Perhaps she should bring a cooler for the potato salad. Cold potato salad is much better than warm if you are talking about the mayo based one.

Maybe she has other things going on and does not have time to prepare salad for 18.

Sometimes (more often as I get older) I just don't want to cook. :-)

Looking at the menus, I'd lean toward PoK e Jo's, because the Central Market menu seems so....ordinary. Sandwiches, salads, cold cuts, etc.

The BBQ'd turkey just sounds a lot better to me, and the side dishes avilable do too.

I also think a cooler for the potato salad would be a good thing, although it's probably going to be OK for an hour in the car. Maybe the place will have one of those insulated cooler bags available, I know here we buy them for a couple of dollars and they work pretty well.

Have fun, and tell Kevin I said "hi".

Annie

My SIL does not have other things going on - no children at home (or even living close by) and she does not work. Basically, she is a constant complainer, but she will be making a dessert, and that will be fine with me.

My sister will be ordering from Pok-e-Jo's, and will be getting turkey breast, brisket, and sausage. I'm not sure how much of each, but there will probably be enough food. I think she has a cooler that she can use for the potato salad. Kevin and I have two of them, but of course we will not be bringing those!

Annie, I'll give Kevin your message. I don't think it will be much fun for him because he will have to babysit our father for most of the time we are there. I'm afraid he might be coming down with Parkinson's disease, but we'll get more info when we see them.

My sister warned me not to buy too much food at the grocery store while we are there because our mother gets upset if there are leftovers - she hates it if I buy olive oil, and so I will bring a small amount with me. My mother hates to cook, and I guess she doesn't like having too much food around. She and my father eat lunch out every day - at Wendy's, I think, which is a place I never go on my own. There are some very nice restaurants where she lives, and so maybe we can go to one of those one day for lunch while we are there. This will not be a fun trip, but at least we will have warm weather - unlike what we're having here. I just hope it doesn't get too hot.

I did find out that our reunion will be in the evening instead of at lunch, and so that will make it a bit easier for us, and we can spend more time in Austin on Sunday and not be as rushed. My parents do not have an outdoor dining table, and my SIL gave her outdoor furniture to Good Will, and therefore the meal will have to be indoors. My brother and SIL live about a mile or two (on country roads) from my parents, but my mother seldom sees my SIL. My nephew and his wife and daughter live on the same property/farm as my parents, but they don't see them that often either. I don't think of my family as close and loving, and this is what makes these trips difficult.

Lars

Well, Lars, I hope you can eke out at least some fun in Austin. At least it wasn't last weekend, which was, I think, when they had the South by Southwest Music Festival. That would have been a blast to attend, but the traffic would have been a nightmare. Of course, there's no shortage of fun things to do in Austin. Unfortunately, I'm not up on all there is, other than the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, which should be getting close to peak color. I have seen bluebonnets blooming here in Garland, so there ought to at least be some of those in the area.

Have a safe and as happy of a trip as you can. Kudos to Kevin for taking care of your father.

Sally

Actually it's too bad you missed the SXSW Festival. I a have a friend who goes every year with her fiance who is a musician. She has been posting some fun photos on her Facebook page.

She said the King of Luck documentary about Willie Nelson and Family done by Billy Bob Thorton was really good.

I lived in Austin from January 1985 to August 1988 while I was getting my Interior Design degree from UT, and so I'm pretty aware of what there is to do in Austin. We deliberately postponed our trip until after SXSW was over, in order to avoid the crowds. Plus I do not like the music in Austin - I'm not into blues, and I can only barely tolerate country rock.

We do frequent the Lady Bird Wildflower Center, and this will be a good time to go there. We might have time on Sunday, and if not, we might have time on the next Saturday, before our flight. I lived in Houston for four years when I was getting my first degree from Rice, and I enjoy visiting Houston more than Austin, but Austin is where my family is (or nearby). I do like the lakes around Austin, however. I like the friendliness and hospitality of the people in Texas, and last trip, we went to Fredericksburg, which was a very nice side excursion. I wouldn't mind going there again, but I don't think we'll have time this trip.

Lars

I've got to ask,
Why would getting something from a bakery for dessert be better?

Those cobblers sound really good.
Cobbler goes well with BBQ.
And your Mother's ice cream will go well with cobbler.

Fruit salad sounds pretty durned good, too.. .. . .

Seems easy and simple to me!

Rusty

Lars - I hope it will turnout to be somewhat fun. These family things can go either way. The wildflower center should be fun. I lived in Dallas for a year and those Texas Bluebonnets are amazing! I also loved the Crepe Myrtle that lined the DFW airport. Too cold for them here in Minnesota.

I've always meant to ask you. Are you of Scandinavian descent? I have a friend who named her sons Lief, Gunnar, Lars and Trygve. Her name is Gunn and she was born in Norway.

My sister's house is just a few blocks from The Upper Crust Bakery, which is why I was thinking of getting a dessert there. However, my sister also like cobbler, and so she'll probably get that, but I might get some coffee cake or other pastry at the bakery, and then I can have that for breakfast. I also like fruit salad and would be very agreeable with that. Then my SIL will be making a dessert as well, and so I don't think I will have to worry about that.

I'm hoping that a few of my cousins will show up because I do not get to see them that often. Also, I do not have very many cousins!

Lars

Lars, my daughter teaches in Brady. When I go for a visit we usually go to Fredericksburg for a day, it's 60 miles from Brady. You probably know this, but there is a place called Opa's that sells awesome sausage, cheese and lots of other goodies. I stock up when I go, it's also a good place for lunch.
Hope your reunion is better than you anticipate! The weather should be good, my daughter said it was 84 today, it is barely 60 here in the panhandle and windy! Imagine that.

