chocolate dessert contest

Each year there is a "Chocolate Dessert or Treat" contest at the Bullitt County Fair.
It's different that the other entries of baked goods, because the judges are tasting and scoring the goodies as we watch.

Last year was the first time I entered, and I walked away with the 1st place blue ribbon and fifty dollars!

This year I had a hard time coming up with something unique and delicious.  I finally settled on entering this Double Chocolate Mousse Cake.  It has a brownie-like cake layer, then a layer of chocolate mousse and I topped it with sweetened whipped cream and grated chocolate. 

Appearance is judged as well...here are a couple of nice looking entries....

I think this was chocolate chip chocolate cake...

Not sue what all this one had...but after the judges tried it, I could see it had liquid chocolate in the middle.

Now here is my friend, Linda with her contest entry. I knew she would bring in something really good. She is also in one of my quilt groups and she's always bringing in a yummy dessert to share with the group.

The three judges had it lucky this year.  They were inside an air conditioned plastic tent - inside the un-air conditioned building. 

That guy in the middle really liked my cake...he kept taking more bites!

Nine people entered the contest.  

When the judges had scored all the entries and points were added up...two of the desserts were taken back in the tent...these candies that Linda made (chocolate with peanut butter and white chocolate chip filling)...and also my cake!

Linda and I asked, "what's going on?", and we were told there was a tie.

Well, we were all excited because we thought we were tied for first place!

But no, it turned out we were tied for second place...and Linda's candy won the extra point.

I got the third place ribbon....and twenty dollars in prize money!

Which makes me pretty happy!

After the judges left, we Homemakers who had desserts in the contest, slipped inside the air conditioned tent and taste tested each others entries in the name of research and education. 

We concluded that everything was delicious! 

 On the back left in the photo above is Barb, who won first place, with an all chocolate Boston Cream Pie (behind that water bottle on the left).  

 After having a taste, I have to admit that she deserved the ribbon. Her dessert had a simple and good chocolatey flavor, the cake was light and moist and the filling was smooth and creamy. 

Hope I can somehow get a copy of her recipe!

sewing day

My quilt group, Mt Washington Quilting Bees, had our monthly "play day". It's the day we meet and just work on our own projects.

Usually not many from the group show up for these days...mostly just a few regulars.

Here is my friend, Shirley, holding up a baby quilt she's working on.  The baby isn't due until October, but she just found out the baby shower is next month - so she has to kick into high gear and get it finished up!

The block she's using is named "Aunt's Choice"...and she is the great aunt to the baby-to-be!

The centers are this cute Winnie the Pooh fabric.

Phyllis brought this U of L themed quilt she is making for one of her sons. She had planned to make it sized for a throw, for his couch...but he told her he would like it larger - long enough to cover his feet! 

She will be adding red and black borders. That will be a striking quilt!

Here is my friend, Sandy. She is always bustling around so it's hard to get a picture of her that isn't blurred by movement!

She is crocheting a brightly colored baby afghan.

Back behind Sandy to the left, you can see my little black Singer machine set up. 

I was sewing along just fine until I had to change the bobbin...then nothing was working right. I kept trying different things with no luck - until I noticed the metal bobbin was bent down on one side.

Wound a new bobbin and it was smooth sailing again!  A lot of wasted sewing time trying find the problem, though.

Carol had such a cute project. She had fabric printed with paper dolls, which she cut out and ironed fusible fleece on the back to keep them from raveling and give them some body.

Each doll has a set of clothes too.

There were a lot more clothing cut-outs - I wouldn't have been able to get them all in the photo!

I bought some of this same fabric a few years ago (2010).  I had kept the sections intact and used them to make this little quilt for my mother, who collects dolls and paper dolls.

2010

After seeing how cute Carol's dolls are, I'm wishing I had more of the fabric to make a set of paper dolls like hers!

taking in my fair entries

The Bullitt County Fair is being held this week.  
Monday morning, I took in a few things to enter.  Probably not ribbon winning type items, but it's fun to enter and the real ribbon winners will feel better if they have a little competition!

Workers were there getting things set up for the fair. The carnival rides were in place.

So here's the building where you drop off your entries, and where they will be exhibited.

I see my friend, Susan, up there in the center (in the peach colored top).  She not only had entries in the textiles categories, she also had items for horticulture categories, and some of her grandchildren's craft items for the youth categories.

The ladies who are checking in the entries are all members of Bullitt County Homemakers. Standing behind them are some helpful teen volunteers who take the items and place them back on the tables in the correct category for the judging later in the day.

 My turn. The ladies are fast and efficient.  That's the back side of my quilt that you see laying there lumped on the table. I also a had couple of other small items to enter.

This year I entered my Sugar Cookies too.

I always think they are so easy to make, but it's a little different when you know they will be judged!

