...to remind y'all that it's an American holiday hot dog kind of thing, so bring your dishes that complement the theme like "hot dogs, apple pie, & Chevrolet"!

cole slaw
potato salad
baked beans
etc

Maybe I can bring some 3=bean salad, and just to be in keeping with the American theme, I'll be sure to bring my Chevrolet. Anybody bringing plastic utensils? Cheryl

I will bring coleslaw and my Chevrolet. I love 3 bean salad Cheryl is it the sweet&sour or just sweet? I don't even know why I'm
asking I love em both.

Depends on what they have at the store-I don't cook much, but I love 3 bean salad, oh and my Chevrolet, Big Red, too.
Cheryl

Wealways bring plenty of plastic utensils. So that's covered.

I'll bring my "famous" potato salad !

Carol

Fellow Traders:

Brenda & Ruben do this for *every swap*.

When it all started, they just did it, & everybody said thank you & we all stuffed our faces!

Then we started bringing them plants to "swap" for lunch.

Then they started reserving the pavilion at some expense.

Now they say they don't need anything for the gardens.

so I think we should at least put some money in a jar for them!

Whaddya say?

I didn't know that it was costing them money to reserve the pavilion. I thought it was a public park. If it's just for the pavilion, I don't have any problem chipping in on the cost, but personally, we've swapped at other locations in the park that I liked just as well because they were not quite so "used." And to tell you the truth, the parking is fairly inadequate no matter where we have squatted in the past.

I was down there last weekend with my little warrior, riding the train and I went down past the duck pond and came to a cul de sac. Can't remember if it had any shade or shelter. No table or anything like that, but I think it would have afforded parking for just about everyone. I'm going to go back and take another look tomorrow and see if I can find somewhere that is clean and suitable and will give us all close in parking so we don't have to lug things too far and don't have to pay for it. Cheryl

Sure, I don't mind chipping in, just someone give me an amount so I don't embarass myself.

You don't have to pay to use the big pavilion,
but there's a fee for the ones that have grills & such.

don't remember if Brenda even mentioned the cost, but if we each put in $3 or so, it would help offset the expense, it would be good for our characters, & it wouldn't hurt us at all!

& we've been meeting at Trinity Park for so long that it's become something of a tradition, as has the shared lunch & the door prize thing.

There are six pavilions at Trinity Park. In order to assure that we have a place for the swap I go ahead and reserve. Each pavilion cost $35 to reserve for four hours. We have never asked for, expected, nor have we ever accepted money as reimbursement when it was offered. We reserve the pavilion so we don't have to haul a 100 lb grill with us to unload and then worry about what to do with the hot coals when we are done and ready to head home.

Brenda, that's extremely generous of you & Ruben.

Thank you for your generosity & your kindness.

Muddauber favorites: Stuffed Tarantula,, French Fried Spider Web,, 8 leg salad,, Black Widow Waffles,, and the always popular Brown Recluse Turnovers. mmm mmm mmmm!

Sounds yummy. Nice Halloweeny recipes. My oldest daughter was so finicky she wouldn't eat anything unless I made up some horrendous name for it, like your stuffed tarantula. She wouldn't eat meatballs until I told her they were fried toes. She ate the sloppy joe after I told her it was a boiled booger burger. And she ate the pizza after I told her it was a pie crust with scrambled brains on top. It's gross, but hey you know the difference between snot and brocolli? Kids won't eat brocolli. Cheryl

That is so very funny and so very typical Cheryl.

Yeah, and I guess my last post here was the real reason people stopped posting anything about bringing real foods to the swap. So if anyone is bringing something yummy, please feel free to post it, and I promise not to bring anything gross. Cheryl

Hehe, I made pasta salad, but you could call it spider egg salad, cause it looks like that in the plastic container I have it in.
I barely cook as it is and this was all I could come up with in such short notice, 6 or 7 weeks. :O)