I must have been really hungry when I signed up for culinary arts entries for the San Mateo County Fair because I ended up entering 9 food items (3 of which were brownies). As I perused the fair catalog deciding what to enter, I kept notes as to what I might want to enter and then I pared it down for the actual entries. I entered two things in the regular contest – dark chocolate chip cookies and a dried cherry & almond pound cake. I entered three specialty contests (where you get to see the judges taste everything and choose winners), which were Chocolate Obsession, Brownies, and Make the Recipe (which was an angel food cake recipe from the 1950’s). I also entered 4 items in the open judging where you have to turn in your entry along with a typed recipe.

I always enter things into the fair with the highest of high hopes! This year was no different. I had made a batch of chocolate chips the week before and they were perfect – a little bit crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. So, I thought I could replicate them for the fair. Nothing doing. Butter was too soft, chocolate darker, came out different than the prior batch. I entered them anyway along with the dried cherry & almond pound cake, both of which I dropped off at the fair at the designated time of 7 am, after dropping a friend at the airport (the timing worked out J).

When the fair opened two days later, my anticipation was bubbling over and I was very excited. When I arrived late that afternoon (after the three and a half baseball games for that day), I bounded over to the culinary arts building and started the search for my food entries. I didn’t win with either entry, which was a slight disappointment for the cookies, but not at all surprising for my pound cake, which to me, came out a bit like a “pound” cake.

Next, I checked out the home arts and fine arts and was very disappointed to not have won anything with my photography or knitting, although I did win a second place with my crazy hat and my mom won a couple of awards with her quilts. So by now the feeling of disappointment was running high and the “woe is me” feelings were running wild. You can read more about that venture in my “You Can’t Win What You Don’t Enter” story.

The specialty contests at the fair have different entry deadlines and two of them were Sunday and the remaining entries were due Tuesday. The chocolate obsession and brownie contests were judged on Sunday. I turned in my deep chocolate brownies for both of these events. I think it was 96 degrees that day and my brownies were a little droopy with the glaze on top. When I cut them, I think they were too warm from the oven still and they were a little messy, as one of the judges commented on that. (I put the remaining brownies in the fridge, with strict instructions to the kids not to touch them, so that I could take them for the open judging on Tuesday.) Needless to say, I didn’t win anything for these two contests and I was just annoyed at this point.

By that point, I had already been a cooking fiend for a few days. Now I had a bit more to do and I didn’t think I could do everything all at once on Tuesday morning so I baked the peanut butter cookies and started the bread pudding the night before. I cooked the lavender scones and the bread pudding that morning. I got the brownies out of the fridge to cut them – they were hard as rocks because the glaze had turned into a solid ganache in the fridge. At least they cut better that way and came out clean as a whistle and pretty, like fudge. And they tasted more chocolaty with the ganache chilled. I had high hopes for these now! I had even higher hopes for the apricot brandy bread pudding, which was spectacular. I was about to pass out in a sugar coma after eating some of that; OK, a lot of that. The peanut butter cookies were tasty but a little flat (I shouldn’t have smashed them with a bottom of a glass like I do with the molasses crinkles), so I didn’t expect to win anything with those. The lavender scones were great with butter, but just OK with no butter. I turned in everything Tuesday at noon and went back home to do the last item that was due between 4-5 pm that day.

All of this cooking activity was intermixed with cleaning up from three house guests, packing for Lair of the Bear camping, and preparing for three more house guests two days later. I think the packing and cleaning was a little bit of a relief from all of the sugary baking!

Later that afternoon, I dropped off the last item, which was a specialty contest – “Make the Recipe.” How hard could that be – to just make the recipe? At least that was my thinking when I filled out the entry form weeks before. As I was just about to pour the batter into the pan, I realized it was really an angel food cake and that I didn’t have an angel food cake pan L Hmm. I used a Bundt-cake pan, which was roughly the same dimension as called for in the recipe. Thankfully, it wasn’t disqualified for not “following” the recipe, and only one judge commented on that in the written comments.

I dropped off the cake between 4-5 pm and debated whether to stay to see the judging results because Jasper was playing in one of his last Colt baseball games that evening at 5:30 pm and the cake results wouldn’t even start until at least 6 pm. I decided to procrastinate and take a look around for my other results while I tried to figure out if I could miss baseball one night.

The point of entering the open judging contests is to see the judges do their thing. Having to make the cake that afternoon prevented me from actually seeing the judges taste everything, so to see the results, I had to hunt down the four items that I turned in earlier that day. I found the bread pudding first and it had a first place sticker on the card and a special purple ribbon for a Judge’s Choice award. Woo hoo! I knew that one was a winner when I first tasted it, and definitely after I had the second helping! The word I used when I first tasted it was “spectacular.” I will definitely be making that again (maybe with a little less sugar).

I found the peanut butter cookies next and they won a first place. By then my earlier disappointment was dissipating a little. I found the brownies next and they also had a first place sticker and Judge’s Choice award on them. Yay! Vindication. I definitely feel better now. What I knew to be true about how the brownies tasted was finally rewarded-–the secret was in the chilling. So, by the time I found the lavender scones, I wasn’t disappointed at all that they won a second place ribbon. The judges said they were too strong and that I should put less lavender in and soak it in the buttermilk.

At that point I went to find some “bad for you” fair food that did not have sugar in it, as I had been eating all of those sugary baked goods all day. I ate some really awesome Greek food and decided whether to wait for the angel food cake awards or go to baseball. I was so thrilled with the open judging results that I didn’t really care what the angel food cake results were. So, I left and went to baseball.

Imagine my surprise when I returned from a week of camping to find a first place ribbon and hand blender sitting on the dining room table (thanks to my mom for picking up all the fair entries!). Come to find out, I had won first place in the open judging sweepstakes, which I found to be hilarious because I really wanted to win second prize because it was a “turning” waffle maker. Wow, I was really vindicated from my moaning and groaning over not winning anything for my photography, sewing, or knitting this year. I guess it was not the year for those things to win and that it was the year for my food entries to shine.

Now for the recipes… I made up the recipes for the brownies, bread pudding, and lavender scones from an amalgamation of other recipes. The peanut butter cookie recipe is close to a Betty Crocker recipe from the 50’s. Friends and family have asked me to share the recipes, so here they are in downloadable PDFs:

Apricot Brandy Bread Pudding

Deep Chocolate Glazed Brownies

Golden Lavender Scones

(Note: a couple of improvements and suggestions — cut the amount of lavender, and soak it in buttermilk before putting it in the dough, put the blackberries in after you have worked the dough so that it doesn’t turn purple like my scones did)

Mom’s Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies

Enjoy! If you try any of the recipes, leave me a comment and let me know how it turns out!!! Next year, I might try my hand at gardening!