The Pie Contest

I didn’t want to enter the county fair pie contest at all.  My experience with pie baking consisted of old-fashioned pies for Sundays and holidays – nothing that was worthy of a contest.  But my oldest daughter insisted and so I got up early on a hot August morning in 1983 to bake a pie for the Hamilton County Fair (Cincinnati, Ohio).  I had a lot of fresh blackberries we had picked in the wild bramble area behind the house and some green apples from the trees in the front yard.  It sounded like a good combination and I baked the pie.  I felt a little dismayed when I saw the juices had bubbled out of the top crust as usual, but cooled the pie, wrapped it in foil and started out for the fairgrounds.

Contest entries were flowing in by the time we got there.  It was an open class contest so there was every conceivable kind of pie – apple, strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, lemon meringue, chocolate cream, a fancy strawberry pie with mint leaf garnish – I was starting to get a little worried.  I didn’t want to embarrass myself with such a low-key entry.  I was only hoping for one of the runner-up baskets of apples with no thought of winning a ribbon.  The pies were being arranged on large tables set end-to-end and at one point I almost went over and removed my entry but my daughter insisted on going through with the ordeal.

It was an interesting experience watching the entrants and their supporters, the judges, the passers by – all in intense heat in an antique building with windows open and an occasional swishing electric fan.  There were 34 entries in all, each one lovely and surrounding my very ordinary-looking pie.  Finally, after about an hour and a half, the winners were announced, beginning with the runners-up – no basket of apples for me.  Then the third place was announced and the second – I was almost relieved that it was finally over – when I heard the blue-ribbon, Best of Show winner called – BLACKBERRY APPLE PIE!  I was astounded and went to the contest director to ask if there could be a mistake.  I couldn’t believe that a Sunday dinner pie had won this contest.

I had my picture taken for the newspaper holding my pie and blue ribbon in one hand and the Best of Show rosette and an engraved brass tray in the other. 

Then, my daughter and I got to carry all this plus a half-bushel of apples through a very crowded Saturday afternoon fairgrounds midway to the parking lot.

I entered this pie in a lot of other contests after that and it always won for me, but I never again had the thrill that I had that hot August day when I WON THE PIE CONTEST!

BLACKBERRY APPLE PIE

• Pastry for two-crust 9″ pie (See recipe here)
• 3 cups blackberries
• 1 cup peeled & thinly sliced green apple
• 3 Tblsp. quick-cooking tapioca
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 Tblsp. butter
• 1 Tblsp. milk
• 1 Tblsp. sugar mixed with 1/8 tsp. cinnamon for topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

In large bowl combine berries, apples, tapioca, 1 cup sugar, and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.  Mix well and allow to set while preparing pastry.

Turn berry mixture in a pastry-lined 9″ pan.  Dot with butter, adjust top crust, cut vents and flute edges.  Brush top with milk and lightly sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon mixture.  Set pie pan on a larger flat pan to catch spills.

Bake @ 375 degrees F for 45-50 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

A remake of the pie some years later with the coveted rosette.

Blue Ribbon Zucchini Marmalade

For 20 years, we lived in a rural area where my husband delighted in tending a huge vegetable garden.  He liked to grow zucchini because he got such great results.  Prior to moving to the country, I had cooked zucchini once when I was in my 30s because a kind Italian neighbor lady had given me some and raved about how good it was.  I wish I could have told her how much experience I got later in life with her favorite vegetable. 

Trying to keep up with the zucchini my husband brought into the kitchen daily, I fixed it every conceivable way.  My sister-in-law from Somerset, Kentucky, gave me this recipe for using SIX CUPS of the stuff, so I made several batches.  

MOCK ZUCCHINI MARMALADE

• 6 cups peeled, seeded, chopped zucchini
• 6 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
• 6 oz. package Jello (I used banana-strawberry)

Combine zucchini, sugar and lemon juice in large pan.  Bring to boil and let boil for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  After 15 minutes of boiling time, add the drained pineapple, bring to a boil and boil for 6 more minutes. 

Remove from heat and stir in Jello.  Place in sterilized half-pint jars, cap and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.  Let cool on a rack before storing.

Makes eight half-pint jars.

This is a good web site for information on canning and preserving foods.

We all enoyed the “marmalade” and I decided to enter it in the Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Fair in 1984.  I was thrilled and surprised when it won not only the Blue Ribbon, but the Best of Show Rosette. 

County Fair White Cake

My youngest daughter’s adventures with baking award-winning cakes for our county fair started in 1983 when she was a 13-year-old 8th grader and never that interested in fairs – to attend or to exhibit.  But her older sister and her mother were immersed in getting things ready for the Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Fair and she decided to enter the cake division.

