"Food Festival, USA" & "The Great Southern Food Festival Cookbook - one last homage to the Minnesota State Fair!

Date I made these recipes:  Monday, September 5, 2016 – Labor Day and the last day of the Minnesota State Fair

Food Festival, USA – 250 Red, White & Blue Ribbon Recipes from All 50 States by Becky Mercuri

Published by Laurel Glen

ISBN: 1-57145-775-5; © 2002

Purchased at BCPA (Bloomington Crime Prevention Association) annual sale, June 2016

Recipe(s): Isanti County Potato Festival, Cambridge, MN (last Saturday in September)  – Cheesy Potato Slices – p. 204 – and - Gilroy Garlic Festival, Gilroy, CA  (Friday through Sunday of the last full weekend of July) - Creamy Potato Gratin with Gorgonzola, Pears, and Pecans – p. 362-363

The Great Southern Food Festival Cookbook by Mindy B. Henderson

Published by Thomas Nelson

ISBN: 978-1-4016-0361-8; © 2008

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores– Richfield, MN

Recipe:  West Virginia Blackberry Festival, Nutter Ford, West Virginia – first weekend in August - Blackberry Buckle – p. 148

Readers, I don't know what has gotten into me, but  I have never been so inspired to cook recipes related to the Minnesota State Fair.  Ever.  I mean, over the 36 years I've lived here, I have maybe visited the fair a handful of times. 

But for whatever reason, I just keep wanting the show to go on and so this was my one, last gasp at fair-related foods.  And of course, I wouldn't be the collector I am if I didn't have a couple of cookbooks that celebrates food festivals.

Not that the Minnesota State Fair is a food festival per se, but it is the largest attended gathering that celebrates all that is agriculture and agriculture is food, right, so there you go?

And then there's the food served at the fair itself which ranges from alligator (on a stick) to turkey drumsticks ("stick" already included) to pasta (on a stick) casserole (on a stick), deep-fried pickles (on a stick) and other assorted items both on a stick and not on a stick.  I know other state fairs serve food on a stick but these type of yummy creations are what the Minnesota State Fair is known for and rightly so.

That said, what did I have to eat during the two days I was at the State Fair?  Brace yourselves:  a foot-long hot dog (love it) and a bag of cheese popcorn, neither of which was served on a stick.  I hang my head in shame.

And, as my friend, Laura, reminded me, I had a half of a chicken wrap sandwich at the Hamline Dining Hall and let me say, I felt all kinds of Catholic and Methodist mixed guilt (note to self:  look up Methodist "guilt") over this because the dining hall is known for all kinds of Minnesota staples including your ham loaf and your Swedish meatballs but I did not sample and was not interested in this fare.  If there is a special hell reserved for State Fair goers who do not partake of all the food offerings, then I guess I'm in like Flynn!

Anyway, so there I was, contemplating the end of the State Fair and all that goes with it, and then (as often happens), I glanced over at a bookshelf and there was the Food Festival, USA cookbook.  And so I grabbed that and The Great Southern Food Festival Cookbook and we were off and running.

Now as you probably know (and for sure TV chefs will tell you), food is best eaten when is season but given that grocery stores now carry all kinds of foods year-round, I decided to go with food I liked and take it from there. 

Technically, given that this is early September, I am not off-track by making recipes from festivals that have already taken place (Gilroy Garlic Festival takes place the last weekend of July and the blackberry festival took place the first weekend in August) and hey, I'm ahead of the game for the cheesy potatoes as that festival doesn't start until the end of September.  Brilliant!

So.  Throwing caution to the wind, I started to mark off potential recipes from each book, and before you knew it, I had bookmarked more recipes that I could possibly make.  Each book contains some great options making it so difficult to choose.

The Food Festival, USA book divides up festivals by sections of the United States, and so you'll get a sampling of all kinds of festival foods from these areas: Northeast; South; Midwest; Great Plains; West/Southwest, and Pacific.  It also includes a directory of "Festivals by Month" and a "Directory of Festivals by State" but I liked flipping through it section by section rather than month-by-month. 

Here's a sampling of festivals and dishes and let me just add a disclaimer that I'm not saying you have to go to these (because I'm sorry?  Chitlin Jamboree?) but rather that these were the interesting ones that caught my eye!

Northeast: National Lima Bean Festival, W. Cape May, NJ – Saturday of Columbus Day Weekend – recipe:  "Key Lima Pie"

South: Alabama Chitlin Jamboree, Clio, AL – Always the Last Saturday in October – recipe: "Sausage Roll." But if that doesn't float your boat, and I'm guessing it won't, then maybe the Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival in Warren, AL will.  The recipe though – "Green Tomato Beans with Toasted Almonds" - calls for green tomatoes, not pink. What's up with that?

