A different kind of pig for Fair competition

annie1992

11 years ago

OK, so we've been busy. Elery's grandsons were here from California, and his brother in law in Tennessee passed away suddenly, so we made a trip there that took several days. In the middle of that, we had our local County Fair, which the grandkids always want to compete in for prizes.

The Princess decided that she needed to bake a cake shaped like a pig, since it's an agricultural fair. And since it was shaped like a pig, it had to contain bacon, so it was a dark chocolate and bacon cake, LOL.

Kind of in keeping with the agricultural theme, she made cupcakes decorated like fish. They were lime/coconut cupcakes with key lime frosting and were very good, I liked them a lot.

She decided to branch out and made some Tropical Heat jam, with pineapple, mango, coconut and habanero. Elery loved that one.

Altogether she entered five items and came away with five blue ribbons, nothing to sniff at. The Grand Champion ribbon eluded her yet again, though, it went to a plate of chocolate chip cookies. She's already plotting for next year.

Her brother entered a picture of the farm and took a blue ribbon, and a picture of his puppy and got a second place ribbon. He then decided he needed to bake something and so he made Grandma's Chewy Molasses cookies, which earned him another blue ribbon.

I was severely pressed for time, so I entered salsa, some pickles, Black Forest jam and got some blue ribbons of my own.

I don't know how it happens, but every year at Fair time, something happens to interfere with our baking plans, LOL. It's not deterred The Princess, though, who's already looking at recipes for next year's Grand Champion competition.

Annie

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mustangs81

11 years ago

Your grands are soooo fortunate to experience the things you have introduced them to and made it an "ordinary" part of their lives. I know they will be good and creative adults.

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Comments (17)

Islay Corbel
11 years ago
For me, the winner is deffo the pig cake! But, the children are very good at cooking!
morz8 - Washington Coast
11 years ago
It's really all about the memory making though, isn't it. And it would seem you could give lessons in that with your infinite patience and love for those children.

The key lime cupcakes are tempting, but I suspect that jam would be the big hit here. Those local fairs can be so much fun, there is a little one not too far from here we try to get to, DH knows a lot of the farmers in that area from his years in the timber industry, it's almost like old home week to him with all the people he finds to visit with there.
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User
11 years ago

I rarely buy jam, but am drooling over that Tropical Heat! She's so creative!
mrsjack_gw
11 years ago
Annie
Would the Princess share her recipe for the jam? It sounds delicious!

Thanks.

Gloria
KatieC
11 years ago
Congrats to the kids! Open class is hard. It took me four years to get better than a white ribbon on preserves and I'm a Master Food Preserver. Always safe, never pretty, lol.

Your fair is early. Ours is early for us. It's usually the third week in August, but this year it's the week of the 10th.

Love the pig. And the jam recipe...yesplease. It's really pretty and my Give-Me-Hot-Jam-For-Christmas people haven't had anything new for a couple of years. I'm not entering anything this year because I'm judging, although the fair manager said I could. But it just doesn't seem right...
annie1992
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
LOL, Katie, how can you judge and compete both? I'm with you, it doesn't seem right. However it also doesn't seem right that chocolate chip cookies took a Grand Champion and not a single one of Bud's Chewy Molasses cookies were even tasted. How can you judge a cookie without tasting it? Our Fair is very early, they finally allowed people to put in canned goods as long as they were less than a year old, because everyone cans in August, there are no garden products in Michigan in July, sheesh.

Ah well.

Islay, the kids like to cook, they think it's fun to make messes and try new things and I like to keep them away from electronics all the time, LOL.

Morz, I hope they remember the fun, but my patience is not infinite, trust me. (grin) It's more fun to play with the kids than to clean house, though...

Cindy, she's very creative.....with the things she thinks we should make, LOL, somehow she's more adventurous if she thinks I'm there to rescue her. Or clean up. :-)

Cathy, ordinary life suits us pretty well, I think. It might seem strange to other people with different and more complicated lives, but for now, simple is good. They'll get complicated lives soon enough, I think. (sigh) And at least they'll be able to feed themselves. It might only be cookies and chocolate bacon cake, but at least they won't starve!

OK, the recipe. We got it from Food.com, and then "adapted" it to suit our tastes. Like fewer habaneros and some grated coconut, then gave it a catchy name instead of Pineapple Mango Habanero Jam!

Tropical Heat

16 ounces fresh pineapple, cut into chunk. Canned won't set up, use fresh or frozen.