Cakes were not allowed to be frosted, so all of the attention was centered on the attributes of the cake itself.  She made the cake, I took it to the fair and she won a Blue Ribbon and even got her recipe printed in our community newspaper.  Here is the recipe:

BLUE RIBBON WHITE CAKE

• 2-3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1-2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 4-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2/3 cup Crisco shortening
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 5 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In large mixer bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add one cup milk and Crisco.  Beat with electric mixer for 2 minutes at medium speed.  Add 1/3 cup milk and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold into batter.  Pour batter into two greased and floured 9″x1-1/2″ round cake pans.  Bake approximately 25 minutes until cake tests done when a toothpick is inserted near the center.

Cool in pans for 15 minutes, remove from pans and cool on wire rack.  Frost as desired.

The years passed by,  she married, had two children, and out of nowhere in 2006, 23 years after her first blue ribbon, she decided to enter again.  But this time she was adamant that she was going to get a Best of Show Rosette.  Her sister and I, seasoned fair exhibitors, tried to tell her it was very difficult to get the Rosette which would represent the best cake out of all kinds of cakes – white, chocolate, spice, layer, sponge, angel food, pound, etc.  She said the Rosette was all she really wanted and she would retire from fair competition after winning it.  In spite of a broken oven, coping with two young children and taking the cake to the fairgrounds on a day so hot that we were afraid the cake itself would dissolve – she did it.  She won the blue ribbon and the Rosette for Best of Show.

The cake was a favorite she had been baking for quite a few years as my birthday cake – White Velvet Cake from the Cake Bible cookbook.

WHITE VELVET CAKE (Cake Bible)

• 4-1/2 large egg whites (4 full liquid ounces)
• 1 cup milk, divided
• 2-1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 Tblsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 12 Tblsp. butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl lightly combine the egg whites, 1/4 cup milk and vanilla.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend.  Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk.  Mix on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened.  Increase to medium speed and beat for 1-1/2 minutes.  Scrape down sides.  Gradually add the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition.

Pour batter into prepared pans and smooth surface with a spatula.  Pans will be about 1/2 full.  Bake 25-35 minutes or until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cakes should start to shrink from the sides of the pans only after removal from the oven.

Let cakes cool in pans on racks for 10 minutes.  Loosen sides with a small metal spatula and invert onto wire racks.  To prevent splitting, reinvert so the tops are up and cool completely.

Frost as desired.

Note:  Two 9×1-1/2″ cake pans should be greased, bottoms lined with parchment or wax paper and then greased again and floured.

Can be frozen for two months.  Texture is most perfectly moist the same day as baking.

The fair exhibit rules called for a single layer with no frosting, but I’m including the recipe for the lucious caramel frosting that she always uses for my two-layer birthday treat.

QUICK CARAMEL FROSTING (Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

• 6 Tblsp. butter
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Melt butter and brown sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan, stirring over moderate heat until sugar is dissolved.  Add the milk and blend.  Cool in the pan.  Then beat in the confectioners’ sugar until the frosting is thick enough to spread.

I don’t expect my daughter to enter a fair again but I do expect her to bake this wonderful cake for my birthday in September.

UPDATE:  My daughter did bake the cake for my birthday and it was delicious, as always.

County Fair Decorations

It’s county fair time again and that means getting out my handcrafted items.  The quilted silhouette hanging is on the front door to commemorate one of my favorite summertime activities.  My family has been involved in county and state fairs for generations, partly due to our interest in harness horses.  My father was a harness horse driver/trainer and many happy hours were spent at the fairgrounds, so  harness horses are a strong element in my county fair designs.

In the kitchen, I have a quilted wall hanging that won a blue ribbon at the Lebanon, Ohio, Warren County Fair. 

In the living room there is a quilted/appliqued pillow that was one of my first efforts.  It also took a blue ribbon at the Warren County Fair.

The real treasure among the handcrafted items, though, is an old battered suitcase that my father took with him on the fair and racing circuit.  My oldest daughter decoupaged countless bits of cloth, ephemera, photos, buttons, etc., to transform the tired old suitcase into a work of art and memory.

There are tags attached with photos and the exhibit history of each member of the family.

I use the suitcase to store old premium lists and memorabilia from our hometown Carthage/Hamilton County Fair (Cincinnati).

I enjoy displaying these reminders of all the years our family has participated in the fun of a county fair.

