10/13/10

I just had to share my brothers post from the other day after our wild weekend of cooking/baking. If only you could have been there but he paints a pretty good picture with words!!! ha!!!

Man's Sternum Almost Crushed by Cookie Press

A local man graciously helping his loving sister and precocious niece with their North Carolina State Fair entries today almost had to be rushed to the ER for a serious injury. The sister was courageously entering cheese straws into the fair culinary competition. She had never made them before and decided to be bold and aggressive in her drive to gain a blue ribbon. After placing the cheesy dough into her never-before-used cookie press, she found the task of pushing it out into lovely lengths of cheese straw potential somewhat more taxing then she had previously thought.

Upon seeing the cry of help forming on her lips, her noble brother leaped to his feet and, intending to show the batter who was the boss, grabbed the press from her quivering hands and set his mind to creating a lovely masterpiece. However, with the first press from his hands, he realized how much more difficult this task would be. With a beet red face, bulging veins, and straining muscles, he tried to figure out the best way to force the extrusion of the batter. Finally deciding to use his chest as the stop while pushing back with his hands, he soon found that his chest had several painful spots and felt as if his sternum would be crushed under the strain of trying to made the perfect straw.

Giggling beyond control and reprimanding her hero of a brother for breathing heavily on the newly formed straws, she suddenly gave in to pity and gallantly handed him a quadruple-folded dish towel to place between his sore chest and the offending culinary tool. Much needed relief soon followed, and he was able to work through the lingering pain and quivering muscles to conquer all of the offending dough. Upon sliding both baking sheets into the perfectly heated oven, the man was finally able to give his overworked muscles a much needed break. The ever concerned sister baked off the straws with a few time adjustments and finally placed the hot, crispy, delicate goodies on the cooling rack.

Time will tell whether these cheese straws will win a blue ribbon. If pain incurred while making them counts for any points, they should receive BEST IN SHOW!!!!!!!

PS The chest is still sore.