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!!

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!

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!!

"A big delight in every bite!"

Finally, a food oriented contest that doesn't make you eat a particular food until you burst like a water balloon hitting concrete or stress out over the highly competitive preparation of a recipe! This one lets you creatively express your love for the iconic Hostess Cup Cake - you know, the one iced in chocolate with white squiggles.
Hostess is asking its fans to create your own original portrait of the Hostess Cup Cake, then upload it to their online gallery for judging. Five folks will each win a $1,000 cash prize and winning entries may be used to adorn Hostess delivery trucks throughout the country. Rules and entry procedures are fully explained on the Hostess website here. You can enter through 6/1/10.

Winners will be selected based on four criteria:

1. Suitability for reproduction;
2. Visibility of theme;
3. Artistic expression;
4. Creative interpretation of the Hostess Cup Cake image;
   

Celebrities are also getting in on this event by entering their masterpieces featuring the yummy cup cake for an online auction, profits of which will go to Free Arts NYC. You can see the works of your favorite celebs by checking out the site's celeb gallery.

Here's a little sampling:



This one is Rosie O'Donnell's creation.















Padma Lakshmi created this piece.








Jordin Sparks submitted this one.











Well, I'm off to try my hand at drawing cup cakes!!