Peachy problem

Here's my problem. My peaches took forever to ripen this year because of a late, rainy spring. They just started getting ripe last week. But I have to be in Ohio for my grandson's baptism. After waiting a year, I want my peaches.

My peach tree is a source of great pride and joy for me. When we moved into our house five years ago, I went to Home Depot and found these sticks they were claiming were fruit trees. For $4.99, I figured, "What the hell" and bought one. I planted it in our front yard in front of the picture window. I optimistically reasoned that if it grew into a tree, it would provide a screen.

My neighbors laughed. "What's that supposed to be?" they said. "A peach stick. What does it look like?" I replied. I mean, seriously.

I nurtured my little stick. The first summer it produce just one peach. One perfect, sweet Zen peach. I was delighted. Then the little stick took off. Now it's a decent sized tree screening my front window. The neighbors look on with awe and covet my peaches. But no dice. These puppies will be lovingly put up by me.

But I'm in Ohio and can't collect my fruit. I gathered a bunch up before I left; skinned, pitted and trimmed them and I stuck them in the refrigerator. I'm hoping they'll last until I get home. They're a bit more buggy than normal. I don't use spray -- not because of any fervor -- but because I can't figure out how to use the sprayer. But I cut all the bug parts out. Rob says you'll get peach worm eggs if you eat them and they'll grow in your body and kill you. Sigh.

Sheesh Ka-bobs

  
  

I LOVE fair food. Each year I look forward to the fried clams -- even through they're not that good. I also get Udon noodles that are made by the Oxnard Buddist Temple, which are that good. I didn't get a funnel cake this year -- I can only eat a bit before it starts to hurt my stomach.

Overall fair food is amazingly bad for you. I had to take a picture of the top dish when I was there the other day. Three women had ordered it and were each gobbling it down. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what this nasty concoction was, so I went over the the booth where they sell spiral fries and saw that it was the chili cheese spiral fries.

I can honestly say that this looked like one of the more disgusting things I've seen people eat. First, of all the fries aren't crisp. They're served in a log shape, which keeps fries from getting a crispy outside. Then they're covered with a brown-chili sauce that has the consistency of gravy and a cheese product sauce that also has the consistency of gravy. Ewwwwwwwww. And, sorry, sometimes you DON'T have to try something to know it's disgusting.

In honor of the fair ending and in honor of just generally eating better, we had shish kabobs the other night. Let's put it this way, 180 degrees from the spiral chili cheese fries, lie shish kabobs, both in taste and nutrition. They are incredibly versatile and can be prepared for as diverse a culinary crowd as you can find, from the vegans to the meat and potato guys.

Shish kabobs are so easy to make, so economical, so good for you and so tasty, I like to refer to them as Perfection on a Stick.

Perfection on a stick
or Shish kabobs

1 to 2 pounds beef or chicken (buy an economical steak and cut it at home to save money. I prefer chuck, but whatever's on sale works) cut into one-inch chunks
1 green pepper cut into one-inch pieces
1 yellow or orange pepper cut into one-inch pieces
1 large onion, preferably red cut into one-inch pieces
mushrooms
Tomatoes are optional and I don't like them cooked this way
wooden skewers soaked in water. I use a water or juice pitcher for this
garlic powder
onion powder
Worcestershire sauce

Skewer the vegetables and meat alternately creating a nice balance, until the skewer is full. I've noticed that putting mushrooms on the ends is tricky since they tend to fall off when they cook. Sprinkle the kabobs with the powders and soak them in Worcestershire sauce. Grill over hot coals until the meat is browned. Make sure the meat is cooked through with the chicken kabobs. Serve with brown rice.

Fair fun

Here are some photos I took at this year's fair. I went on dollar day just to take some shots.

Pig races

This is a perennial kiddie favorite. The pigs race around the track to the other side to get to their food.

Braids

The farm/ranch kids come in to show off their animals or to do a little riding.

Blue-ribbon winner

There are tons of equestrian events, from jousting to rodeo-style roundups to English jumping. But all I could think of as I watched the jumpers was Christopher Reeve and how that's how he broke his neck. So I left.