24 ounces mangoes, cut into chunks

2 habanero peppers, halved, seeded and stemmed

1⁄2 cup cider vinegar4 cups white sugar 1/2 cup shredded coconut, chopped (I used sweetened, it's what I had, but I think either would work out fine.3 ounces liquid pectin
1. Fruit can be either fresh or frozen. Frozen actually seems to work best.
2. Place fruit and vinegar in a stockpot over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer and mash the fruit to a chunky consistency with a potato masher.
3. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
4. Add the pectin and the Habanero halves. Stirring frequently, bring to a rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Cook for 2 minutes more, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
5. Remove the chile halves. Chop the retained chile halves into shreds and add back to jam.
6. Ladle hot jam into sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch head room.
7. Process jars in hot water bath for 10 minutes.
She did it all herself, though, except I took the jars out of the boiling canner. She even used that handy/dandy gadget Elery bought for slicing pineapple. I don't have a scale, so we cheated on the fruit and just used 2 cups of pineapple chunks and 3 cups of mango and it worked out fine.

Annie
mrsjack_gw
11 years ago
Thanks Annie (and the Princess)! Like you, I live in a small town and have to wait until we go to Alpena for "supplies", but it is on my canning list this year.

Gloria
User
11 years ago
Congrats to the kids and to Grandma too! !!!! Jam sounds great. will give it a whirl.
bcskye
11 years ago
You're raising your grandchildren right and they never cease to amaze me. Congrats to Annie, Princess and Brother! Annie, you are amazing and that pig cake sounds delicious.
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
11 years ago
Fantastic!

Wining blue ribbons in a county fair is fun, it also develops a sense of self confidence in kids for the rest of the life.

dcarch
mrsjack_gw
11 years ago
Dear Annie and Princess--I made your jam with an extra habanero. It is delicious!! Will use it with homemade bagels and spiced up cream cheese. It is now on my annual canning list!

Thank you.

Gloria
Compumom
11 years ago
Annie, you're the best Grandma! You continue to inspire me, although I will confess that all the kid's mess in the kitchen would leave me losing my mind! I do encourage my boys to cook each time they are with me. Their mom shoos them away from her kitchen, but mine has a better layout and I have the time and patience to work with them. J is working on ham and cheese omelets at the moment. He's sleeping over tonight, so we'll see what else we can make.

I think the Fair needs unbiased judges if they awarded the Grand Champion ribbon to a plate of chocolate chip cookies and certainly Bud's should have been given a chance!

BTW your new kitchen looks gorgeous!
annie1992
Original Author
11 years ago
Gloria, I'm glad you like the jam. I noticed you said you go to Alpena, I assume that you are in MIchigan? Me too, about half-way down the state!

Ellen, I think they are lucky they get judges at all, everyone is so afraid to taste food any more, and especially people's canned goods. (sigh)

The kitchen is coming along, but I need to do something with that ugly island. Ham and cheese omelets sound good. As for the mess, the kids couldn't possibly make a bigger mess than I do, LOL, so I'm used to it.

Annie
mrsjack_gw
11 years ago
Yes, we live in Harrisville, about 30 miles south of Alpena on Lake Huron. A very pretty little town, but the recession hit hard. I still love it though. My daughter lives in Charlevoix and although we love to visit there, it is always great to get back to Harrisville!

Like you, my hobby is cooking and DH says if you get in my way in August and September you might end up in a hot water bath or a pressure cooker!! Out of a family of eight, I am the only one who cans and I believe I could do it for a living--enjoy it that much!

Love the cooking site and have learned more things than I can count. Keep up the good work everyone!

Gloria
annie1992
Original Author
11 years ago
Gloria, you sound like we could have a lot of fun canning, LOL. Today I did 11 pints of dill pickles, 10 quarts of green beans, 7 pints of Bread and Butter pickles and put a batch of zucchini candy into the dehydrator, then I ground wheat and baked bread. Who knows what I might can tomorrow, LOL.

I've never been to Harrisville, but I'm sure it would feel familiar. (grin) I used to live in White Cloud, now I'm just on the west side of Big Rapids, next to the Manistee National Forest. It's a pretty good location, I'm 50 miles from Grand Rapids if I want to shop or go to the Symphony, 50 miles from Lake Michigan if I want a beach, but it's nice and quiet when I want that and I have acres and acres of dirt to grow things!

Family in Charlevoix? Another member here, wizardnm (Nancy) lives near Charlevoix, I need to visit her again.

Annie
mrsjack_gw
11 years ago
Annie--I met wizardnm when she worked at American Food. Just went in and asked where I could find her and lo and behold I was talking to her. I also met a couple from White Cloud at the Venetian Festival last week. They had a booth at the Fiber Fest at Castle Farms.

I don't can pickles anymore. Used to though. My favorites were sweet lime pickles. I can't handle the crocks anymore. Darned arthritis. Do make refrigerator dills and microwave bread and butter. They last nearly all winter in the beer fridge!

This morning just finished simmering about 22 pints of beef broth. Pressure cook them on the burner on the grill to keep the house cooler. Jack uses that as an excuse to sit on the deck, drink beer and "keep an eye on the cooker".

Can't wait for tomatoes to come on!

Happy canning!

Gloria

A different kind of pig for Fair competition

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