Ah, finally, a day to relax after the craziness (albeit self imposed) of fair week. Ten days of cooking competitions, fair volunteer shifts, and enjoying the shows has left me grateful for a Sunday chat day to put my feet up and watch football games. In the garden, I am thrilled to see the toad lily is beginning its fall show. Soon, the long fronds will have a cascade of these interesting flowers in bloom. Right now, only the ones on the very end are coming out.
The cooler nights agree with my yellow calibrachoa, it is blooming like crazy again.
I was excited for the Blueberry competition at the fair, as I really thought I had a winner of a recipe. I had tested it twice, to get the ratio of blueberries to crust to toppings just right. It was supposed to be a bar, but no matter what I did, the crust would not hold together, so I called it a Crumble, and ran with the recipe as it was. On the day of the competition, I gathered everything together to bake.
A little over an hour later, this fragrant blueberry delight was cooling on the counter. I found it was best to let it cool to room temperature so the blueberry layer would set up well. Oh, this was so hard to stay out of!
However, the judges didn’t choose it as one of their winners. I really thought the oats would help it in the ‘healthy’ criteria. Ah, well. My Sweet Babboo declared it a winner, refusing to eat anything at the fair while the judging was going on so he could have a bowlful of Blueberry Crumble when he got home. I did a pdf of the recipe for you, click on Blueberry Oat Crumble. If you make one, serve it with a spoon. It would really be good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Back home in the garden, the birds were enjoying a feast, although these two seem to be arguing over something. Perhaps the goldfinch didn’t want to share with the titmouse.
While I had the camera ready, the hummingbird made a visit.
She went from flower to flower, staying long enough for several photos. I wish I had cleaned up the flower pots of dead flowers, the pictures would have been better.
She made her way around all three pots, then flew off.
The vegetable garden is winding down, and the tomatoes have pretty much finished their production. I still have the three squash, which refuse to ripen any further, although there is a hint of a golden tan color on the largest one now. Rather than risk them rotting on the vine, or animals getting them, I cut them and brought them inside. I’ll give them more time to ripen before attempting to cook one. I have a few more red cherry tomatoes on that vine, and soon it will be done, too.
I found something new at our local library. They have begun a seed exchange. So, as I harvested my black cherry tomatoes, I decided to dry some seeds for the project. See my post Saving Seeds to see how I do mine. The dried seeds are put in a zip-top bag and the information is stapled to it. I turned these in last week, and will have more soon as I finish preparing the seeds from other tomatoes, and maybe some squash.
The lone hydrangea bloom for this year is changing color, going over to the pink side of lavendar. Strange, but lovely, nevertheless.
Friday night brought the Dairy Alliance competition for a Dairy Appetizer. I decided to do my Perfect Deviled Eggs, the last recipe you’ll ever need. Just see the post, as it gives you all kinds of variations to suit your taste. This time I made them with ricotta as my base, sriracha as the heat, green onions as the add-in, and a balsamic drizzle as the finish. I thought they were fabulous. The judges chose other contestants to win the ribbons. We enjoyed them at home, and I’ll use this variation again the next time I need a pot luck dish.
Saturday morning brought the final competition of the fair that I would enter with the Apple Growers specifying an apple dessert. I made a Caramel Apple Bread Pudding. Yum, with sweet apples, cinnamon bread and salted caramel topping, everyone afterward said it was delicious. But it didn’t place.
The winning recipe was printed off the internet, not an original recipe by the participant and caused quite a ruckus at the end. This along with a number of other problems this year is going to cause a review of the rules, and they need it. I have no problem losing in a fair competition, but several of them this past week had issues. Home cooks should not be competing against professional chefs or copyrighted recipes from professional chefs. Other problems were apparent this year too, like winning recipes that did not follow the criteria for the dish. There is a new superintendent for this division, and she readily admitted that there needs to be changes. Well, we will see next year. In the meantime, download the recipe – Caramel Apple Bread Pudding, and judge for yourself.
So, I’m resting today, enjoying the football games, eating the leftovers from all the cooking contests, and working on some finishing sewing on an Autumn Jubilee project. What is on your agenda for today?
