They have a mold for that!?

Last year, I made flavored chocolates for my daughter and bought a variety of hot sauces for my son.  These Christmas presents were a hit and has driven me to try a food item as a gift once again.  So this year, I am going all chocolate.  I am going to do my best to replicate Pease's Candies truffles and Peppermint bark.  I grew up with Pease's Candies in my hometown of Springfield, Illinois and it was always fun to take part in one of the tours of the factory every once in a while.

Anyway, I hemmed and hawed back and forth about whether to make cupcakes or chocolates this year and landed on the side of chocolates.  It also gave me a chance to go back to a store that is just a treat to visit.  Amazing Cake Supplies (yes, their website is just horrible) is just a fun place to visit.  I mean, they have damn near ANYTHING you would want in the baking and candy making arena.  I have spent nearly an hour (which is a lifetime for me) just walking about in the aisles looking at all of the gadgets, candy molds, baking molds, flavorings... I mean it is just fun.

Last weekend I made the Peppermint Bark and experimented with making the truffles.  Making the creamy filling and coating that with milk chocolate.  It made a wonderful mess and was quite fun to be frank...

So this weekend, I will have a friend over and we will make an assembly line of chocolate making goodness.  I will travel back to Illinois with a car packed with boxes of truffles and feel really good about myself.  That is...until I hit the 20 degree weather.  Then I will wonder why everyone doesn't just come down here to Houston for the holidays.

Fredericksburg

Who doesn't like a life-size human planter?

Spent a magnificent weekend in a place called the Texas Hill Country.  Actually, the place where I stayed was an absolute German (heritage) town called Fredericksburg, TX.  Stayed in a wonderful B&B called "A Place in Time" and both "B"s were just lovely.

The town itself is just a wonderful place to wander around with a number of artisan shops, a winery (Fredericksburg Winery), a brewery (Fredericksburg Brewing Company - has a great lunch there) and a wonderful chocolatier that implants liquor into some of their chocolates (I highly recommend the Kentucky Bourbon).  You can literally spend the day roaming main street, but I had other places to be on that Saturday.

There are wineries all over the area offering some pleasantly surprising offerings.  I do so love to visit wineries and go to the tasting rooms.  On this weekend at a winery called Beckers Vineyards which was about fifteen minutes from Fredericksburg.  The weather could not have been better for this trip.  Now, I list just a few of the places.  There are SO many more wineries, breweries, and even a bourbon distillery in Hye, TX that could have made this list.

The evening was spent listening to a fantastically tight country band called "Drugstore Cowboys" at a place called Hondo's (highly recommended).  Also, please remember that if someone says to you "just go to the German restaurant on Main Street", give them a quizzical look - there are about 5 German restaurants on Main Street.