2018 Indiana State Fair - Indiana Grown and the Wrap Up

Would you eat this cake? Read my post and let me know...

Yesterday (Friday August 17th) was my last competition. It was sponsored by Indiana Grown. We were given a list of 31 Indiana Grown members and had to create a dish using ingredients from at least two of them.

This is the third year Indiana Grown has sponsored this contest. I participated the first year and it was a bit of an exercise in frustration (post is HERE). What I did that first year was concoct a recipe using products from the list, then went to go try and find the products. I tried to incorporate as many products as possible in a creative way. This ended up being a scavenger hunt and it ended up one of the products wasn't even produced anymore, thus I had to come up with a new recipe last minute from the products I could find. The winner then made a pound cake using two ingredients so it looked like the judges didn't care about incorporating a lot of products or being creative. It was a let down.

This year I debated all week on whether I even wanted to participate. Part of my reservation was that, due to food safety regulations, every food item that gets competed at the Fair gets thrown out after the competition. It used to be that they would give your food back to you after the sponsored competitions but now they take the whole item, judge it, then throw it away. Many of the items on the Indiana Grown list were just plain expensive. I mean, if I'm going to pick up meat from Smoking Goose or some nice cheese from Fair Oaks Farms or Tulip Tree Creamery, I'm going to eat it. I'm not spending that kind of money on something that's going to get thrown away after a couple bites. There were a large number of condiments too, but cooking with those generally involves adding a protein. The other issue was making something that would show well after being transported to the Fair and sitting around for a couple hours. It's a huge pain in the keister trying to keep something warm or cold and things that are best served at a certain temperature just aren't good otherwise. Finally, I decided I'd make a cake.

A cake is a "safe" choice. It shows well at room temperature. But being "safe" often means it's ordinary too. I wanted mine to stand out. I made a chocolate stout cake and used Trader's Point Creamery Yogurt and JavAroma Coffee in my recipe. I was able to find small 2 cup packets of JavAroma at the Indiana Grown Marketplace for $0.99. I found the Trader's Point Creamery Yogurt at SuperTarget for $6.99. To make the cake unique, I decided to layer it with a mousse - an herbal mousse using rosemary and thyme from Heartland Growers. Their website said I could find their products at Kroger and Walmart. Again, easier said then done. I had to go to three stores to find the herbs I wanted. Finally...

Score! Two pots of herbs at $1.98 each

 

On Thursday night I assembled all my ingredients and made my cake.

 

The stars of my chocolate stout cake

 

Making sure all my pans have the same amount of batter

 

Cakes are done!

 

While the cakes cooled I made my Rosemary Thyme Mousse. I started by simmering heavy cream with chopped rosemary and thyme, along with some orange zest, to infuse the cream.

 

Infusing my cream

 

I then added a couple ounces of white chocolate and unflavored gelatin to make a panna cotta. I let this chill for a couple hours to set up.

 

Rosemary Thyme Panna Cotta

 

Once the panna cotta had jelled, I scooped it out into a bowl and whipped it, then folded in some stiffly whipped heavy cream so make a mousse.

 

My goal was to have a contrast. The chocolate stout cake is very dense and sweet. The mousse is light, sweet but not too sweet, and has the rosemary thyme infused flavor to offset the richness of the chocolate cake. At least that was my vision.

 

I stacked my cakes this time before I assembled and frosted them

to make sure they were perfectly even

 

I then covered the whole cake with chocolate ganache.

 

I made a 6" cake because it was easier to transport plus, why make a big cake if they're going to throw it away anyway? Can you tell this is a sore spot?

 

My recipe actually was for a 9" cake so I ended up with six 6" cakes. That was perfect because it allowed for some extra "taster" cakes too.

 

So... cakes are done and I am frosting them. Hubs comes in the kitchen to check things out. Helps himself to a piece of extra cake and proclaims it's the best cake he's ever had. He then takes a big 'ole scoop of rosemary thyme mousse and puts it in his mouth...

 

...then proceeds to literally spew it out in the sink.

 

OMG, what is that?!! It's horrible!