Girls and goats

I have a problem with the 4-H livestock stuff because it makes me sad to see these animals knowing they will likely be killed for pork chops or steaks. I eat meat. But I prefer to be a willfully ignorant meateater. My meat comes in packages, all cut up. But since most people don't eat goat meat, I'm hoping these goats will be sold for breeding or goat milk or something.

The blues

I love how blue the sky is here and these bars against the blue sky just struck me as a cool composition.

The results are in

 
  

Every year I say I'm doing this in fun and each year -- OK this year and last, I get all torqued up when it's actually time to see how I did at the fair. Seriously. I had to take a pill. And this is just the county fair. Imagine if I were up for some big, televised award -- I'd die of an angst attack.

I rode my bike down there. I figure it's safer than me driving when I've worked myself all up into a state. It took me a while to find my entries. The first one I saw was the pie. A first place. Woooo Wooo. The pie didn't look as bad as it had earlier. I found the sugar cookies, my favorites this year, and they got a second place. The chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies didn't get anything.

It's a good showing and, frankly, I didn't feel the chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies were that good. That, however, does not stop me from noting that everyone else who ate them loved them -- especially the chocolate chip. So there!

But I'm thinking maybe pies are my thing ... maybe more pies and more first prizes. Oh yeah. I'm on my way to becoming one of the Grand Ladies of Ventura County baking: Peggy Russell of Ojai and Jeanne Walker of Oxnard step aside.

It was cool to see how many people had entered this year. There seemed to be more of a cross-section of people and a lot of names I'd never seen before.

Rob and I went and saw the fireworks, which will be set off nightly at 10 p.m. It was a clear night. I just love it here in the summer with the fair. I always took my vacation for the fair because it's so quintessentially summer.

It's Fair time

It's my favorite time of year in Ventura. Fair time. I'm not sure exactly what it is -- maybe it's the fact that it's on the ocean, maybe it's all the old-timey stuff and for sure it's because of the great, greasy wonderful culinary wonderland that is the food -- but I just love this fair.

When we first moved here, Rob and I weren't big fair people. But I went the first year I was here alone and I loved it. Rob resisted for a couple of years, but finally, I got him to go and he LOVED it. His favorite part is the Commercial Building where they sell all the fair crap/merchandise. I love Home Arts because they have sewing, and table setting and my favorite cooking.

Last year, I decided to put my proverbial money where my mouth was and entered the fair. I entered a peach pie made with peaches from my peach tree, sugar cookies and oatmeal cookies. I got a first place for the pie, a second place for the sugar cookies and third place for the oatmeal cookies. I couldn't have been happier. Well actually I could have. I could have won all first places and the blue ribbon for all of cooking, but hey, it was a first try.

This year the weather has been unusually hot and sticky. Fortunately the heat has abated for now, but the humidity remains. I'm beginning to think the reason most heavy cooking and baking happens in the winter is to avoid the hot, sticky days that can wreak havoc on baked goods.

I ended up battling my peach pie crust, and I think it won. The juices overflowed and popped the top and the foil I put on the edges to keep them from getting too brown stuck and in one spot it looks pretty bad. The peaches, which were from the farmer's market, weren't very good. The texture was good though, so I put a bunch of turbinado sugar on them. In fact, this is the year of turbinado sugar because I used it on my cookies too. I figure everything is going to get soft because of the humidity, and the sugar will keep it crunchy and give the cookies and pie a little edge.

My buddy Kaia helped me bake the cookies. She and I are becoming quite the baking team -- making cookies year-round. Rob and I also take Kaia to the fair each year. This gives us a completely different experience from when we go ourselves. We're old fogies and love stuff like photography, horticulture, home arts and shucksters. Kaia likes rides and games and candy.

I took my entries to the fair today. They'll be judged by tomorrow -- Wednesday, the first day of the fair. I'm not as optimistic as I was last year -- especially about the pie. But I had so much fun with Kaia and I felt so happy just baking my brains out for the county fair as so many have done before me. It's, like all-American and stuff. It's also really fun to create happy memories for a lovely little girl, which can be taken out for solace or joy as she gets older.

No matter what the ribbon, the real prize was getting ready.