Don't you just love smelling bread baking?

My husband claims one of his fondest childhood memories is the smell of his dad baking good old-fashioned yeast rolls on Thanksgiving Day. He only made them on holidays. The Big Guy says he remembers the cozy, loving smell more than the bread itself (although he'll never turn down a tasty chunk of fresh bread!)

Unfortunately, he married a yeast-challenged gal! I can cook fairly well otherwise but yeast and I just don't share a kitchen well! It's kind of the old "doesn't play with others" theme. The best thing I can do for those around my table wanting a nice fresh roll is go the brown'n'serve route! I am NOT a breadmaker!

BUT, if YOU are . . .

Wichita, Kansas is holding the National Festival of Breads and Baking this weekend. It's America's only amateur bread baking contest to celebrate the art of baking, to encourage the use of Kansas products and to recognize the wheat and milling industries that are so much a part of Kansas' economy and lifestyle. The main thrust of the festival is the Bread and Baking Contest where average folks (amateurs) are encouraged to develop and share recipes for breads and related products. New categories added in recent years include bread machine recipes, rolls and holiday breads.

So, if you are in to bread baking (or even just homemade bread EATING), you might want to head to Wichita this weekend. It's bound to smell great, there!

P.S. - Did'ja know ...

Kansas produces enough wheat each year to bake 36 billion loaves of bread and enough to feed EVERYONE in the world, over 6 billion people, for about 2 weeks. One acre of Kansas wheat produces enough bread to feed nearly 9,000 people for one day!!

Purple Hull Peas ???

Purple's my favorite color but I've never associated it with peas. Have you ?

So, just what is a Purple Hull Pea ?
If you grew up in Emerson, Arkansas, I'm sure you'd know. This Friday and Saturday, they're holding the 20th Annual Purple Hull Pea Festival. I think it's the world's largest and oldest (and probably ONLY) Purple Hull Pea Festival !

Purple Hull Peas are very similar to black-eyed peas but have more flavor. Just like black-eyed peas and crowder peas, they are part of the "cow pea" or "Southern pea" families. It is believed they originated in Africa and migrated to the Southern states along with the slaves. Eaten by the very poor and used as forage crops for livestock, they were slow to come into use by the general population, and are still considered a "Southern thang" or "soul food." They're most commonly eaten with cornbread. In fact, one of the featured events of the festival is the Great Purple Hull Peas & Cornbread Cook Off."

There's also a new 20th Annual Purple Hull Pea Festival Cookbook available, titled "20 Pea Pickin' Years." If you can't get to the festival in person, you can order the cookbook by mail here. (It's also available at local businesses in Emerson.)

Another festival event is a Pea Shelling Competition. If you don't mind purple fingers and aching thumbnails, c'mon down and give it a shot. They'll provide the peas, all you have to do is show up. There will even be play-by-play coverage in true ESPN-style. The audience is filled with those cheering on their favorites. You gotta see it to believe it!!
One of the other major sports attractions at the festival is the Fastest Garden Tiller Competition. (This is not your standard tractor race, My Friends!)

So, why not bring your sweet little pea-pickin' heart down to Emerson, Arkansas this weekend and get into the purple ?!?!

So what're you doing this weekend?

The Big Guy and I have our plans sort of set in stone for the weekend. We're going to the Lost, Found and Dearly Departed annual get-together in Harrisburg, PA on Saturday for a full day of blues music and some fantastic food, served throughout the entire day and evening ! I'm already baking my dessert contribution and I believe The Big Guy spent the night dreaming about the fried catfish he'll be savoring !!

Wanta' know what else is happening ?

Folks up in Pinconning, The Cheese Capital of Michigan, are holding the Cheese Town Challenge Festival (Thurs-Sat) featuring cheese cooking demos, a Cheesey parade, the Cheese Town Dad Contest and the Ultimate Mac and Cheese Dinner Contest, along with the usual music and entertainment, sports tourneys and fireworks.

Over in Roslyn, South Dakota, they're holding the International Vinegar Festival 2011 featuring (Get this !!) VINEGAR !! Roslyn is the home of the International Vinegar Museum (I think it may be the only vinegar museum in the world!) They invite us all to come "celebrate the sour powered excitement that is VINEGAR."

There will be a Vinegar Tasting Bar to let you sample "exotic" vinegars and vinegars from around the world will also be available for purchase.

Do you know how to "properly taste" a vinegar?

