Rain, Rain, go AWAY!
I have to say that since I have been doing the blog I have become more acutely aware how I DON'T support my local Farmer's Market. I have always known it's there but just never made the effort to become a regular visitor. The only two excuses I have are laziness and bad habits. Since my husband was career Navy, we have always shopped at the Commissary. This habit was engrained (for all of you spelling hounds, I looked this word up in the dictionary and it said I could use engrained or ingrained. So I just picked one) in me from growing up Air Force and then it just carried through to the Navy way of life for me. Some habits are just hard to break, especially if you never even make the effort to do so.

When we went to the Farmer's Market a few weekends ago, I marked it in my PDA that yesterday was the Fall Festival at the Farmer's Market. I waited for hubby to get home from work and we left in the pouring rain. When we got there it was pretty much deserted except for a couple of die hard pumpkin vendors set up in the parking lot. The display was so beautiful. No, I didn't take a picture but will another weekend when there is no rain. We walked around the market and found out the whole event had been canceled, which really burst my bubble. I was really to throw myself into the whole pre-fall celebration.

There is a little cafe in the market called County Cafe. We peaked in the windows that they weren't very busy so we went in for some lunch before all the food shopping began. I looked up above the counter and there was a huge chalk board with the specials listed. Yesterday's special was, Chicken and Dumplings with a piece of cornbread for $5.99. I could hardly resist with the rain outside and the darkness of the day.
I have to say the dish was pretty good. It had generous chunks of chicken and huge pieces of carrot (which I don't usually put in mine). It filled the bill. I was a bit disappointed that I got a biscuit instead of the promised slice of cornbead. I looked around and saw that others had the same order and the cornbread was absent, so either they ran out or it just didn't happen. Either way, the Chicken and Dumplings were filling as well as the biscuit on the side with a large glass of really sweet tea.

After eating we wandered around the market and I spotted some items that I wanted to use on the weekend and the following week. I have a very busy week and planning ahead means no fast food runs. I am trying to eat better...most of the time! So now my refrigerator is full of veggies again and I felt inspired to cook last night. Hubby bought me a whole chicken and I thought baked chicken with boiled cabbage and red potatoes sounded good along with a side of snap beans, again with the red potatoes. My chicken started out well but I made the grave mistake of coming into the office to catch up on some other blogs. Then I smelled it! UGH.
My poor roasted chicken! I set the oven at 500 for 30 minutes so I could crisp the skin, which it did nicely, but then I came up here and got distracted. I smelled something burning and ran down the stairs. No smoke was to be seen only that horrible odor of, "Oh crap, I burned my dinner!" I know others have smelled this same smell! Thankfully, the cabbage and green beans did well on low so dinner was not a total loss. The chicken was good and I was proud of myself for using Farmer's Market produce. I am a work in progress.