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.

Follow the smoke !!

**This is a rare post that has also run on my other blog this past week. I don't usually do that, but it was appropriate to both. (Sorry!)

After 3 weeks away from home we relaxed for a day and a half and then were up early Saturday morning to travel to the heart of Amish country for one of the most prestigious BBQ competitions in the East - the New Holland Summerfest in New Holland, PA.


It was an absolutely beautiful day for such an event. (Last year, we had a monsoon!) You could see and smell the smoke a block away and as we approached the park, every tent appeared to be busy getting ready for the first turn in of the day.

A KCBS (Kansas City Barbecue Society - the largest BBQ sanctioning group) sanctioned event, this contest features the four required categories of chicken, ribs, pork shoulder/butt and brisket as well as two ancillary categories - chef's choice and, new this year, chili. Quite a few teams also participate in the whole hog competition. Those last three categories are optional.

This shot, to the left, shows a team (Pork & Dean's from Phoenix, MD) preparing their whole hog entry.

**It should be noted that BBQ is the only truly American food legacy. People come here from other countries hoping to try real American BBQ!!


Due to space limitations, this event is limited to 72 competition teams. There is a long waiting list to get in and teams know time is of the essence when their application for this one arrives. The field is pretty much full within a week or so of the applications going out. This year, teams came from as far away as Ontario and North Carolina, with the majority hailing from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware. These tend to be 72 of the very best in the region.

Likewise, it is quite popular with the judges. A contest this size needs 72 Certified Barbecue Judges (CBJs) as well as 12 Table Captains (usually also Certified Judges). This year, there was a judges waiting list of about 125 names. We also get our forms returned within a day or two of receipt. For years this competition has been able to boast that ALL judges are "certified."

Certified Judges actually attend a class to learn how to rate truly good BBQ. There is more involved than simply saying it "tastes good." (Although, taste IS important to the scoring!) Judges are taught to recognize the correct texture for properly cooked meats, appropriate uses of seasonings and marinades so that they lend flavor but still allow a meat's personality to shine through, and how a serving should look to appeal to our visual senses. Tenderness is also scored separately.

Cook teams have a lot invested in this venture. They provide their own meats and supplies, have thousands of dollars invested in smokers and other cooking equipment, travel long distances and spend at least 36 hours on site preparing their entries (ALL cooking MUST be done on site.) While you see star competitors on TV who have won thousands of dollars in competition, most cooks are extremely happy to receive even the smallest monetary reward for their efforts. They MUST enjoy the activity as they sure aren't in it to make a profit!!

Judges are also in it for the love of BBQ. We are not paid. Most of us travel long distances at our own expense - some stay in hotels. We spend 4-6 hours on site in the process of judging. We have judged contests in 100 degree heat on more than one occasion and also have practically frozen to death at cold windy sites. Most judging is done in tents not buildings so weather does factor into our comfort. (If you watched BBQ Pitmasters last season and saw the Dover competition, you saw the coldest and rainiest event we've ever personally judges!)

In return, we get to taste some of the best smoked food in the country!! We've made great friends with other judges and cooks and their teams. (Just for the record - All judging for KCBS is blind judging so friendship with the cooks is not a hand up to any of them.) We've attended some events with fantastic entertainment where we stayed all evening just to enjoy the music. We've gotten to know some fantastic folks working hard to put on quality events in their communities. The Big Guy and I have been happy to sit and talk with new organizers and give some advice as to what they need to do to pull off a great event. We've taken new judges under our wings and guided them a bit through their first experiences. Since we are quickly identified by our judging shirts and name tags as we stroll through an event we are always approached by spectators who ask questions about the judging process and BBQ in general. In effect, we are ambassadors for BBQ. ALL of the judges we know have done these same things. We want folks to enjoy and promote BBQ. It's as American as apple pie and Chevrolet!

A very full and happy judge!!

Each judge tastes and scores only six samples in any category but even at that rate, we are served approximately 2 lbs of meat at any one competition (This does not include whole hog categories. It takes a special appetite to judge Whole Hog. I have never done so.) Obviously, we cannot eat all of that in one sitting. Most of us take 2 or 3 bites of a sample and move on to the next. That is usually enough to reach a score. This means we each have lots of leftovers to take home. (I've become a whiz at creativity with left-overs!)
We are not scheduled to judge again for a few weeks but, who knows, something unexpected often comes up!

** For more info about KCBS contests, both competing and judging, check out the KCBS website at www.KCBS.us.

"You like tomato and I like tomahto Potato, potahto, Tomato, tomahto..."

However, you pronounce it - "They're heeeere!" The tomato harvest around these parts is at its peak.
Which brings us to the next question in our lives: How many ways can you come up with to serve, prepare, share and preserve tomatoes?