According to Lawrence, The Vinegar Man, you should swirl the vinegar in the glass and let the aroma "waft" to your nose so you may truly appreciate the individualized scents. Like fine whiskey, it's easier once you get to the 3rd or 4th sample!!

You can also make crafts using vinegar bottles. There will be music, a vinegar parade and crafts as well as lots of food available for purchase.

Back here, along the Mid-Atlantic Coast, we'll be eating lots and lots of chicken!!

The 62nd Delmarva Chicken Festival will take place in Georgetown, Delaware on Friday and Saturday. One of Delmarva's oldest festivals, the event features a Chef's Contest, Chicken Capers like a chicken scratch, egg tossing, spoon races, and more, the 2nd round of the Mountaire Chickin' Pickin' National Championship, and, literally, TONS of food will be available. More than 3 TONS of chicken will be fried up in Delmarva's Giant (10 foot) Fry Pan which has been used every year at the festival since 1950!!

Area chefs will do 2-hour cooking demos, complete with samples. You can watch chicks hatch and learn about the poultry business on Delmarva where the industry employs more than 14,000 people and produces nearly 600 million chickens each year!

***When I lived in Salisbury, the largest city on Maryland's Delmarva Peninsula, I lived only 8 blocks down the street from the Perdue chicken processing plant. Despite all kinds of technological filters and such, we still had a fair number of feathers floating through the air (like dandelion puffs) and we'd have to run our wipers each morning to clear the feathers off the windshield before heading out!

Finally, the folks down in Crewe, Virginia have answered the age-old question of why the chicken crossed the road. He was going to the Virginia Chicken Festival, Southside Virginia's oldest and finest festival !!! Held on Friday (6/17), this event will feature plenty of food - BBQ chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken livers and Robert's Rooster Stew, among others.

So, get those taste-buds primed and head out and stuff yourselves this weekend.

***Don't forget to take Dad along. After all, Sunday is Father's Day!!

What's on the calendar this weekend?

It's been a really hot week here so I'm thinking we need to find something super refreshing to do this weekend.

The Banana Split Festival in Wilmington Ohio seems to fit that bill! The Banana Split was born in Wilmington in 1907. Come one, come all to hear great music, check out some awesome cars and crafts , play games, and, get this, Make-Your-Own-Banana-Split!!! Yep, a build-it-yourself booth!! Count me in!!

If you can take the heat, head on down to New Orleans to the Creole Tomato Festival at the French Market. As with all New Orleans' events, there's a parade! There will be singing dancing tomatoes, music you just can't help but dance to and so much more! Life-sized tomatoes will be handing out tomato-shaped fans and chefs can bid at an auction for the first tomatoes of the season. Oh yeah, there will be lots of cooking demonstrations on just how to turn these beautiful red globes into gastric delights.

Maybe your belly is crying out for true festival-style food, you know, fried stuff. In that case, head off to Potterville, Michigan to the 11th Annual Gizzard Fest. (Don't laugh until you've tried it!) Events there include a gizzard eating contest and a hot chick/rooster call, among the standard parade, tractor show and music.

Whatever you choose to do over the weekend - ENJOY

AND STAY COOL !!!!!

Strawberry Fields Forever...

Local strawberries are here!!! Get them while you can. Around my neighborhood, they're available at every produce stand. They tend to be sweeter than the ones you find in the grocery store. In these parts, they also tend to be a bit smaller (bite-sized!) The season is so short and I simply feel I can't get enough. So, I get carried away, often buying entire flats of these succulent little devils. That adds up to a lot of strawberries!!

I serve them cut up in bowls, whole for the nibbling and even cooked into all sorts of foods. They're wonderful on top of a bowl of ice cream and who doesn't love a chocolate dipped berry?

These are my stand-by take with item. You might call them my signature dish. They are soooo easy!!!!

Making Dipped Berries:
I always keep a bag of chocolate candy melts handy (I buy mine at AC Moore or Michael's.) I simply grab a basket of berries, rinse them and allow them to dry a bit - just spread them on a bed of paper towels. ***Water is an enemy to dipping chocolate. Cover a tray with waxed paper. You could also use parchment paper. Plastic wrap does not work well. Melt the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave. Since microwaves vary drastically, it is hard to tell you how long to cook the chocolate. Chocolate does burn easily so I suggest beginning with 30 seconds at a time. Stir. Repeat until chocolate is soft and stirable. Simply grabe a berry by the stem and dip it in the melted chocolate to coat. Set the berry on the waxed paper-covered tray. Set the full tray flat on a shelf in teh refrigerator to set the chocolate. (This only takes about 5 minutes.) Arrange the berries on a pretty plate and wait for the ooohs and ahhhs!!