 

Thanks for the positive reinforcement dear. It's rosemary thyme mousse.

 

I think he was expecting white chocolate or vanilla buttercream, not an herb infused mousse. Plus, he's a meat and potatoes kind of guy that doesn't go for weird flavor combinations. Well, at least I liked it. Admittedly, it might be a bit off the reservation... but sometimes you have to take some chances to stand out. I wasn't going to bring just a chocolate cake to a competition.

 

Decorated and ready to take to the Fair

 

As an aside... I didn't compete at the Fair last year. I did however hear about the Indiana Grown competition. The woman that won last year made a cake, a Pie Caken. It had three layers. Each layer contained a pie that was baked into a cake. Three different flavor pies in three different flavor cakes. It was a Drop-the-Mike moment when her cake got shown. That's the kind of stuff you have to make to win.

 

Friday was another gray rainy day so I got to the fairgrounds in plenty of time. After dropping my cake off I went to the 4H exhibit hall. I love looking at all the things the 4H kids make. They are so darn talented and creative! I didn't get to look around as much as I wanted but these are what caught my eye...

 

This was crocheted by a 14 year old!

 

I loved the detail and the coloration of the yarn

 

I love this too

 

Remember those "cootie catchers" you made in grade school?

It's a paper lantern covered in them

 

In no time it was time to go back for the open judging. There were three judges - food writer Jolene Ketzenberger, chef Tom England, and food writer Terry Kirts. There were 13 entries.

 

The Pie Caken was back...

 

Pie Caken

 

 

This was an impressive cake and it's creator used different pie-cake combos this year. However, it really really hard to repeat a win with essentially the same recipe, especially if you have some of the same judges. The shock value is gone.

 

My cake was the last entry judged. Two of the judges whipped out their phones and took a picture of the cake so at least they liked the appearance. Scoring was...

40% Taste and Flavor

25% Creativity and Originality

25% Texture and Consistency

10% Appearance and Presentation

 

It looked like the judges had a hard time cutting through the ganache and I worried it was too thick. Then I tried to look at their faces. Was it too weird? It was hard to tell. I don't think Jolene liked it. Chef England used the dreaded word "interesting" as he described it... and I couldn't tell what Terry Kirts thought.

 



 

Later though, I was told Chef England loved my cake...

 

Anyway, time for the awards.

 

The Pie Caken got Honorable Mention.

 

Becky's Beef Bourguignon got Third. She was up at 3 am making this so that the cooking time would be timed right for the judging so it was well deserved.

 

From Becky's Facebook page

 

 

Beverly's Popcorn Cookies got Second.

 

Robin won with her Celebration Chili. She tried to use as many Indiana Grown products as possible.

 

Robin's chili

 

I didn't place. Oh well.

After the competition I went to pick up all my ribbons and score sheets. Some interesting notes...

 

- My banana cake wasn't completely done. Probably why I didn't place.

- Judges thought my caramel corn was a bit chewy. Well, that's my caramel corn. I like it chewy!

- I think I got docked points because the judge didn't understand my instructions for the oat cookie crust on my sugar cream pie. I guess I'll have to spell it out in more detail next time!

 

This year's ribbons

 

I placed in 5 of 7 regular fair entries and 2 of 4 sponsored competitions. Not too bad for dabbling back in.

 

So... anyone want to try some Rosemary Thyme Chocolate Stout Cake?

 

2018 Indiana State Fair - Pies, Burton's Maple Syrup and Hogsdon Mills

Saturday August 11th was Pie Day at the Indiana State Fair. Pie Day is when all the pies for the state fair get turned in. It used to be the day that Pillsbury or Gold Medal held their sponsored pie contests but neither sponsored a contest this year so it was "just" state fair pie entry and closed judging.

There were three new pie categories this year - sugar cream, coconut cream, and lemon meringue. Traditionally pies containing meringue, whipped cream, cream cheese, custard or other similar dairy products were not allowed due to food safety rules. This year, provided you brought your pie in a  cooler, you could enter one of these "refrigerator" pie categories.

I entered one pie. Sugar cream.

