Fall nestles in....

My weekly Farmer's Market visit Saturday morning is for the fruits and veggies I need for the week. But this weekend, I walked away with something money could not buy. That soul-satisfying feeling I get when I see and feel the Fall season approaching. It is my favorite season. The time when my big, chunky sweaters come out of storage, my fireplace comes out of hybernation, the leaves start to turn and that chill lingers in the air. At the N.C. State Farmer's Market, the earliest fall Mum's are now for sale....the last of the summer tomatoes are being clearanced....and the apples are taking over. I've feasted on so much watermelon these summer months and now that they have seasoned out, I anticipate the switch over to my favorite fall time fruit--apples. There are so many varieties with all the different flavors that they offer. From sweet to tart to tangy to mild and all tastes in between. The farmers are starting to roll out their first harvests and this weekend I bought a half-peck of Jonagold apples, which is a cross between a Jonathan apple and a Golden Delicious. It is a great eating apple, which is my intention this week, but it's also a great baking and cooking apple, too.

The Blue Ridge restaurant inside and down in the belly of the North Carolina Museum of Art served it's last meal Sunday. It is moving into the new museum buildings that will open next spring and I was there to bid it farewell. Over the years, my Mom, brother and I along with friends and other family members have enjoyed many a meal there, so it seemed only right that we close it down, too. I had what they call the "Southern Falafel". It is a veggie patty made of Black-Eyed Peas, rice, parsley and many savory spices. It is served on focaccia bread with a cucumber-yogurt sauce. I got their Quinoa Salad on the side, too. Both were amazingly fantastic. We sat there for about 3 hours and ate and chatted. It was wonderful. The new restaurant will open next April and we have already made the date to be there on it's opening weekend.

Being one never to pass up a sale, I had to stop in the museum's gift shop on the way out as they had everything 65% off. I found a cookbook called "An Appetite for Art: Recipes from the North Carolina Museum of Art" by Elizabeth K. Norfleet. It is a gorgeous cookbook. There are 225 pages of yummy recipes like Smoked Trout, Asparagus Chicken Penne Salad, Sweet Potato Pudding, Baked Sausage and Wild Rice and something called a Southern Comfort Cake that makes me wanna bake it and get some Southern Comfort right now! Interspersed with all those recipes are some of the most beautiful pictures of still-lifes that you can find at the museum, most involving food in some form or fashion. It is one of the more visually stunning cookbooks I own...and I bought it for $5.98. It felt like I was stealing it for that price, but I am soooooo happy I own this one! A new cookbook for a cook is truly like putting a kid in a candy store. It is wonderful to try new dishes and recipes, but it's more about the new inspirations, flavors and ideas for your own recipes that will be born from these.