Want more praise? Serve white wine (or champagne) with chilled strawberries in the glass. These are both pretty and tasty!


Just want to add a Spring touch to your kitchen? Check out some of the kitchen accessories (like these strawberry potholders) featured in my Etsy shop.

Ever wondered what it takes to make the World's Largest Strawberry Shortcake? (Have you ever had 15,000 folks drop by for dessert and wanted to impress them with something sweet and pretty?)

It's simple. All you need is 514 cups of sugar, 224 cups of shortening, 192 cups of eggs, 9992 cups of flour, 576 teaspoons of salt, 2048 teaspoons of baking powder, 448 cups of milk and 18 cups of vanilla. Use whipped cream to taste and pretty much all the fresh strawberries you can get your hands on!!

The odds are, it won't fit in your home oven. OF COURSE, YOUR KITCHEN MAY BE ROOMIER THAN MINE. (Just sayin'...) Oh yeah, you MAY need a flatbed truck to take it to your friends.

It might just be easier (and possibly cheaper) to attend the Lebanon Strawberry Festival in Lebanon, Oregon and just get in line for a slice. The festival takes place this weekend, June 2-5.

Oregon a bit too far? There are strawberry festivals just about everywhere this week. Maybe one of these would be closer for you - the Newark Strawberry Festival in Newark, Ohio, the West Cape May Strawberry Festival in Cape May, New Jersey, the Kimmswick Strawberry Festival in Kimmswick, Missouri or even the Troy Strawberry Festival in Troy, Ohio.Want to enter a Strawberry Recipe Contest? Then head on over to the Ashland Strawberry Faire in Ashland, Virginia. Bring your favorite strawberry dish or beverage to the Henry Clay Inn (near Randolph Macon College) between 9:30 and 10 a.m. on June 4th. Cash prizes will be awarded and winners will be announced at 11 a.m. While you're there, enter your favorite tyke in the Little Miss or Little Mr. Strawberry contests.

Check your local calendars. I'm sure you'll find a strawberry event near your location, too.

What sounds good this weekend?

Some of the more unique events around this weekend include darting turkeys, pecans and a Jewish food festival.

The Annual Dart the Turkey & Dessert Baking Contest in Clearfield City, Utah takes place Friday evening where darting begins at 6:30 p.m. This is quite a variation on the turkey shoots I've attended here on the East Coast. I've seen both guns and bows used but never darts!

Apparently the dart shoots include classes of competitors as young as 6 years of age! Targets can be purchased for 25 cents each and winners of each age category win a free turkey.

I'm guessing the companion dessert competition draws just as much (if not more) interest! Now in it's 21st year, this part of the competition will accept entries from 6:45 to 7 p.m. with judging beginning at 7:15. Categories include Best Pie, Best Cake, Best Dish, Best Cookie, Best Candy, Best Student and a new category this year - "Best Cooking Light Recipe." That last one is, oh so important, when competing in a dessert category!!

Do you think my KCBS BBQ judge credentials will get me a seat at the judging table here?

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Then there's the Pecan Fest in Chetopa, Kansas. among the events here are all day musical entertainmant, a 5K run, a talent show, arts & crafts show, quilt display, car show and inflatable games (?) !! For us Foodies, the day begins with a Pancake and Sausage Breakfast at the Masonic Lodge and features an All-You-Can-Eat Smorgasboard Luncheon for just $6. (Desserts will be sold separately.) They warn attendees to "come on time! We'll seve until the food is gone!" Tickets for this go on sale at 10:30 a.m.

Of course, there is a Pecan Cooking Competition. The single Adult category includes cakes, pies, cookies, candies and assorted entries. The Children's category is actually split into the four categories of cakes, pies, cookies and assorted entries. Age Divisions include adults, 8 and under, 9-12 and 13-16. There will be ribbons for winners of each of the individual categories and special awards for "Best in Show" and "Most Unusual Use of Pecans."

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Rounding out the weekend's menu is the Nosh Fest in Cooper City, Florida. A "nosh" is a taste. So come nosh on traditional Jewish style foods such as corned beef and pastrami, lox and bagels, falafel and Israeli salads, matzo ball soup, potato pancakes (latkes), noodle kugel and more. There will be a cooking competition, cooking demos and music throughout the day.