Midwest: Lingonier Marshmallow Festival, Lingonier, IN – Labor Day Weekend – recipe:  "Joyful Almond Cake."  And let me also add this festival:  Aebleskiver Days, Tyler, MN – Friday and Saturday of the Weekend Following Father's Day in June.  I am proud to say I not only know what an aebleskiver is, but I have eaten them.  It's a small, puffed pancake that looks like a donut – delicious!  The recipe included though – "Danish Kringle" – is definitely not an aebleskiver (so then why is it featured for this festival??) but it is still a good pastry.

Great Plains:  Houby (Czech for "mushroom") Days, Czech Village, Cedar Rapids, IA – Saturday and Sunday of the Weekend After Mother's Day – recipe: "Koblihy (Doughnuts)" that contain not one scrap of mushrooms, go figure!

West/Southwest: Tucson Solar Potluck and Exhibition, Tucson, AZ – Second Saturday in May – recipe: "Solar Garden Soup" and, bonus event:  International Rhubarb Festival in Silverton, CO that is always on the 4^th of July.  You've got to hand it to a place that hosts an international rhubarb festival as opposed to your domestic ones.  The featured recipe is "Rhubarb Ice Cream."

The Pacific:  Fillmore Orange Festival, Fillmore, CA – First weekend in May – Recipe:  "Grand Avenue Orange Sherbet."  And please folks, please tell me you get why I just had to select a recipe from Fillmore:  "F-F-FIL-L-L-LMO-O-O-ORE, Fillmore Junior High!"  I just had to. (Hint:  Think Brady Bunch!)

So that's the way the Food Festival, USA cookbook breaks out.  The Great Southern Food Festival Cookbook though, is divided by calendar months, some of which, like January, are sparse for festivals, and other months like September, seem to have an overabundance of festivals which is to say, when it's harvest season, it's harvest season!

So again, here's a sampling of festivals, included because they caught my attention:

April: Big Squeeze Juice Festival, Palm Bay Florida;  Chicken and Egg Festival, Moulton, Alabama

May: Poke Salat Festival, Arab, Alabama

June: RC and Moon Pie Festival, Bell Buckle, Tennessee (Let me just say that I almost made this recipe because...well, of course, right?  RC [Cola] and Moon Pies go together.  Everybody knows that, don't they?  Don't they??)

September: Irmo Okra Strut, Irmo, South Carolina (When I first looked at this, I thought it said "Irma," not "Irmo," and thought "Well, okay, if Irma wants to strut her okra, who am I to judge!"

October: Gautier Mullet Festival, Gautier, Mississippi – You young'uns might think this refers to hair.  It does not.  Don't go there.  "Mullet" is a fish.

Now out of all these fabulous festivals and fabulous recipe possibilities, I narrowed it down to two items:  blackberry and potatoes, or "Potatoes Two Ways" as Andy called it, seeing as how I could not just get by with one potato recipe.  Plus, in keeping with our tangential State Fair theme, the Cheesy Potato Slices recipe hails from Isanti County (Cambridge, MN) an area that Andy and I drove to just last weekend to go to Lake Mille Lacs just north of Cambridge.  We didn't have a reason to go to Lake Mille Lacs except we have never seen it and felt like a road trip.  We drove, we saw, we ooed, we aahed, and then we came home. 

And once we touched town at Casa Verme/Martin, I pulled my grocery lists together and the next day, commenced firing.

I started out with the Blackberry Buckle recipe and it was really easy to make.  You make your (raw) cake base, to which you add blackberries, the crumb topping, and then bake!  My only boo-boo, and it was minor, was that I tried to hurry the butter-softening process and almost liquefied it by keeping it in the microwave too long.  So instead of a crumble, I ended up with more of a spread but no matter as it baked up just fine.

Then there were the "Potatoes, Two Ways."  I don't know about you, but I cannot envision how a cheese + combination would not make someone happy; these two recipes made me ecstatic!

Up first: Cheesy Potato Slices where potatoes and cheese are combined with fresh herbs for a winning combination.  This recipe though, took longer to bake than stated.  Directions indicate to bake 15-30 minutes covered, and then 10-12 uncovered.  Often, when recipes are halved, they require half the baking time but not in this case as we clocked in just under an hour before the potatoes were done. Nonetheless, it was indeed cheesy and therefore delicious!

Up second (and last):  Creamy Potato Gratin with Gorgonzola, Pears, and Pecans and this recipe proved a tad more challenging to make.

First, I got us off to the wrong start by par-boiling the potatoes for too long.  This is all (chef) Jamie Oliver's fault!  I looked up instructions on the internet about how long to par-boil potatoes (as called for in the instructions) and Jamie Oliver's instructions popped up first.   They said cook for seven minutes and then cool for three.

