Our Bench is typically situated with a fantastic view of all of the handmade quilts entered in the Fair. When I am not watching people, I am looking at all of the quilts, picking my favorites and then changing my mind the next day.
More than a few times, I have seen a friend’s name attached to quilts decorated with pretty ribbons and high honors. Since I don’t get to gaze at any quilts in person this year, I decided a Fair At Home Zoom with my friend Ruth would be a fantastic surrogate.
I have known Ruth for about 15 years, and I have always known her as an accomplished quilter. But I never thought to ask her about her hobby. Shame on me.
Ruth and I spent about 45 minutes this morning talking about quilting and batting (not a sport) and frames and long arms (not an affliction) and squares and patterns and binding (not a legal agreement). I learned a lot about quilting – which was my hope – but I also learned more about my friend – which I loved. Note to self: it’s amazing what happens when I just take the time to ask.
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| Ruth said a typical quilt takes her 100 hours to finish. The quilt behind her would take me centuries to make. WOW! |
In terms of quilting, I learned that a quilt is really a fabric sandwich that can be held together with little ties, thousands of hand sewn stitches, or whirred in place using a sewing machine.
In terms of Ruth, I learned that although she is analytical, she is also creative and likes to think outside of the boxes and patterns. She respects tradition, but she thrives on putting her own twist on things and is energized by combining elements of tradition to create something new. I love this new insight about my friend!
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| I LOVE THIS QUILT! Ruth took a traditional pattern called "Drunkard's Path" and reimagined it to be flowers. This is in her dining room. Our dining room has a photograph of a rooster. I have dining room art envy. |
Ruth loves the challenge of working with a bunch of random fabric scraps instead of carefully curating just the right pieces from the fabric store. She sews hundreds of these scraps together in precise patterns. They are done in smaller, manageable blocks that are then sewn together to eventually create one large piece of fabric to make the top of the quilt. Lines have to be straight (or uniformly wavy), and corners have to match up without overlapping. As much as I like math, it honestly sounded terribly daunting.
Ruth tried to make it sound easier by explaining that putting the top part of the quilt together is done using a sewing machine. “You just have to sew a straight line, ” she offered breezily.
As someone who refers to the instruction manual every.single.time. she threads her sewing machine and can’t manage to sew more than an inch without going off-roading into seam allowance territory, this only intimidated me more.
Although a lot of quilters these days use machines to sew the sandwich in place once the top is done, Ruth prefers traditional hand-quilting using a super sharp needle, a thimble, and fingers calloused from over 30 years of pulling thread through fabric. When I asked her why she likes quilting the old fashioned way, I absolutely loved Ruth’s answer. “It’s more rewarding and I am more a part of my quilt.”
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| Look at all that geometry! Real world math application AGAIN! |
I had hoped to see some of Ruth’s awarding winning self-expressions. Sadly (for me), those quilts have all been given away. Ruth is dedicated to gifting a homemade quilt to loved ones for weddings or milestone anniversaries. It is those quilts that she has entered in the Fair before they make they way to their forever homes. It touched my heart deeply to learn that Ruth’s very best efforts…the ones she feels are worthy of being judged in the Fair…are the quilts she makes as gifts for others.
As we chatted, I loved learning little tidbits like quilting is a seasonal hobby, with experienced quilters timing the quilting according to the weather. The further along they get on their project, the larger the quilt gets and the more fabric they can find themselves buried under. Winter is a great time for sandwiching. How handy to be able to snuggle under a beautiful quilt and feel productive at the same time!
Ruth listens to music or podcasts as she quilts, but she especially enjoys when she gets to the final stage of her quilt – putting a fold of fabric all along the outside edge to make it pretty and secure (“the binding”).
Not only does binding mean she is almost done with her quilt, binding is also something Ruth can easily do in front of the TV. A typical queen-sized quilt takes two movies to bind. As a kid who used to measure time in Captain Kangaroo episodes, this method time measurement made me smile.
