So, backing up, taking Sunday off and dropping out of the Cupcake Bake-Off was a great decision. Thursday thru Saturday at work were simply brutal. Deathly ill people everywhere. I slept all day Sunday. No kidding. Slept in and then took another nap in the afternoon. It was wonderful.
Worked again on Monday, then decided I was ready to tackle Fair projects again. Made my practice item for the Burton's Maple Syrup contest next week and it actually went off without a hitch.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was my day off. I had great plans but couldn't get out of bed... but then I reasoned that I had to go to the bank and my bank doesn't open til 10 am, plus I had some stores to go to and they didn't open til 9 am so what's the rush, right?
Well... finally got out the door at 11 am, then proceeded to spend the day running in circles. First on the agenda was to find some inexpensive serving pieces for some of my contests this week and next. Most of them had an "Appearance and Presentation" score and nothing I had at home suited me for the dishes I had planned. I went by Bed Bath and Beyond and found something promising for the Indiana Grown contest but didn't buy it cause, well, I had to make sure my recipe worked first.
Next stop was Goodwill. I've found lots of competition serving pieces here before and it's no big deal if something happens to it or I have to leave it behind (because some Fair days are like that!) No luck today though. Nothing suited me. And... totally off topic... but is it just me or do all Goodwill stores have a certain "smell" to them?
Old Time Pottery was next and I finally came up with a serving bowl I liked for $4.99.
Groceries were next. Little Red Door Cancer Agency's Eat Well, Live Well Contest was today and I planned to make a Spicy Quinoa and Black Bean Salad. Quite honestly, there was nothing really unique about my salad this year but I just liked the dish and it fit the category. If I was going to place it was going to be on taste alone and, like all food competitions, it really comes down to someone's opinion on a given day. I was hoping the judges and I had the same tastes.
So, the goose chase begins. I needed arugula for the salad. I went to Meijer to pick up my salad ingredients and they were out arugula. No containers, bags, or even loose arugula. No big deal I thought. I still had to go by Kroger to find some ingredients for the Indiana Grown contest next week.
For the Indiana Grown Contest we were given a list of food products made by Indiana Grown members. You have to use at least 2 products from the following list:
Indiana Kitchen Bacon
Schnabeltier Wine
Traders Point Creamery Milk or Yogurt
Healthy Hoosier Oil
Charlie's Premium Pita Chips
Risin' Creek Creamery Goat Cheese
Limelight Coffee Roaster's Coffee
Jen's Country Kitchen BBQ Sauce
Eisele's Honey
JavAroma Coffee
The recipe I dreamed up had five of these ingredients. They were suppose to be available at Kroger or Marsh grocery stores. Went to Kroger. They had NONE of the items... and no arugula either! Ugh. Went to Marsh and stuck out there too. The only thing they had from the list was the bacon. Absolutely nothing else... and NO arugula.
I had to go home at this point. I had groceries in my car from Meijer that had to stay cold. I was hot. I was hungry. I was freaking out that I couldn't find arugula for my contest. How come I can't find any arugula? Was there a recall? How come none of the stores have arugula?
Then I realized I never went to the bank. ARGHHHH!! At this point I've found one piece of serving ware out of the three I needed, I don't have arugula for my contest recipe in the morning, and I've found NONE of the ingredients I need for my contest next week. Plus... I had planned to practice more cookie ideas for Gold Medal Cookie on Friday plus bake a practice pie for Saturday.
I made my practice pie. I enter a Dutch Apple pie every year and every year I get Third or Fourth. I decided I was going to change things up some this year. Try a new crust. Try some different apples. Try a different crumb topping. Make it a caramel apple pie... I've seen lots of pies with caramel drizzled on top. What if you baked it in the pie? Could you bake it in the pie? My pies bake at 425 degrees for an hour. Would the caramel disintegrate? Probably. But of course I had to find out and put caramel bits in the pie anyway.
Practice pie came out of the oven. I set it to cool and went back to Meijer (where my bank is located) and bought a container of baby kale and spinach, reasoning that maybe I could use that instead of the arugula. Nope. Tasted it at home and it changed the taste totally. What now? I had a container of "Spring Mix" salad already. There was arugula in it. Yup. I proceeded to pick through the entire container of salad and came up with barely enough arugula for my competition salad.
