20 August 2007

Our State Fair is a great State Fair

In an earlier post (Ice, ice baby), some folks were able to find Waldo and Elvis in the crowd. I'm impressed at their keen eyesight, powers of deduction and ability to bear looking at a bunch of naked people. You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

The State Fair starts this Thursday. One of my aunts (removed by divorce and now remarried) and her husband run a food booth at the Fair. If you are able to figure out just what she's selling, I'll buy you one of whatever she has available. She doesn't know I have a blog, so part of the task is to keep this blogging thing under wraps (no, that isn't a clue).

All I'm going to say is: It ain't on no stinkin' stick.

I used to enter stuff in the food competitions, but never won any award. Another aunt entered needlepoint, knitted things, etc., and ALWAYS won an award. Some people have all the talent.

I LOVE the State Fair and usually go at least twice. Both my kids have been to the Fair when they were only days old and I was still recovering from C-sections and busy trying to nurse. Ah, State Fair addiction is hard to break.

-----------
You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
Though I've belted you and flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

Rudyard Kipling

12 comments:

Cathy_of_Alex said...

swissmiss: Some kind of fruity ice/slushy drink?

I'll be at the Fair Saturday. I require my annual dose of cheese curds as well as the healthy and deep inhalation of animal barns.

swissmiss said...

Cathy:
Nope, not a drink, but some people would consider it healthy. I consider mini-doughnuts healthy and one of the pillars of the food pyramid.

We always have attended on the first day (Thursday), but it looks like rain and my husband is buried at work. I might enlist some other folks to go with me though since I'm just goofy about going on the first day.

gemoftheocean said...

H'mmmm....I want to say "Cinnamon buns" -- because at the DelMar Fair, that's where the food line is the longest...but if you're going to SEND one that sort of implies it's not too perishable...so I will opt for "Pickles" If memory serves the "Ma" in STATE FAIR had entered her pickels in competition. It seems to me, each family member laced the batch with a lot of booze too. Can't imagine why she finally beat out her archrival.

If not, I'll go with beef jerky - also something that is preserved.

swissmiss said...

Gem:
I can see the wheels turning, but cinnamon buns, pickles and beef jerky are way wrong. BTW: Pickles are served on a stick at the MN State Fair, so that rules them out. I don't think the MN State Fair has a cinnamon bun booth (you probably can get one at a dining hall though) and beefy jerky isn't even close.

My aunt that wins the awards also has the best cinnamon buns. She is well-known for them in my family, but that's not what my other aunt is selling at the fair.

When we lived in WA, the thing to get at the fair was scones. Odd. The scone booth would have the longest lines, but the mini-doughnuts was wide open. Regional favorites are kind of strange.

So, what we know at this point is my aunt is NOT selling:
mini-doughnuts
cinnamon buns
alcoholic pickles
beef jerky
scones
fizzy lifting drinks (slushy drink)

gemoftheocean said...

I imagine luteke fish [sp?] is OUT!
:-D

Peach preserves?
ooo...ooo...s'tr, s'tr, I know, I know, I KNOW....me, me, pick ME...
FUDGE!!!! FUDGE!!!! Oh, please let it be FUDGE!!!!!! REALLY!!!! Tell me she's from Mackinack or wherever that stuff comes from. BITCHEN.....it's
FUDGE....

swissmiss said...

Ah, you might have missed that my family is Irish, German, Scottish and Swiss, but proudly we are not Scandinavian, so lutefish or lutefisk is OUT. You seem to really be channeling my aunt because she makes award winning fudge, but she's not the aunt with the booth. Obviously, you haven't been to the MN State Fair because you are so off track you must be in Iowa or something.

gemoftheocean said...

Please tell me it's NOT
> Mouth Trap Cheese Curds!


It's not "on a stick" so it can't be "alligator on a stick." You did mention Irish so I bet it's NOT a "boiled potato and a six-pack" i.e. the Irish 7 course meal. Scottish...h'mmm.... haggis? DOUBT IT! That leaves German... flitch [Pennsylvania Dutch, but I don't know that you're one of us hevahovas or not... potato and powdered sugar et al ..maybe...but

ooooo....oooo ....oooo got it....
FUNNEL CAKE?! SHE MADE FUNNEL CAKE?!!!!!! PRETZELS!!!!???? DID SHE MAKE BIGASS PRETZELS!!!!!???

Let's assume she didn't make Irish Soda Bread or Stew...it must be hotter than Hades this time of the year up there with humidity, and soda bread's ONLY good if you run out of bricks and need to finish a construction job. However being a relative of fruit cake, it could be easily packed and shipped around to various people for years to come.

Wait...fondue? no...you said "no sticks."

PRETZLES????? FUNNEL CAKE????

swissmiss said...

Oh my. Maybe what my aunt should be selling is Valium...you could use one! LOL!!!

There is NO cultural connection to what my aunt is selling. It's not pretzels or funnel cake or haggis (which my husband says you can get on a stick somewhere), or fruit cake or soda bread or whatever. This aunt is pretty much all Irish, but that has nothing to do with her booth. Since you're so far away, I'll give you another clue.

Her booth is on the same block as Ye Olde Mill.

Helpful, huh?

Cathy_of_Alex said...

I think there is a french fry stand on the same block as Ye Olde Mill. Is that it? In fact, I think it's right in front of it.

swissmiss said...

Cathy:
Not french fries, either. There's a Tom Thumb mini-doughnut stand on the corner and Sweet Martha's is half-way down the block, but neither of those. When you go on Saturday, am sure you'll narrow it down and then I'll be on the hook!

My aunt is a very outgoing lady, her name is Pat. She is usually at the booth in the morning, but has her grandkids and kids run it later in the day. I'm not exactly sure where her booth will be since it gets moved up and down the street from year to year, but it has always been on this block. You have an unfair advantage, being local, since this really narrows it down!! Poor Karen was doing the Tour of Europe in her guesses!

gemoftheocean said...

Home made ice cream?!!! PEACH...PEACH...I WANT PEACH... unless she made WATERMELON.... OOO...OOOO...OOOO....FROZEN watermelon in watermelon ice cream -- I am so THERE!!!!!!!! I hope your aunt has some ruby slippers so you can send them to me and I can turn around 3 times and tap my heels and say "There's no ice cream like swiss miss's aunt makes." I'll leave some for the rest of you pikers.

gemoftheocean said...

ARRRRRGGGHHHH......DID the blog use my HOMEMADE PEACH ICECREAM or WATERMELON ICE CREAM post?!?!??! Did it melt? Someone left the cake out in the rainman.