So, go out and have tasty weekend, y'all!!

Fall Festivals Are Still Happening ...

One of my favorite entertainers will be heard in Basile, LA Friday night when Chubby Carrier takes the stage for some of his zydeco party sounds. One has to bear in mind, "a Chubby party just don't quit!" Chubby will get things rolling at the LA Swine Festival on Friday night and the party will roll on through Sunday (11/5-11/7).

In addition to all the standard festival fare of music, games, car show, etc, there will be a Queen's Boudin Eating Contest, the Queen's Greasy Pig Chase, a Hog Calling contest and, of course, a Pork Cook-Off. The Cook-Off will feature the four categories of Pot, Pit, Cajun and Cracklins. Cook teams can enter one or more categories. A secondary competition will be held among the cook teams for the Chug-A-Lug Champs. Additional awards will be given to the cook-off team who chug-a-lugs the most beer purchased at the beer booth. (Tally will be kept at the beer booth.)

Hmmm, this could provide just the inspiration I need to put together a cook-off team. Think it's too late?

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Feel more like a nut ?

Then head on out to the 13th Annual Pistachio Festival on 11/6 in Newberry Springs, CA where you'll find Food - Fun - Live Music - and ...PISTACHIOS!

Or ...

You could head on down to the 7th Annual South Carolina Pecan Festival in Florence, South Carolina on 11/6. There you'll be able to check out the Pecan Cook-Off, trot along in the Run Like A Nut half marathon or simply sit back and enjoy the entertainment of more than 30 performers on this event's 7 stages!

If that's not your cup of tea, so to speak, check out

the Society Hill Catfish Festival just down the road in Darlington County, SC, also on 11/6. Some folks come for the music, some for the crafts and games and even more just to get together with old friends, but ALL end up eating some of the delicious catfish served under the big tent at St. David's Academy. The catfish stew is so popular that the organizers start selling it by the quarts and gallons the night before this free, one-day festival!

Whatever you choose to do, get out there and enjoy this Fall weather as the outdoor festival season is quickly coming to a close for many of us in the cooler part of the country.

Go out and get yourself some good festival food while you can!!!

Not as many festival choices this weekend!

Much of the country is beginning to move out of the outdoor festival mode as we reach mid-October but there are still a few great events happening out there in the fresh brisk air. Won't be long till I'll be directing you into armories and church halls and such for food events. That is, if we can make our way around the snow and slush!!! (It's not far off, you know.)

There are, as usual, numerous wine events in just about every state and much of the Northern half of the country is celebrating the apple harvest with various apple festivals. There's a new orb in town, though, and it's taking over the spotlight. Yes, folks, I'm talking about the Great Pumpkin!!

Yesterday marked the opening of the Circleville Pumpkin Show in Circleville, Ohio, the oldest and largest festival in Ohio. This little town of 12,000 residents is invaded by over 400,000 visitors over the duration of this 4 day festival (10/20-10/23). That crowd is hungry, too, eating over 100,000 pumpkin donuts and buying 23,000 pumpkin pies among all the other festival eats!! They come to watch the parades - 7 different parades, each with a different theme. They come to compete in contests like the Prettiest Pumpkin, Pumpkin Pie Eating, Hog Calling and Egg Tossing. There's lots of stage entertainment, live music, the usual festival booths and rides and Gus, "The Squash Carver," will demonstrate at the Great Pumpkin Carving!

This year's biggest pumpkin weighs in at 1,622 lbs !!!! I wonder how many pies that'll make?

An added bonus: The festival's website has pumpkin recipes, too!

October 23 marks National Bulk Foods Day throughout the country. Now, I admit, when I first saw this on the calendar I thought it was a brilliant marketing ploy by those big warehouse stores like Sam's and Costco. My mind immediately went to defining "bulk" as meaning huge packages. I was wrong. They're not involved in this one at all. In this instance, we're talking about foods purchased unpackaged from bulk containers like barrels and such. Promoted by the Bulk Is Green Council, an organization dedicated to helping consumers, food makers and grocers learn about the many environmental and economic benefits of bulk foods, people around the country are encouraged to celebrate by buying everything from spices to almonds to rice in bulk at their nearest grocery store or co-op. Bulk foods provide the 30% to 60% savings to the consumer by eliminating the added costs of packaging and promotion. Packaged goods require signigicantly more transportation to make their way to the shelves of our local stores. The manufacturing of packaging kills trees, dumps contaminated water into our streams, uses tremendous amounts of energy and shoots tons of CO2 into our air. Packaging is a burden to our landfills.