Best of Show Dill Spears

Twenty-five years ago (1983), my husband, daughter and I were living on two acres of land on the Ohio/Indiana border.  Fruit trees took up about one acre and a huge vegetable garden took up the other half, barely leaving enough room for a small house.  My husband loved his mini-farm and spent every spare minute away from his normal job working in the garden.  He got excellent results and from the first asparagus in April to the remnants of the garden in the fall, I tried to use everything he hauled into the house every day. 

He enjoyed walking down the rows of the garden in the early summer, pointing to each plant and telling me what kind of vegetable it was and how many plants he had.  He did this every day – a little boring, but he was so proud of his garden. 

We always had a bumper crop of cucumbers and I processed them immediately to be sure we had crisp, crunchy pickles all year around. 

The first year I seriously entered a county fair was in 1983 when I was brand-new to canning and preserving.  Imagine my surprise when we went to the fair and saw I had won a blue ribbon and a coveted BEST OF SHOW rosette for my Dill Pickle Spears.  That year, they had gotten creative in displaying canned goods and had them arranged on an old red wagon.  At the very top was a big, beautiful rosette and a completely empty pickle jar.  The judges told me they had liked the pickles so much that they had eaten all of them with their lunch that day. 

Here’s the recipe:

DILL PICKLE SPEARS

• 4 lbs. pickling cucumbers, cut in spears
• Dill seeds
• Whole peppercorns
• 2 cups of 5% acid strength white vinegar
• 4-1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup pickling salt

Place spears in sterilized hot quart jars.  Add 1 tsp. dill seed and 3 peppercorns to each jar. 

Combine the vinegar, water and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Pour over the cucumbers, filling to within 1/4″ of jar top.  Seal and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. 

I’ve found an asparagus steamer is good for processing just a few jars. Let jars cool on a rack before storing. Allow pickles to cure for at least 2 weeks before using for best flavor.

Makes approximately 10 quarts

This is a good website for canning and preserving foods.

As a Best of Show Winner, I had my picture taken and there was a small article in our local newspaper with the recipe.

My husband passed away 4 years ago and since the dill spears were his favorite and not mine, I don’t make them any more.  But I think of him every time I drive by a big vegetable garden and remember the first Best of Show ribbon I ever won.

Cleaning White Resin Patio Furniture

This is my 8th year to use 5 chairs and a table which are of white resin.  Year by year, they had gotten more and more discolored and mottled.  I tried steel wool, various cleaners and cleansers but nothing helped without a tremendous amount of scrubbing time.  I was about ready to throw out these terrible looking chairs but they were still sturdy and I wanted white which didn’t seem to be available in the stores this summer.

Then, I heard somewhere that you could use a brush to paint undiluted laundry bleach on the surface and it would clean up like magic.  I didn’t have a brush but I had a long narrow sponge and poured bleach into a small bowl where I could dip the sponge and slather it onto the chair.  I wore rubber gloves and worked on an outside concrete patio in the open air. 

The results were amazing.  As soon as I made the first swipe, I could see the crud starting to fade away.  For more stubborn stains or hard to reach places, I used an SOS pad.  Then I hosed everything off to a rewarding finish!

Please note that this worked well on white resin furniture – I don’t know what it would do to other colors or other surfaces.  Be sure to wear protective gloves, to work outside and to work on a floor surface that won’t be damaged by drips.  I also wore old clothes which had a lot of patches of bleached surface when I was finished.  It’s good to have a hose nearby for thorough rinsing, too.

I cleaned 5 chairs and a small umbrella table in about an hour.  I’m very happy to be able to use my furniture for another season or two.

Amish Graham Nuts Cereal

This recipe is based on one from a wonderful book, Cooking from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams.  Wholesome ingredients like whole wheat flour and buttermilk go into an easy mixture that bakes into crunchy cereal. 

HOMEMADE GRAHAM NUTS

• 3-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.  Add the buttermilk and vanilla, mixing well. 

Pour out into an oiled 10-1/2×15-1/2″ flat baking pan and spread evenly.  Dampening your palms with water is an easy way to get the dough spread out evenly.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the batter is firm, medium-brown in color and shrinks slightly from the sides of the pan.  Loosen from the pan and allow to cool on a rack for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.  Break up the pieces of cereal and pulse in a food processor until coarse crumbs are formed.  Divide the crumbs between two 10-1/2×15-1/2″ jellyroll pans that are lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on degree of crispness you like.  An hour made the cereal just right for my taste and so it didn’t get soggy in milk.

Let cool, then store in an airtight container.  Since there are no preservatives in the cereal, I would suggest refrigerating or freezing the cereal if you don’t plan to use it within two weeks or so.

Serve as a cold cereal with milk and a bit of brown sugar if desired (I didn’t think it needed additional sugar).  A few raisins amd/or walnuts are a nice addition.