I realized after the fact of course, that Jamie probably meant (but did not say) this cooking time to apply to whole potatoes.  The recipe though, called for the potatoes to be peeled and thinly sliced.

And so seven minutes in that hot bath pretty much cooked my potatoes in whole, not in part and...drat.  Now what?

So I carried on with the rest of the recipe as best I could and duly layered my potatoes and pears and cheese and pecans and garlic cream sauce and put it in the oven.  And then, because I made half the recipe, halved the baking times which were 25 minutes under foil and then 20-35 minutes longer without foil until "almost all of the cream mixture is absorbed and the potatoes are tender."

Well now, all my potatoes were tender before I started and my cream sauce was pretty much all absorbed instead of almost all absorbed, but don't let this stop you because the taste was great.  Andy suggested layering this differently (were I to make this again) and he might be right.  Sometimes, it's all in the wrists and the baking vessel!

Please note that each recipe has a different baking time and temperatures which is why I made the blackberry buckle one day and then the "Potatoes, Two Ways" on another day, one behind the other.

This concludes – I swear – cookbook and recipe recaps that are Minnesota State Fair-related.

Enjoy your fall.

Blackberry Buckle – from The Great Southern Food Festival Cookbook and West Virginia Blackberry Festival, Nutter Fort, West Virginia (First weekend in August) – makes 6 servings

Filling:

¼ cup (1/2 stick butter)

½ cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups fresh blackberries

Crumb Topping:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the filling, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease and flour a 7 x 7-inch pan.  Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the egg; beat well.  Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together.  Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk and vanilla.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan; cover with the blackberries.

For the topping, combine the sugar, butter, flour, and cinnamon together in a bowl and mix until crumbly.  Spread the topping over the blackberries and bake for 45 minutes or until done.

Cheesy Potato Slices – from Food Festival, USA and Isanti County Potato Festival, Cambridge, MN – Cheesy Potato Slices made by prize-winner Kathryn Stavem – serves 4-6

6 medium, unpeeled russet potatoes

¼ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon rosemary leaves

½ teaspoon thyme leaves

½ teaspoon chives (fresh or dried)

¾-1 cup butter

½-1 cup grated cheddar cheese

¼ teaspoon paprika

Preheat oven to 425F.  Scrub potatoes well and slice very thin.  Spread in layers in a lightly greased 13 x 9-inch or larger pan.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and chives and dot with butter.  Bake, covered with foil, for 15-30 minutes.  Sprinkle with grated cheese and paprika.  Bake another 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender-crisp and cheese is melted.

Creamy Potato Gratin with Gorgonzola, Pears, and Pecans – from Food Festival, USA and the 2000 Gilroy Garlic Festival, Gilroy, CA – recipe made by prize-winner Camilla Saulsbury of Bloomington, IN – serves 6

10 large garlic cloves, peeled

1/3 cup Marsala wine

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

3 large russet potatoes (1 ½ pounds), peeled, thinly sliced, and partially cooked

2 large pears, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

8 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

Salt and freshly cracked pepper

1 cup pecans

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

In a small pan filled with water, parboil the garlic cloves until tender, about 8 minutes.  Place cloves and Marsala in a blender and puree until smooth.  Combine with cream and set aside.

 Preheat oven to 400F.  Lightly grease a 12 x 8-inch rectangular glass dish and arrange 1/3 each of the potatoes and pears.  Dot potatoes with 1/3 of the Gorgonzola and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.  Top with 1/3 of the pecans and 1 teaspoon rosemary.  Repeat layering 2 more times.  Pour garlic-cream mixture over the top.

Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes longer or until almost all of the cream mixture is absorbed and the potatoes are tender.

"The Recipe Project Cookbook" (recipe by Mario Batali) & "The Hip-Hop Cookbook" (recipe by Hip Hop artist, Pexter) - more Minnesota State Fair

Date I made these recipes:  September 1, 2016 – a homage to the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand acts and my (coveted) Golden Decibel Award

The Hip Hop Cookbook - Four Elements Cooking by Cutmaster GB

Published by From Here to Fame Publishing

ISBN: 978-2-927946-38-2; © 2012

Purchased at Magers and Quinn Independent Booksellers (used) – Minneapolis, MN

Recipe:  Pexter's Angel Hair Parmesan Chicken – p. 60  (Pexter is Hip Hop artist Powerful Pex)

The Recipe Project– A Delectable Extravaganza of Food and Music – Songs by One Ring Zero, Words by Mario Batali; Tom Colicchio; David Chang; Isa Chandra Moskowitz; Michael Symon, Chris Cosentino and more (includes a CD of songs)

Published by Black Balloon Publishing

ISBN: 13: 978-1-936787-00-5; © 2011

Purchased at Powell's Chicago

Recipe:  Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes courtesy of Mario Batali – p. 10

As mentioned in my last post, it's State Fair time here in Minnesota and in addition to all the things you'd expect to find at a state fair (animals, creative arts, lots of food, tractors, etc.), in these parts you also get The Grandstand.  The venerable Grandstand, only a few miles away from our house, books out many great bands during its 12-day run and given how sound travels, we practically have front-row seats to each and every concert!  For 12 nights, we hear each and every guitar lick, and each and every bass note, and each and every drum beat.   