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From My Carolina Home 
Carole, the hummingbird photos are a marvel! Your cooking competition entries look very appetizing, sorry to hear there were issues; sounds like the new superintendent had a heavy learning curve, ufda! I am going to enjoy an afternoon with no commitments, so will work on the Alaska blocks I finally prepped yesterday, and probably pick raspberries and tomatoes.
How disappointing for all the authentic entries in the fair. Hopefully they’ll correct course for future. Your garden flowers still delight. Mine are too. Makes it such that I will leave mine a while longer to enjoy. Have a good Sunday. We had nearly 2″ of rain here overnight, but I slept right through it, as I stayed up to watch the Mountaineers beat Pitt in our backyard brawl. Good game, fun!
that is sad that your recipes didn’t win when others copied a recipe off the internet with no changes and got it. It sounds like they must make it clear that the recipe must be original – hard to do at times I know but they don’t say copy a recipe and enter do they!
Too bad about the cooking competitions, hopefully they get that straightened out for next year. We visited our (quite small) county fair in southern Arizona yesterday. I’ve only been making quilts for about 3 years, but my sweet husband said I should enter one next year – he thinks mine are as good as those entered 🙂 At our Texas home (I’m headed back there in a week), we’re entering the second tomato season, so I hope to get another good crop. I’ve never tried saving seeds on purpose, but I’ve had volunteer plants from my yellow pear and super sweet 100’s for a couple of years. The downside is I’m not sure which variety it is until they start producing 🙂 Happy Sunday!
Great photos of the hummers..they are hard to catch on camera..As for the contest…there is always someone to complain but there is always room for improvement.
I’m looking forward to trying your bread pudding recipes. We have so many apples right now!
Your baking looks so good I could eat the picture! Today is raining and chilly and PERFECT for trying out a couple of these recipes. Always a joy to see all the birds!
Thanks!
Well, you entered the contests and that was brave enough.
Your recipes are great.
You always have a lot of good things to share!!
Happy Sunday.
I enjoy your Sunday talks. You bring normalcy to upset world. God Bless You.
Your recipes are always excellent & you’re so sweet to share. The only time I entered in a fair, the winners were pros in needlework – very disappointing experience. If they are going to include pros, there should be pro & amateur catagories.
I’m glad you’re getting a day to relax after the busy fair days and I’m sorry your entries didn’t place. Hopefully they will get things sorted out before next year. That Caramel Apple Bread Pudding sounds wonderful!
Jenna
Love the hummingbird pics. Maybe an entry for next year’s fair?
Your recipes are always yummy, thanks for sharing. Sounds like they need to review and enforce the rules for the competition.
I’m working on the quilting for my son’s queen size quilt. A challenge for me on my domestic machine. My pfaff has a large throat space which helps. Plan to finish it in time for stash busters this month
Your fair entries sound delicious! I hope you enjoy every bite. Hopefully next years competition will put contestants on an even keel.
I love that your library has a seed saver program. What a great idea to encourage growing and to encourage community participation.
Just back from quilt retreat and need to restore my sewing area.
Thanks for a wonderful blog!
You were certainly busy in the kitchen! I’m spending daughter Kate’s last evening of her visit just chatting. She’s driving to NJ tomorrow.
I love all these recipes! They look so appetizing. Great picture of the hummingbird.
Snuck out to the sewing room and banged around my embroidery machine for an hour today. 🙂
Hope they have different judges at the fair next year. Hang in there.
Good morning! I love that you shared how you save your seeds. I read the post and realized why mine in the past didn’t work. Would you consider making a pdf to easily print?
I agree the rules need a good review! It is never easy to spend a ton of time creating a recipe to only end up with an internet recipe winning.
At least you didn’t lose your love of entering submissions.
Sorry to hear about the ruckus for the fair! I do hope they fix the rules so that they make sense. Love the hummingbird photos. I put out a feeder this year and they are a constant delight!
Your recipes all sound wonderful. I love the idea of the balsamic glaze on those very tasty sounding eggs! And the blueberry crumble! Thanks for that. Lovely garden and birds, too!
Can’t wait to try the blueberry!