Hello Old Friend

I have know this couple Raydean and Terry since 1981 while living in a small town in Texas called Uvalde.  We were lucky enough to be neighbors not once, but twice during our time there.  While each of us have four children, I have three daughters and one son, and Raydean has three sons and one daughter.  You can imagine our culdesac with just the two of us having a total of eight children.  Actually Raydean had her youngest after we moved.   Our oldest was best friends during their younger years prior to our moving away.  

Uvalde is part of a region that is usually considered the southern limit of the Texas Hill Country or as some would call it, the most northernly part of South Texas so I would had never thought that we would had received a foot of snow, but we did.  I believe this was sometime around 1985 or so.  This is one of the many memories I have of my time there.

This is for all my cooking friends who ask me about my pie crust recipe. Raydean is the one who gave it to me so many years ago.  It is the only recipe I use for my pie crust.

Raydean's Pie Crust

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/8 cup granulated sugar

pinch of salt

1 cup crisco

1/2 cup hot tap water

Instructions:

1.  In a mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, salt and mix.  

2.  Add crisco, using a pastry blender mix until it looks like peas.  

3.  Add hot tap water and lightly mix using a spatula until all incorporated.  

4.  Refrigerate overnight. 

Raydean-Terry-Stone-Me

Stone and I  have met up with Raydean and Terry through-out the years. Once we were lucky enough that some of the kids had joined us when we both had  daughters graduating from the same college.  On the most part it's just us and we always enjoy catching up.  On this particular trip we did an overnighter with them.  They showed us their stomping ground of Wimberley, Texas.  While Terry was at work, Raydean played tour guide showing us around town.  Honestly, next time we will stay longer since it wasn't enough time to see and do everything and our visiting time just wasn't enough.  Below are some pictures of our tour around town.

 Cypress Creek

Wine Tasting

 Big ol' tree along the Cypress Creek

Scary tree along the Cypress Creek

Local chainsaw artist Craig Johnson created these carvings from dead trees.

Check out this picnic table behind Ino'z Brew & Chew.  I thought I was in Bedrock.  I kept looking for the Flintstones.

Sangria Margarita's at Ino'z Brew & Chew

Bootiful Wimberley

There are fifty boots that were painted by local artists, located though-out Wimberley.

Hostess Gift

Pineapple-Chocolate Wine Bottle

Supplies:

1 bottle of wine

4 (5.3 oz.) packages Ferrero Rocher Chocolates

Ribbon of your choice

2 sheets Green Scrap-Booking Paper
Glue Gun

Glad Press and Seal

Instructions:

1.  With a hot glue gun, attach each chocolate to the bottle of wine.   

2.  Using the Glad Press and Seal, wrap around the chocolates tightly without mashing candies and tuck under the bottle. This will hold the candies in place and keep them from falling off.  

3.  Fold each sheet of  scrap-booking paper in half and cut.  Next cut about inch wide slits, not all the way.  Cut ends to make a point.  Curl strips like you would curling ribbon.  I used a knife.

4.  Wrap around neck of bottle, gluing as you go.  

5.  Lastly tie ribbon around the bottle.
Ta-da, it's the perfect hostess gift...