So several years ago, after being "treated" to concert after concert, I created the (coveted) Golden Decibel Award for the person or group who blasts us out of house and home during the fair.  And by "blast," I mean that we cannot hear ourselves think and any TV show we are watching is drowned out by the music.  It's fun for the whole family!

Although I reserve the final vote (my contest, my vote—but with consultation from Andy), I always ask my Facebook friends to play along and vote for who they think will take the award. Then the Wednesday before opening day (always on a Thursday), I post the schedule with a link to The Grandstand acts and then people reply with their (initial) choices.  Here were this year's contenders:

• Don Henley (formerly of the Eagles)
• Charlie Wilson with special guest, Fantasia
• Dixie Chicks (two nights)
• Happy Together (music from the 60's and 70's)
• G-Eazy
• Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas
• Alabama
• Garrison Keillor (from A Prairie Home Companion)
• Weezer
• Bonnie Raitt

I always find it interesting that people tend to vote for the larger groups, like Dixie Chicks, or Alabama, thinking they have the firepower to be heard from a couple of miles away.  They are not wrong but I always caution voters that anything can happen and that weather plays an important part in determining the winner.  If it is hot and humid (as it usually is at this time of year), no amount of sound gets through Nature's "Wall of Water," and we've had some years where we wondered if anybody would prevail.  Such was not the case this year but more on that later.  Let's talk cookbooks!

Since the Golden Decibel Award is theoretically about music (but more like "Quien es mas macho?" when it comes to making noise), I thought it would be fun to make something from these two band and music-related cookbooks and to make it easiest on myself, I tried out two different pasta dishes rather than do different and more complicated courses.

And so from the shelf, I pulled The Recipe Project Cookbook, a book with 12 (and only 12) recipes, a CD of songs by One Ring Zero as well as musical and cooking discussions, and The Hip Hop Cookbook, filled with 40 recipes from 40 Hip Hop artists but alas, no music CD.  Let's review!

I must say that The Recipe Project Cookbook, while intriguing, was sadly lacking in what I consider to be edible fare.  One recipe was for "Raw Peach."  Now I ask you, how does a "raw" peach "recipe" end up in a cookbook?  File that under "Nothing to see here, folks."

Also eliminated:  "Creamless Creamed Corn," "Pickled Pumpkin," "Octopus with Black Eyed Peas," and my favorite (not really) "Brains and Eggs." Ugh. 

So just like the Golden Decibel Award, this left me with few contenders out of the 12 and so I went with the one that seemed easiest: Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes courtesy Mario Batali.

Mario's recipe would have been a home run save for the trouble I had finding these two very important ingredients:  lemon basil and garlic chives.  I checked three of the more upscale grocery stores in town and struck out, and the Seward Co-Op near my house had only garlic chives (by the pound!) and not the lemon basil.  I must say that I was surprised as I can usually source almost anything I want in the Twin Cities.  Except for today, of course.

So I tweaked this dish as follows:  I added a bit more garlic to the recipe and then grated some lemon zest into the sauté pan and it worked out fine.  It was only after I "ta-da'ed" the dish to Andy that he reminded me that he wasn't that fond of tomatoes.  Oops.

In addition to the recipes, you'll also get nine "Musings" by various writers and five "Interviews" with "celebrity" chefs and other foodies. My favorite "musing" is "The Beatles' White Album: I'm Just Here For the Food," by cookbook author and food columnist, Melissa Clark.  And in the "Interview" category, I like Andrea Reusing expounding on "Bruce Springsteen, Egg Haters, and Giant Clams."  You've got to love an interview with that mash-up in the title!

Then from The Hip Hop Cookbook, you get 40 bios and 40 recipes from various Hip Hop artists. I have to confess that the only artist I recognize from this list is Kurtis Blow and the only song I know is his "The Breaks:" "Clap your hands everybody/If you got what it takes/'Cause I'm Kurtis Blow and I want you to know/That these are the breaks." (And how cosmic was this:  our local radio station, The Current, played this song yesterday afternoon.  Awesome!)