Note:  The original recipe called for baking in a 12×16″ flat pan.  I didn’t have that size and added some time to the baking to compensate and also to get the degree of crispness I wanted.

Yield:  Approximately 11 cups of cereal.

This beautiful book, Cooking from Quilt Country, published in 1989, not only has great homemade Amish/Mennonite-inspired recipes but loads of color pictures and information on the Amish and Mennonite people and their culture.  I found my copy in an antique shop, but I notice the book is also available, new and used, at Amazon and on eBay.

Hens and Roosters

I spent the first 11 years of my life in a downtown Cincinnati apartment and had very little acquaintance with chickens, but I was always fascinated by them.  Our Grandma lived in rural Vandalia outside of Dayton, Ohio, and she had lots of chickens.  When we weren’t trying to avoid getting pecked by them or trying to chase them from the outhouse before we went in, we sometimes got to feed them.  I notice in this 1942 picture that Mother had made my little sister and me short sets for the summer.  This was very unusual because although my parents married as teenagers, my 20-something father went back to the early 1900s for his rules and he didn’t like to see his women in slacks or shorts.

We saw chickens in wooden crates in the butcher shop at the old Sixth Street market but otherwise, our only contact though the years has been at  county fairs. 

For Mother’s Day in 1994, my oldest daughter made two handpainted aprons for me which featured my favorite morning glories and a flamboyant rooster. 

After the aprons became worn, I cut out the painted portions, not being sure what I would do with them.    The remnants surfaced this past week and I made a wall hanging from one section – fusing the rooster and flowers onto a background fabric and adding borders. 

I didn’t want to put the other section back into a box for another 4 or 5 years, so I made a table cover with it, fusing and using a blanket stitch to sew it down. 

I like the bright colors and cheerfulness of the two pieces and especially like the idea that I’m able to get some more enjoyment out of this beautiful painting.

Peach Lasagne

I just discovered this recipe last summer and used it several times when peaches were at their best.  I watched a TV demo on Lidia’s Italian Cooking and thought it sounded wonderful.  It’s a good way to use leftover Italian or French bread.  I would recommend using a hearty bread rather than your favorite supermarket white loaf.

PEACH LASAGNE

Fruit Layer:

• 3 lbs. ripe peaches
• Juice and grated peel of one lemon
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

Bread Layer:

• 6 Tblsp. butter
• 8 slices hearty bread, sliced fairly thin
• 1-1/2 Tblsp. sugar

Crumb Topping:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tblsp. dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 4 Tblsp. butter
• 3 Tblsp. slivered almonds

Preheat oven @ 350 degrees F

Peel peaches and cut into 1/4″ thick wedges.  Place peach slices in a bowl and toss with the lemon juice, lemon peel and 3/4 cup granulated sugar.  Set aside.

Slice bread into the equivalent of 8 thin slices.  In this case, I used some leftover Italian bread.

Melt 3 Tblsp. butter in large skillet and lay in half of bread slices.   Brown on each side.  Repeat with remaining butter and bread slices.  Sprinkle slices with 1-1/2 Tblsp. granulated sugar.

Line the bottom of a 9″ baking dish with half of the browned bread slices – should just cover the bottom without overlapping.  Spoon half of peaches/juices on top, arrange a second layer of bread over surface and a final layer of peaches.

Mix together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt and cut in butter.  Mix in slivered almonds.  Crumble over the top of the peach lasagne and bake covered for 50 minutes and uncovered for 10 minutes longer.

 

Serve warm.

Victory Quilt – 1940s Sampler – Completed

On Mother’s Day, I received Eleanor Burns’ new Quilt-in-a-Day book, Victory Quilts – 1940s Sampler Quilts.  I made each of the 20 blocks in the book and posted them (see my Quilting category). 

I made sashing and completed assembling the quilt which fits a queen-sized bed.  I chose darker colors because it was going to be on a bed where a dog and children play quite often and I was mainly looking for something sturdy which would stand up well to pets and kids.

The top went together very easily but I made major problems for myself by deciding to use as much as possible of my big pile of scraps to do the backing.  I used dryer sheets as the foundation for every scrap I could find and also used some full-sized orphan blocks down the center of the backing.  This was very time-consuming but I was happy to have so many bits and pieces of the last six years of quilting stitched into the back of the quilt.  Then, I started a simple meander quilting pattern on my Bernina and had nothing but trouble.  Needles broke, thread broke, and generally it was a nightmare which I’d never attempt again.  I assume the many ridges and edges of small pieces added to the foundation made it too cumbersome for the machine. 

Now, that the quilt is finished, I’m satisfied with it and learned some useful lessons in the process.