Another red neck moment

The grandstand filled up with people from all over. Eager Boy Scouts peddled pop, popcorn and earplugs. EarPlugs?????

And over the muddied grounds of the inner tracks, those farm trucks I keep seeing across fields all over Illinois, were polished and sputting, ready to compete. There were these huge flatbeds called Iron Man, the purple had a 5000 LB weight that would swing from one end to the other as eager tractor racers tried to pull the flatbed towards the 300 yard line. Often times, the hapless tractor would get bogged down at the 250 yard line and the racers (who woulda thunk these huge heavy tractors could fly with their front wheels in the air like a motorcycle instead of the monsterheavy weight, like the hippo dancing in fantasia) were competing like crazy to top the one before them. Ear plugs??? OMG, the next set of races were these Hot Rod exposed fire breathing black smoke spewing NOISE RIDDEN tractors with aggressive names roaring to the point of sonic boom each trip. The ear plugs were definitely needed. i used the old fashioned two fingers in my ear trick because it wasn't worth a dollar to get two pieces of plastic to cover my ears for a few seconds at a time.

Another bit of Americana for me.

A bit of Sandwich

I always heard of Sandwich from daughter in law Dawn as she has been there with Anamite and kids for a few years in a row. So I finally took the trek to Sandwich, getting lost along the way with that stupid GPS, aughh.

Sandwich is a little town like most little towns with history. Old buildings and historic homes mingling with the new ugly box like homes. The Sandwich Fair is held in a dedicated fairground structure, that i gathered from the mini railroad that went around and around, plus the barn type permanent buildings interspersed with gaudily loud food booths.
But it is the food that was the draw for me. Huge mobile food booths with steaks grilling right in front of you with the accoutrement of onions, peppers, mushrooms, cheese along side the steaks, brats, dogs, ribs, corn dogs etc. My mouth watered with every wafting scent of the different fair ground foodstuff. There were corndogs, waffles, mini donuts from a mini fryer dropper, funnel cakes, elephant ears dusted with powdered sugar, cinnamon and other mouthwatering dusts. You name it, it was there. Interestingly enough, no Chinese or Asian food booth, no spring rolls, rangoons, noodles.

My top faves? It was my first time to have an apple dumpling. There was this one dedicated booth for Hot Apple Dumplings, topped with vanilla icing and a slathering of caramel sauce, piping hot from the convection oven that continuously baked the dumplings. The pie pastry was a bit gooey with a taste of cinnamon, but the apple was perfectly round, peeled, scored, must be granny smith as it held its form and had a tartish sweet taste. Along with the vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce, it was one of the best Americana food I have had in ages.

Dawn and Anamite told me the Pork Chop place was a must. The lines were long at Fay's but moving fast. Around and back were charcoal grills that were filled from end to end with huge thick pork chops, and the other side had grilled chicken just being flipped over (imagine your barbecue griller but in gigantic proportions) by eager young Caucasian boys, must be generations of them going through this summer ritual as a rite of passage working the grills for this destination Pork Chop stop. Undaunted by the long line, $12 got me a combo of a pork chop and quarter chicken, a small drink (coffee of course) and sides like the ubiquitous sliced bread, cole slaw, baked beans , applesauce and cottage cheese. Augh ...saan ang kanin at banana ketchup? Sa uulitin nga...magdadala ako. Of course, the food was good, chicken moist, pork chops just right, not raw. Wish it had a thicker layer of fat, sometimes lean pork chops can be too much....But these were finger licking good. My inner oink wanted to get ribs and totally stuffed potatoes but, this was it.

Until I saw the home made pies made by the Christian Church ladies, berry, apple and peach. Going back was the promise. Until doing so, later after walking off the over eating tummy, berry pies were gone, suddenly, pie was not that interesting anymore.

After the tractor pull show in the grandstand area, of which another short blog dedicated to this is next, found the Rollin Pin Bakery mobile that bragged of the Wisconsin State Fair staple, Chocolate Eclairs and Whipped Cream Puffs. And of course, Maridel had to have these. And man, were they good although I could've enjoyed the eclair better slightly thawed more. But understandable that with that home made custard, and in the quantities they were selling, these had to keep frozen. The whipped cream cream puff was already overkill but I did have many bites till I almost burst like the puff.