Also, it's hard to get them to come out looking alike!  I made a half batch and those four were as close to the same size as I could get.  Thank goodness all you need to enter are 4 cookies!

strawberry angel food dessert

It's that time of year when strawberries are cheap and are perfect for a hot weather dessert.
I had an angel food cake in the freezer I had picked up a couple of weeks ago, so I looked up some recipes and combined a couple of them for this ...

Strawberry Angel Food Dessert
1 cup sugar (for glaze) plus 3/4 cup of sugar (for filling)
3 T. cornstarch
2 cups water
1 large box strawberry jello
1 1/2 to 2 pints fresh strawberries
8 oz. cream cheese softened
1 tub Cool Whip
1 angel food cake

In a pot, combine 1 cup sugar and cornstarch, add water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and stir until thickened.   Remove from heat and stir in Jello.  Set this aside to cool.

Meanwhile, dice up the angel food cake into bite sized pieces and put them in the bottom of a 13" x 9" dish.

In a mixing bowl beat cream cheese with 3/4 cup sugar until smooth. Gently fold in Cool Whip.

Spread the cream cheese mixture over the angel food cake pieces.

Rinse, stem and slice the strawberries. combine them with the cooled glaze.

Spoon the berry mixture over the cream cheese layer and refrigerate at least a couple of hours.

We had this for dessert after our Sunday Dinner of roast beef, mashed red skin potatoes, gravy. coleslaw, rolls, green beans, and honey carrots.  

We also had a parmesan truffle couscous mix that the Sasquatch had picked up on special and brought it over. I thought it was okay, even though it smelled like old wet gym socks. No one else liked it though. I guess that's why it was only fifty cents!

Later, the dessert.....

  In the evening we had some strong winds...

A few small broken branches from the trees but no major damage.

A short heavy rain, too.   Refreshing for the plant life after a scorcher of a day!

Russell Springs Fair

I read an article, either in the AAA magazine or our electric co-op magazine, saying what a big and nice county fair they hold in Russell Springs.

The only county fair I've ever been to is the one here in Bullitt County (which starts this week), so I was kind of curious to see what other counties do.

Russell Springs is smack-dab in the middle of nowhere, but Lonnie and I thought going to the fair might be a nice opportunity for a scenic drive on the back roads.  That's really the only way to get there...state roads and county roads...the interstates don't go anywhere near it!

They had a big carnival set -up...

He doesn't know it yet, but we're going to ride one of those rides before we leave!

We got there in time for a horse racing event that sounded fun to watch...and we waited and waited.

The bleachers were hard but at least we were in the shade.  Finally, they got started.

We saw the horses run by in about 7 seconds - then they were on the other side of the track and we were just sitting there staring at the dirt.

Then we waited some more.

The next race was a mule team race - but there was only one contestant.

Aren't mules bigger than this?  Are these donkeys?

After another long wait, we watched one more race then strolled around looking at everything.  

They had an exhibit hall with all the quilts, crafts, artwork, baked and home canned goods that had been entered for judging.  

We watched a chain saw carver and looked at the booths, then started making our way back to the car.

"Wait!  Let's ride these flying swings!"

"No, you probably have to go somewhere else to buy the tickets"

"It's included in the admission. Come on. they're loading"

"But........" 

Nice and breezy!

Going a little higher!

Wheeee!

 Look down there! The people look like ants!

That was fun but it was the only ride we tried.

It was a lovely drive there and back. Through a lot of farm country. Farmers out baling hay and loading it on wagons.  Not many people on the road. Clear, sunny blue skies.

Lonnie had his eye out for a barbecue joint, but no luck this time. Not a lot of food choices at all really.  We ended up eating at a Taco Bell...which was fine with me!

I had to laugh

I wonder what the cashier at Sam's Club  was thinking when I went through the check out line with these two items?

Eight cans of refried beans and 45 rolls of toilet paper.

I know, that's crude and immature humor...but when I unloaded the Jeep it struck me as funny.

all in a day

I am helping Lonnie out with the deck sealing, by rolling the stain on the flat boards.  He got the kind of sealer that's thick and has some texture mixed in.
I went through that three gallon bucket and it looks like we'll need another one in order to finish up.

In the hot part of the day, I came inside and spread out the finished quilt top  and started pin basting it.  I cut the backing a little too skimpy (you can't see it here). There is enough but it's very close.  

Didn't get it completely pinned  - I'll finish another day.

I had bought one of those giant tray's of chicken legs for cheap at the grocery and marinated them for Lonnie to cook on the grill.

He still hasn't bought a new grill yet, and the old one wouldn't light, so he cooked them on this little electric grill. 

They took awhile but came out pretty good. I cut up veggies for a mini "salad bar" , and we ate out on the screen porch. 

Later, I saw another snake. Larger and with a pattern.  Then I noticed something really weird. The smaller black snake I saw a few days ago was crawling about 15 feet behind this one.

I couldn't get them both in a photo- they were too far apart.  I wondered if the small snake was looking for a fight, or a meal, or a mate?