State Fair Food Preview!

Here are some highlights (and some possible lowlights) of the new foods at the fair this year. I'll let you figure out what is what.

Comet Corn:
A futuristic caramel corn made with liquid nitrogen. This icy-cold popcorn is crispy, crunchy, sweet & salty and leaves a trail of comet dust when exhaled out of the nose and mouth, creating a tingly, bubbly feeling.

Mini Donut Batter Crunch Ice Cream:
 Features a sweet cream base folded with mini donut batter and a hint of nutmeg in a sugar spice crunch. Made by Minnesota’s own Izzy's Ice Cream.

Minnepumpkin Pie
An individual deep fried pumpkin pie with cinnamon and sugar-dusted flaky crust and served with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream.

Cocoa Cheese Bites
Wisconsin cheddar cheese nuggets breaded with cocoa puffs, fried and served with a chocolate dipping sauce

Fried Pickles 'n' Chocolate:
Preferred Pickles' popular deep fried pickles dusted with powdered sugar and served with a side of chocolate for dipping.

Here's the link for the pictures and other new foods:
http://www.mnstatefair.org/fun/new_food/ 

Brown Sugar Rhuberry Bars

It's time, folks. Rhubarb Time! I love baking with rhubarb and it's one of the very first things that pops up in the farmers markets here in Minnesota.

Strawberry season is still a ways off, I think. It's dang cold out still. We are stubbornly refusing to turn the heat back on but the house is chilly. The cats are earning their keep as lap-warmers.

I made these bars from the recipe at the link below. The only changes I made were to replace 1/2 cup of flour in the crust with almond flour, to up the cinnamon to 1/2 teaspoon and add about 1/4 cup of frozen blueberries.

http://buttercreamblondie.com/strawberry-rhubarb-crisp-bars/

The bottom shortbread layer is delicious and buttery. The strawberries, blueberries, and rhubarb balance very nicely , and the orange zest is a nice addition. The recipe is a little fiddly. You have to refrigerate the shortbread crust and refrigerate the crisp topping. Once the bars are baked they have to be completely cooled before cutting. I would say it's worth it, though. They were delicious!

Hangin' with My Gnomies: Gnome Gardens.

I know that gnome and fairy gardens are all the rage these days. Seriously, Pinterest is chock full of miniature cottages -  gnome houses made of stick and stones, acorns and pinecones.  I like to think of my gnome gardens as just that - gardens. My gnomey friends don't live there. They're just puttering around the garden. They don't have names yet. Any suggestions?

I wanted this round garden to have a magical, otherworldly feel so I filled it with "weird" plants. Plants include: Artemisia "silver mound", Cellosia, Corkscrew Rush, Delosperma (the one with the fat vines - in theory it blooms with purple flowers if we ever get any sunny days)

Plants in the window box garden: Artemesia (silver mound) and Dusty Miller on the gnome side. Bonanza Yellow Marigold, Variegated Vinca and more Dusty Miller on the cat's side. Isn't this cat figurine kinda creepy cute?

Another bonus of these gnome gardens is that I got to display my rock collection. I have a habit of collecting rocks on every camping trip. I never have anything to do with them,though, so they sit on shelves, in jars, and in boxes around the house. Boy, does my sister love my rock collection when it's moving time. Ha!

Container Gardening in Minnesota

I managed to make it over to the garden center over Memorial Day weekend. What a crazy scene! I didn't want to wait, though. It's been such a long wait for warmer weather and it's time to grow some flowers, dammit.

This container includes: Coleus, Scarlet Begonia, Asparagus Fern, Variegated Vinca. I don't know the name of the bright green trailing plant. I wanted a sweet potato vine but none were to be had at the garden center. I'm sure they are available at the farmer's market but I was too lazy to trek downtown. All of these plants are supposed to grow well in partial sun so I hope they work out. There is a big maple in the front yard so these containers get filtered sunlight.

I used the "thriller, filler, spiller" method to plan these out. More info to be found here:
http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/thrillers-fillers-spillers.aspx

The gnome was purchased at Target last year. He used to live in rather bedraggled houseplant. However, someone forgot to water said plant for, oh, I don't know....six weeks or so. He likes his new digs much better than the shriveled, dessicated remains of a philodendren.

 

For the other container: more Coleus, more Scarlet Begonia, and an unidentified trailing plant with purple flowers.

Caturday

Much like Beyonce, Simon didn't want this picture displayed on the internet. It's not the most flattering. but isn't it funny how his tongue makes him look like has big fat lips? Simon, this is punishment for focusing on eating grass when I told you to act cute for your photoshoot. 

An Early Spring Walk and a Sidewalk Poem

There are poems stamped into the sidewalk around my neighborhood. I've walked around the neighborhood dozens of times but somehow have never read the poem below. You can find more about the sidewalk poetry around Saint Paul here: http://publicartstpaul.org/poetry/

Here's what the poem below says:

"What hurt you today
was taken out of your heart
by the meadowlark
who slipped the silver needle
of her song
in and out of the grey day
and mended what was torn."

A Birthday Cake with Cinnamon Brown Butter Frosting

As I've mentioned, spring got a really late start around these parts (we are catching up in a hurry, though. I'll post some photos soon!) We celebrated one of my sister's birthday on May 5th and there was nary a leaf in site. The grass was still brown and sad. We had measurable snow only days before.

Anywho, I was determined to make a nice spring cake for our celebration. This party was somewhat hastily thrown together, though.  I made this "topper" by cutting pictures of flowers from magazines and gluing them to cardstock. I attached them to wooden skewers and stuck them in the cake to make a bouquet. Yes, jokes were made about lighting the flowers on fire. No, the flowers did not catch fire when we lit the candles (as I knew they would not. Take that, Ye Who Doubted Me)

The cake was a banana cake with cinnamon brown butter frosting. It is sprinkled liberally with toffee pieces (Skor, I think?). The banana cake recipe was okay but not great. You can use any banana bread or cake recipe that you like. The frosting was the real star here, though. The brown butter and cinnamon is a delicious combination

Cinnamon Brown Butter Frosting

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (no need to soften)
1/2 stick brown butter (directions below)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract

1.  Brown the butter by melting in a pot or skillet. When the butter starts to have little brown flecks in it and a nutty smell, take it off the heat and pour it the bowl of a stand mixer or medium mixing bowl.
2. Add butter to the mixing bowl and beat the two butters together  - slowly at first then faster as the cold butter starts to melt. Beat until the butter is very fluffy. You can't really overbeat it. You could go read a few pages of your book or spend the time cleaning up the kitchen a little. Don't go overboard, though - five minutes should definitely be enough time.
3. Add about half the powdered sugar and mix on low until well combined.
4. Now you can add the salt, cinnamon, vanilla extract and the other half of the powdered sugar. Start mixing on low (to prevent the dreaded Powdered Sugar Cloud of Mess) then turn mixer to medium to finish the frosting. It should be pretty fluffy.