Of all the State Fairs I have been to, my favorite is the Iowa State Fair. It is necessary to go several times during the fair's run to be able to see and eat everything. I ended up going three times this year but have gone more often in the past. When I was a child my family would load up the station wagon and camp in the fair's parking lot. They don't let you do that any more. Instead, you have to pay to stay in the campgrounds if you can get a space.I like to enter roses in the rose contest and have won various ribbons different years. I didn't enter any this year because I didn't think they were good enough. On hindsight, I should have entered some anyway because no one had a good year and I probably would have gotten some ribbons. I will try again next year.
Last year I entered some of the baking contests. I ended up winning an honorable mention ribbon for my almond sandies. I decided not to enter anything this year since it takes a lot of time. Maybe I will try again next year. The best part of entering the events is being able to get discount fair tickets and on-the-grounds parking.
This is a picture of gold medal winning gymnist Shawn Johnson as sculpted in butter. MMM...butter. I am saving the "Butter Cow" for another post.The best part of the Iowa State Fair is the food. Some of my "must haves" are corn dogs, grinders, steak sandwich from the Cattleman's Association, and the occaisional pork chop on a stick. A real treat this year was a new booth run by the Thibedeaux's of Louisiana. They had shrimp etouffe, a large chicken breast on a stick with a bisquit on top, and shrimp on a stick. The shrimp were fine large gulf shrimp they obviously brought with them from Louisiana. The shrimp were breaded with a tasty fish breading and in between each shrimp on the stick was a sweet vidalia onion, also breaded with the fish breading. The booth always seemed to be busy despite the fact it wasn't in a very visable location. I hope they did well and will come back next year.
What would a state fair be without livestock? I will post some pictures of livestock later.