We did not plant our own this year as we knew we would not be home to tend a garden for much of the season. That's not a problem, though. Everyone else we know did. Now is the time of the season when you open your door in the morning only to find someone snuck up through the night and left a basket of gorgeous red/orange orbs on the doorstep. You come home from the store and find a plastic store bag dangling from the doorknob with, you guessed it, a few tomatoes! You can't leave a friends' home without a care package of tomatoes being jammed into your hands. I just LOVE this season!!

When we arrived in Nebraska to stay with family on this last trip, we found they'd definitely overplanted. Tomatoes of all sizes were ready and invading every counter space in the kitchen. A pot of salsa cooked nightly. Meals were planned around tomatoes. If you weren't careful, you received sliced tomatoes on top of your corn flakes in the morning!! Throughout the weeks, the freezer filled with both salsa and sauce for future use. We ate them sliced, fried, baked, grill-roasted and every other way you can think of. (I DO love a good tomato sandwich. Good thing!)

I'm thinking about finding the perfect tomato bread recipe to work with today. (I'm sure that would be a good way to freeze some of this stuff, too!)

Seriously, we do enjoy this part of the year with all the fresh veggies and fruits available to us. I think The Big Guy could live on fresh corn on the cob alone. Except, he would miss the tomatoes, zucchini, melons, beans, peaches, apples, etc.

We've got a friend who actually seemed sympathetic the day we told him we'd eaten corn, sliced tomatoes and melon for dinner. (He's a steak man, himself, and I think he thought we'd fallen on hard times.) Personally, we thought it was delicious meal that night!

Don't get me wrong, we DO eat MEAT. Check out tomorrow's post and you'll understand.

I'm baaack!! (I think.)

So sorry, folks. It seems forever since I've posted here. Summer is a tough time as there are so many events and activities pulling on us from all angles. To complicate that schedule, we had a need to visit family for several weeks to help with a medical situation. Unfortunately, that household does not have internet access and the time simply wasn't available to go search out access elsewhere.

While I love the blogs and the writing process in general, family comes first. You do what you need to do. Things have leveled off now and we're back in the old homestead with my trusty little electronic friend. I can now get back to all of you - my cyber friends. Thanks for being patient and waiting for me.

I've already planned out this week's postings so I hope you take time each day to stop in and visit. I'm always glad you came by.

Sorry gang, I'm traveling without internet access until 8/26. See you all then!!

In the meantime, go out and try something new, find an interesting diner or just make a new recipe.

Eat well, my friends!

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!!

You can write with my ketchup.

So, which flavor Cheetos do you like most? The light yellow ones, bright orange or the dark, rusty red ones?
I know. Those are colors, not flavors. Ah, but the flavor determines the color. Oh, one more question, do you sort your Cheetos by size and shape?

Jason Baalman does.

I bet you just eat yours, too. Don't you? Jason creates works of art - very elaborate works of art. Some are noteworthy enough to receive TV coverage!

Once he sorts them out, he rolls up his sleeves and gets creative. He "paints" with his Cheetos. He's also been known to use chocolate, lipstick, pennies, ketchup and even ribs, among other "mediums." He recently used 1500 little toy soldiers to create a piece to raise funds for the U.S.O. Up close, it looked like a battlefield but from a distance, one could see a very elaborate portrait of a soldier!









I first heard about Jason on Rachael Ray's show this morning. He presented her with a very detailed portrait of herself, done all in Cheetos! Maybe you've caught his work before. He also did a portrait of Conan O'Brien which has received considerable air time.I was really impressed so I Googled him. He's been a busy guy. He works mostly on commissioned work and sells almost solely on the Internet. Strange thing is, he doesn't show his work in galleries or at shows as a general rule. He has, in fact, only done two true showings. He is well represented online, though. I found his personal site on You Tube to be the most informative but a listing also came up simply labeled Jason Baalman Images. This one fascinated me. Take some time and check him out. You'll never look at snack food the same again!

Jason taught Rachael how to use pantry items to create "paintings." He explained that mixing things like, say ketchup, with a little mustard, can change the shade of the colors and showed how using such tools as knives, forks, chop sticks, etc. can give your work texture and patterns.

I decided to give it a shot. After all, I AM a painter.

I took a foam plate to use as my canvas and poured a little ketchup and a dab of spicy brown mustard for contrast. I just used paint brushes and a toothpick to "draw" my design.

Let's just say, it must take practice - lots of practice. Maybe I should invest in better, thicker ketchup, too.

Bored?

Why not play with your ketchup?

Incidentally, for some really interesting stuff try checking out the Cheetos website.