Rancho Pillow--Round Top, Round 2

DEBORAH CROMBIE: When my daughter and friend and I went to Round Top for the first time back in 2017, I was just getting stuck in writing A BITTER FEAST, Kincaid/James #18, and it was only by accident that we did something that would end up playing a big part in the book.  It so happened that we'd bought tickets to a dinner at a place called Rancho Pillow, a ranch property now run as a very quirky motel a few miles outside of the tiny town of Round Top. Here's the view looking over the fields from the ranch. So peaceful!

The guest chef for that 2017 dinner, Robert Lyford, was actually local to us here at home in McKinney, so we were very excited to see what Robert had in store for us.

It was a fabulous dinner, and Robert's menu was a huge inspiration for chef Viv Holland's charity lunch menu in A BITTER FEAST.

Here's a little snippet from the book describing some of the food:

Even with the quirky presentation, the food, Gemma had to admit, had been divine. From the creamy, smoky trout spread, to the delicate salad with roasted pears, caramel, and a local blue cheese, to the meltingly tender lamb and white beans served in camping tins, it had been of absolute star quality. What, Gemma had to wonder, was a chef so talented doing in this tiny village?

She nibbled at the last bit of her pudding. The little jam jar she’d chosen had held a mixed berry crumble with a tangy layer of crème fraiche—a dessert she suspected she’d find herself dreaming about. All around her, spoons were being laid down and empty jars examined in hopes of finding a smidgen more.

So this year, when Kayti and I had a chance to book tickets for the Rancho Pillow Feast in the Field again, we jumped at it.

Here we are pre-dinner, toasting our trip. 

And resting our poor feet after a day of shopping at Marburger Farm.

(I should probably interject here to say that half the fun of the whole Round Top event is playing dress up. It's cowboy boots (my vintage Wranglers!), hats, denim, and skirts or dresses. And lots of turquoise jewelry. Believe me, it's a thing, and we did it up properly.)

Kayti demonstrates!

The Feast in the Field dinners have grown considerably since our first one, when there was only one long table. Now there are three!

So festive, with eclectic table settings that I borrowed for the book from the previous dinner as well. (The yurt is part of the motel accomodation!)

This year the chef was a woman, Karla Subera-Pittol, from the LA restaurant Chainsaw, and all the food was smoked or cooked over open fires. 

Here's Karla cooking.

And some mystery ingredient we never identified.

What do you suppose that was? Below are pinapples and cabbages smoking, and the big smoker where the meat was cooked.

It was all delicious, and we had a great time, the best part of which was the communal dining and making new friends. We don't sit down with strangers often enough in our everyday lives. It turned out the husband of the couple who sat across from us graduated from Austin College, my tiny north Texas university whose enrollment tops out at about 1200 students, the same year I did! Alas, we didn't know each other back then. He was psychology and I was biology and our paths didn't cross, but it was a lovely coincidence that evening.

As Ellen Crosby mentioned earlier this week, writers have to do more than write. It's getting out in the world and experiencing things that gives us grist for the mill. I don't know that this dinner will play a specific part in a book (unless that mysterious ingredient comes into one somewhere...) but you never know. I am open for it!

REDs and writer friends, have chance adventures become major parts of books? And readers, have you had memorable communal meals?