Round up yer Lil' Corn Dodgers

Once every 365 days a huge festival happens in Grand Junction Tn., Aka, the middle of No-where. This is the gold standard of Festivals for me and every other festival is judged by it. The Ames Plantation Heritage Festival!

First the Food then the Fun.



Every festival has burgers, hot dogs and some kind of Nacho, but I have to find the Good food. Ames has A CHUCK WAGON! They cook like a real chuck wagon , serve food like a real chuck wagon, look like a real chuck wagon, and they are a real chuck wagon! I tried the beef stew which was flavored by Beef. Yum! Huge hunks of carrots and huge chunks of onions and huge chunks of beef.  Also I had a favorite Corn Dodgers!! Fried corn meal, crispy, fried,  hot...yum! Her Pots are Hug! The strangest part is when we went back for a second plate she was almost out. Did I mention she also made hot dogs, chicken and dumplings, pinto beans and ham and cobbler, well she does.

They had a demonstration on hog butchering, not for the faint of heart!  I don't like anatomy and blood, so it was a bit creepy. However, I got to try the fresh sausage they made out of that HOG and it was tasty; very ,very tasty. there was only one problem they were not selling it so I could not take any home. The nice lady did give me a bunch of samples. I now want to try and make my own sausage too.

I had some Amish ice cream that was just so yummy. Made from cream and turned by an old fashion engine. it was worth the rather long line. It was not really the best thing there- that was the sausage but it was a great cool treat right before I had to leave.

The Fun-

They always plant a field of Cotton so you can pick your own bag right from the brush and then take it over to the Cotton gin and catch your seeds and gather your lint. How cool is that!  this year they had heirloom rust color cotton and Green color cotton and some traditional white cotton. I did gather a whole bag of only green and I got myself some really green cotton. You could have a nice lady spin your lint into string! My brown and green looked cool together.

I found the blacksmith shop and he made a skewer and he answered all of my questions. it was cool. He had a huge bellow, and a hot coal fire. At the end of the day he let me back into the smith area and I got to make a horse shoe into a fish. I used the bellows. I had a lot of fun with him doing the blacksmithing. 

They had a group of Alpacas which were very very fuzzy! So cute and soft! they had alpaca balls that you put in the dryer to help it dry faster and dewrinkle your clothes. I did not get any but I sure wanted to. 

Here are some other things we got to do and see











Civil war renacting, flint knapping, goat milking, early farm house cooking, the Stencil house, archeological dig, leaf pounding, story telling, music, vintage engines, horse shoeing, bee keeping, candle making, tobacco harvesting, brick making, and just a bunch more- the gold standard of festivals!

See ya next year!
Love the Cabbage,
Leaf

The Burger Olympics

It was all fun and games Sunday at Minglewood hall. The Best Burger of Memphis Challenge, started by a local food blogger, was all crazy burger hats and burger mania. They even had a truck with a TV in it. I so want one of those.  The event has grown to around 15 to 16 tents all serving Burgers.
 



In one of these tents I met local Chef Robbie Cirillo from downtown's Bleu Restaurant. This courageous young chef let me help him plate the burgers for the judges. His pecan smoked bacon, grilled cheese bun creation looked so delicious, I wanted to just eat it up! I am sure he won- even though I have not heard who really did win. Chef Cirillo invited me to come to the restaurant and get a tour of his kitchen and enjoy his cooking. I cant wait to be Bleu at his restaurant. Know what my favorite color is? Blue!!! I know it is gonna be great.

I did try one burger sample from another tent,but sorry to say this it was way over seasoned and just not my favorite. I hope they did better for the judges. 

I did know some of the judges too. Ms Biggs was there, she did the article on me going to the White House. I also saw Mame Shannon from Local Color, a cool show on local events on PBS. 

All the money they raised went to the Memphis Spay and Neuter clinic. Helping animals that did not unfortunately get to try a single burger!

I hope to enter the Challenge next year. It looked like so much fun! 
Look out Robbie cause here I come....

Love the Cabbage,
Leaf

Hug From The First Lady PRICELESS! 

We flew into Reagan Airport in DC and took the Metro to our hotel. In the lobby we found all the other contestants and we got a room. It was an exercise room with a stationary bike and a weight ball. How cool is that! It was a great room.  I love hotels they are the best.

We could see the pool out the window. 

We went to the Smithsonian Muesum and we saw Julia Child's Kitchen. The curator gave us lots of secret behind the scenes information. I liked how she wanted her stuff in the same place and she had pictures so that people would put stuff back in the right place. We had time to poke around the muesum and it was really cool.

