Kern County Fair Part 2!

I talked about what I entered in the fair last time; here's something about what else the fair has. One of my family's traditions is to get kettle corn at this particular booth - it's absolutely, absolutely wonderful. I don't know what they do to it, but it's actually made in a kettle and the end result has some sort of sweet coating on it. The first time I tasted it - some years ago now - I actually didn't like it, cause it was so different from regular buttered microwave popcorn. It's grown on me now.

I also purchased a bonsai tree - a bonsai juniper, I believe. It's a little one, about the size of my hand, in a dark pot with a gray rock and little bits of grass - I have to keep it 'gardened.' I love bonsai plants in general, and it's fun to maintain a mini garden. Right now it's inside the house where it doesn't get any direct sun, and I'm supposed to water it every other day (I ran out of the house without watering it this morning, so I'll have to take care of that tonight), so I'm watching it to make sure it stays happy and alive. I lost one of these awhile ago, when I was still learning how to care for plants.

One of my favorite booths to visit are the glass-making ones. I love watching the glass-maker create intricate pieces of art. During this particular visit, I watched him finish up a tiny ballerina. Sometime, I'd really like to learn how to do that myself.

Kern County Fair Contests

Once again, I find myself on the fairgrounds multiple times throughout the week. I've been attending the Kern County Fair since before I started high school (excepting when I was away for college, in a different state). When I was younger, I stuck to showing sheep, but now I'm doing (and have done) poetry, baking, and crocheting.

I've actually only done poetry once, and won second place. In general though, my poetry isn't really weird enough to fit in with that sort of forum, so I haven't done it since. Maybe some other year :).

With baking, this was my second year entering the apple pie competition, and I tried a different recipe this year - but I think it needed to have more flour. Too juicy. Tastes good (both of 'em), but neither won.

This year, in addition to the pies, I entered the sugar-free dessert contest. My parents have Xylitol, a sugar alcohol, to replace sugar (which adds fat to our bodies), and sugar-free chocolate chips (sweetened with maltitol, another sugar alcohol). Using these, I made a Pillsbury chocolate chip crescent roll copycat (not my recipe). Now yeast - single cell bacteria - when combined with sugar and water, eat the sugar. It won't eat sugar alcohols. For this recipe, the yeast and sugar are separated. So this particular recipe works fine with Xylitol. Taste-wise, there's no difference when Ii use sugar versus Xyloitol, and cooked maltitol chocolate chips are the same as regular ones. I think they're tasty little things, though they didn't win :(.

As I've been creating more and more crocheted items, I decided to go ahead and enter one this year. My latest completed project is a dragonfly barrette - here's a picture.
It was a bit of a spur of a moment entry (I was entering online), but as cute as it is, I really was hoping for something. And apparently, someone agreed with me, cause I got an honorable mention !!!! (glee!!!!) It's also for sale on at etsy.woolranch.com, if anyone's interested.