Claussen Pickles "Conquer the Cold" Contest Entries

1. Lee and I would love to travel to Iceland someday--it's one of our travel goals.

2. Because of this goal, we went all out for the Claussen pickles photography contest that required us to take pictures on the theme of "Conquer the Cold".  We got ourselves dressed up in "cold adventure gear" in the refrigerated aisle where Claussen pickles are found at our Smith's grocery store.

3. The Claussen folks will choose their top 10 finalists who will duke it out for the grand prize by getting the most votes for their photo on Facebook.

4. The grand prize is a trip to Alaska or Iceland.  We would choose Iceland--if we won, of course.

5. We've watched an Icelandic film called Noi the Albino. Interesting...haunting...you should watch it.

6.  The people that work at Smith's Marketplace in Bountiful love us...they let us take all these fun pictures with our 2 cart-fulls of props and only looked at us like we were only slightly crazy, not full-on-crazy.

7. We have no idea how to say Reykjavik.  Do you?

8. Lee's Russian hat is made of muskrat.  It's really, really warm.

9. Lee's mom and dad received a bear pelt as a wedding gift--man, that sure beats the crystal teddy bear platter we got for our wedding.

10. Did I mention that we want to go to Iceland?

11. We'll find out on October 10 whether we are in the Top 10 or not. If we get chosen, we'd love it if you would vote for our picture on Facebook!

12. Wish us luck!

UPDATE:

Please vote here for Lee, the bearded the saluting Russian.

http://apps.facebook.com/claussjourn/splash.do

How to get into the Utah State Fair for free

We went to the Utah State Fair a total of three different times this year and guess what? We didn't see a single sheep, goat, or cow!

Not a single one. Bummer, I know.

What were they doing if not looking at livestock, you may be asking.

Well, I'll tell you--we decided to enter some of the food cook-offs.

Did you know that you get a free entry pass when you enter one of those bake-offs or cook-offs? You do!  It's a fun way to get into the fair for free!  Make a note!

Our first outing to the fair was to enter Lee's whole wheat bread to the Fleischman's Yeast Bake for the Cure Baking Contest.

The Bake for the Cure ribbons

Here's Lee's entry.  I say, this is some good lookin' bread.

Look at that bread!

Lee was up against a lot of people--about 26 other entries.  We started getting an inkling that maybe we weren't as competitive as some of these other home cooks.  We saw fancy rolls and things shaped like a breast cancer awareness ribbon. A woman had even dyed her bread pink!

Unfortunately, Lee didn't win--we were disappointed, but maybe expected it a little after we saw how intense some of these people were. We did get to try some of the other breads and that was yummy!

We had a nice tasting of different rolls and bread

Our next visit was for the Ghirardelli Chocolate Championship the following week. Lee entered in his rocky-road themed, homemade marshmallow candies. He called them "The Rocky Road of Life Marshmallows: When the road gets rocky, eat chocolate".

Rocky Road of Life Marshmallows--so good!

Oh man, I wish you could try these marshmallows!  These were the BEST marshmallows Lee has ever made--ever--and he's made a lot of marshmallows. They were so soft and with the perfect coating of Ghirardelli dark chocolate--ah! Delish!

We actually knew one of the judges--she works for the USU Extension Programs and was asked to judge the contest after one of her cooking demonstrations.   Lee was trying really hard not to tell her which was his entry--it was pretty funny to see him sneaking around and dodging her while he set up so he didn't bias her judging.

Our friend being interviewed while trying Lee's marshmallows

Anyway, I took a look around at all the entries--all 29 entries!  Holy cow!  Who knew these contests would be so popular!  Once again, there seemed to be very fancy schmancy recipes with crazy decorations--it was impressive and we were getting worried that once again, Lee's entry wasn't fancy schmancy enough.

Lee looks worried

Once again, Lee didn't win--double bummer!  Once again, we concluded that maybe next time we enter, we need to ramp up the decadence, the decorations, the opulence...the MSG? Heck, something more! We were both feeling a little out of our league again; the marshmallows were a nice consolation prize though!

I was really getting worried since I was entering my Lemon Basil Layered Cake into the King Arthur Great Cake Contest the following night--my cake would either be too "out there" or not moist enough or someone else would bring a cake with fireworks coming out of it.