Other hip hop artists featured in this book (random sampling here) are:  Katmando; Blade TC5; Funkmaster Ozone; Cutmaster GB and Pyestar.  Today's recipe was from the previously-mentioned Powerful Pexter, a/k/a Tony Lopez.  When I Googled this guy, he came up under "Old-School Hip Hop."  I love it—"Old School" – as if I know who the "New School" hip hop artists are (I don't). 

Happily, this cookbook contained more recipes than The Recipe Project and while there were several pasta dishes that sounded interesting, I decided to make it as easy as possible and cook for chicken with parmesan.

You should know though folks, that this chicken parmesan is not the chicken parm you may be used to or expecting.  The chicken is not coated, there's no red sauce and no mozzarella cheese.  Instead, it's pretty much as labeled:  Parmesan + chicken to which you add garlic, ½ fresh chili and parsley.  That's it. 

While I liked both recipes, Andy was a little underwhelmed. I thought both were tasty even if they were a bit on the boring side.  But again, as between brains and eggs, and pasta with tomatoes, I know which one he wouldn't have chosen and so that made that choice easy. 

So I made these dishes and then on Labor Day, the 2016 Golden Decibel Award contest wrapped up and our winner was...drum roll...Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas! (Applause!  Applause!)  Not one single person on Facebook, picked them! I didn't pick them!  Seems like nobody but nobody excepted them to prevail.  But let me tell you folks, they earned it by blasting us out of our house for almost 3 solid hours.  By the time they finished, it took me and Andy another hour just to realize that the show was over.  That is some kind of fire power!

So.  That concludes the (coveted) Golden Decibel Award and the Minnesota State Fair and this recipe blog!  These recipes, while not award-winning, are easy to make, leaving you plenty of time to relax and listen to your own favorite musical selections, and hopefully not because they were "beamed" into your living room from a couple miles away!

Mario Batali's Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes – serves 4 – from The Recipe Project Cookbook

Kosher salt

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 pint sweet 100 tomatoes, or other tiny tomatoes

½ bunch garlic chives, cut into 1-inch lengths*

12 fresh lemon basil leaves, finely shredded*

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 pound spaghetti

Lemon zest*

*If you can't find garlic chives, substitute regular chives.  Same with the lemon basil but then add some lemon zest to the dish to approximate the lemon basil flavor.

Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons of salt.

In a 12- to 14-inch sauté pan, heat the olive oil over high heat until almost smoking.  Lower the heat to medium-high and add garlic cloves.  Cook for 2 minutes, or until softened and slightly browned.  Add the tomatoes, chives, and basil, and cook over high heat until the tomatoes are just beginning to burst.  Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in the boiling water according to package directions until it is tender, yet al dente.  Drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the tomatoes.  Toss over high heat for 1 minute, then divide evenly among four warmed pasta bowls and serve immediately.

Pexter's Angel Hair Parmesan Chicken – serving size not given (4?)- from The Hip Hop Cookbook

14 oz angel hair or other pasta

6 Tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves

½ fresh chili*

2 stalks of fresh, flat-leaf parsley, chopped

9 oz chicken breast

2/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

 *I used red pepper flakes instead of chili

Finely chop the garlic and chili, then cut the chicken into small pieces. Heat a bit of oil in a pan, add the garlic and chili and sauté on low heat for several minutes.  Add the chicken and sauté until thoroughly cooked.  Remove from the stove and add the parsley.

Cook the pasta in a large pot with salted water until al dente, drain and mix with the chicken/garlic/chili mixture.  Immediately add Parmesan and serve.

"Great (Minnesota) State Fair Recipes" & "Blue Ribbon Winners - America's Best State Fair Recipes" - Chocolate Drop Cookies and German Apple Cake - It's State Fair Time!

Date I made these recipes:  August 27, 2016 – it's State Fair time here in Minnesota!

Great State Fair Recipes – A Collection of Minnesota State Fair Sweepstakes – Winning Recipes from 1906 to 1975 (spiral bound), edited by Karen Humphrey

Published by Minnesota State Agricultural Society (State Fair) and the American Daily Association of Minnesota

© 1976

Gift from a friend

Recipe:  Chocolate Drop Cookies submitted to the Fair by Mrs. Merle Robertson of Minneapolis, MN  - p. 32

Blue Ribbon Winners – America's Best State Fair Recipes by Catherine Hanley

Published by Smithmark

ISBN: 0-8317-0310-5; copyright 1993

Purchased at BCPA (Bloomington Crime Prevention Association) annual sale, 2015

Recipe:  German Apple Cake made by Joyce Dubois, submitted at the South Dakota State Fair- p. 67

Quiz time:  What phrase gets uttered more times in Minnesota in the month of August than any other?

Answer:  "So, are you going to 'The Fair'?"

