Picnic in the Penthouse + #giveaway

Over the weekend, my mom, sister, and I made a trip to the Charlotte Farmer’s Market in search of delicious treats.  It was my FIRST trip to the market since moving to Charlotte.  What the heck have I been waiting for?!

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I was really impressed by the wide variety of goods for sale at the market.  Yes, they had your standard fruit and veggie selection, but they also had a fab selection of local meats, cheeses, jams, and even local crafts, pottery, and jewelry.  And a bunch of crazy vegetables I’ve never seen before.

Here are some pretty shots:

We did a lap around the market in search of dinner inspiration.

And ended up nabbing quite a few goodies including these fresh tomatoes and basil which we combined with fresh mozzarella from Trader Joe’s to make a fantastic caprese salad:

We opted (aka I demanded) to put olive oil, salt and pepper, and balsamic vinegar on top:

We also snagged some corn on the cob and some grass-fed beef for our burgers.  I haven’t had corn on the cob in quite a while, and the cobs we picked up from the farmer’s market were so tasty and sweet and the kernels were just the perfect size to fit between the gap in my front teeth.

Makes me think I need to incorporate that veggie into my life more often 😉

We sandwiched our grass-fed beef burgers between brioche buns courtesy of Trader Joes, and topped everything off with more tomato and onion from the market and lotsa ketchup and mustard, of course.

I know these look like little baby burgers, but they were actually six ouncers dwarfed by those delicious brioche buns.

The only things missing from our picnic in the penthouse were potato chips and dip.  In my family, we eat chips and dip as an appetizer, and as a first course, AND as a compliment to any summer meal.  We will down 2 bags with gusto, especially if there’s some Lawson’s chip dip nearby for dunking

My belly was still obsessing over the thought of chips and dip when I came home from work yesterday and was greeted by a large box of York’s Harvest Garden Chips from Charlotte-based Tropical Foods!

First off, coming home to a package of goodies to sample has to be THE BEST welcome home present EVER.  I immediately tore into the package to check out the Garden Chips.

The chips are made from real vegetables (awesome), and they are completely natural, completely crunchy, and completely addicting

I was sent a few different varieties to try, including Okra, Green Beans, and the Mixed Vegetable chips (sweet potato, taro root, squash, carrots, and green beans).  After trying each and every vegetable chip variety, I decided the carrots and the green beans are my fav

Have you guys tried these veggie chips yet?

More importantly, do you want to try them *for free*?!  We all know I love freebies.  I have no shame 😛

You can enter this giveaway for the York’s Harvest Garden Chips up to four times by leaving a comment on this post for each of the following:

1.  Leave a comment and let me know your favorite cookout food (recipe links are always welcome!)

2.  Add me to your RSS feed OR sign up for email subscription to my blog

3.  Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway:

4.  Like the Fervent Foodie page on Facebook:

Comments must be posted by midnight Thursday July 28, 2011.  Then I’ll use a random number generator to select a winner