas. This is a really nice little bistro and wine shop. They have some great food and a nice atmosphere for a relaxing afternoon or evening.

We had a snack of the recently photographed plates…yummm, then headed back up the road for the final shots of the day at the new Plaid Goat in Comfort. This is a wonderful and charming bar with a very cozy menu of flatbreads and little plates to go with the Real Ale beer on tap or wines and coffees. We lingered there for a few hours tasting, shooting and waiting for the light.

Just before dark we arrived back in Fredericksburg to a light dinner of elk burgers lovingly grilled by my brother-in-law, Roger. I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to get to Junction, my last venue of the week, but I was up anyway, got the photos all downloaded onto my travel drive, caught up on the email and bit of reading. 

Junction is a pretty remote little town, way out on I-10. There’s a new winery out there, Junction Rivers Winery and they have a very friendly tasting bar that was filled with people happy to be photographed. I love that! The storm/cold front blew through and got ahead of me while shooting there, so my drive home was not bad until I hit the coastal moisture near Houston. It’s nice that the speed limits in Texas are now a little more in line with the distances needing to be driven. 80 out past Kerrville and 75 now on all the interstates. Now if I just had a car that liked to go that fast!

So, I’m off to the north this week, Dallas/Ft. Worth and farms and ranches nearby. I rarely get to this area, so it will be interesting to visit and meet some new people, eat some delicious food there.

Now, a mushroom farm is easy to spot from quite a distance. Just look for the mountain of compost! This is not just any compost, but very a special recipe, watered and left until just the right earthy consistency. Since mushrooms like the dark, they are grown indoors…in a monster of a building. Very interesting!

Up early the next morning, I headed out to the farm of Morgan Webber from Revival Market in Houston to visit his pigs. He has three breeds, two very unique and one standard meat breed. They have these really cool Manganistas with long, curly hair and the Red Wattle with the long ears and these little “wattles” under the chin.

At first they were afraid of me and took off to the furthest end of the field, then they got curious and came right up and put those muddy noses right up to the camera. Cute!

Then after a less than stellar lunch, if you could even call it that, in what is small town Texas, I headed up to Shiner to go to, where else, the Spoetzl Brewery. I got the tour and was allowed to take some photos, including with the brewmaster and ended with those 4 little cups to taste your favorite beers. I’m happy to say that they are starting to ship the Shiner Ruby Redbird Summer beer again! I love that beer! Be sure to try it! Fun afternoon!

I decided to head back to Houston for the night since the hotels and restaurants in that area are pretty abysmal and pricey what with the oil shale business driving up the prices. So, at least I got to sleep in my own bed for a few hours before heading back up to Schulenburg to Stryk Dairy Farm where I would be meeting with Joaquin Avellan, cheesemaker of Dos Lunas Cheese. I spent all morning watching each step of making hundreds of pounds of cheese from hundreds of gallons of fresh, pure milk from the dairy. They rewarded me with a sampler of their cheeses. We will be tasting those this weekend for sure!

So, I’m back in Houston for a few days before another trip into the Hill Country for a few venues for both books as well as some actual work I’ll get paid for. I’m going to try to get in a bike ride, if it doesn’t rain and, hopefully, spend some time with friends and family.

This past week was busy though. I started out on Monday at Atkinson Farms up in Spring. Lots of produce, that I also shot last weekend at the Eastside Market in Houston with Randy Evans. Tuesday morning I turned up early to meet PJ Stoops at Louisiana Foods. He showed me around all the incoming fish, crawfish and oysters. He had helped us out at least a month ago with oysters and triggerfish at the Saturday By-Catch market. Great looking fish!

Mid-week found me hurrying to finish up my yardwork, laundry and other household chores before heading out on Thursday morning for Austin and venues on the way.

I stopped first at Bastrop Cattle Co where I was followed by a beautiful horse during my time shooting the cattle and chatting with owner Pati Jacobs. The land was so beautiful and green, filled with wildflowers. Especially beautiful considering not only last year’s drought, but the horrible Bastrop fires which decimated this lovely area. I was heartened to see green everywhere, even amongst the blackest dense trees still standing.

I high-tailed it from there into Austin to the alley of west 4th St where I tried desperately to stay out the way of the Dai Due crew while they worked away in their tiny kitchen making wonderful, tasty things for hours. I also was caught by the sweet aroma of the jams being made by Confituras owner, Stephanie McLenny.

Way out on the other end of Austin, well, Jonestown really, I met up with John and Jo Dwyer at Angel Valley Farm. I have photographed them before and love being at their farm. It is so filled with the joy of growing beautiful, healthy food.

Long day! I have to thank both Angel Valley Farm for providing me with some of that great produce and my friend who often hosts me during this work and with whom I shared a very nice meal using said produce.

Friday found me, Terry, and Julie in a meeting with the editor about the photography direction. I think it went well and we sort of celebrated the work done so far with a luscious meal at the charming Farmacia and Grocery on East 11th St.

One last venue….the Republic Square Farmer’s Market where I got a few more shots of the Dai Due crew cooking for the people lined up for their delicious goods, the jams of Confituras and the cheeses of CKC Farms and Dos Lunas.

Home for a day…..with a quick trip to San Antonio to share a meal at El Jarro….great restaurant…with friends….then home again….one day at least…….