So much of the Fair is the friends I see and make along the way. Even though I wasn’t sitting on my favorite wooden bench gazing at dozens of quilts today, Ruth gave me an even better dose of friendship and Fair by sharing her passion and helping me better appreciate those quilts when I am sitting on my bench next year. Thank you, Ruth!
Click here to meet Ruth and see some of her beautiful quilts
FAIR AT HOME STATS!
Today’s t-shirt: My parents gave me today’s t-shirt as a Christmas gift a few years ago. I wore it for the first time last year, coincidentally on the same day that my friend Lissa was working at the Fair. Lissa is a health inspector for the county. I got a lot of fun looks…and some very carefully prepared food…the day I wore this shirt!
Today’s earrings: Cows! Not for any good reason other than they are adorable. And, delightfully coordinate with my face mask.
Today’s hand sticker: Poor little donut is grumpy. I didn’t really enjoy having his unFair attitude on my hand all day.
Time today’s hand sticker finally bit it: In the midst of doing dishes (again…so many dishes this year), the sad-sack little donut fell in the sink at 8:17pm. Finally.
Number of steps walked: 2,847 which while significantly less steppage than the last two days, it was all done without my foot brace! I graduated yesterday to not wearing my foot brace!! YAY HEALING FOOT!
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| I haven't worn two matching shoes without a foot brace in MONTHS!!! |
UnFair food consumed: Knowing what was coming for lunch, I skipped breakfast. Dinner was Black Bean & Poblano Quesadillas from Hello Fresh that I did not burn! Water with dinner since I knew what was coming for dessert.
FAIR FOOD FEAST TREATS!
Yakisoba Noodles with Teriyaki Chicken!
One of my favorite meals at the Fair – and one that I have several times over the ten days – is a plate heaped with yakisoba noodles and vegetables. If I am in a “treat yo self” mood, I add some slices of teriyaki chicken.
Although there are a few places in the Fair's Food Court that offer yakisoba, I will only ONLY go to Patrick’s Hawaiian Café. Blessedly, Patrick’s has a restaurant nearby that is open year-round. So today’s lunch was truly a taste of Fair. I got my plate of yakisoba noodles! With teriyaki chicken!
We had planned to get our lunch to go and slurp it in the car, so we were super excited to discover Patrick’s dining room was open for socially distanced dining. YAY TABLE!!! So very tired of laps… Our waitress, the recently graduated Dezarae, was full of aloha and chatted with us like friends. She misses the Fair, too.
When our plates arrived, I took one bite and I was in the Fair’s Food Court, surrounded by noise and strollers and huge stuffed donuts won on the Midway. Ahhh. Thank you, Patrick’s!
Totally taking me by surprise, the noodles and chicken today were actually even better than what we typically get at the Fair. Chalk it up to a kitchen with a little more time and a little less volume.
The noodles were thick and perfectly chewy without being overdone. The veggies were crunchy, and the chicken was so tender no knife was needed. In between “mmmm”s I kept asking Rob why we don’t go to Patrick’s more often during the off-season. They have an extensive menu, which looks mouthwatering, but I honestly would drive the 30 minutes from Woodhaven just for the noodles. Rob gave me a look that suggested it wasn’t HIS rule that we only eat Patrick’s delicious noodles at the Fair. He’s absolutely right. And rules are made to be broken. Especially this one.
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| During a typical Fair, I would have easily consumed this entire plate of deliciousness. For Fair At Home, my hollow leg just hasn't kicked in so I have half of this in our fridge for later. YAY! |
Milkshake Redeemed!
Being the amazing hubby and Fair Buddy that he is, Rob insisted today that I have a different milkshake experience. Five Guys just didn’t cut it and a Fair without a decent milkshake is a travesty.
Don & Jo’s is a tiny roadside café just off of I-5. They have been around as long as I have. The burger joint is family run and I think it’s a rite of passage that all the family’s grandkids do a stint cashiering or cooking at the restaurant. Their daily soup is usually warming in a crock pot. It’s that sort of place.
I knew Don & Jo make a mean burger but I had never tried their shakes before. Big mistake! I would say they rival the ones from the Dairy Women. Yep, I said it.
