STROLLING AND EATING

The bowl I bought this year is front and center. Let me tell you more of what that bowl represents.

This is the 15th year for Cookeville, Tennessee to support Habitat for Humanity in our community with a fun event called 'Cooking on the Square'. Two streets adjacent to the Courthouse are blocked off and the fun begins. I got there early enough on Friday to watch them set up. Recently I blogged about making soup bowls at a friends pottery studio and here

you see boxes full of bowls ready to be set up for display and selling of the bowls. The whole cooking experience is based on Cajun cooking with 50 vendors serving Gumbos and Jambalaya over rice. There was even some Chili which became Cajun I think with a few changes of spices.
The occasion has taken on the flavor of Mardi Gras with costumes and lots of bead necklaces.


Here is one table of bowls. Mine was not displayed in the first set-up so I bought one of these. Tables of bowls were at two different locations so the stream of buyers were able to move along quickly.

We lined up outside the barricades and chitchatted until they turned us loose and away we went from vendor to vendor. We each paid $15 for one of the donated bowls and were able to then go to as many vendors as our appetite would allow. The only money collected was for the bowls, Mardi Gras beads and money donated at the Habitat booth.

There were 50 tents and tables set up to serve the festive crowd. These folks were ladling out Chili and were representing their place of business. All the food was donated by the folks who served it.

Crawfish pie and filet gumbo anyone. Perhaps a little Ragin Cajun Jambalaya or Red beans and Rice. With 50 vendors, the variety of Gumbos was varied and delicious.

Here our friend Lee is serving some Chicken and Sausage gumbo over rice to someone who is already wearing his Mardi Gras beads. I was next in line.

Desserts were also on hand with Charlotte Burke's ( our state senator) perennial favorite offering of Banana Pudding. There were pies and cookies as well.

Find a place to sit between visits to the different tents. Or -------

carry your bowl and eat as you go, finishing the last bit as you get to your next bowlful at someone else's tent. Over the years I think various club, organizations, churches and businesses go to great lengths to serve the very best. Cooking on the Square is certainly a highlight of the fall season community festivals and fund raising events.

Standing, sitting, visiting with friends is a wonderful fun way to support a stellar community activity and a little festive music just puts the finishing touch on the noontime meal. May I present Les Kerr and the Bayou Band brought back this year by the Imaging folks at the medical center. It suited my Michigan heart to record their Mackinaw Island Blues

Wonder who is also strolling today? Lets go on over to
The Quiet Country House and find out.