Ready for the fair

Cooking for the fair is done, dishes done (but not put away) Keepin in real sister!
16 cooked items ready to go from me, 3 for Tom and 2 from Shelby. Gonna need a U haul tomorrow to get it all to the fairgrounds!!!

p.s. can you tell i was good at blocks as a child?

Cooking Day for the Mariposa County Fair 2012

 

 

The time has come once again for the Mariposa County fair, Labor Day weekend every year, have only missed a few in my life. I love to enter things in the fair, for me cooking and quilts has been what I usually enter. This year I did not get much sewing done, have been moving my sewing room to the loft - have electricity now. Thanks to Brandon and Tom!

This year I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew with my baking entries, 3 kinds or bread, cinnamon rolls, biscuits, toffee, nut brittle, jam, fruit leather, and a sunflower! Because I cannot get a day off work this week, I am having to make items and freeze them. Not my first choice, but hopefully everything will turn out OK.

Some baking tips I have learned over the years for fair entries:

buy a new can of baking powder (look for aluminum free)

open a new package of yeast (I use SAF instant yeast from Smart and Final)

DO NOT CLEAN YOUR OVEN - the judge can taste the oven cleaner fumes, (and I am lazy and don't clean it all that often anyway)

bring eggs and butter to room temp for most recipes

have plenty of supplies on hand, in case you have to remake something

Follow direction from the fair book EXACTLY

have entries on time to the fair

pick up foam trays early from the fairgrounds

 

 

bench scraper at the ready, eggs and butter at room temp

Bosch mixer getting a workout today! started at 5 am!

White bread, Bosch mixer recipe. Super easy.

Whole wheat bread at the bottom, white bread in the center, cinnamon rolls. (minus one , OK 1 1/2,  2) they were really good! Recipe for WW bread also Bosch recipe, Cinnamon Roll recipe is from Chef Brad (see BYU channel)



Further updates to follow as the cooking continues! Entries are due on Wednesday afternoon. When I got the form trays from the pantry this morning my old Best of SHOW ribbon fell on me - is that an omen???



 

Summer Harvest

Shelby has been home a week now, got to have her overnight on Friday, she is such a big girl now, going to be 8 in a few weeks. She loves picking veges from our little container garden, picked some of Papa's corn - and spent the rest of the day working on entries for the fair and making corn husk dolls. Look for her entries (and doll) in building B at the Mariposa County Fair coming soon!

Shelby and basil and tomatoes she picked

I have quite a few entries to get ready for also, mostly mine are baking, but I will be entering a sunflower and a candy corn table runner. 

Sunflowers

What's Important to you?

Love this song, check it out.

The Orchard - an ending of an era

 Tom's Mother Troy was quite a lady, her plan for retirement included 5 acres of pit fruit that included many varieties of plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines, cherries. The orchard also has pomegranates, figs, a huge mulberry tree, and persimmons. After Troy died about 4 years ago the house and orchard went up for sale. She was an amazing gardener, the front yard did not have grass, but a yard full of beautiful flowers of all kinds, some wild - many not. But always many varieties of sunflowers in the summer. Troy's place has been sold now, but a very nice renter who has been there has allowed us to come in and pick fruit and remain a part of the orchard. Maria (the renter - and now friend) will be moving in a few days. We went and picked fruit yesterday morning for the last time. A very bittersweet day for Tom and I. Sweet from all the beautiful fruit which grows in spite of the poor care it has gotten this year. Not sweet from knowing we will not be back.

 

A She oak tree (on the left), a tree that makes such a sweet sound when the wind blows.

 

Some of the trumpet vines that still grow in the back yard.

A box full of plum that await canning when we arrive back home.

Canned 18 pints and 1/2 pints of plum jam yesterday, today will do as many. Fruit leather is drying in the oven. Will enter in the fair this year.

Jam and stuff

Enjoyed a potluck at church Friday night, low key - enjoyed visiting with some of the newer families

 Picked fruit at the orchard in Planada, we do not own it anymore - but hopefully will be able to pick through the summer. Apricots are really good this year, also got some white nectarines and helped a friend learn how to can some jam, then proceeded to go home and make 2 double batches (21 pints total for the day...very good year, looking forward to entering it in the fair this year.

Enjoyed the view from the porch, going to be a dry summer (sure hope not a bad fire year). The tempratures has not been that hot yet - hope it can be a mild summer.

This morning got up early and made 5 loaves of sourdough bread (I was good and did not eat any) sent it all up to the park with Tom. He has had employees who want to buy it! (even cooks) 

Finished processing the rest of the fruit and made some fruit leather. Hate to work on Sundays so much at home, but the fruit would be rotten if I wait another day. Attended church, got to hear some beautiful testimonies, taught in Relief Society. I sure wish I could be home more that the weekends, but very thankful for a job. Very thankful to be living in Mariposa where people are who they are and money or things are not the most important things.

Be who you are, God made you that way

Sometimes I say or do things that offend others. I don't mean to, I just say what is on my mind and it gets me in trouble. Some people call it being blunt, that is me BLUNT. Not sure I like that word, but that is who I am. Some people have a way of saying things nicely, some don't. I am one of the don'ts. I have a great love and concern for those around me, friends and family. But I have had to be a working gal, and had to learn to survive in the working world, you can't let your feelings always show or get your feelings hurt either.
As I interact with people in different circumstances it amazes me that some people get offended at what I do or say. I am really not a horrible person, just one that may be a little too honest sometimes. Sorry!