I have a great sugar cream pie recipe. I created it for a pie contest that the Indianapolis Star held in 2009. It's basically a traditional Indiana sugar cream pie but made with a coconut graham cracker crust... because, as it's well known, I can't roll a decent crust.

I hadn't made this pie in several years so I made a practice pie on Thursday, in between making my nine bazillion orange scones... and the filling separated. Ugh. It tasted fine but just didn't look good. I almost thought then that I wouldn't do a pie this year. Oh, but then I changed my mind.

I couldn't figure out why my filling separated - like there was a thin film of "fat" on top when it came out of the oven - so I started looking up other filling recipes... then I thought about Crack Pie.

For those not familiar with Crack Pie, it's chef Christina Tosi's signature pie that's sold in her Momofuku Milk Bar stores. I knew the filling was very similar to a sugar cream pie so I looked it up. The difference was that it had eggs, which made it a custard. I didn't think it would pass for sugar cream. But... it also used corn powder. I'd forgotten about corn powder. I really like the depth it gives and I thought the additional starch might keep my filling from separating. So, I made another pie. I used Christina Tosi's oat cookie crust recipe for the crust. The recipe made two crusts. I figured if my second sugar cream pie was a failure I'd make a Crack Pie with the extra crust and not enter a pie. I made my new filling, baked my second pie, then put it in the refrigerator to set up. This still Thursday night. My thought was that if my second pie didn't set up properly or separated again I was done with pies this year.

Friday evening I got home from the Fair and cut into the second pie. The filling was smooth and it had set up perfectly.

Pie #2

 

Looks like I'm entering a pie! I made pie #3. But... of course I couldn't leave well enough alone. I thought my filling was a wee too sweet, especially with the oat cookie crust, so I added an extra tablespoon of corn powder. I poured the filling then scraped the remnants out of my saucepan as the pie baked. Ugh. The filling tasted grainy. Crap.

 

Saturday, I got up at 7 am to take sugar cream pie #3 to the Fair. Pie Day is always a zoo. It's the second Saturday of the State Fair so everybody and their brother is there. Shoup's BBQ Contest was also going on and the Giant Pumpkin weigh off is also always on the second Saturday of the Fair, plus who knows what other special events were going on. So many years I have spent having an anxiety attack sitting in traffic on 38th Street trying to get inside the gates... so now I go early. Pie drop off was from 7:30 am to 11:30 am. I drove through the gates at 8 am, dropped off my pie, got stamped so I could come back later, then went home. I realize I'm lucky I can do this. With no traffic I can get to the State Fairgrounds in 40 minutes. For many of my competitors it takes much longer so they don't have the luxury of running back home.

 

I figured the judging would get done around 1:30 pm. This time when I drove back, traffic was at a stand still on 38th Street. I suspected the infield parking was already full. Since I have a drop-off hangtag I hoped that that would at least get me inside the gates, then I would FIND somewhere to park. After spending 40 minutes out on 38th Street I was surprised to find that they were still letting cars in through the gate. However, once inside the gate I saw that they were waving all the cars into hangtag only lots. I think they ran out of parking in the infield but didn't realize it and now they were putting cars anywhere there was room. I got waved around to park behind the rabbit and poultry barn. Totally not where I'm supposed to park, but heck, it's right next to the Indiana Arts building where I want to go, and it's not like they were gonna get a tow truck in here today...

 

I finally got back to the Indiana Arts building at 2:30 pm. I was worried the judging was over and all my friends had already gone home. I went downstairs and found Mary Alice and Barbara waiting for results. Phew. Still judging. I talked to Mary Alice and Barbara for quite some time. Mary Alice had brought 19 pies. Barbara brought 21! This photo is from Mary Alice's Facebook page. I had to put it here because it's so darn impressive.

 

Mary Alice's pies

 

To put this in perspective for those that don't bake, most pies have to bake in the oven for an hour. That plus your prep time, all your do-overs, and the nonstop washing of baking pans and utensils all add up to a crap load of time!

 

Both Mary Alice and Barbara had problems getting into the fairgrounds. They weren't the only ones. So many competitors got stuck in traffic that they extended the entry time for at least an hour and took all late entries... thus they were still judging.