While I can't claim I buy a lot of my foods this way (It's simply not easily available to us in our community.), we do buy some things like powdered milk, nuts and such from barrels at an Amish market we frequent. We also buy and use mostly fresh veggies and fruit over prepackaged ones. I tend to freeze my own veggies in season for later use.

So, even if it's just for that one day, why not try to buy some "un"packaged foods. After all, who really needs more plastic wrappers for the trash man?

Hope you manage to find some good eats this weekend wherever you are!

Roadkill Festival - For Real Folks!!!

Okay, I promised you a Roadkill Festival ...

Roll on in to Marlinton, West Virginia on September 25th to check out the 25th Annual Harvest Festival & 20th Annual West Virginia Roadkill Cook-Off. This is one of the region's most exciting and fun events and has been covered by a number of RV shows over the past few years. The Fine Living Channel did a piece on this event in January. (So, how do YOU define "fine" living?!?)

Yep, you can even sample some of these exotic and unusual dishes that range from squirrel to bear, and everything in between. The big winner in 2009 was a team called Two Crooks and A Cook. their winning presentation was "South-of-the-Border Mishap" armadillo, roadrunner and hitchhiker tacos. The Coal Hollow Brothers took 2nd with "Frogut's Jumpin Jambalaya" made with frog meat, sausage and chicken. (Sounds like a true bayou recipe to me.) The Ridge Runners walked away with 3rd featuring their "specialite de la maison" -Smeared Hog with Groundhog Gravy, served with Bear Butt Appetizers. (The latter were made from real bear meat but I'm not sure if the part designation was accurate.)

Oh yeah, there are the normal festival activities there, too - things like horseshoes, fine art demos and show, music and stage entertainment, sports tournaments, a dog show, a baby pageant, 5 K run, parade, etc. There's even a Miss Roadkill crowned. (Now, there's a title a girl can boast about for years!!)

Looking for something a little more run-of-the-mill ? If you insist. Over in Elkin, North Carolina, also on the 25th, is the 14th Annual Yadkin Valley Pumpkin Festival will be looking for the largest pumpkins in the 5th Annual Pumpkin Weigh-Off. Growers from all over the East Coast will be there to enter their oversized edible gourds. Last year, Ricky Holder won with the North Carolina Record Pumpkin at 1,258 lbs. Hungry? Then try your skills at the Pumpkin Pie Eating Contest.

Okay, now there is absolutely NO excuse for y'all to sit home this weekend. Get out there and try something new to eat!!! (I think I saw a dead possum about a block down the road. Maybe a little sauce...)

What's to eat this weekend in the festival world?

What comes to mind when you hear the words KFC Chicken?

I immediately picture Colonel Sanders. The Colonel opened his first fried chicken restaurant in London, Kentucky in the 1940s and the 21st Annual World Chicken Festival celebrates that heritage each year. This year's event, starting on 9/23 and flowing through 9/26, is expected to draw over 250,000 spectators.

One of the activities here that caught my attention are the World's Largest Stainless Steel Skillet that can cook 600 chickens at one time!! (Since 1992, that skillet has cooked over 120,000 fried chicken dinners at the festivals!)

Measuring 10'6" in diameter and 8" deep, the skillet has an 8' handle and weighs 700 lbs. It holds 300 gallons of cooking oil. Just to bread the 7,000 pieces of chicken that will be cooked there at this year's event will take 375 lbs of flour, 75 lbs of salt, 30 lbs of pepper and 30 lbs of paprika. They won't tell us anymore about the "secret ingredients" that give that chicken it's fantastic flavor, though.

Once you've eaten your fill of chicken, you can meander over to the Colonel Sanders Look-A-Like Contest or check out the Crowing, Strutting and Clucking Competitions.

Or, you could hang around for the Redneck Games! This year's games include: watermelon seed spitting, spam eating, toilet lid horseshoes, a redneck joke competition (with audience participation), armpit serenade (judged by song recognition), bobbing for pig's feet (done blindfolded), burping contest (judged on length of burp and song content) and corn shucking. You just don't see these things everyday!!

