One Blue Ain't Bad

Well, the results are in and it was just a so-so showing this year in the culinary competition at the fair for the Country Girl. My carrot cake received a first place/blue ribbon (four years in a row), the peach jam and plum jelly each came in second place (both were beaten my husband's Great Aunt Juanita, 85 years old and the doyenne of all things canned) and my corn muffins and biscotti each came in third. A middling showing in my book, very disappointing.

I have to say, I was pretty miffed at the results, and not just because I think my black chocolate biscotti with cranberries and almonds is outstanding and should have won better than third place, but because I'm not exactly sure the judge was qualified. Usually, the fair has a member of the local University of Illinois Extension or the Homemaker's Education Association or a master canner or a chef or someone with a culinary background judge the competition. This year, they asked four people and everyone said no, so they resorted to the 60-something husband of the fair's supervisor of crafts. His qualifications? He was a cook in the Army. I heard his wife say to the culinary supervisor, "I wonder if his smoking will affect his taste buds and his judging?"

His taste buds weren't the problem.

In the fancy cookie category (in which my biscotti was entered), the judge disqalified someone's pecan tassy entry because he didn't think it was a cookie. An outrage! The pecan tassy is the most elegant of cookies! And so much work to make. Worse yet, the judge didn't know what biscotti was and had never seen it before. Please. I know this is Jersey County, Illinois, and all, but they sell biscotti at the local Wal-Mart for God's sake. They even sell it on the counters of local gas stations.

And so we suffer these little indignities and thank God this is the most important thing we have to worry about.

On top of Jessie James' visit, it was a big week here in Jersey County.