At the Farmer’s Market I saw, and photographed, Mark Musatto of Airline Seafood with some delicious looking snapper, triggerfish and ….mm,mm…soft-shelled crab!

I also photographed Chef Randy Evans from Haven Restaurant as he was putting in his orders for the day from several vendors. He bought from Animal Farm in Cat Springs, Blue Heron Farm goat cheese, and Atkinson Farms in Spring Cypress. All vendors agreed to be photographed also at their farms! Set up to shoot Atkinson’s on Monday afternoon. Let’s hope for good weather!

I followed that on Saturday evening with Steve and friends at Haven for dinner. Since it was our first visit, we opted to order lots of small plates….enticements as the menu calls them. Enticements indeed! The menu is filled with things you won’t find elsewhere, but I won’t review here, no plate photos done with iphone (too busy eating and enjoying time spent with friends), but we thoroughly enjoyed a fantastic meal on a beautiful warm Spring evening on the patio.

We skipped dessert since I had made a bread pudding to go with the great bottle of Madeira that was given to me at Haak Vineyards. Nice ending to the evening and the week.

So I’m off to shoot a few places in the Houston area early this week then off to Austin, shooting on the way….maybe some of those beautiful wildflowers, too…for a meeting with UT Press accompanied by Julie Hettiger, the food stylist, to talk about the styling on the main food photos. I’ll end the week, hopefully, at the Republic Square Farmer’s Market in downtown Austin.

I started out early last Sunday morning for Becker Vineyards near Fredericksburg. They were having a BBQ and music event, but I was there to photograph the Beckers with their barrels, wine and tasters. Lovely barrel room….not to mention the wine in those barrels! Then I zipped back to Dripping Springs to see CKC Farm and their wonderful goat cheeses. I got a zillion photos of those cute and curious goats. Unfortunately Chrissy had sold all but a couple of pieces of that great cheese. So I watched while she and her brothers milked a few goats and followed the baby goats around. 

Monday, before the storm blew in, I drove down to San Antonio to the new Stephen Pyles restaurant, Sustenio, with it’s executive chef, David Gilbert.  I photographed while he made a very nice brunch dish….a Texas Beni…or Texas style eggs benedict. It is never a quick dish, but has a pretty presentation, and tastes scrumptious!

I beat the storm back to Fredericksburg, but the hail did keep me awake, setting off my car alarm several times. Luckily there was no damage. The storm actually acted in my favor the next morning when I had to shoot at Broken Arrow Ranch. They are a provider of game meats. We drove around to find a few groups of Axis deer and it appeared that they were out in force after the storm with some beautiful light to boot.

We ended up the day at Texas Hills Vineyard, a favorite from our Hill Country book. Gary and Cathy Gilstrap are charming people and good friends of my sister. We got a nice photo of Gary in his huge new tank room. I picked up a couple of bottles of wine for my ever helpful neighbor who takes great care of Lola, my Aussie, while I’m gone. 

By Wednesday I was on a roll and ready to finish up the Hill Country with Pure Luck Cheese and the Farm at Montesino Ranch, both near Dripping Springs/Wimberley. Pure Luck Texas was the first goat cheese producer in Texas to make handmade cheese. Yummy! Amelia was nice enough to give us some of the cheeses that we photographed, to be shared, of course, with friends.

Due to that storm, the bridge was closed to Montesino, so I did have a 45 minute detour. What an incredible valley they are in! They have one of the first certified organic farms in Texas as well as some grass-fed beef.

With a couple of days to catch up at home, I headed to Bryan for the Lucky B Bison Ranch on Saturday. Nice, sunny day to shoot some buffalo chasing you on the tailgate of a pickup!

More next week….

Monday morning in Fredericksburg was crisp and clear. What a great start to a day at Marburger Orchards. I was there to meet Gary Marburger and Josh Raymer from the Navaho Grill in Fredericksburg to pickup some fresh, delicious strawberries to be used in his panna cotta recipe. This being Spring Break week, there was a line of cars waiting at the gate for the opening of the strawberry patch. Gary patiently educated everyone on how to pick the best berries. And they were tasty berries, too! I decided to wait until next week to pick some berries for myself. I will get enough for this year’s jam and, with the help of my friends, we should get some very yummy jam!

I met Josh back at the restaurant where I followed him around the kitchen while he was making this deletable dessert. I got some good tips for making better panna cotta. Never hurts to ask an expert!

The berries smelled so wonderful and while I was photographing this beautiful dessert, I couldn’t wait to take that bite out to show how good it was.

Tuesday morning was a little overcast, but I was headed just up the road to the Sunset Grill to take some photos for the update of the Texas Hill Country book. Due to it being Spring Break the place was full, great for the photos! There was a huge bike group just finished with their ride. There were lots of hungry people and lots of nice looking breakfast plates coming out of that kitchen. 

After a little lunch in town, Terry and I headed out to Torre Di Pietra Winery to do some photos of their bottling facility, the tasting room, barrel room and a nice group shot of the family. Everyone was there helping out since it was Spring Break. Very nice place, and got to taste some of their wines….just a taste since I still had a long drive ahead to Houston.

Short week on the road, but a long one next week. Just glad that the tire that went flat decided to wait until I arrived back in Houston!!