How about something a little more tame? Then check out the Irmo Okra Strut Festival in Irmo, South Carolina on September 24th and 25th. The main guest of honor here is, of course, okra! Featuring Okra Eating Contests on both Friday and Saturday, this festival features all the traditional food fare along with their famous "fried okra", deliciously seasoned and served up by the Lake Murray-Irmo Women's club. (Check out the festival website for a great recipe for this.) There is a "Guess the Pods" contest and other okra related competitions. The festival parade featuring over 100 units, is the State's largest festival parade!!

Finally, go west young friend! Head for The Whole Enchilada Fiesta in Las Cruces, New Mexico, held September 24th- 26th. There, you will find the World's Largest Enchilada (It holds the Guiness title!)

You can watch them construct this giant behemoth at 11 a.m. on the 26th. They'll use 750 lbs. of stone ground corn to make the massa dough to make the giant tortilla. Once pressed, the tortilla will be carried by 14 men to the cooking vat filed with 175 gallons of vegetable oil. (Did I mention they heat that oil to 550 degrees?!?) Once cooked, those men will carry the tortilla to a custom made serving plate where the enchilada will be filled with chile sauce, onions, and more. It takes approximately 2 1/2 hours from start to finish in the making of the World's LARGEST Enchilada! Spectators will then be given the opportunity to enjoy free samples of the whole enchilada.

Drats!!! I've run out of space, tonight.

Tune in tomorrow for the most interesting event of the weekend - a Roadkill Festival!! (Seriously, folks. I kid you not.)

This week's more unique food fests ..

Do you like kolaches? Do you know what a kolac is? They're extremely popular pastries bought to America many moons ago by folks of Czech and Slovak background. They're easy to find in Texas and in Western Pennsylvania where there are large Czech populations. Want to try some? Then get yourself to Caldwell, Texas on the 11th for the Kolache Festival.

More into Popcorn ?
Then you're in luck, there are multiple popcorn festivals happening this weekend. Among other activities and entertainment, you can view popcorn sculptures and taste food specialties made with popcorn at the Beavercreek Popcorn Festival in Beavercreek, Ohio or you can visit the Wyandot Popcorn Museum at the Marion Popcorn Festival in Marion, Ohio (the Popcorn Capital of Ohio). There, you can enter the Popcorn Recipe Contest where the finished product must be edible and must contain popcorn and attend the Orville Redenbacher Popcorn Parade on Saturday Speaking of Orville, his native Valparaiso, Indiana boasts the First and Oldest Popcorn Parade, celebrating its 32nd year this weekend at the Valparaiso Popcorn Festival.

Okay, we all know we cannot live by dessert and snack foods alone.

So, let's head over to the Ayden Collard Festival in Ayden, NC (9/10-9/12) for some greens. Along with some top notch entertainment all three days and the other standard festival activities, you can enter your little ones in the Collard Patch Kids Contest. Do they smile sweetly, say the cutest things, or just look adorable? Well, you get the idea. There's a Collard Cooking Contest on Saturday and you must have your collards with you and ready to be judged on stage at 1 p.m. Prefer eating to cooking? Then sign up for the 36th Annual Collard Eating Contest. There are two categories - male and female. "The only rule is you must eat each pound of collards completely and you can add anything to it while eating them. Eat as much as you can for the 30 minute time period, keep them down long enough to get your prize, and you just may be crowned the Collard Eating Champion!"

Ever thought you might like to cook like the pioneers?

Then you need to get out to Eagle Creek, Oregon for the Dutch Oven Cookoff on the 11th. Old time music and dutch oven cooking combine for the perfect day to visit the Philip Foster Farm. Bring your instrument and join a jam session, or sign up to compete in the cook off. There are 3 categories to "The Pioneer Challenge" - Main Dish, Bread and Dessert. Compete in one or in all three. Or, just come to watch and taste.

What's on the calendar this weekend?

In my search for interesting food events happening this week, I found plenty of blueberry festivals and watermelon gatherings around the country, a potato festival in South Dakota complete with the standard mashed potato wrestling matches, a hot dog festival in Indiana and lots of wine festivals everywhere. Then I found the two I thought were most interesting and definitely at opposite ends of the food spectrum - a hearth-baked bread event and a hot sauce gathering!!


The air around Skowhegan, Maine must be smelling sooooo good this weekend. The Kneeding Conference gets things started on July 29th and 30th, aiming to revive the practice of locally crafted bread from seed to loaf. Farmers, novice and professional bakers and earth oven enthusiasts are gathering to explore the art and science of growing and milling grains and baking artisan breads.