Next up was a great healthy pizza party. All the kids were there and we had fun. Sam drew a finger mustache for me, I wish I had a picture of it! We did a big cook book signing. I felt like a star! I am in a cook book! It looked like a great party. Thanks Epicurious for the amazing pizza party. 

I know what you are hungry for - 

The hug-
Love the Cabbage,Leaf

Tuna Quinoa Salad $4.00..........

 

Well, You all know that I love to cook, and I have tried a contest or two, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that I entered The Epicurious First Kids' State Dinner contest and that I won for Great State of Tennessee. 

I found out about this contest while Mamma was looking for nutritional facts for the Cub Scouts. I really was not sure I wanted to enter it, but after some convincing I decided it could be fun. The prize was extravagant. 

First, I wanted to make one of my favorites a Grits Bowl,
 I will give you a recipe for that one day soon. I did learn that grits are not a whole grain, they did not met the My Plate Standards. I saw Quinoa on the list and got curious, epically curious. 

I learned to cook it like rice, it is not hard. I tried lots of different ingredients before I realized that just plain Tuna was the tastiest. I added my favorite veggies and one I don't like onions. I had a great salad but no ideas on how to plate it! We tried a lettuce wrap, or carrot chips and the salad as dip but they seemed boring. My Auntie came and she thought to stuff a pepper acept what kid wants to bit through a whole pepper! Mamma and I sliced them in half and they looked like boats so my Tuna Schooners where discovered. They sailed me all the way to the White House. 

My recipe is in a cookbook available for free from the USgov web sight, along with the other great healthy winners.

More on the great trip and the White House tomorrow-

I promise

Love the Cabbage

Leaf

The Great Spice Rack

Maggie's Pharm in Midtown Memphis is the best place to find every spice imaginable. It is tucked away by Memphis Pizza Cafe and has been there forever.

They have a bunch of funny items like Titanic ice cubes, which I got for my Mom, lots of soaps, perfumes and oils. But the most exciting thing in the shop is the huge spice WALL. I think they have every spice imaginable.





I love the selection of Mexican seasonings like chipolte chili powder, and hot chili powders. I love cayenne pepper too. All the spices are organic and you can get small amounts for a little money so you can try lots of them. They put them into little zip lock bags.

My favorite though are the exotic salts. I love these and have a started a collection of my own. My favorite is the apple wood smoked salt. These salts add a ton of extra flavor not just saltiness. I have tried the black salt, pink salt, and dead sea salt.

My apple wood smoked salt

So take a peak at my video just bellow and then stop by Maggie's and Spice Up Your Day. Tell them I sent you!

Love the cabbage,

Leaf

a MAZE ing by Chef Ramsay

One of the big highlights of my trip to NY was my fancy dinner at Maze by Gordon Ramsay

It started with a warm salad of confit duck leg roasted pear, foie gras butter, blue cheese, bitter green. It was aMAZEing, so tender , with tons of flavor. I loved it, so much that my Mom had to order another just to get a bite. The pears were slightly warm and the nuts were roasted and toasted to give them extra flavor. I tried the Roasted Spanish Mackerel with grilled romaine lettuce, tomato marmalade, parmesan, and basil. I thought it sounded, well, too fishy but the taste was so aMAZEing. The fish was flaky and tender with a crisp skin, the other flavors set it off perfectly.

For entries I tried three- the Spiced carnaroli risotto of amarillo pepper, parmesan, chorizo, little neck clams, caramelized pears. The roast breast of long island duck braised red cabbage gaufrette potato, fig and red wine jus, and a seared flat iron steak with crispy polenta and broccoli rhab ( can you tell it is not on the menu they gave me to take home)


Anyone seeing a Chef Ramsey show knows he always serves a risotto, I had never tried one before but it was aMAZEing. Very creamy and buttery, with the chewy clam fresh from the sea and the bite sized bit of spicy sausage. I did not need the pear but I did not hate it either. The duck was so tender and delicious you would have loved it! The fig sauce gave it an aMAZEing balance of sweetness. I did not try the veggies but they looked good! The flat iron steak was seasoned and cooked to perfection. It has a fresh green sauce that was so very flavorful. I loved the crispy polenta, not like my Mom's at all. I just wanted to eat it all. The broccoli rehab looked good but there was just too many other goodies to waste my room on broccoli.

I shared three desserts - Valrhona chocolate fondants,green cardamom caramel sea salt and almond ice cream. a sort of gooey chocolate thing in a cup. It was very yummy. the ice cream was so good to me but others thought it was too salty. There was this fantastic carrot cake with a caramel, nut ice cream. The best carrot cake I have ever tasted, aMAZEing. The chocolate pudding and white chocolate whip stuff (again not on the menu they gave me) was so light and fluffy. It was to die for good. I am not sure how they got it to stand up in that rectangle but it looked great. Did I mention the salt covered bread and the dark chocolate filled with sea salt caramel truffles on the table???? Yum!

