10/11/10

Today is the NC State Fair post.

There are lots of pictures, but also a lot of memories and laughs. :)

Here is your first stop: My photograph I have entered. I took it on Saturday along with my jams/conserves/preserves. I never know what the judges want, so I just picked a picture from Maine that I really loved and was happy to capture. I like the lines in this shot. :) I framed it myself, too. Normally I get it professionally done but decided I was going in the hole too much. lol Now I can remove the photograph each year and put it the next one. WHY didn't I think of that before????

For Jams/Conserves/Preserves:

Kellie - Cherry Conserve, Apple Preserves, Festive Cran-Strawberry Jam
Mikayla - Cherry Jam
Wesley - Peach Jam

Now on to our baking moments... we baked pretty much all weekend. We did a couple on Saturday and the rest on Sunday. It was a LONG day on Sunday! Overall we enjoyed ourselves. We did have a few tense moments.... but what do you expect when you have three people trying to bake/make something at the same time! lol

First you have to start off with lots of ingredients. I have learned over the years to purchase extras because you never know when you'll mess up... and we did this year, too.
Can you tell where I shop??????

Mikayla was working on the layers of her layer cake. She made a chocolate layer cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. YUM.

We recently got this mixer from my Mother-in-Law. I must say, we used it a lot! I have now officially named it "Daisy."

Mikayla filling up her layer pans.

Sunday, Mikayla was all about making Orange Coconut Quickbread.

My Mom and Kevin came down to have extra hands because we had three people working on things at the same time!

After her bread was in the oven, Mikayla made the frosting to use on her cake layers. That is what I ate for supper.... along with a lot of other sugary things.

Finished product. I thought it was the prettiest cake she has ever made. I was proud of her... and she was proud, too. :)

She also made Dark Chocolate Brownies... YUM.

Here is Wes making his peanut brittle. He was hilarious.

Kevin and I had to keep him from dumping all ingredients in at the same time. Brittle takes patience and quickness. Wesley had to learn both!

Unfortunately for Wesley, his first batch burnt, his second batch was OK but we forgot a small ingredient (butter) but it still tasted OK. Since this was going to be judged, though, we decided we had to make ANOTHER batch. By this time it was later in the evening. We were both tired, but the third time was the charm!

I can't believe I am posting this picture... Steve caught me pouring out my Coconut Cashew Brittle in the pan... only to realize at that moment when Kevin asked me about the coconut that I FORGOT to put it in!!

Oh well... I just made Cashew Brittle instead!

Wesley made his honey muffins again. We are entering them into the Honey Category this year instead of regular bake foods. They are AWESOME and the best he has ever made.

Mikayla's bread (Orange Coconut Bread)

My bread (Applesauce Nut Bread)

I made cheese straws, too.... my first time ever. The first batch was OK, but I learned from it and re-made another batch. I'm letting my students try them on Monday. :)

At 9:45 Sunday night I packed up the van and headed up to Mom and Dad's to deliver the "goods." Mom is graciously going to take our entries and drop them off since they have to be at the fairgrounds before noon on Monday.

I also entered a scrapbook page of when we got our kittens, Isabelle and Sampson. I dropped that off on Saturday, too.

We'll see what happens by the end of the week! :) It isn't about the ribbon or prize won... we made lots of memories. (Although, I would love if Wesley and Mikayla earned a ribbon or two!)

For now... I AM POOPED! :)