Cajun Pistols are the way to go...

Thursday was the Canton Flea Market right in downtown Canton.  Twice a year, October and April, the entire downtown of Canton is overrun by food rigs, mesh wreaths, yard art, and tons of people looking for a deal.  I have no idea how long this has been a tradition, but I have heard about the Canton Flea Market since I was very young.  Shockingly, I've never been.  I've been to the original Canton Flea Market in Canton, Texas, but I've never made the short drive to Canton, Mississippi, to spend my money in my state.  This year, however, the Flea Market was literally three blocks away so I just couldn't not go.  It felt wrong, y'all.

So I decided to take off Thursday after lunch and met my friend Karen to see what all the fuss was about.  I had a minor hitch with a Grove-related-cooking-injury Wednesday night, after my Kroger bag broke and out came the grape jelly jar for the meatballs, and a sliver of the jar cut the ball of my foot.  It wasn't a major injury but faced with the prospect of walking around town the next day, I wasn't very excited.  I mean, double-bagging is important.  That type incident would NOT have happened at the Piggly Wiggly circa 1995.  We were on top of things back in my day.

A lot of the ladies in my office were surprised that I had never been to the Flea Market.  They'd been many times, and sometimes will even go down at lunchtime to get some food before heading back to the office.  So my first time experience was the subject of much water-cooler-talking.  I'd been told all sorts of things, but one main piece of advice was consistent-- try the Cajun Pistols.  I had no idea what they were, but I knew I couldn't come back to that office without trying one.

First thing Thursday morning, on the way to work, I began to understand the scope of this Canton Flea Market thing-- even before 8 am, people were already leaving, having gotten some good deals, and were heading back to their vehicles.  Since I had to drive straight through downtown to get to my office, I ran into traffic quickly. 

Karen picked me up at my office at lunchtime and we drove about one block, parked and then walked downtown.  We immediately decided that food was our number one priority.  So we found the Cajun Pistol's tent.  It wasn't hard to find since it had the longest line by far.  

We each got three Cajun Pistols, and found a fairly shady spot to sit down.  I was lucky enough to find a park bench to perch as my knees still don't allow floor seating in any graceful manner.  The Cajun Pistol's were AWESOME!  They were little sandwiches on flaky, buttery bread, and the filling was a creamy sauce with crawfish, shrimp and crab meat.  It was delicious.  We both ate two and saved the third for later.  It was a really, really good lunch, and the company was pretty awesome as well.  I have no idea where these Cajun Pistol's are the other 363 days out of the year, if they are available, or if they only come out of hiding for the Canton Flea Market, but you can bet I'll be back come April to get some for lunch. 

Then we set about walking around, checking things out.  It was a bit...overwhelming.  It was a tiny bit hotter than we both expected, and quite crowded.  There were so my tents in so many different areas, it was hard not to miss some of them.  I'm sure we missed a lot of good stuff, but we saw some great stuff anyway.  Lots of kids clothes, jewelry, yard art, door hangers, dip and soup mixes, hairbows for young girls (or women willing to take strange fashion risks), and t-shirts.  I had a great time and saw several people I knew, so it was nice to catch up with them.  

Karen totally photobombed my picture of the tents.  She just HAD to be on the blog!!  Just kidding!

 

 

 

My absolute favorite booth was the "Dad's Disappearing Dip" tent with the cutest 8-year-old salsa salesman I've ever seen.  I'm a sucker for dip mixes (just add one package cream cheese!), and I love trying out different salsa's at the these type flea market places.  Usually, they are fairly similar mixes, but this tent was a bit different.  It wasn't your usual large-business labels that you see everywhere-- this was a family, and the dad had come up with this fantastic mix.  It can be made two ways- you can add canned tomatoes to make a salsa, or a sour cream to make a creamier dip.  I was so excited, and the 8 year old salesman (Dad's son!) was the cutest thing ever.  I was sold when he said, "and it makes six whole pints" with an arm flourish towards the 6 pints on display.  I'm pretty sure they thought I was the crazy one when I asked to take a picture for my blog.  I guess I really am the crazy one!

All in all, it was a great day.  I got a beautiful silver bracelet, some of "Dad's Disappearing Dip", a cheap pair of sunglasses, and got to hang out with Karen, so it was a winner!