Put yourself behind the wheel and slowly drive down a slightly hidden road. All along the way bursts of red, orange, purple, blue, white and every shade of green almost blinds you angling your head side to side not wanting to miss one bit. These are the colors of petals, leaves, grass, butterflies and much more. What we natives call a Texas springtime. And there’s no other place you can see and experience it so prolifically other than a Texas State Park.
And today, I did just that! You see, Texas State Parks and Wildlife is looking to the month of May as their premier “Picnicking in the Park” month. To kick it off they hosted a wonderful luncheon at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, TX. While I’ve been to several state parks over the years this one was new to me. It was the perfect setting for our civilized indoor/outdoor picnic.
Cecilia Nasti, Producer & Host of Passport to Texas radio series (and KUT’s Field & Feast) asked several food bloggers from the Austin Food Blogger Alliance and others to provide recipes and or food for the event. Each recipe is one that is simple and can be made specifically for a picnic.
As you can see we had a veritable feast! Check out the recipe I made Sugar Snap Peas w/ Basil; an especially great side dish for grilled meats.
To my suprise, after lunch and a meandering walk through the color-raging wildflowers, I was met in the parking lot by new friends. They wanted me to have a left-over, just harvested watermelon from the Texas valley. How could I refuse? I didn’t. Thank you to the folks at GO TEXAN!
So, now it’s your turn. Pull the the family together, make a simple picnic, put yourself behind that wheel, drive to the nearest Texas State Park and enjoy your day. Texas State Parks rock!