Originally, I signed up to enter a carrot cake, banana bread, pumpkin bread, apple muffins, Irish soda bread, apple nut cake, blueberry corn muffins, and oatmeal bread. My plan was to make all of this on Sunday after church. Thankfully, I got my canning out of the way the week before. This became particularly important because Mom and Dad ended up coming down for a visit. They arrived on Friday night and stayed until Monday. While they were here, we tackled a bunch of outdoor projects (which means I have some DIY/House updates coming up- stay tuned).
But back to the baking-- Mom and I went grocery shopping on Saturday night. I tried to be thorough with my shopping list, but wouldn’t you know it-- I forgot the darn thing at home and had to go on my memory. Unfortunately, my memory sucks. I missed some key ingredients, which translated into no apple nut cake or blueberry corn muffins. I took it as a divine sign that I already had more than enough to handle and I wasn’t meant to bake said food.
Anyway, Sunday dawned bright and beautiful. I was totally amped to bake. I donned one of my aprons and pulled out my mixing bowls. It was initially hard to decide what recipe to start with, but in the end, time decided for me. The oatmeal bread recipe used yeast, so it required extensive periods of time for resting and rising. I knew that if I didn’t start the oatmeal bread first, I was going to be up until Monday morning.
Making the oatmeal bread was a real adventure. You see, I have this crazy tendency to choose recipes for the Fair that I have never made before. Seriously, every year I look through the fair book and highlight items I’ve never made, but that sound fun and interesting. Then, I search through my cookbooks and favorite blogs to find a recipe that fits the descriptions. That’s how I chose the majority of this year’s entries- all except for the salsas and banana bread.
So it was all new territory and I’ll tell you what- it was a workout. The oatmeal bread required strenuous kneading. And so did the Irish soda bread. I would say the Irish soda bread was actually more complicated than the oatmeal bread because not only had I never made it before, but I had never eaten it before. I had no idea what it was supposed to be like. I found it to be a very dry, dense dough. I ended up adding more buttermilk than the recipe called for because I couldn’t get the dough to hold together. When it came out of the oven however, it looked pretty. I just hope it tastes right (and good).
After the Irish soda bread, I made the apple muffins. I’ll have to share this recipe next week because it is amazing! Hubs tried the first one and declared it amazing. I think what really makes these muffins special are the pecans on top. Before slipping the pan in the oven, I sprinkled each muffin with chopped pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Super delicious… while baking, the pecans almost became candied. Even if these don’t place at the fair, I’ll consider them blue ribbon winners.
I made the pumpkin bread and banana bread on Sunday night. I needed a small break after the oatmeal bread marathon (4.3 hours of bread mixing, kneading, resting and baking). Once those last two quick breads were finished, all that was left was the carrot cake. Quite honestly, I just couldn’t bring myself to bake anything more.
I was pooped.
The word “oven” was making me wince.
I needed to stop, so the carrot cake bit the dust.
It was a good original plan I had in place; it just got tweaked a little a lot. That's life.
Monday morning, Hubs and I drove out to the fairgrounds to drop off my completed entries. Here’s the revised lineup:
Pineapple Jam- delicious (we’ve already gone through 2 jars at home)
Mild salsa- also delicious (we opened a jar on Saturday to have with lunch- it’s gone already)
Hot salsa- fingers crossed on this one
Dill pickles- I’ve never placed on pickles before, so I keep on trying something new
Oatmeal bread- awesome (best.toast.ever)
Banana bread- we’ll see if this recipe rocks or not
Pumpkin bread- delicious
Apple muffins- hands down favorite
Irish soda bread- the luck o’ the Irish be with this one
After work tonight, Hubs and I are driving out to the Fair to see how I did. Oh man, I get so nervous! I've been texting my cousin to see if she'll drop me any hints. Stay posted...
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