Trixie, I've been to Brady because one year we took Hwy 190 from Temple on our way to L.A. My brother used to live in Lampasas, and my niece's husband is from San Saba, where my father used to sell his pecans. I had another friend whose family was from Mason. I thought Brady was a nice town, even though we only stopped for gas.

The last time I was in Fredericksburg I bought some lederhosen along with the stockings to go with them. Now all I need is the shoes and hat. It would be nice if we could go to Fredericksburg to stock up for the party, but it's pretty much the other direction of where we need to go. I love the bread I get there also.

My nephew lived in Dalhart for a few months until last year or so when he moved back near Temple. Dalhart was too cold and remote, but he was fairly close to our aunt in Clayton, NM, and not even all that far from Denver!

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: Opa's in Frederickburg

If you weren't so tied up with family stuff, and I didn't have so much to do this weekend, it would have been fun to schedule a get together. Austin's only around 3 hours away from me. One of these times you come to Texas, we'll have to plan a Heart of Texas get together. Austin is centrally located, and there's forum members in Houston, I think maybe San Antonio, and some other places in Texas. That could be fun to do.

Sally

Teresa, I didn't see your other message until just now, as I think I was posting at the same time as you! Anyway, I am only a small part Swedish, but mostly German. Some of my German ancestors migrated from Sweden to Prussia to colonize, as there were too many nobles in Sweden at that time. Some of them were named Gustav Adolf or Gustavus Adolphus, which is a royal name in Sweden and only relatives of the king can be given that name. I guess the rule still applied in Prussia. On my mother's side, I am Alsatian, and my Alsatian ancestors spoke German. I have some French and a small bit of Italian Swiss on my father's side, and I still have relatives living in Switzerland.

I would be nice to have a get-together in Texas some time, but the distances really are pretty formidable. You might as well all come to Los Angeles and visit the members here! We should be having our family reunion every March, after SXSW, if the other family members agree. The only other time I really like in Texas is October. November is nice, but traveling at Thanksgiving is as bad as Christmas.

I'm hoping to go to Lockhart for barbecue on this trip. I will say that I like Texas BBQ better than any other kind, but that's probably because it is what I grew up with. I plan to gather some mesquite wood at my parents' to take back with me. They consider it trash wood and keep trying to get rid of it (without success).

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: Lockhart, BBQ capital of Texas

You're right, Lars. October is THE best month in Texas. Although, last year November and October changed places. We had November weather in October and October weather in November. Go figure.

A couple decades ago while my Grandmother was still alive, living in Abilene, we'd go to a barbecue place there. They had the best barbecued chicken I'd ever eaten (pre-vegetarian days). That was my introduction to mesquite smoked food. Yum! Sadly, I don't remember the name of the place, and I'm thinking they closed, anyway, but I'm not sure. Oh, well, it's not very close to where you're going, anyway.

Sally

The painful trip is finally over. It was basically irritating more than anything else, and whatever bright spots there were did not compensate for the difficult parts. I won't dwell on the negatives (there are too many of them), but I will mention some of the enjoyable parts.

My sister did order Pok-E-Jo's, and they managed to get about 50% of the order wrong. We ordered turkey, they gave us chicken (which we made them change), we ordered broccoli, they gave us green beans (which we decided to accept), we ordered cherry cobbler, they gave us peach, which we did not discover until too late. I had none of it, since it was made with a biscuit dough top instead of a pie crust. Instead of potato salad, we ordered the potato casserole, which I think was better. According to the menu, we were supposed to get white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies, pickle spears, ringed onions, and sliced jalapenos, and we only got the pickle spears and the jalapenos - no cookies and no onions. My sister cut up some onions at home to add to the box. The one thing they did right was to include a large amount of BBQ sauce, which was excellent. Unfortunately, after the meal, my mother gave all the sauce away, and so the leftover turkey was so dry as to be inedible. We had to go to the store to buy more sauce in Temple, but we could not find anything nearly as good as what we got from the caterer. That was a huge disappointment for me. Most of the BBQ sauce options at the store were extremely sweet and listed HFCS or some other sweetener as the first or second ingredient. The sauce was Austin was slightly sweet, but overpoweringly, and so it was reasonable (although it would have been even better if it had been less sweet). At home I always make my own BBQ sauce,and it is always somewhat tart.

Well, the rest of the trip went downhill from there, although I did enjoy seeing some of my old classmates and had a nice lunch one day with my cousin Janet, who is going through chemo but is in remission. She is my favorite cousin, and I always like seeing her, but her health has not bee great lately. Kevin and I took her to the eye doctor just before lunch and then drove for her, since her one eye had been dilated. The lunch we had in Temple at Cafe 35 was very good and the only meal we had out while at our parents' house. I had a very good chicken-fried steak (which I don't eat here in L.A.), and for an appetizer, we had fried avocado, which was especially good. I'm surprised I haven't seen that here, but maybe I haven't been looking. It was served with chipotle mayonnaise, which is something that I make frequently.

On the way back to L.A., we spent the night with our niece in Pflugerville (suburb of Austin) and went to a very lively Cajun restaurant (along with Zydeco band) that was very good and very authentic. I felt like I was in Lafayette, LA. Unfortunately they were out of gator, and so I had spinach crab cakes and crawfish etouffee. The restaurant was BYOB, but they had a $3 corkage fee for the beer, which was more than the beer cost. I enjoyed the food and the band.

One good thing is that we had non-stop flights between L.A. and Austin both ways, and both planes were only half full. I'm afraid they may stop offering this, since there is so little demand for travel between L.A. and Austin. It made the flights very pleasant not to be so crowded, and this is one of the reasons I wanted to do this trip off-season.

Lars