After dinner Ms. Defazio gave me a behind the scene tour of the kitchen and restaurant . Now that was so aMAZEing. The kitchen was huge and incredibly clean! I met Chef Dave who made the duck confit for the menu. He talked to me like a real chef and not a kid! I now know they do all the room service and banquets for the Hotel London, as well as the restaurants. I saw a huge wall of wine bottles at least 20 ft long. I peaked into the fine dinning restaurant London.

There is a big table in the kitchen that is called the Chef table it costs 1900 bucks to eat there with your friends, but I bet it is worth it! I hope one day I can do that!!!!!! I think you get 9 courses and wines, the best part would be watching the Chefs cook. aMAZEing.

I can't tell you how much I loved it! Thank you Maze for the great dinner and making me feel so special with the kitchen tour!

I wonder how far room service delivers??!!!

Love the cabbage,
Leaf
 

Leaving on a jet plane......

Drum Roll Please..............

I am in the top 5 of the Jif most creative peanut butter sandwich challenge!

I would like to thank all my voters for supporting me. I wish I could take you all with me on this timeless journey. They would run out of hotel rooms. Ha ha ha...

It is only 2 weeks away! What?! I am so excited!

I can't wait to go to the big Toys R Us in Times Square. We might do a helicopter ride over NYC, eat at a Chef Ramsey Restaurant (not the most expensive one), climb at a NYC climb center, we were even invited to a design studio of a designer we met at the TV station! 

Another Drum Roll........

I will be on the Today show on March 21st with the other 4 finalists. It is in Rockefeller Center, too bad they took down the big Christmas tree! Aw!

Another Drum Roll.........please....

I get to stay an extra week with my Nana in NY. We will go to a huge bakery that is so cool. I will go to the Lego store and climb some big rocks close to the Appalachian trail. It is going to be so much fun!

Thank you Jif for letting me go on this great adventure!

Thank you my loyal voters, I am so excited and grateful!

Leaving on jet a plane-------- warning this song may get stuck in your head! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLBKOcUbHR0

Love the Cabbage,

Leaf

The Peanut Press

Memphis Tn: The Peanut Press has tracked down Logan G. the Jif Peanut Butter Fianlist
I have insight that he created The Chomp Burger for the 10th Annual Most Creative Sandwich Challenge.

Logan has appeared on ABC 24, FOX 13 Morning show, ABC 24 Midday and just shot a segment with Action news 5. "It has been a fun ride and I am dying to know who is going to win it all." said Logan.

"The most fun about being on TV is watching yourself" said Logan
In the studio at the anchor desk there was seasme seed chaos, They spilled all over! Logan could see the teleprompters and th green screen weatherman. He even had a dream about doing the weather himself. At Fox 13 there was a massive TV. It was fun.
Kym Clark really liked the Chomp Burger today and was going to try and make it at home!

Logan says"Everyone has been so encourageing But the big question is Have you Voted TODAY?!"

www.jif.com/promotions/most-creative-peanut-butter/castovte

Love the cabbage,
Leaf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVp6ZnGVBks&feature=youtu.be

Why do Choosy Moms Choose Jif?

Because of the Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest!

I am a FINALIST!

Here are the wonderfully fantastic prizes
1 kid wins $25,000 for College
4 kids win $2,500 for College
The top 5 get to go to NYC- Weeeeeeee! I love NY.
And the top 10 win $50 for Jif Peanut butter!

How did I get to be a finalist?

Momma and I spent a fun day in the kitchen, experimenting with turkey burgers. I love burgers. I wanted to make a tasty healthy burger. Something people would enjoy eating and  not feel guilty about.
We mixed Jif Natural Peanut Butter in with our turkey meat and add some other ingredients.
I love Jif Natural Peanut Butter it has a great taste and you don't have to stir it at all.  I created a sauce with the peanut butter some Yakisoba sauce and mixed a broccoli slaw for the burger. Garnished with an apple slice for extra crunch and surprise a yummy burger.

I know you want the recipe- right! Go to the Jif web sight!

NOW I NEED YOUR VOTE!!!!!
Once a day every day.
 Please!
 www.Jif.com/Promotions/Most-Creative-Peanut-Butter/Castvote
And vote for Logan G. Memphis TN  The Chomp Burger


I am enjoying the roller coaster ride and hopefully it does not end soon!

Thank you  to Jif and my Voters- Jif really made my burger look great! I love this picture!!! You know you want to try it and now I do too.

Love the Cabbage,
Leaf