Fall. Sunshine. Park. Grill.

This was not dinner:

Full Moon Bridge at Garvan Woodland Gardens

It was, however, one good reason I had a good appetite for dinner, of which we have no photographs because, well, we just don’t. And it was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was good.

It’s been a busy Saturday. Lucy Lu and I went to the Farmers’ Market this morning, where the vendors are beginning to call her by name. A shameless flirt, she is. I was going to cut back this week, but, well, I just couldn’t. Zucchini, yellow squash, onions, tomatos, potatos, corn, butternut squash, eggplant.  And sausage.

So tonight, we had grilled chicken breasts in barbecue sauce, potato salad (with tiny redskin potatos, boiled in the skins and halved or quartered), roast corn and zucchini fritters. And it was some fine stuff, I might add.

I was less-than-entranced with the barbecued chicken, I think mostly because breast fillets being such that they need a longer marinating time or a roasting in something other than barbecue sauce. The potato salad, with my usual dressing of Hellman’s, mustard, ketchup, sweet pickle relish, seasoned salt and paprika, was excellent, and I’m glad I made a lot because now I have some left over. The corn was, of course, succulent and wonderful because it’s really hard to mess up buttered and seasoned corn, wrapped in foil and cooked on the grill. And the zucchini fritters were good, albeit Child C will not eat nearly as many of them as Child A does.

Also picked up apples to make another apple upside down cake, as Child C loved the one last weekend. I guess I’ll do that tomorrow, when it’s supposed to be rainy all day and it won’t be a gorgeous early fall day like today to be outside.

In between the market and cooking, Lucy and I went to Garvan Woodland Gardens, one of the loveliest places known to modern man and one of Hot Springs’ hidden treasures. It’s a 200-acre plus botanical garden, designed and maintained by the University of Arkansas’ landscape architecture school, and it’s just beautiful. Plus it wears Lucy out and now she’s asleep on the couch with me rather than driving me nuts wanting to play.

Tomorrow, if the rain holds off, she and I are going to walk the greenbelt park along Hot Springs Creek, and then come home and cook. I’m thinking chorizo and lentil soup; I have some tomatos that are about to go, and they need to be used. And the sausage and biscuits for next week, along with Child C’s cake.

Meanwhile, I’m watching the Razorbacks and TX A&M, early in the second half, and the Hogs are up 30-10. Woooo, Pig! Soooie! You and y’mama ‘n ‘em go call the Hogs.