I need to plan the next fair better. Eat slowly and gradually. Spend the whole day there instead of the few hours. And of course, lose 4 pounds before going to the fair.Advice to all, it is a must to go to the Sandwich Fair at least once (or twice or all the time as this man, who probably belongs to one of the founding families of Sandwich boasted of not having missed the fair since he was 8 and he sure looks like he was a bit over 80). Oh and I did forget to mention all the other exhibits, antiques, competitions, livestock and fair rides...I overwhelmed myself with the food.

GYN gone 2 years.

Has it really been two years ma? My mind blanks at the thought. But you are never far from my thoughts, regardless of what these are. As an amazing accomplished woman, whose childhood was a wild ride up the mountains of Baguio, ahead of your time in many things that became trendy way after you already created it....
Missing you and celebrating your life.

Another year RSM

Hey dad, it's been 22 years. Seems like yesterday. Yet the fond memories and the funny stuff become a great topic for table talk, specially tonight's Thursday Night Dinner.
We had Mexican food, ground beef tacos (with that la preferida mix the grandkids enjoy) and chicken fajitas from the little mexican grocer down the street. I also made black beans and rice, I sauteed a sofrito with the beans and added rice, along with onions. I hand made my tomatoes, cilantro and onion side, had whole wheat, corn and flour tortillas, sour cream and quesadilla cheese and shredded lettuce for the mixings and fixings. I should've had shrimps, crabs, inihaw na baboy or lechon kawali in your honor, hmm, maybe next week.
Here's to missing you dad, but you'd have been 90 by now.

Italian Beef

It was a quiet Thursday Night Dinner, no Bells, No JB and chinoys. But fun none the less with just the Dawnamites. Even Miggy decided to dance the night away after work.But, food goes on. I learned by just listening a quick way to do Italian Beef. The last time I made it for TND, I cooked it stove top and finished it oven, with lots of this and that. I heard from a friend I hang out with that a bottle of pepperoncini peppers and juice on beef in slow cooker would work. Skeptical, I added a head of sliced onion, salt and pepper but used the pepperoncini water and only half the peppers in a tall bottle. Wow. Place smelled tantalizing when we came home. With freshly baked italian bread, a quick pasta with meatballs, and some arugula for greens since I didn't want to use my asparagus, we enjoyed the meal. I still have to Julie and Julia challenge myself to cook everything in Kulinarya as is. With my penchant for tweaking, to follow it to the letter will really be a challenge. But.....we'll see and I will also blog it.

GYN at the apartment

Finally took mom's cremains home after months of whining and prodding by sister Patty who claims she cannot move or do anything because mom's cremains comfortably settled in her blue and white room whose doors are always closed made her feel creeped out. So we have her on the top shelf facing all of us at the dinner table, with Santo Nino and two iconic prints the baker/cook and fish (mom's known to be a baker of course and fish is good luck but she's also pisces) and a pretty stained glass something with purple flowers and a small votive candle holder. Hope you're ok with that mom until i can take you home and have a beautiful memorial mass for you at our old church in San Juan. Until then, welcome home.

Julie and Julia

I missed watching this when it came out on the big screen. But watching it on TV wasn't bad. I enjoyed Meryl Streep's rendition of Julia Child and the passion of this blogger who challenged herself to cooking everything in Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It got me thinking. So maybe I won't kill myself with trying all the recipes within one year, but I want to challenge myself to cooking everything in the Kulinarya cookbook collaborated by a group of gourmets and great imaginative cooks who decided to try a book of Filipino dishes to as close as standards as it can get. With the Pinoy penchant for tweaking and pinching this and that and adding this and that and secret this and that, plus our remembered memories of various food palates challenged by what we eat on a daily basis....hmmmmm.

Of course, I have to push myself to start. hahaha that would be the challenge in itself. So I may start tomorrow or next week and then blog it. Remember, I was known to be a good cook, but the mistake was not learning the kitchen food. Regrets weigh me down when I could have learned the secrets of mang Lucio and mang Emo, and I was lucky enough to have the baking recipes of Rolling Pin written down and usable, including secrets of mang Ernesto for his Vienna Cake icing. But truth is, tamad lang ako. i was known for spaghetti sauce, lasagna, Turkey and trimmings, etc. But I had to learn to make lengua and paella and still struggle with the perfect pancits.

Time will tell. Here I go again.