Just Desserts. Fair Edition. Lesson Learned.

So, I get a kick out of entering things in our local county fair. It's not anything earth-shattering. And I'm not in it for the premium money. But I like to see how a "judge" -- someone with some expertise in the field -- rates my item. And I smile if I happen to get one of the "big" ribbons.

In the days when I used to do tole painting, I would enter my painted projects. Sometimes only one or two items but sometimes I'd max out with the 5-item limit for the department. Since then, tole painting has gone out of favor. Now, instead of having its own large department at the fair, it's only a sub-class of the art department. What a fall from glory!! Ha!

Lately, I just enter something in the Foods department: a jar of raspberry jam, and whatever I feel like baking for it. Sometimes, I've gathered a few blooms from the yard for the flowers department.

And Emma likes to enter things. She takes her projects from Kids College classes, and enters those. And she likes to bake for the fair as well.

This year, we got in and baked several items. Emma made cookies, and her very first pie:

An apple pie, with a crust from scratch, and canned pie filling.

I made some white bread, baking powder biscuits, two kinds of cookies, and also a pie. I'd seen some cool ideas for decorative pie crusts on Pinterest, and thought it would make a great fair entry. Mine was a cherry pie, with that same crust recipe, and frozen cherries.

Emma's pie turned out great!

Let's just say that my pie looked best before baking. And even then, I didn't get the look I'd envisioned.

But the kicker was the #piefail that happened on the way to the fairgrounds. I'm pretty sure it happened as I parked. When I opened the back of the rig, there was cherry juice from my pie ALL OVER. It went right over the edge of the pie pan, over the edge of the tray it was in, and all over the floor. Fortunately, a few months ago, Todd got a bedliner for the rear of our Yukon XL. So, while no carpet got juiced, like the canals of Venice -- everything still flowed all through the grid pattern of the rubberized mat.

I should have stopped RIGHT THERE at that point, and not entered the pie. I should have taken that baby right back home again. I should not have entered it in the fair.

Did I consider that option at all?

No, I did not.

Although it had already spilled a good amount of cherry juice in the back of the Yukon, when I went to set down the pie on the table for entering it, .... it spilled juice onto their tablecloth. When they picked it up to put a paper plate under the pie pan .... it spilled. When they picked it up again to put it on the shelf in the cooler .... it spilled again. This could not be good. Emma told me it should get a blue ribbon just for being juicy. Ha!!!!

There's always a lot of excited anticipation before we get to see the judging results. Emma can't wait, and I bet she gets it from me.  But about the time that judging was happening, I was having serious second thoughts about that pie. In my head, I was imagining the conversation among the baking judges, as they looked at my pie:

Judge 1: Hmm. Well, that is ...... interesting.

Judge 2: [snorts in contempt]

Judge 3: Oh, how cute! She used her EasyBake Oven!

Judge 2: Wait. Is this supposed to be a yellow tag-Child's entry? Surely this isn't an *adult's* pie, right? Right??

Judge 1: Nope, white tag. We have to judge it as an adult.

Judge 3: Well, she totally *tried*.

Judge 2: How about a yellow "Participation" ribbon?

Since we have our store's booth at the fair, I spent a lot of time there, especially on the first 2 days of the fair. It also gave me the chance to check on our results first thing. When I'd told my siblings about my guess at a yellow Participation ribbon, they kind of laughed it off. Um, ... I was serious.

And so were the judges:

😂😜😂😂😂

If it weren't so hilarious, it'd be pathetic!!

Thankfully, our other entries did better.

Emma's Dreamsicle Cookies got a blue ribbon, and her apple pie did as well!

In fact, her pie got third overall for the Fair Board's awards, so she won an extra $5 for it. Not bad at all for a first-timer!

In case you think I'm broken-hearted about that pie, no worries. My other entries did just fine:

The raspberry crumble bar cookies did fine -- thank you, Barefoot Contessa!

The homemade bread did, too:

It rose a little wonky, which is at least one reason why I think it didn't get any of the bigger awards offered for the breads. But it was still blue-ribbon worthy. Makes me wonder what else they're looking for, beyond the basics?

The biscuits got a Best of Class ribbon:

(Judge's comment on the back said: "Some of the best B.P. biscuits I've ever eaten."

See?? All that practice and recipe-tweaking I did in the last year paid off! Especially when my old biscuits used to be hockey pucks.

And the Linzer Cookies got a Best of Show ribbon:

So after all of that nonsense ...... here's the kicker.

I took the new ribbons downstairs to my craft room. And I hung them up on my bulletin board there:

That's the new pink-and-white, and brown-and-gold ribbons on the left side. Along with that yellow Participation ribbon. The ones on the right are older, from other years at the fair, including a very old version of the Brown-and-Gold Best of Show ribbon (far right). I have a bunch more ribbons somewhere, probably in a storage bin, or something.

What is the absolutely hilarious part of this??
That old Best of Show ribbon on the right - comes from about 15 years ago. When I entered a homemade ...

CHERRY PIE
for the Fair!!!!!

😁😂😂😋😜

It's true.
Once upon a time, I made a cherry pie that wowed the judges.
THIS WAS NOT THAT YEAR!!!
Hahahahahaha!!!!!

I figure, that little yellow ribbon represents a lesson learned here.

I can do better.
Next time, I will.

P.S. Even though I cleaned it out that night, I'm pretty sure there's still more sticky-dried cherry juice in the back of my rig ...... 😂😂