 

I went and found some lunch then went back. Still judging.

Went to check out the winning Giant Pumpkin in the Ag/Hort Building...



 

1250 lbs!!

 

... then went back. Still judging.

Checked out the rest of the Indiana Arts building then went back. Still judging.

 

Finally, at 4:30 pm, I gave up and went home after stopping by the Ag/Hort building again to buy my Burton's Maple Syrup for the Maple Contest on Monday. I was too tired to stay and I had other things to do. I needed to get started on my entry for the Burton's Maple Syrup Contest. I got a text from Becky saying she had gone home even before I arrived but she had a friend who was staying for results. Finally, at 5:30 pm I heard they were starting to post results but no refrigerator pie results yet and Becky's friend was going home. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait til I go back on Monday.

 

Saturday night I started working on my Burton's Maple Syrup entry. The contest is any recipe containing at least 1/4 cup of maple syrup. The first year Burton's sponsored this contest was in 2014 and I made Maple Baklava. I managed an Honorable Mentioned but finished out of the money because they couldn't taste enough maple flavor. Ever since then I make sure my entries are loaded with maple syrup. I also feel that in these sponsored contests your entry really needs to be over-the-top unique in some way to stand out. I won in 2015 with Maple Bacon S'mores by making my own maple syrup marshmallows, toasted them, rolled them in bacon and sandwiched them between homemade maple shortbread cookies. I came back and won again in 2016 with my "perfect" Magnificent Maple Cake. One of the best cakes I've ever made. I didn't compete last year. Could I possible manage a three-peat?

 

I settled on making a stacked cheesecake. Maple cheese cake on the bottom and maple cake on the top. I made maple shortbread cookies and crushed them for the crust. I made a maple icing to hold the cheesecake and cake together then made maple sugared pecans to decorate the top. I made my practice cake on Saturday night, put it in the refrigerator to set up, then went to bed... at 1 am.

 

Sunday I got up and tried my creation...

 

 

It tasted great. Cosmetically, I decided the crust needed to go all the way up the sides to keep the cheesecake from bowing out from the weight of the cake. I also decided to make the cake layer thicker and bake it in the same springform pan I made the cheesecake in so they would be exactly the same size. It was great to have a plan. I actually went to bed at a decent hour on Sunday night.

This was a final cake I entered on Monday...

 

After turning my entry in, I went to check on my pie. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much because I thought my filling tasted grainy. Becky had texted me though and said Jennifer had seen the pies and thought I'd either gotten Third or an Honorable Mention. In the back of my head I thought, surely, that couldn't be. It was grainy, plus the pie had come out of the oven with a couple bubbles on top so I had popped them hoping the filling was still runny enough to smooth out the top, but it wasn't, so I didn't have a nice clean top. It was cosmetic, but still...

 

I FREAKIN' GOT THIRD!!!

 

I was incredibly happy to find out I had actually placed! Congrats to Becky. She won the Class. Jennifer got Honorable Mention.

 

 

After checking out the pies I went back upstairs to hang out with my friends at the contest.

 

Mary Alice and me



 

 

Darl and Raymond

 

Michael and Becky

 

Mary Alice made little bite size Pecan Tarts with Maple Syrup and Butterscotch Chips. Darl made Maple Bacon Crack. Raymond made Maple Ice Cream with candied Maple Walnuts and Maple Swirl (I really wanted a scoop of that!) Michael made on Ooey Gooey Maple Pear Upside Down Cake and Becky made bite size Maple Peach Love Cakes.

 

There were a LOT of entries so judging took over 2 hours. Annie Watts was the extension judge and George Neely was the professional chef. Mine ended up being the third entry judged. I breathed a silent sigh of relief when they cut into it and the cheesecake had the right consistency and the cake didn't have any tunnels.

 

 

Annie judged in 2016 when my cake won and I used the same cake recipe in this entry. I'm certain she knew it was my entry and even made the exact same comment she had in 2016 about how I used pears in my cake to keep it moist. George Neely has judged my entries before too and looked directly at me when he made his comments which made me incredibly uncomfortable. Then Becky whispered he knows this is your cake. I kinda wanted to crawl under my chair at that point. Overall though, I could tell they liked my entry.

