Done!

Well, so much for trying to blog and bake at the same time! I had visions of giving a day by day account of baking for the fair but that proved to be impossible. I barely had time to sleep much less touch a computer. Plus, driving my daughter to her dance intensive really messed up my timing this year since I spent 2 hours twice a day driving back and forth from Carmel.

I didn't get everything I wanted to get done but I decided to stop when I got too tired and decided I wasn't having fun anymore. I think I was just too tired this year and my feet are just killing me. I haven't run all week so I don't know why my legs hurt so much.

So here's the recap...

Wednesday
- Made caramel corn. I actually took photos so the recipe will be coming soon. It was downhill from there!
- Made peanut butter fudge. I scorched it.
- Made 2-layer fudge. I think it's OK.
- Made chocolate fudge. I cooled it too fast and it was too grainy.
- Made peanut butter fudge again.
- Went to work and fed my co-workers peanut butter fudge #1 and chocolate fudge.

Thursday
- Got up at 6 am and made Honey Pecan Bars.
- Left at 7:45 am to take my daughter to her dance intensive.
- 10 am. Home again.
- Made chocolate chip cookie dough. Put in refrigerator.
- Bake brownies.
- Made molasses cookie dough. Put in refrigerator.
- Bake chocolate chip cookies.
- Made coconut macadamia cookie dough. Put in refrigerator.
- Bake molasses cookies.
- Bake coconut macadamia cookies.
- 3 pm, leave to pick up my daughter. Back at 5 pm.
- Get more groceries and have dinner.
- Make honey oatmeal bread dough; let it rise.
- Cook 2 lbs of bacon and chop.
- Bake honey oatmeal bread.
- Bake 8 thin layers of cake. I'm making a Smith Island Cake. 
- It's after 2 am, time for bed!

Friday
- Got up at 6 am and spent the next hour trying to get my daughter to wake up. It's the last day of her dance intensive and she's been dancing from 9 am - 4 pm every day. She was impossible to wake up! Didn't get any early morning baking done.
- 10 am. Home from Carmel.
- Make blueberry pie.
- Make loaded potato roll dough; let it rise.
- Make cake filling and fill and crumb coat cake. Put in refrigerator.
- Bake loaded potato rolls.
- Time for a quick shower, then my in-laws arrive. My daughter has a small showcase at the end of her intensive today.
- 3 pm, leave for Carmel.
- 6 pm, back from picking my daughter up and watching her showcase.
- My daughter is making an apple pie for the fair so it was her turn in the kitchen. I attempted to take a nap. I never got to sleep but I did get my feet up.
- Made dough for tomato basil garlic bread; let it rise
- Made cheddar bacon chive scones.
- Bake tomato basil garlic bread.
- Made dough for cinnamon apple pull-apart bread; let it rise.
- Make and glaze Smith Island cake.
- Bake cinnamon apple pull-apart bread.
- Make spicy hot chocolate cookies.
- Make oatmeal raisin breakfast cookies.
- My daughter is also entering two drawings in the fair and of course she didn't get them done until tonight either. She left these for me to frame. The first picture fit a standard frame. The second picture was on 12" x 12" paper! I ended up cutting a custom mat for a 16" x 20" frame. I guess one of the advantages of being a craft-a-holic is that I own a mat cutter and just happen to have various colors of mat board laying around... so here I am custom framing a picture at 3:30 in the morning.
- 4 am, I am DONE for the night.

Saturday (hey, that's today!)
- 6 am, up again because I decided to make one more thing.
- Made pistachio cookies and typed the recipe.

One of the advantages of doing the fair year after year is that I use a lot of the same recipes. I keep all my typed recipes in a file on my computer so all I have to do is print them. You have to turn the recipe in with all your entries. The pistachio cookies were a new recipe so I had to type it.

- 10 am. Time to load the car and get to the fairgrounds! Entries were due by 11 am today.

I never re-made the chocolate fudge. I was going to make some caramel candies, a honey cake, cupcakes, another box mix item, a quick bread, and 2 other cookies but I just didn't have time. Taking time to drive a total of 4+ hours a day really took a chunk out of my baking time. I got 18 items done so that's good enough for me! All my breads came out darker than what I think the judges like but I turned them in anyway. I think they will either love or hate the Smith Island cake. It looks really cool but the layers are so thin I don't know how much cake they'll actually get to taste.

I  have to work tomorrow so I won't get to find out how I did until Monday. I have Monday off to bake my items for the Raspberry Contest on Tuesday. I only have to make 4 items so I should have time to make a quick run to the fairgrounds to check on my entries.

Anyone else going to the Johnson County Fair this week?