Then, from 9-3 on Saturday, the public is invited to the Artisan Bread Fair to discover, taste and buy all kinds of artisan breads and related baked goods and foods. The 31st happens to be the Eve of Lamas Day which is quite significant to the event. Lamas Day is the ancient mystical feast day, halfway between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox, when we celebrate the season's first grain harvest and revel in the miracle of real bread from Earth to hearth. (Okay, so I'm giving a wide berth to the term "we".) Anyway, sounds like a good excuse to east some fresh-baked, savory bread to me!

Enough of that old-fashioned homey feeling, let's jump into the fire!

Saturday and Sunday (7/31-8/1) present us with the Weekend of Fire 2010 in Fairfield, Ohio (just north of Cincinnati). Billed as the "Largest Fiery Foods Show in the Midwest," this event features 75 booths of hot sauces, bbq sauces, salsas, marinades, mustards, jerkys, peppers and more, as well as no less than 7 eating contests (complete with trophies) and a cooking class, to boot!So, you think you have an asbestos coated belly? Then check these challenges out:

Bugsicle Eating Contest - 10 minutes to get to the bug inside a Hot Lix Insect Sucker (No, you don't need to eat the bug!); Hot Horseradish Eating Contest - Contestants will be given an equal amount of horseradish spread on 10 slices of bratwurst - first one done, wins!; Peanut Butter and Jelly Eating Contest - Of course, this isn't the normal PB&J - it's HOT peanut butter and HOT jelly!! Hot Ice Cream Eating Contest (both days) - Can you get brain freeze before your belly bursts into flame from the flavoring? Hot Cracker Eating Contest featuring Texas Fire Crackers - Can you yell "fire extinguisher, please?" Hot Lix will sponsor yet another contest with the Hot Lolly Contest - definitely not for children! Finally, the famous Defcon "Death Match" Hot Wing Eating Contest - Need we say more?

Not into competition heat? Why not try the Jungle Jim's Cooking School class that will teach you to make your own hot sauce and 6 other dishes using various hot seasonings. Yes, you will get to eat such dishes as Spicy Grilled Shittakes, Soul Slaw, Shrimp & Tasso with Five Pepper Jelly and more. Beer will be served and the class fee includes admission to the show.

Whatever you choose to do this weekend, enjoy!!

Celebrating the 4th !!!!

Almost every community in America has some sort of 4th of July celebration. Most of us tend to be traditional and do the same thing, with the same folks, each year. I know our family does and when we miss (for whatever reason) even one of the three days of our annual celebrations, we definitely feel at a loss.
BUT . . .

Just in case you're looking for something a little different or unique to do this weekend, maybe one of these food-oriented events will catch your fancy.

Have you ever tried running a race with a greased watermelon in your arms ? Think you can? Well grab a partner and get on down to the Grand Bay Watermelon Festival in Grand Bay, Alabama on the 3rd.

Getting back to the race, it involves one person on the team running from the starting line to the turning point with the greased melon in their arms. At that point, they hand the melon over to their teammate who runs it back to the starting/finishing line. Team to do this first wins. Oh, and if either of you drop the melon, your team is disqualified.
Looking for something less strenuous? You can buy three seeds for a dollar and try to beat the Guinness record for watermelon seed spitting. That record currently stands at 68' 9 1/8" and was set in Luling, Texas. (Bet you've always wondered about that.) Of course, there's a watermelon eating contest involved, too. You can also decorate your clothes with watermelons or create a watermelon recipe for prize opportunities.

There's also shopping, music and lots of food available as well as other run-of-the-mill festival activities. Best of all, you can cool off with free watermelon slices all day!!

I've witnessed both blue crab and tortoise races here in Maryland, but clam races are a new concept for me! There are also clam shucking competitions, cooking contests - both amateur and professional restaurants, clam bag races (like potato sacks but the bags feature pictures of clams), a clam hunt and harvest for the kids, contest, "Guess the Clam Count"Chuck a Mullett competition on the beach and a Clam Lease (greased) Pole challenge at the Clamerica Celebration in Cedar Key, Florida on July 4th.

For the Cultured Clam Cooking Contest, open to everyone, contestants simply need to bring their finished dish and a copy of the recipe to the entry table at the given time. Prizes will go to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Honorable Mentions.