 

FINALLY, judging was done. The judges looked really tired towards the end and they looked like their taste buds were fried. I'm glad my entry wasn't towards the end, but I was also worried it got judged so early, as I was worried they'd hold back on giving out a high score early on.

 

Christine Rienecker got Honorable Mention with her Streusel Topped Maple Blueberry Cupcakes.

 

Phyllis Hine got Third with her Maple Apple Pie. George Neely had commented during judging that it was one of the best pies he'd ever tasted.

 

Then they said that it had been really close between first and second. I could feel the adrenaline rushing. It's been awhile since I'd had this feeling...

 

I got Second.

 

John Baker won with his Maple Bourbon Tiramisu with Maple Leaf Cookie. Like me, he had make multiple maple items in his entry. I had met him downstairs while looking at the pies. He sells his baked goods at several of the local farmer's markets and Robin had introduced me to him several years ago.

 

Christine's sister, Phyllis, me, and John

 

Photo with the judges

George Neely is on the left and Annie Watts is on the right

 

No 3-peat but I can't complain!

 

Tuesday was spent making bread. The Hogsdon Mills competition was Wednesday and I had to make an original loaf of bread using at least one cup of Hogsdon Mills flour. Problem was, it was hard to find the flour. Kroger carried the rye flour and that was it. Meijer, Walmart and SuperTarget did not carry the brand and that's pretty much my choices locally. I wasn't going to drive an hour for a sack of flour nor did I have time to order any online so rye flour it was.

 

I created a Parmesan Semolina Rye Onion Bread. 40% of the score was Appearance so I decided to make a free form loaf and did a round braid.

 

Loaf #1

 

Since this was a brand new recipe I cut into this loaf to try it. I liked the texture. I couldn't taste the Parmesan and I thought the bread was too flat.

 

So, Loaf #2...  I added another half cup of Parmesan cheese and I tried to shape the dough into a ball for the second rise, hoping it would not spread out as much this way. I also tried an egg wash over the top. My plan was that if this loaf looked good I'd make a third loaf exactly the same early Wednesday morning, then take the fresher loaf unless this one looked significantly better.

 



Loaf #2 shaped for second rise

 

Loaf #2... which pretty much looks like Loaf #1

 

Well boo! Loaf #2 didn't bake any taller than Loaf #1. I'm sure it tasted perfectly fine but somehow I got fixated on Appearance. The other scoring components were 40% on Flavor and 20% on Texture.

 

So... I made Loaf #3. I also added another egg to Loaf #3 because the outer braid "strands" were "bursting" and I thought the dough was too dry. Hopefully this would make it more elastic. When it was time to shape Loaf #3, I made it a small ball on top of a big ball, hoping this would give the bread more height.

 

Loaf #3, shaped for second rise

 

Bread typically needs to rise 1 - 1.5 hours for the first rise and about an hour for the second. I pretty much babysat bread all day on Tuesday. Loaf #3 was done rising at 11:30 pm. However... when I went to go put it in the oven I found that the top ball had slid off the bottom ball and it was just one huge misshapen mass. Arghh!!!

 

Nothing to do but re-knead the whole mess and reshape it. Luckily, the more times you re-knead and reshape your bread, the less time it takes to rise. I threw in the towel on a round braid and made a 6-stranded straight braid.

 

Loaf #3, reshaped for second rise

 

I let Loaf #3 rise for another half hour, then threw it in the oven. It got done just before 2 am. I'd been baking the bread on a baking stone using the Silpat it had risen on. I picked up the hot Silpat to get the bread out, then proceeded to drop the whole thing on the floor! Arghhh again!! Luckily the bread stayed on the Silpat so it didn't actually hit the floor, just the Silpat. However, the force of it hitting the floor broke the crust on one side. Disgusted, I put the whole thing on the cooling rack and pushed the hot crust back in place hoping it would "mend" ...then I went to bed.

