Fair weather friends

Today we went to the fair. Yay fair! I haven't been to the OC Fair since before I started law school, and Jon has never been. It was great to go again. We divided our day into three parts, the animals, the food, and the games.

We began with the animals. I love seeing the animals. The animals love seeing us. The llamas, the cows, the goats, chickens, sheep, and the pregnant pigs!!!! The pigs at the fair are gigantic. I mean, Charlotte's Web had it all wrong. No way Wilbur stayed a cute little piggie for very long. I mean these things are HUGE! Jon made friends with a cow. Very good friends. She began by licking his sandal, the little slut. She quickly moved on to heavier petting, using his sandal to itch all over her face. I quickly told her he was taken and she had better remove her filthy cow mouth from my husband or she would find herself in between two toasted sesame seed buns.

Of course, the best part of the fair is fair food. Calories go out the window and health concerns? Foggetaboutit. Actually I'm not as bad as (ahem) some people. My favorite fair food? Funnel cake. So I made sure I had some. Jon? He had a fried twinkie (hated it), onion rings (loved them) and his favorite fair food, cotton candy. Seriously, if this boy doesn't have a heart attack before he's 40 I will attribute it completely to my attempts to reign him in at home. And also in the food category - we went to a pie eating contest. SO much fun! They started with the under 5 group. The contest was "who can eat the pie the fastest" which one of the kids didn't get and sat there, happily munching away watching his competitors shove pie in their faces. When the contest ended, he had eaten maybe the tip of his pie. Too cute! A girl won the contest. Yay girls! Next came the 5-10 group. They understood the rules a little better, and there were also a ton more guys, which meant pie EVERYWHERE. Well, at least all over them. Jon swears he saw one of the guys throw up on his plate, but they're little kids, so everyone wins. They also did a 10-15 age group and 16 and older age group which involved blindfolds, but really? Who wants to see a bunch of preteens and grownups stick their face in pie? Not me. Its enough to make me lose my appetite for funnel cake.

We headed over to the carnival area. I have two specific rules for fairs. 1) No clowns. 2) No fair rides. I mean, really. These are rides that are MEANT to come apart within seconds. Pack them up, drive to a new town, put them up. Yeah, that feels safe to me. And have you seen the people who run the rides? They don't exactly look like people you would entrust with your life.
But Jon had never ridden on a gravitron before. He was always too afraid. WHAT? There's a ride that Jon was afraid of that I wasn't? This is unprecedent. So we rode it. This wasn't the normal gravitron where the floor drops, instead, once you are spinning a million miles an hour, the ride lifts you up and turn vertical so you are spinning looking at the ground or the sky with only centrifugal force holding you up. Jon was scared, but he survived. Jon's favorite part of the fair is the games, so he had to give his money to every barker he could find. He did win me a cute little lobster in skiball. He won me some rather ugly little prizes too, but really, I'd rather not post pictures. They're really ugly. And me? Well I love skiball as you may remember. I found a game where it was a skiball race - you tossed your balls, and depending on what hole they went in determined the speed of your character. And guess what? I WON! And not only did I win, but the prize I won? Way bigger than ANY of the prizes Jon won. So I guess you would call me the big winner of the day. I love the fair.



















Mom and Dad came over for dinner tonight. They just got back from visiting my Aunt in Arizona and this is probably the last I'll get to see of them before THE BAR. I made Cooking Light's Vegetarian Pad Thai, which is one of my all time favorite foods. (I know, how cliche). I was sooooo concerned with my dad liking it (because he hates everything) that I didn't even realize my mom didn't like tofu. I'm such a bad daughter. The good news is, there was plenty for mom to eat even without the tofu (she gave dad her tofu - yeah mom, I saw that) and ate the rest of the pad thai, the broccoli, and the salad I made. The better news, my dad says it might have been his favorite meal I've made. Even my mom said it was the best tofu she's ever had (although that's not really saying much is it?). Jon said he loved it, and wished I had added chicken or shrimp to it. Normally pad thai has chicken, shrimp, and tofu. It would be easy enough to add those ingredients to this dish, now that we know its trustworthy. I love pad thai, and this was ridiculously easy to make at home (even though serrano peppers make me cough like crazy when I cut them). This will definitely become a common dish in the household.

And to make the day even better? When I got on to my email tonight I found out that I won a handmixer from Bakespace.com! Bakespace is great, basically its a Myspace for bakers without all the scary pedophiles. Instead its a space where you can trade recipes. Babette runs the site and really, she's done amazing things with it. Its grown immensely in numbers since I've joined, which is always cool. The whole month of July they're giving away kitchaid appliances every day through "raffle" system. Yesterday I won the raffle and this pretty new hand mixer, and whisk attachment, and dough hooks will be joining my arsenal very shortly. Isn't she lovely?
You can join bakespace by clicking here. I promise they don't ask for your first born or anything weird like that.
























Cooking Light's Vegetarian Pad Thai
2/3 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger
1 tsp chopped, seeded serrano chili
1/2 lb uncooked wide rice stick noodles
4 tsp canola oil
1 package extra firm tofu, drained and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
3 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups fresh bean sprouts
3/4 cup diagonally cut green onions
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
1/3 cup coarsely chopped dry roasted peanuts

1) combine first 6 ingredients, set aside
2) Cook noodles in boiling water 5 minutes or until done, drain and rinse with cold water, set aside
3) Heat 2 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add tofu, cook 7 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove from pan.
4) Combine egg whites and egg, stirring well with a whisk
5) Heat 2 tsp oil in pan over medium high heat. Add garlic and saute 10 sec. Add egg mixture, and cook 30 secs until soft scrambled, stiffing constantly. Stir in chili sauce mixture and noodles. Cook 2 minutes. Stir in tofu, bean sprouts, onions, and 1/4 cup cilantro and cook 3 minutes or until throughly heated.
6) Sprinkle 1/4 cup cilantro and peanuts over noodle mixture.

Grilled Chicken Cesar Salad

1 bag romaine lettuce
1 grilled chicken breast
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cups cooked broccoli
Caesar italian dressing
1/4 grated parmesean cheese

1) Toss lettuce with chicken, tomatoes, and broccoli
2) Add dressing
3) Sprinkle with parmesean cheese.