I had my heart set on making the rhubarb custard pie, mostly because the one I had made earlier in the week turned out so well. After tracking down an armful of fresh rhubarb at our friend's farm, I went to work on this pie first. I figured it could be my best chance at a ribbon. When I made the pie on Monday, I used my deep-dish Emile Henri pie plate. That may explain why it took quite a long time to bake it properly. For the contest, I bought the tin foil pie plates, but not even the deep dish ones. Unfortunately, I didn't adjust the baking times for the different pie plates nearly enough, and I think the pie today was overdone. With that said, it was probably the neatest looking lattice pie crust that I have ever done.
Next up was the pumpkin pie. No real problems to report. You may remember the recipe from last September (the 2nd prize winner at the Harrow Fair). I really wanted to make this pie, just to see how my results would compare from last summer. I made the big recipe, using the large can of pumpkin (Stokely), and I made two pies in the aluminum pie plates. In the morning, decided to make the banana muffins and the Rugelach. These are one of my favourite cookies and I used to make them to sell down at the market. They are made with cream cheese, creating a rich cookie crust, then rolled out into a flat circle. The circle of dough is then covered with apricot jam, and a mixture of currants, toasted walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar. Each circle is then cut into 12 wedges and rolled up. They are addictive little cookies and I hoped the judges would feel the same way.
I was feeling very nervous as we made our way back into the community centre to see the results. Turns out, I didn't need to worry!
1st Place Single Crust Pie - Pumpkin Pie
1st Place Cookie - Rugelach
1st Place Muffin - Banana
3rd Place Double Crust Pie - Rhubarb Custard Pie
We were all so surprised and excited! The kids were running around hugging me, Alan was snapping pictures of my entries, and I was being congratulated by Ellen, the woman who runs the competition. It was a happy day for the Sanders family!
Then there was the auctioning off of the desserts. Earlier in the morning, Ellen said that she could use a hand, so I volunteered to help collect the money from people after they bought something. The crowd wasn't too big but everything sold. Gavin bid against a very big man covered in tattoos. They both wanted the 1st Prize pan of brownies. Gavin finally won at $12. Ellen bid on some chocolate/white chocolate chip cookies, so those came home with us, too. Alan just had to have the buttertarts, baked by one of the ladies. I ended up getting a strawberry jam and a strawberry rhubarb jam. Also a jar of icicle pickles (they look like sweet pepper strips, sort of?).
As for the ladies, neither one of them looked blind to me! Lorna and Evelyn are sisters and I had
a chance to get to know them, as they were interested to know who had come in and won so many ribbons. They couldn't really remember how long they had been entering the contest, but they started after one woman monopolized the contest for so many years. They were very happy to have some new competition, and one of them said that this might be her last year. I hope not! They both ended up with $24 in prize money, so I didn't dent their winnings by much!The auctioneer just happened to be one of their sons and when he was auctioning off their items, he would say, "These are my Mom's buttertarts. Our whole family runs for these at potluck dinners." He even bid on some of the baking while doing the auctioning. It was so much fun to be a part of, I have given my name to Ellen and told her that I would be happy to volunteer next year.
Last night, the kids and I started leafing through last years contest book from the Harrow Fair, looking for what we could enter on Labour Day weekend. The Harrow Fair is a whole other kettle of fish. More people, more entries. Could be a very interesting summer!