Do you think you make the absolute best cherry pie? Then make it up, be sure to provide a copy of the recipe or at least a list of the ingredients and bring it down to the Holiday Old Fashioned Picnic on the 6th, just one of the food events at the 84th National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan taking place from the 3rd through the 10th. One entry per person and there is a $5 entry fee involved.

In addition to an air show by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels on the 4th and concerts by a number of nationally known acts like Los Lonely Boys, Tommy Castro and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, there's the 5th Annual Cherries D'Vine event, a ticketed culinary showcase of regional fruits - cherries and grapes. There will be an array of salads, entrees and desserts like Chocolate Cherry Mudslide Cookies and Cherry Cobbler (made from Michigan cherries.)
The Cherry Connector - "Bringing Together Festival, Family and Fruit", will take place twice each day from the 5th through the 9th. You can use the Cherry Connector Shuttle or your own transportation to take a 3-hr tour of a 100 acre research farm associated with the Michigan State University. You'll visit a productive orchard, see exhibits and sample the newest cherry products and technology. there will be all sorts of "cherry fun" for the kids like a petting zoo, hands-on experiments and cherry coloring contests. There will be several; semi-finals of a Hot Dog Eating Contest featuring Johnsonville sausages and leading up to the finals on the 9th.

Other events will include a Cherry Pit Spitting contest (daily), an Adult Cherry Pie Eating contest and a CHERRYOPOLY Tournament. An Ice Cream Social, beer tent and wine tastings each day will lead up to the Cherries Grand Buffet (another ticketed event) showcasing recipes prepared by the culinary and cooking professionals at the Grand Traverse Pie Company and featuring a stage and musical show. There will be all the standard festival events and entertainment available, also.

Most Intriging Festivals This Weekend...

I'm a day late in posting but here are this week's finds among the many food oriented festivals.

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Jello wrestling is so passe! But, have you tried wallowing around in mashed potatoes? You can give it a shot (or a dive, belly flop, what have you) at Tater Daze in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota tomorrow. For the 46th year, this is the day the residents there pay homage to the potato, a crop that truly flourishes in their flat, sandy soil. This "sporting event " is actually one of three sanctioned by the MPWF - Mashed Potato Wrestling Federation. (I kid you not.) Too sloppy for you? Then try your skill at Potato Launching using a sling shot to compete for distance and accuracy.

Just looking to be more creative? Try taking part in the "Dress the Spud" Contest where you must creatively dress your potato (Please be appropriate. No nudity, etc.) There's also a "Hot Potato" Cooking Contest where you can try your hand at recipes featuring regular or sweet potatoes as the main ingredient in dishes in any of three categories - main dishes, sides or dessert/bread.

Children's activities take place in the Potato Patch where they can do the Tater Mash Dance or participate in a Potato Sack Race. Anybody can have their picture taken with Spud McTater.

With the economy being what it is, sponsors feared they would need to do away with the fireworks display Saturday night until they came up with this creative financing method. For $5 you can "Buy a Spud". Your money buys a potato with your name on it that will be displayed at City Hall and at the Festival. What a way to help keep the fireworks bursting in air!!!

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Prefer Moon Pie and an RC Cola?

Then find your way to Bell Buckle, Tennessee for the 16th Annual RC and Moon Pie Festival. An RC King and Moon Pie Queen with the RC Prince and Moon Pie Princess will reign over a parade. The Royal Family will be a family from Middle Tennessee who lost everything in the May 1st flood. For this weekend, they'll live the royal life with free lodging and dining.

Activities like a Moon Pie Toss, Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest and and Hog Calling Competition should convince you you're in the South. That is, if the moon pie and RC in your hands hasn't told you that already!

The truly unique event of this festival is the Synchronized Wading Extravaganza featuring costumed characters like Moon Pie, RC, Goo Goo Cluster and Coke performing in a comical choreographed show performed in a kiddie pool!

The final event of the day will be the cutting and serving of the World's Largest Moon Pie, measuring 56" in diameter.

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You say "Tomato", I say "Tomahto" - Let's just head for the Slocomb Tomato Festival in Slocomb, Alabama, instead. Slocomb is considered the Tomato Capital of the World and this event celebrates the importance of the tomato to this community. There are plenty of fried green tomatoes, a tomato eating contest and an All-You-Can-Eat Tomato Buffet featuring nothing but tomatoes! Oh yeah, there's also a parade, live music, a recipe contest and a Ms. Tomato Pageant.