'Round here, "The Fair" needs no explanation.  While county fairs and city fairs and festivals abound, there is only one big daddy and it's the Minnesota State Fair, now in its 157^th year.  On average, 150,000 people per day stroll through the Fairgrounds during the Fair that starts on the last Thursday in August and ends on Labor Day.  I know people who go to the Fair every single day as well as those who go every year. 

My husband and I have been rather slow to embrace this thinking, having gone about every five years or so.  Unlike the vast majority of people who attend the Fair, we're more interested in the music than anything else and the Fair provides a lot of stages and artists from which to choose.  We're on deck to go next weekend although we haven't decided on the musical act we want to see.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my friend, Laura, asked if I wanted to go to the Fair with her this past Friday, Day 2 of the Fair, and I said "Sure, why not?  Nothing says I can't go twice!"  We had a blast.  We have similar tastes when it comes to what things to see and do and in the almost six hours we were there, we managed to put some respectable miles on our shoes.  

One of the exhibits I make sure to tour are all the craft and cooking projects in the aptly named Creative Activities Annex building.  There you will find sewing projects, needlepoint, knitting projects and other crafts and then in the back you'll see the baked goods winners, pickling and preserve winners and other related food offerings.  This year though, and I cannot believe we did this, I was so focused on finding the award-winning knitting submission from my friend, Bonnie, that I forgot to go in the back and look at the food!  Just means I have to go back and look another day.  (PS—Congratulations, Bonnie!)

To be clear, I have never entered or will enter a food competition as that job is best left to the "professionals" i.e. those individuals who have been baking and canning and submitting their treats to the Fair for years and years and years.  I've always liked how the judging is done by trained "professionals" instead of letting "America vote" as happens on popular TV competitions.  These judges know their stuff and can tell in a nanosecond if someone's bread or rolls didn't rise (mine don't rise) and so there's no sense subjecting my offerings to these judges. "pre-emptive self-elimination" is the way to go, folks, and for that, I am sure the judges thanked me.

In fact, I tend to live my life by this (very real) motto:  "Why do for yourself when you can pay others to do for you?" And this is exactly why I would rather spend money on purchasing and then using cookbooks by award-winning state fair bakers than trying to create a special something on my own. 

Happily this year, I have two such cookbooks that fit the bill nicely and both of them contain recipes from state fairs around the country.  Both books pretty much have the same table of content that mirrors state fair categories:  "Pies and Pastries;" "Family & Party Cakes;" "Yeast Breads;" "Quick Breads;" "Special Cookies;" "Candies and Snacks; "Sweet Spreads (your jams and jellies)," and "Pickles and Condiments."  And no, the sweet stuff does not really go with your pickled stuff but these are state fair rules and so by god, we are following them!

The Great State Fair Recipes cookbook (collection of Minnesota sweepstakes winners from 1906 to 1975) also features award-winning recipes from these historic years:  1906, 1927, 1939, 1949, and 1962.  A little history recap is provided for each historic year and this is how I was reminded that the "March King" a/k/a John Philip Sousa was the 1927 opening day attraction.  According to the recap, JPS was approached by the U of MN to compose a march for the university and that is how the Minnesota March came into being:  "March on, march on to victory!/ Loyal sons of the varsity/ Fight on, fight on for Minnesota/ And the glory of the old maroon and gold...."  I played this piece so many times while in my community band that I have my clarinet part memorized. This march is now part of the standard repertoire played by the University of Minnesota Marching Band at every pep rally, game, or performance, including the Minnesota State Fair. (Small disclosure:  although I do not root, root, root, for the U of MN teams, I do love marching bands and did love playing all the U of MN fight songs while in community band.)

Also notable and slightly off point:  JPS was also commissioned to write the Foshay Tower Memorial March in honor of the opening on the (then) tallest building in Minneapolis, the Foshay Tower.  There is a long story behind this piece and in the interest of time, I won't bring you down that road but it's a great march and one I even conducted once with my community band.

At any rate, this cookbook is pretty fun and all the recipes sounded great.  The one that "sold" me though, was Chocolate Drop Cookies.  Aside from being something even I could bake without fear, I love it when cookbooks contain hand-written notes such as this:  "Very, very good.  1986." I don't know who wrote this next to the chocolate cookie recipe but that is what sealed the deal for me.  A second note also said "Chocolate is very mild!"  I have no idea if that was a good thing or a bad thing but there you have it.

As to the second recipe book – Blue Ribbon Winners – this book contains recipes from state fairs across the United States and I tell you what, selecting a recipe to make from this book was no easy feat. I looked over everything, paused for quite some time on the candy section (divinity—yum!) and even considered, albeit briefly, making some canned items even though I have not one piece of equipment to properly do so – (small detail).  In the end, I tagged about five recipes, one of which was Marjorie Johnson's "Jelly Roll" (a word on that in a minute) before deciding on the German Apple Cake.  I like apples, I have a little bit of German in me, and I was in the mood for another taste sensation besides chocolate...not that there's anything wrong with chocolate.  (There is NOTHING wrong with chocolate.  Ever.)

