More Fun at the Mountain State Fair

It has been a crazy week, with multiple cooking contests and lots of entries to find in the Expo building. Today, if you can tolerate the tooting of my own horn, I'll show you a few more ribbons in other divisions. In Senior Crafts, this holiday theme table topper won second place in Holiday Decorations. …

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NC Mountain State Fair 2025

The NC Mountain State Fair this year has been as much fun as ever. I worked the quilt take-in table for a shift on Labor Day, then back to the Expo building on Wednesday to work as a judge for the Professional Crafts Division. Both days were fun, and so inspirational to see the wonderful …

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Prepping for the Mountain State Fair

It is less than three weeks from the turn-in day for entries to the Mountain State Fair, and I am in the process of getting it all together. This year, the turn in day is September 1, the earliest it can possibly be. The first thing I did was to register online for all the …

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A Week of Fun, Cooking and Quilting

This week has been more fun at the fair in the evenings, with time to sew during the day. Monday evening was the pork competition, and the emphasis was on international cuisine. The contest was called PassPork to Flavor, which I thought was clever. So, knowing how much I like Japanese food, I went with …

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A Few More Ribbons, and some not

It is always interesting to see what wins a ribbon and what doesn't. I have personally experienced this sometimes baffling phenomenon. Sometimes a quilt will do really well in one competition, and not even place in another. I hear my friends complain about this from time to time, wondering why an award winner in one …

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Mountain State Fair Begins, and more

This crazy week is over, and I will be spending all day in my chair watching football today. It was a full week, but lots of fun, mostly centering around the Mountain State Fair. Wednesday was the big day, with the morning taken up with judging for the crafts division, which was really fun and …

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Off and Running, State Fair and Pillowcases

It is going to be a very busy week, and I hit the ground running yesterday with the turn-in for the Mountain State Fair competitions. My final count is 22 items submitted - 5 in Photography, 4 in Quilting, 7 in Amateur Crafts, 6 in Senior Crafts. I packed it up Monday morning, and took …

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More Fun at the Mountain State Fair

Tuesday night was the third cooking contest, this time with eggs. The rules specified a frittata, so I decided to make mine Mediterranean. It has Italian sausage, spinach, onion, garlic, mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes. Tomatoes often add too much water to a recipe, so I had the idea of cutting cherry tomatoes in half …

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More Fair Fun and a Tomato Tian

Today, I will share my third place winning recipe for the Tricolor Tomato Tian. A tian is a French peasant dish consisting of sliced vegetables, overlapped in an earthenware dish, then baked. The vegetables are meant to be the stars of the dish, so no sauces or cheese are added. I thought a tomato tian …

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Garden and State Fair

Rain fell off and on last week, and one drizzly morning these boys came by for a visit. Both males, they strutted around and loudly gobble-gobbled. I threw some sunflower seed hearts out for them. They were happy as clams to do a bit of hunt and peck. The goldfinches and a woodpecker got their …

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