 

Loaf #3

 

I had my alarm set for 7 am on Wednesday morning but I couldn't fall asleep. I finally gave up at 6 am and started making ANOTHER loaf of bread. No changes this time. Made it exactly like Loaf #3. I had a meeting for work I had to call into at 7:30 am so I put on a headset and finished shaping my bread.

 

Loaf #4, after the second rise, ready for the oven

 

My meeting got done at 9 am and so did Loaf #4. Ugh. Loaf #4 was HUGE and most of the braid definition was lost. Definitely not a competition piece.

 

Now it was time to play eenie meenie minee mo. Should I take round Loaf #2 or straight Loaf #3? I thought Loaf #3 looked better than Loaf #2, but I was worried about the times I had reshaped it. Did I let it rise long enough after the last shaping? Would it be tough? Would they notice the broken crust I'd pushed back into place? Decisions, decisions...

 

One of G's friends wanted one of my loaves of bread. I had to pick G and her friends up from a coffee shop at 11:30 am and give her friend the bread so I had to make a decision. I gave away the round loaf and kept Loaf #3 to enter.

 

Off to the Fair at 12:30 pm. It was a gray rainy day. The fairgrounds were empty. Ahhh...

 

Judging started at 3 pm. It was a small competition. I think everyone was tired by now... and it was pouring rain... and this was a bread competition... and the flour had not been easy to find. Fifteen people had entered. Seven showed up. I was thankful, mainly because it would be short.

 

Annie Watts and Betsy Robin, both extension judges, judged. I couldn't tell if they liked my bread or not. They seemed to really like the sweet breads. I had thought my bread looked really good at home but now, looking at everyone elses', especially the ones that had beautifully risen in a loaf pan, I wasn't really sure. My bread looked flat.

 

With just seven competitors, my heart started to pound when it was time to announce the winners. I desperately wanted to place just to know that I was in the top half. Is that an awful thought or what?! But I wanted to place!

 

They brought four entries out. My platter was one of them. Phew! I was sure I'd gotten Honorable Mention but then they called Phyllis' name.

 

I got Third!!

 

Happy with Third

Look at everyone else's nice tall loaves of bread

 

 

 

 

 

One more competition to go!

 



 

 

2018 Indiana State Fair - Scones and Other Updates

The Indiana State Fair opened on Friday August 3rd, however I was in New York City that day. It was the last day of G's summer ballet intensive with the Bolshoi Ballet and our whole family went to see her perform at her end-of-intensive performance. We checked her out of her dorm on Saturday morning, loaded up my in-law's mini-van to the hilt, and left New York City for eastern Pennsylvania. Sunday was spent white water rafting the Upper Lehigh River. Monday we hiked Glen Onoko Falls, then drove to Canton, Ohio. We got home on Tuesday. I went to work on Wednesday. That left me Thursday to prepare for my first sponsored competition, King Arthur Flour.

King Arthur Flour's competition this year was scones. Make any kind of original recipe scone using King Arthur Flour. For some reason I had orange cardamom scones stuck in my head. Orange scones didn't sound very original but for some reason cardamom did, and the idea would not leave my head.

So, I made orange cardamom scones. I pictured tall high-rising scones, tender on the inside with a craggy crisp golden brown exterior, coated with a thin glaze of sweet orange icing.

Take One...

The batter came together wonderfully and I patted it out on a Silpat, used a biscuit cutter and cut out circles, then squished the left overs together and cut out some more. The squished together leftovers looked far more "rustic" than the first round of circles and I only got 12 scones out of the batter. I put turbinado sugar on the 6 rustic looking ones and left the other 6 plain. I was trying to decide if they looked better with a sugar topping or a glazed topping.

I baked the first 6 with the turbinado sugar... and they were too dark. The bottoms looked almost burnt. I baked the next 6 for five minutes less. These had better color but were much flatter... like hockey pucks. Plus, I couldn't taste the cardamom.

Take Two...