So German Apple Cake it was but first, a word on master baker, Marjorie Johnson, from Robbinsdale, MN.  And while once upon a time, nobody knew who Marjorie was, this woman has won so many ribbons at the Minnesota State Fair (over, 2500, of which 1,000 were blue ribbons) that she attracted the attention of national talk shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  Besides being a highly-decorated baking contest winner, Marjorie (whom I met and have talked to) is a delightful talk-show guest because she has a great personality that is packed into her very petite 4' 8" frame.  The only reason that Marjorie does not stand out in a crowd is because she disappears! 

Although Marjorie has "retired" from competitive baking (no doubt a sigh of relief was heard by her competition around the state), she is still up for making appearances at the Minnesota State Fair this year.

Now Marjorie's "Jelly Roll" recipe doesn't seem hard but jelly rolls can be tricky and it would be most unfair of me to "ding" Marjorie because of my failure to come up with something that even approximates a jelly roll, never mind a blue ribbon appearance.  And since I could about bet the farm(!) that my efforts would fail, I settled on the German Apple Cake and I was not disappointed.

Both of these recipes "halved" very easily which is a good thing as I would rather savor a small batch of cookies and cakes rather than freeze the leftovers or worse, toss them out after swearing a week later that I could not eat another bite.

And so bakers or aspiring bakers, if you're feeling in a State Fair kind of mood, check out these recipes and these cookbooks and have at it.  I managed to time the making of these on a cool and rainy Saturday and they were the perfect thing to motivate me to stay in the kitchen which, despite all my cooking, is still something of a rare occurrence.  When the weather's warm out, I'd rather be outside soaking up the sun while I can. 

And finally, and apropos to nothing discussed above, since I am a musician, I often have ear worms running through my head at all times and it's often music to fit the occasion.  In my last blog post about the Olympics, I mentioned a few tunes about Rio or Brazil that came to mind.  This time around, here are some State Fair favorites.

From the movie State Fair (1962, starring Pat Boone and Ann-Margret) there's the song of the same name – State Fair – written for the musical and movie by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.  And how can you not like these lyrics:  :  "Our State Fair is a great state fair is a great is a great is a great state fair hey!" (Love the "hey!"  It just pulls it all together.), not to mention "It's dollars to doughnuts that our state fair is the best state fair in our state."  I mean, I use the term "dollars to doughnuts" all the time but I'm old!  Older than this movie "old."  And as long as I'm at it:  of course "your" state fair is the best STATE fair in the "YOUR" ("OUR") state.  What else could it be?  But, and with all due respect to Rodgers and Hammerstein, this movie is really hokey and not one of their best and so there you go.

Not all the music from State Fair was that ridiculous though.   The movie also contained two other songs that I love and that I used to play on piano:  "It Might as Well be Spring," and "It's A Grand Night for Singing."  (Shall I just tell you though, that once I get past "It's. A. Graaaaannnnd. Night for signing..." I'm rather lost when it comes to the lyrics?  I can still envision the piano part but after the first line, I've got nothin'.)

From the musical/movie Camelot, written by Lerner and Lowe, we have the song "Then You May Take Me to the Fair."  This song, sung by Julie Andrews (on Broadway), is rather amusing and it still makes me laugh to hear it.  This is the lyric that sticks the most:  "Then you may take me to the fair, if you do all the things you promised/In fact, my heart would break should you not take me to the fair!" 

Finally, and a bit more contemporary, there's Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair," a tune my glee club sang while I was in high school.  I can still remember my part when singing the lyrics (which I hope you know!):  "Are you going to Scarborough Fair/Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme/Remember me to one who lives there/She once was a true love of mine."

Oh sniffle.  I love this song, love Simon and Garfunkel, love, love, love.

And now, bake to baking!  Your recipes await below:

Chocolate Drop Cookies – makes 36 cookies - Recipe submitted by Mrs. Merle Robertson of Minneapolis, MN

Ann's NOTE:  Mrs. Robertson says to frost these cookies with chocolate butter frosting while they are very warm,  but she did not provide a recipe.  And when I Googled one online, I found I did not have all the ingredients to make chocolate buttercream frosting, so we ate them without and they were fine.  Frosting though, would probably make them sensational.