My unadorned Lemon Basil Cake

I finally gave up and made the cake, then we headed to the fair.

Because we were running late to the contest AND there was bad traffic, Lee dropped me off and I got there with only 5 minutes to spare and no fancy decorations like we planned--they were in the car with Lee. All I had was a cake on a cake stand.

Lee taking care of the Lemon Basil Cake

I was the last entry.  They put me right next to someone who made lemon curd cupcakes. And it looked like 2 entries down from me, someone had made the exact same cake I made--it was yellowish with green flecks. All in all, it looked like there were 5 other lemon-like entries of 14 total. Fancy, fancy entries. Great--we might as well go home!

Because we didn't have much luck before, we just hung out in the back next to the quilts and canned veggies and really didn't pay too much attention to what was going on.

But then I heard the announcer say my name and the name of my recipe for 2nd place!

What??

2nd place!  Sa-weet!

Me, posing with my cake

My weird little cake won something!   That was exciting and rather unexpected!  I won $100.00 gift card to King Arthur Flour, a really big apron, and a red ribbon!

So next year enter your prize-winning recipe!  You may or may not win, but you'll get into the fair for free!

Random Tidbit: The Most Famous Scream in Hollywood

Lee and I were watching some Saturday morning cartoons, and Beauty and the Beast happened to be on this morning.  It came to the scene where the mob of villagers storms the castle and the "furniture" fights back, remember that part?

Anyway, we're watching, thoroughly enjoying the fact that the furniture is attacking the villagers.

But then Lee turns to me and asked, "Did you just hear that scream?  It's the "famous" scream!"

The "famous" scream...there's a scream?

He recently heard on NPR a bit on a famous stock scream used a lot in Hollywood.  So he started googling and found out the "famous" scream is called the Wilhelm Scream.

The scream originated in 1951 in a movie called Distant Drums, but got it's name and greater fame when a character named Wilhelm got shot in the leg with an arrow in the movie The Charge at Feather River (1954).  And this scream is now in everything!

You gotta check this Wilhelm Scream compilation:

I'm on the lookout now--or rather hear-out for the scream!

Utah State Fair...more to come

We'll fill you in soon about the Utah State Fair, but for now, here's a couple pics we took.

Lee posing with his well-plated bread at the Fair

Lee's wheat bread he baked for the Fair

For Whom the Bell Tolls...

This is my most favorite poem by British author, John Donne. I wanted to share it in honor of the 10th anniversary of September 11.

This was from my visit to Ground Zero in New York City in 2007

No man is an island, 

Entire of itself. 

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

What the skyline looked like in 2007

Ground Zero in 2007

A Wish List for Wednesday

1.  I wish my oldest sister, Dimples, and her family lived closer.  They were in town last week from California where they've been since Dimples and the Mad Scientist got married.  These are the people that I'd used to argue with about which was the truest science--chemistry (me), biology (Mad Scientist), or math (Dimples). 

Why yes, we are nerds--thank you for asking.

As you can see, the photographing Asian gene runs in the family.

2.  In conjuction with Wish #1, I wish for increased number of visits with my nephews, the offspring of Dimples and the Mad Scientist.  We don't get to see n x 1.6 km and CED all that much, which is kind of a bummer.  They're the only nephews we've got so far on my side of the family, so they're in high demand around these here parts (i.e. Utah).

Dang!  Look how cute they are!

3. I wish I could cover a cake with fondant better.  I covered my first cake last week--it was a "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles" cake made for the nephews in my cake decorating class (more on this later) and it turned out kinda lumpy looking. 

Oh well--at least it was a hit with all the kids!

The cake definitely has some sunken parts

All eyes were on Lee

4. I wish I had one of Lee's shish-ka-bobs right now.

I'm just a little hungry.


5.  I wish all of us could get together more often. When Dimples and family were in town last week, that was the first time we siblings were all in one place probably since Lee's and my wedding almost three years ago!

And when you wait that long for all of us Chans to be in one place, we're major spazoids (more than we usually are, anyway)!

The end.

Thanks for listening.

Have a nice Wednesday.