Labor Day weekend recap

My parents came for a visit over Labor Day weekend. They're from Connecticut, which actually more rural than you would think. There are roadside stands all over selling locally grown vegetables and fruit, and my dad has a pretty impressive garden of his own in his backyard. He grows his beloved tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, potatoes, beets, squash and zucchini, and I think peas and beans. And probably other things that he will remind me of shortly. :)

My mom has actually been canning a lot of it these last couple of years; she brought a couple of different kinds of pickles, hot pepper jelly, and honeybell orange marmalade as gifts this trip.

But they had never seen a farmer's market before, so we took them a couple of our favorites.


Heirloom tomatoes at the Glenview market



I wish I liked green beans more. Loved how they still were in the shape of the bushel basket!


My mom bought us a lovely bouquet of flowers, and the green glass vase from a vendor at the market too!

Cherry tomatoes from my dad's garden. They weren't quite ripe for our meals, so I ended up drying these for use in recipes this winter. (We ate the corn, though!)





Of course, then we had to cook the feast we bought. This was sweet potato squash, carrots, and onions, folded into a foil packet and grilled. It was AMAZING.




The first night we had Dad's summer squash, zucchini from the market, the packet above, and everyone's favorite turkey bacon-wrapped chicken thighs.




Hubby cooked, Dad oversaw the operation. :)



We hit another market on Sunday, as well as a couple of ethnic groceries. I am my parent's daughter: we all love food! :)

Monday we went downtown to play tourist. They had never seen the Bean before.







It was pretty hot that weekend, so the water display at Crown Fountain was in heavy use.





Mom and I left the boys to entertain themselves while we walked over to the Art Institute to see the Roy Lichtenstein exhibit.





It was the last day of the exhibit, so it was very crowded.



But I will leave the pictures of art for tomorrow's post. :)