fair is fair

August 20, 2009- The Gillespie County fair came around and I just couldn't resist the urge to enter something. The county fair back at home was always one of my favorite times of year and our family always had lots of things to enter- from livestock to baked goods, vegetables to arts and crafts. If there was something we made or grew then we found a category to enter it in the fair. So I guess I was re-living my childhood and got excited about the possibility of ribbons (and bragging rights!!). Plus, there is always the chance of winning a trophy and who can resist that? Pecos even got in on the fun; for the past several weeks he's been helping me in the garden and I told him he could enter his vegetables in the fair. He was excited about that! Here's the bounty we brought to the fair (the photo was taken with the camera on my cell phone so the quality is not that great):

The day entries were due I played Betty Crocker and made 4 different cookies and some cupcakes to enter in the baking category. The chocolate cookies were a recipe from a bakery in town...they are my all time favorite cookie but they did not turn out very good at all when I made them. They tasted fine but looked horrible. No more of those in my oven....I'll just stick to buying and enjoying them from Peach Tree. The snickerdoodles were another favorite of mine, but not a favorite of the judges. But the judges did like the macaroons, chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes so it wasn't a total loss.

A week or so before the fair I made a jar of pickled okra the way I had always made it growing up with my grandmother and mother. I was so proud of my efforts but the judges obviously don't know a good pickled okra when they taste one because it didn't get a ribbon. But they sure looked good in the jar! I also had a jar of hot salsa and hot pepper jelly to enter. The jelly got 1st place and the salsa was 3rd. I gave Pecos the best vegetables and eggs to enter and he did pretty good- 1st place butternut squash and cantaloupe and 2nd place snap beans and eggs. My snap beans were 3rd so I guess I need to work a little harder next year in the garden!

And if you know me, you know I take lots of pictures. I'm no professional, I just like to have good pictures. Besides, professionals can't enter photos in the fair anyway! So I decided at the last minute to enter some photos and it was so hard to choose because they only allow two entries per person. This was my animal life photo that got 2nd place. As I was searching through photos taken in the past year I came across this one. It wasn't the one I was looking for but for some reason it struck me as a good entry for the portrait category. And turns out it was- it got 1st place.So another year of the fair has gone by and some of our entries were great and others were not so great. Still no trophy, but the quest will continue next year. I guess you can say the Fair was fair.