Content area
Full Text
Forget cactus-shaped fruitcakes and barbed-wire bookends. We searched far and wide and found unique Texas treats-from prickly pear soap to Condo River pearls-- for everyone on your list.
THIS HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON I DECIDED THAT I wouldn't set foot in one single mall. With a touch of Texas chauvinism (and a tendency to complicate everything), I was determined to keep my money in the state. Mind you, I'm well aware of the frightening consumer landscape the phrase "Texas gifts" conjures up: mountains of barn-wood furniture, prairies of horseshoe picture frames, and thickets of stuff emblazoned with stupid slogans-like the toddler's bloomers that proclaim "I Messed With Texas" (at the state capitol gift shop, of all places). However, after logging 2,500 miles on the road and who knows how many on the Web, I can gleefully report that if you know where to look, the shopping scenery can be grand.
I hope the following quirky list of fifty Texas gifts is greater than the sum of its parts. Some things are included to lure you into gift-packed museum stores, craft galleries, or small towns like Wimberley and Mason. Others-like the classes and memberships-might inspire you to think outside the material box (shopping directory, page 153). In any event, with so few shopping days left, don't you think it's high time you got started?
EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY
1. I TOOK A GOLD BOX OF WISEMAN House chocolates ($22 for about 11/ pounds) to a Texas Monthly editorial meeting. Big mistake: Believe me, this is one group that needs no sugar buzz. The frenzied attack on these helpless sweets-- Black Forest bonbons, truffles, caramel pecan brag (like turtles)-hand-dipped by the Wenzel family of Hico convinced me they had made the cut.
2. THE MESQUITE-SMOKED PEPpered beef tenderloin from the Perini Ranch Steakhouse in Buffalo Gap ($78) can make a vegetarian fall from grace. Imagine how pleased a relative (a mother-in-law, perhaps) will be to have two pounds or more of perfectly cooked meat delivered to her doorstep, vacuum sealed and ready to devour.
3. WHEN PAULA LAMBERT REturned to Texas after living in Italy, the gastronomic pleasure she missed the most was fresh mozzarella, so she started making her own back in 1982. Now her...