The power of pie

My cousin Kathy and I pulled into the exurban edge of West Austin around 8 p.m. last night. We would have been home a bit sooner, but we had to make one last stop in Marble Falls at the Blue Bonnet Café.

The reason for delaying our return by about 20 minutes was simple: The Blue Bonnet's pie prowess.

The restaurant is "world famous" for its food, especially its wide dessert section, which is limited to pies.

I know what you're thinking. I'm in Texas and we Texans have been known to exaggerate now and again, but it is certifiably "Texas famous," so that's good enough by our standards.

However, the Blue Bonnet's Web site does list the national publications that have included the café's cuisine in their best-of lists (I'm not going to argue with "Road Food Magazine," are you?), as well as its diverse customer list. That's enough to qualify it for world renown in my book.

So it was a pie stop. One key bit of info you need when you drop by the Blue Bonnet: They don't take credit cards, so have your $11 plus tax for a full pie purchase in cash.

As for the pie itself, I got the traditional Texas pecan and Kathy picked up a lemon meringue. I'll let you know the results of my and the hubby's personal taste test when we dive into the dish.

Financial bites: In the next day or so, once I sort through and tally all my sales receipts, I'll also give you an accounting of the final cost of our trip. I also have to get Kathy's accounting of what she picked up so we can reconcile our expenditures and make sure neither of us overpaid our shared travel expenses.

But I will not -- repeat: NOT --  be providing any numbers on the pounds gained on our West Texas jaunt, pre- or post-Blue Bonnet pie!

We also took a few extra minutes to check out the view of Lake Marble Falls, essentially the stretch of the Colorado River between Lake LBJ and Lake Travis. The photo above is looking down river. The light was fading and it was a bit overcast, but it still was beautiful.