Sunday, March 25, 2012

Oh, Sweet Cream Cheesus

I've been driving through South Texas for the last week admiring the blue bonnets. They always remind me of one of my favorite Dixie Chicks songs, Cowboy Take Me Away. The song begins with the following lyrics:

I said I wanna touch the earth I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something wild and unruly
I wanna sleep on the hard ground in the comfort of your arms
On a pillow of blue bonnets in a blanket made of stars

It's an old song, and every time I have heard those lines, I've wanted to find a cowboy to lie in a pillow of blue bonnets with. Well, I have Ed now and since he's from Dallas, I consider him as close to a cowboy as I'm getting; and nightly we lay on memory foam, not blue bonnets, but maybe someday.

In addition to the beautiful fields of blue bonnets in the area, I found something else. Maybe even more delicious than a cowboy. Czech kolaches. Cream cheese Czech kolaches.

I found them at Frank's Restaurant in Schulenberg, Texas - a family run place for over 80 years. I bought a package and squirreled them back to the truck for dessert. They were baked at Weikel’s Bakery in nearby La Grange and delivered fresh that morning - delicately sweet and delicious, a dollop of sweet cream cheese surrounded by a pillow of pastry.

I've driven by signs advertising kolaches hundreds of times in Texas, but crazy as it may sound, never stopped to try one. Schulenberg has a history of German and Czechoslovakian settlers, and is known for local bakeries specializing in kolaches, so stopping to admire the blue bonnets turned out to be a tasty little stop-off.

And I'm having a really hard time deciding which is more appealing - a pillow of blue bonnets, or a pillow of pastry.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO:
Pit Stop
2 YEARS AGO: Sorry, no post for this day.
3 YEARS AGO:
A Peek Behind The Sacred Pantry Door
4 YEARS AGO: Thistle Or Thatle
5 YEARS AGO: Big, Rich And Free
6 YEARS AGO: Look, Honey! A Grist Mill.

4 comments:

Gil said...

Beautiful picture. I miss the Dixie Chicks!!!

ELH said...

Well that makes three of us as chicks fans..them girls can sure play. Wonder what happened to them?? Maybe they made enough and can now relax with their families..

Alliey said...

Dunno if y'all ever travel on TX71 to go between Houston and Austin, but if you ever do, stop in at a place called Hrushka's. They bake their own kolaches and have lots of other delicious stuff there too. Husband and I took our annual wildflower drive this Sunday and I'm still savoring the last of my sweet Czech goodness.

The Daily Rant said...

GIL: Thanks. I've been trying to get a picture of them all week!

ELH: The chicks sure can play. I don't know what happened to them - haven't heard about them in a while. But their music always makes me happy!

ALLIEY: I'll have to remember that place. We don't usually travel that route, but you never know. And we might just have to go out of our way now that I have the taste for kolaches!