Woody's Smokehouse in Centerville, TX

Thanksgiving found us back in Texas, where we embarked on a little roadtrip with my mother to Galveston. Our plan was to pick up my nephew in Houston, then rendez vous with my dad, grandma and some cousins in Galveston, and we were all going to visit another cousin and her family at their home out in Hitchcock, Texas. On the road again!

So on Friday Eric, mom and I piled into mom's car and we headed south. The drive that day was great, the roads were pretty empty and I-45 was lined with those towering pine trees that blanket East Texas. We had the munchies and had hoped to find a little kolache stop, but I guess those are more prominent on the drive to Austin. So we stumbled on Woody's Smokehouse in Centerville, Texas, (home of Fort Boggy State Park) about half way between Dallas and Houston. What a find it was! We thought we'd just get a sandwich, but all three of us ended up leaving with an armload of food, including a package of turkey jerky, a jar of homemade salsa, some homemade jelly, Woody's spicy cheese puffs, some black-eyed pea dip and, yes, three sandwiches (mine had homemade pastrami and spicy mustard - yum!).

But we barely scratched the surface of Woody's offerings - aisles and rows of Woody's jarred food (dill pickles, hot asparagus bullets, dilled garlic, black eyed pea dip, even cherry cobbler!), Woody's packaged foods (dried nuts, fruits, etc), coolers of cheeses (smoked cheddar, Wisconsin hoop, jalapeno), and, of course, a MASSIVE amount of Woody's meats. In fact, they claim to jerky capital of the world, (a TALL order in this corner of the country), but they also have any number of pork, sausages, and beef products poultry. The place was huge, packed with shoppers, and obviously a hugely popular pit stop in East Texas. The pastrami was yummy, and the salsa we bought is garlicky and spicy and truly some of the best I've had in a long time. And guess what - you can order on their web site! I wish I'd taken some pictures of mom, Eric and me leaving, our arms full and mouths watering.

I can't attest that all of the products are produced locally, but I think it's easy to assume that - it is cattle country after all, and the place was just dripping with Texas pride!