CHAR-GRILLED GOODNESS

I'm not your typical burger-lovin' Texan. Mostly I could take 'em or leave 'em. It's not that I dislike them, it's just that I'm picky. If I'm gonna waste a butt-load of calories on something, it's gonna be the perfect something. I guess I'm kind of like Goldilocks. I don't like the ones that have a huge thick chunk of meat on them, and I don't like them if the bun is so fat you can't fit your mouth around it. It has to be the perfect ratio of meat to bun.

To me, the perfect burger is a char-grilled hickory burger -- the kind they served at a place called Goff's when I was growing up in Dallas. When we moved to Houston the first time, there was a place called Bellaire Burger near our house that made them just like Goff's, and when we moved back the second time, there was a place called Beck's Prime, right around the corner from our town house, that made a good one. Good name too, don't you think? But despited all of my hubby's dedicated research, he had yet to find a perfect burger for me in the Hill Country...or so I thought.

Just what we needed -- another cart-load of plants!

But who could resist this succulent nirvana? 

Wednesday morning he asked me if I wanted to go check out a new-to-him nursery he had spotted over in Austin. As usual, I said "Sure, why not?" Turns out he had stumbled upon Shoal Creek Nursery -- a nursery which my partner-in-crime Nicki and I had scouted five or six years ago, and really liked, when we were out spying on other nurseries for our jobs at Buchanan's.

It was lunchtime before we ever made it to Austin, so I started tossing out ideas for places where we could get something meatless. "I already have a place in mind, and I can tell you right now, it's not gonna be vegan!"

I think they actually show movies on this screen some nights, for those who opt for carhop service!

At last. The perfect burger. I don't regret the splurge even one tiny bit. However, I am quite happy that it's over an hour away from us. I'll have to want it reeeeeeally bad, to be willing to drive that far for it.

I noticed something funny about my hubby and my camera. Direct it over his shoulder, and you get his normal look. Slide it towards his face, you get goofy. Normal. Goofy. Normal. Goofy. Cracked me up!

When I eventually got bored with that, I held it steady on his face and just waited, and waited, until finally...

Gotcha!