Back to the pie. It had cooled by now. It was pretty much a disaster...
Big puddly mess. The crust was cardboard. The caramel most definitely disintegrated and just made the pie incredibly sweet and mushy, and the topping solidified.
8 pm and I decided I was done with Fair stuff for the day. I watched the Olympics and went to bed. This was my favorite moment from last night. Michael Phelps winning the 200m butterfly.
XL Bakery Style Peanut Butter Cookies
Honorable Mention - peanut butter cookies
Blackberry Pecan Linzer Cookies
First - filled cookies
Galaxy Cookies
Second - decorated cookies
Lace Florentine Cookies
no placing - other cookies
Pesto Rolls
Second - other yeast rolls
The only First I got was for the cookies I made at the last minute as my filled cookie because I had made them before and what I was trying to make this year wasn't working. Not sure how I feel about that as my goal had been to try and make something totally new for all my entries.
Also on display were the cakes that were open judged last week. I already knew how these had done.
French Almond Cake
Third - other single layer cakes
Coconut Cream Cake
Honorable Mention - coconut layer cakes
Blackberry Almond Cream Reverie
First - other layer cakes
Best of Show - layer cakes
Acorn Cardigan Sweater
Second - crocheted infant sweaters
I'm pretty sure there was not a First place awarded in infant sweaters.
Acorn Sweater, Hat, and Bootie Set
Third - crocheted infant sets
The First place winner in this category went on to win Best of Show in infant clothing.
Lacy Pink Angora Shawl
Honorable Mention - crocheted accessories
Pretty happy with this placing as there were a ton of entries in this category.
Spider Web Doily
no placing - crocheted doilies
Canadian Smocked Pillow
Honorable Mention - sewing, mixed/other fabric techniques
Go figure. This didn't even place at the Johnson County Fair and gets an Honorable Mention here. There were a lot of entries in this category too because it was an "any other" type of category.
I found my photo. It didn't place and we can't take photos of the photos. I scored a 76, as did a bunch of other people. Third place was 77 and both the First and Second place winners scored a 78. I think the photography judging is even more subjective than the food judging. I still haven't quite figured out what they are looking for besides the basics such as lighting and composition.
Finally it was time for the Eat Well, Live Well Contest judging. End result... I didn't place. My tastes did not concur with the judges tastes. One thought there was "too much spice on the back end" (yes, I agree it was spicy) and the other commented... this is the kicker, "the arugula was a bit strong." Yes, they didn't like my arugula after I'd driven all over town looking for it. Oh well. It was fun anyway. I got to chat with some friends and see them place. Rebecca got Second and Michael got Honorable Mention. I almost fell off the stage taking Rebecca's picture.
Only bummer was... they kept ALL our food! In years past we all got our food back from the Special Culinary Contests during the Fair so we would all share and sample each other's food after the judging. This year we were told it was against State Board of Health regulations to give the food back. They had to throw it all away. The Fair would be liable if anyone got sick eating the food after it was judged so they had to keep and dispose of ALL of it. I understand the legality of it but it was still a bummer. Plus, I forgot to take a picture of my dish before the judging and they had already emptied my bowl by the time I got back to the prep room so I didn't get a photo.
Moving on... I went searching for the Indiana Grown products again. Rumor was that they were all available at the Indiana Grown Booth at the Fair. Wrong. Still couldn't find what I needed. The woman working there told me to call her store manager at the Northside Marsh store she worked at and have him look in his store. I did. First, he didn't know what I was talking about. Then, he was reluctant to go look around his own store for the stuff... but I said I'd hold so he did... and they didn't carry any of it. Next I stopped at the "big" Kroger on my way home. The employees there gave me a blank stare or looked at me like I had a horn growing out of my forehead when I asked them about the products they supposedly carried.
Really. The ONLY thing from that list that I could readily find was the Indiana Kitchen Bacon. Looks like there will be a lot of bacon dishes at the contest next week!
Came home and laid on the couch, lamenting and babbling to my 900 year old daughter... the arugula, the Indiana Grown ingredients, my pie disaster...
She reminded me I'd made worse pies... the peach pie I'd made years ago that turned into raccoon bait... the inedible strawberry pie last year... and we just had to laugh.
Thankful I have the time to play at the Fair this year. In the end, it's still fun.
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