Fun at the OC Fair

The fair, whether it be the county fair or the state fair, is a time-honored summer tradition around the country. Growing up in Wisconsin, we had the Wisconsin State Fair. Now living here in southern California, we have the OC Fair.

Both are basically the same thing. Overpriced games and rides. Overpriced food in quantities big enough to feed a small family. Exhibits filled with the talents of amazing locals. Lots and lots of vendors offering crazy products for sale. Don’t forget the cute and fuzzy farm animals.

I was unaware, but apparently the theme of this year’s OC Fair was “Let’s Eat!” That’s a pretty appropriate theme when you can’t walk 2 feet without running into another colorful booth selling Fried Oreos or Fried Klondike Bars or even Fried Kool-Aid! I happened to read some stats today that said 2011 fairgoers ate 2,000 Fried Frog’s Legs, 3,000 Chocolate-Covered Corn Dogs, 10,000 Funnel Cakes, 10,000 servings of Fried Avocados, 75,000 Texas-Size Turkey Legs, and 125,000 servings of Totally Fried Kool-Aid. That’s a lot of balls of Fried Kool-Aid!

We certainly partook in some of that gluttony. That’s what the fair's for, isn’t it?

{My love’s fair dinner. A “Texas-size” turkey leg.}

  {My love had been talking about getting a “Texas-size” turkey leg for days, but barely could finish any of it.}

{My fair dinner. “Colossal” onion rings.}

{Me in front of the booth selling “Totally Fried Kool-Aid”.}

  {Alpacas. The black one is kind of creepy and kept staring at me and my camera.}

{A super cute baby angora goat stepping in its food dish.}

  {A big ol’ pig. Love the “Elvis” curl to its lip.}

{Love me some cows…happy cows come from California Wisconsin.}

  {My favorite! Adorable baby goats.}

{In the car after the fair showing off my winnings.}

  {The prize we brought home for Madison is the same size she is!}

Credit: All photos taken by me at the OC Fair. Food statistics via an OC Fair press release.

Thanksgiving 2010

I figured before Thanksgiving was too far in the past (and it’s already been a week), I should post about it and the cooking I did for the holiday.  My love and I were lucky enough to be invited to our friends’ house to celebrate and we had a really wonderful time.  Thanksgiving is one of my very favorite holidays.  I mean, what’s not to like about a holiday centered around getting together with family, friends, football, and food?

What was really great too, was that I got assigned food to bring.  Yay!  Since I live so far away from my family, I long for the parties I miss and the food I don’t get to bring to them.  I get jealous when I hear of the cupcakes and dessert my cousin got to make.  :(

Back to Thanksgiving though…I got assigned dessert, but I kind of got carried away reading my recipe book and ended up making an appetizer and side too.  I’ll post recipes later, but here’s what I brought to the festivities: Deviled Eggs, Mini Cornbread Muffins, Peanut Butter Marshmallow Crunch Brownies (which are always a hit), Creamy Lemon Dessert, and I picked up a store-bought Pumpkin Pie.

Thanksgiving was wonderful and our hosts were beyond gracious.  There was so much yummy food (delicious crab dip, tasty turkey, succulent honey baked ham, yummy spiced cider, and so much other great stuff) that my tummy is still recovering from the over indulging.  I LOVE THANKSGIVING!!!

     

Credit: All food pictured make by me and all photos taken by me as well.

What We Did This Weekend.

I helped my love’s brother pick up a pup (well, not exactly a puppy, since he’s 4 years old) from a local animal shelter. The pup is a mix of a beagle and a pug…and is a massive 45 lbs. That’s huge compared to my little Madison who is a whopping 10 lbs.

I had the urge to bake and made some chocolate espresso cupcakes. I got to try out my new Ikea cupcake liners which was pretty exciting. I also wanted to try out my new piping bags and decorating tips with the frosting…but let’s just say, making frosting is not my strong suit. I’ll get into more about that in a later post.

Since it is the end of September, temperatures here are rising. It made for a really nice trip to the beach even though the it was a little more crowded than usual and there seems to be a bit of a seaweed issue on the northern end of the beach. Still, the weather was lovely and our walk was a nice one.

I spent some quality time playing with my Madison and her favorite toy elephant (a Christmas present from her grandma). I felt a bit bad for her having to share her home and toys with her new cousin (the newly adopted pup) while he visited, and wanted to pay her some extra special attention to make up for it.

Besides that, my weekend was consumed with a lot of paper cutting and pasting. I’ve been commissioned to make some party invites. It’s about time I started up my Etsy shop.

These will be a custom reserved listing, but soon I will be starting to add more and more items to my shop on a regular basis. As I do so, I’ll be sure to post about it.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too! I can’t believe September is already nearly over.

Credit: All photos taken by me.

Happy Sunday!

Packers tee. Check! Packers pants. Check! Brats. Check! Cooked in beer. Double check! Packers win. CHECK!!!

It was a football-filled Sunday here in our little household. Although, I have to say I wasn’t fully invested in the football (I multi-tasked and worked on making a birthday card while watching).

It’s nice to have someone else cook for me every once in awhile. Chris took care of the football food…the brats were boiled in beer with onion and then thrown on the grilled until cooked nice and thoroughly, per my liking. And they were perfect. I like mine with lots and lots of ketchup and my love opts for ketchup and Dijon mustard.

All in all, combined with a little trip to the beach yesterday, it was a nice weekend. Now off to the gym to work off these brats!

Credit: All photos taken by me. Brats by Johnsonville, cooked by my love. Packers tee from NFL Shop and pants from Packers Pro Shop.

Go Pack Go!!!

In honor of football season beginning, and of course, the Packers playing later today…here is a little montage of photos from Packers games my love and I have been to over the years.

(Packers vs. Chargers preseason game @ San Diego, August 2006)

(My dad and I, Packers vs. Cardinals @ Lambeau, October 2006)

(Packers vs. Cardinals @ Lambeau, October 2006)

(Packers vs. 49ers @ Candlestick in San Fran, December 2006)

(Packers vs. Seahawks @ Seattle, October 2008)

I can’t believe I haven’t been to a game since Seattle!

Credit: All photos by me.

Three Short Years Ago Today.

Three short years ago today, my lovely cousin (and one of my most favorite people in the world) married her husband Chad (who is also now one of my very favorite people too).

It still feels like it was just yesterday. Their wedding is on my list of top weddings I have been to and I look back on that day with fond memories. I’m still so glad that I got to be a part of their special day.

Congratulations on three years of marriage Sarah and Chad! Here’s to a lifetime more of happy anniversaries! Oh, and hopefully lots more couples trips together too! Love you guys!

Credit: All photos taken by me.

What We Did This Weekend.

We finally made it down to Huntington Dog Beach over the Labor day weekend. I’ve been really wanting to go, but the weather didn’t cooperate with our schedule…until now.

So we packed up a bunch of beach towels, sunscreen, water, and Madison’s toys and headed over to Dog Beach. The weather was a tad overcast, but it was perfect for our little dog who is very sensitive and gets hot really easily.

Madison is a people-watcher, so she seemed to enjoy the beach, the sand, and all the activity around her.

As you can see in the photos, she seems pretty happy to be outside at the beach. After all, she IS a California dog.

Now if we could only get her to like the water. I wish I would have caught a photo of how upset Madison was after we attempted to get her in the water…she was NOT a happy camper.

Credit: All photos taken by me.