Plan this time was to make them all look "rustic" by making them all thicker with craggy tops, and I used two teaspoons of cardamom instead of one. First 6 came out looking pretty good. I made the mistake of leaving the other 6 out on the counter (rather than the freezer) while the first 6 baked and they got soft so they spread out more in the oven... so they were flatter and much bigger. Ugh. I had to show 6 scones that looked exactly alike in size and coloration... and I still couldn't taste any cardamom.

Take Three...

I put in a whole tablespoon of cardamom. Then I cut my scones slightly smaller so I got 15 scones out of the batter. Next I baked them 3 at a time so if something went wrong with a batch I'd have more chances to correct them. This was it; I was not making more scones!

Thankfully I was able to come up with at least 6 scones I liked in this batch. But I still couldn't taste the cardamom. I decided I'd leave "cardamom" out of the title of my recipe since if it's in the title the judges are looking for that flavor but if it's not, then the extra flavor is a bonus. I renamed my recipe "K. Arthur's Extraordinary Orange Scones" instead of "Orange Cardamom Scones." By now it was 2 am. I left the scones on a rack to cool and went to bed.

Friday morning. Competition day. I checked my scones to glaze them. I live in Indiana and it's hot and humid. Even with the air conditioning on there is humidity in the house. I had the scones sitting out for 6 hours. When I picked one up I could tell the exteriors were not crunchy anymore. Arghhh... They were perfect 6 hours ago. What to do? I heated up the oven to 250 degrees and put them back in for 10 minutes, hoping to make the outsides more crunchy again without drying out the interiors. Did that, cooled them down again, then glazed them. Hopefully the glazed sealed in some of the crunch.

Scones plated for competition

 

 

Now it was off to the Fair.

Turned in my scones and went to check on how my pre-fair entries did.

Sugar Skull Cookies

 

Mocha Pecan Torte

 

Loaded Potato Rolls

 

Caramel Corn

 

Banana Delight

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 

I was happy the Sugar Skull Cookies got First because I spent quite a bit of time on them. I was a bit disappointed the Mocha Pecan Torte didn't win but it's always hard to win again with the same cake in an anything goes cake category. I was pleasantly surprised the flat rolls placed as well as they did. I was disappointed though that my caramel corn did not place any higher as I have won multiple times with this. The fact that my other two items did not place did not surprise me. I never tasted the banana cake after I switched the recipe so it might have been awful. The chocolate chip cookies were a disaster and I knew that.

 

After checking on my items I went back upstairs for the competition. First person I saw was Fancheon Resler. Fancheon was the first person that befriended me at the State Fair and I always look forward to seeing her. She no longer competes but her daughter Kenda does and she was here looking after Kenda's entry as Kenda was working over at the Glass Barn for the run of the Fair. Also saw Robin, Becky and Jennifer, then spied Michael, Phyllis, and Marjorie across the stage.

 



Robin took this picture of me with Jennifer and Becky

 

There were a LOT of scones. Unfortunately, there were several other orange scones... so mine weren't very original. The judges liked my scones. They were technically very good. However I knew I had lost out on originality. Michael made Ginger Apricot Scones with crystallized ginger. They smelled wonderful and were incredibly original. I knew he won as soon as I saw them. I was right. He won. Kenda came in second with a savory scone that had cheese and jalapenos in it. I had a feeling a savory scone would do well too because it's different. I, however, could not get orange cardamom out of my head! I didn't place. Oh well. It was fun.

 

 

 

I didn't get out of the fairgrounds until well after 5 pm. Now I had nine bazillion orange scones at home that I had to get rid of, plus I had to make a pie for pie turn in on Saturday. I texted my friend Hope to see if she would take some scones, plus a practice pie. I was starving too. I perused my drive-thru choices going home. Decided Subway was probably my healthiest choice. Pulled into the parking lot and thought I'd call and ask hubs if he wanted something too, then saw that Hope had texted me back. She definitely wanted the pie but just a couple scones... and, did I want some beef and noodles? She was making beef and noodles and told me to bring a container if I wanted some.

 

God Bless!!

 

It's wonderful to have good friends. Heck yes I'll take homemade beef and noodles! I pulled out of the Subway parking lot and hurried home to find a container.