Anatomy of an Effortless Picnic: 1st Wednesday Picnic in the Park

The Triangle Farmers Market on Wednesday nights has charmed me since the first time I wandered over. I went expecting just a few stalls and instead found plenty of vendors and people picnicking on the lawn, kids playing in the fountain and dancing to the band. Charming.

I immediately fell in love with the market and the sense of community and sharing it gives me every time I go. I had to find a way to share that and decided to host a picnic the 1st Wednesday of every month. Join me on Wednesday 9/2 at the Triangle Farmers Market (46th & Lamar). The market hours are 4-8 and we'll gather on the lawn around 6:30 for dinner. The great thing about this picnic, is you don't have to pack any food - just a chair or blanket and maybe some utensils, plates and napkins!

To show you how effortless it is to have an amazing spread, I've put together a photo tour of last month's meal.

Before you come, hit the ATM so you have cash for the vendors, but if you forget, don't worry, you can get market tokens at the Sustainable Food Center booth.

Next, I always do a quick tour of the booths to see what is available. After all, you have to be strategic in these choices. You never know when someone will have something new. I bought a number of veggies for meals later in the week, but it would be really easy to have a nice tomato basil salad; just make sure you bring a knife.

Now, for the tough part - narrowing down what you are going to eat that

night. You could buy a rotisserie roasted chicken (half or whole) with some delicious roasted corn. Or, you can always hit the Mediterranean Chef, as I did, for hummus, dolmas and baba ghanoush. And of course, we had to have a loaf of the rosemary ciabatta bread from Texas French Bread to scoop up the hummus. We also cut up a cucumber so we didn't eat the entire loaf of bread. (At least that's what we told ourselves.)

To finish out our savories, I stopped by Taco Deli for a delicious bison taco and then to Kala's Kuisine which I hadn't tried before. Brian convinced me that we absolutely had to have samosas with two different types of sauce. Brian, of course, was right (after all this is the man who got me addicted to rosemary ciabatta bread when he worked for Texas French Bread) and I will be buying many more samosas from Kala's.

And, no good picnic would be complete without dessert. You could be good and get fruit like the watermelon and peaches in stalls that week. (I had the peaches.) But with the heat we've been having, you might want to saunter over to Jim Jim's for a water ice. They were a big hit at the August picnic.

Now, that's an easy and great dinner. See you at the Triangle Market on Wednesday - don't forget your chair.