Now, I can’t say for certain that competition is even since I did not have a fruit-based shake today. But the creaminess and texture and thickness of the shake I did have were all on par with the Fair’s milkshake barn.
Don & Jo’s flavor list is long and intriguing. In addition to the traditional flavors were options like peppermint and English Toffee and orange and pineapple and Reese’s and root beer. I finally settled on Almond Roca. I was not disappointed. At all. YUM!
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| The sort of place that doesn't have branded cups. The sort of place that might see me a lot more often now. |
Deep Fried Booze
When I stumbled across a recipe for Deep Fried Tequila Shots a few months ago, my eyes got big and my decision to purchase the mini deep fryer was confirmed. I have been waiting for tonight ever since.
The recipe was pretty simple – make an angel food cake, cut it into cubes, skewer the cubes, dip or douse them into tequila, and then into 350 degree bubbling oil they go.
Being the overachiever that I am, I figured why stop at tequila? If we were going to fry booze, we were going to Fry Booze. Poking around our Adult Beverages Stash, I pronounced this to be our lineup.
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| The tiny bottles are from a rum distillery in Kauai. I have been saving them for a special occasion. When I bought them several years ago, it never occurred to me that THIS would be the occasion. |
Now all I needed was an angel food cake. I had the mix but I didn’t have the pan. I was tempted to go buy one but I figured I have managed 52 years on the planet without one, why not go for 53? Surely a Bundt pan would work since it has a hole in the middle, too.
The instructions on the back of the box were stupidly confusing. My pan had to be a certain shape and a certain size and the temperature for the oven depended on whether my pan was “shiny metal” or “nonstick.” My Bundt pan was shiny nonstick metal. Now what?
I posted a photo with my conundrum on Instagram and Facebook and all sorts of friends weighed in. Some were certain the light color and smooth surface meant it was “shiny metal.” Others (including Rob) were frustrated that it wasn’t obvious to everyone that it was nonstick.
Sensing a baking meltdown was imminent (I hate baking more than I hate cooking – all the ingredients are white. There was really no hope for me making an angel food cake today), Rob wisely assigned himself Cake Making Duties. He and the apparently nonstick pan went to work, me on the sidelines mistakenly licking the beaters. (Oh lordy, angel food batter is terrible! Like vanilla extract terrible. ICK.) A few minutes after I heard the timer go off, I wandered into the kitchen to find this:
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| An engineer's solution to cooling a Bundt cake. Gotta admit, it worked beautifully. I love living with an engineer! |
At 8:30pm, we headed outside to our Deep Fry Station and skewered our way through our bar.
Verdict: I sooooo want to report that the deep fried alcohol was amazing and mind-blowing and worth every penny of the Deep Fryer purchase. But sadly, I can not. I am so disappointed! It was a big fat weird tasting yawn.
The tequila and vodka both added some sweetness to the cake but I didn’t really taste either spirit. Rob said all he could taste was alcohol. I was really hoping for something like a deep fried margarita. Nope.
The Kahlua and Coffee Rum both tasted like burnt coffee. The Amaretto smelled fantastic but didn’t taste almondy at all when fried. The Baileys popped a lot while it was cooking and wasn’t bad…but it wasn’t good either. Deep fried cream is probably not a great idea.
The best samples were the Coconut Rum and the Fireball Whiskey. They were the only ones I bothered to try a second time. The fried rum tasted like coconut – no rum flavor lingered at all. The Fireball had a fun hint of cinnamon; the crunchier parts of the caramelized sugary cake reminded me a lot of getting Red Hot candies stuck in my teeth.
Overall, none of the alcohols were worth the effort to dig out the deep fryer and DEFINITELY not worth the agony of making an angel food cake. Rob…who doesn’t really like any alcohol other than wine…summed it up well when he said, “Deep frying seems like a waste of perfectly good alcohol.”
The best part of the adventure was at the end when we dipped the remaining pieces of angel food cake into the little dishes of leftover booze. Probably not something we will do again, but it was definitely more enjoyable than the fried versions.
BIG BUMMER!
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| I'm not sure which sample this is. They all looked the same as did the fading look of hope as I sampled each one. |
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