½ cup shortening

2 squares unsweetened chocolate

1 egg

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup milk

1 2/3 cup flour

½ teaspoon soda

½ cup chopped nuts

In a small saucepan, melt shortening and chocolate.  Cool.  Beat egg; stir in sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Add chocolate mixture and mix well.  To this add alternately the milk and flour-soda mixture.  Stir well.  Add chopped nuts.  Drop from teaspoon to ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes.  While still slightly warm, frost cookies with chocolate butter frosting.

Ann's Note:  I was in a hardware store the other day, when I spotted this dinky little measuring cup, meant for ¼ cup or less.  I love gadgets like this so I bought it and I used it to "halve" the egg needed to make a half recipe of the cake.  It was perfect, just perfect, and now I want to go get a few more.  And by the way, if a recipe calls for half an egg, simply crack an egg into a measuring cup (yield is about ¼ cup), stir it to mix, and then use only half of that mixture.  The dinky little measuring cup helps a lot.

Also, if you Google "Chocolate Buttercream Frosting" (a/k/a Chocolate Butter Frosting), you'll find endless recipes for that frosting.  And if another type of frosting is more to your liking, then run with that.

German Apple Cake – makes one 9 x 13" cake - Recipe from Joyce Dubois from Wolsey, South Dakota, submitted to the South Dakota State Fair.  According to her bio, she started submitting recipes around 1968 and entered (at the time the book was published) about 100 items (not all of them cooking items) to the State Fair each year.

2 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

4 cups finely chopped apples

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F (175C).  Great a 13" x 9" baking pan.  In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil and vanilla; gradually eat in sugar until mixture is thick and creamy.  Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a medium-size bowl.  Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, stirring until well blended.  Fold in apples and walnuts.  Spoon into greased pan.  Bake in preheated oven about 45 minutes or until cake has started to pull away from sides of pan and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.  Sever slightly warm or cool.

"It's a Picnic!" & "Summertime Food" - Barbecued Frankfurters and Black Beans with Anchos

Date I made these recipes: August 29, 2011

It’s A Picnic! by Nancy Fair McIntyre
Published by: Gramercy Publishing Company
© 1969
Recipe: Barbecued Hot Dogs – p. 8

Summertime Food by Miriam Ungerer
Published by: Random House
© 1966, 1989
Recipe: Black Beans with Anchos – p. 215

This week is State Fair week here in Minnesota and if my friend, Dan, is correct (and I think he is), then temperatures will drop on or around Labor Day, heralding the (unofficial) start of fall in Minnesota.

When I whined last year about how the temperatures were 100 degrees one day and then 70 the next, Dan pointed out this weather phenomena to me. I wasn’t quite convinced until this year when sure enough, in a span of a few days, we’ve gone from 86 and humid to today’s balmy temperature of 69. I.am.freezing.

This (low temperature) weather makes me ornery. Really, really ornery! And sad because I love summer and hate to see the end of hot weather, a great tan, being outdoors (in an urban setting, of course!) and summertime food. Not that there’s a timer on when one should stop making summer salads and barbecues, but my friends, our days seem to be numbered.

And so this is why, in an effort to keep the dream alive, I made these two summertime foods. Sure, I still have Labor Day left but we could have snow by then and I don’t want to take any chances.

I am happy to report that the barbecued franks were pretty tasty albeit a little salty for my taste. Could have been the hot dog or it could have been the ingredients, I don’t know. Sadly, I can’t recall the last time I had a hot dog—last year maybe? This makes me feel so, well, un-American all of a sudden! Must fix that.

As to the beans, well, I am unhappy to report that they were a complete failure. Not a minor failure, a complete bomb. And I’m scratching my head to understand why.

My husband pointed out that for whatever reason I’ve never had good luck with black beans. Whether it’s because they are hardier than other beans or not, I don’t know. What I do know is that I followed the directions to the letter – and then some – and they were still inedible.

As directed, I soaked the beans overnight. Actually, it was more like a night and a half. And then I cooked the beans and celery for an hour and then added the rest of the ingredients and cooked for two more hours. And…nothing. So I kept them on the stove longer, adding water so they wouldn’t burn and still nothing. So I put them in the microwave at various intervals, adding water again so they wouldn’t burn and nothing. Nothing plus nothing plus nothing equals nothing.

Finally after what seemed a bazillion hours after I started, I pulled over the garbage can and dumped the beans into the waste basket. Good thing I made only half a recipe as I hate to waste food but not only were the beans not done but there wasn’t any flavor to the beans.

I remain mystified.

And so, dear reader, we had hot dogs for dinner and that was that.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find my long underwear.

Barbecued Hot Dogs – serving size not noted although hint, you will use 6 frankfurters!
6 frankfurters
¼ cup chopped onions
2 Tbsp salad oil
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
6 Tbsp chili sauce
6 Tbsp water
3 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Dash Tabasco

Saute the onions in the salad oil. (Ann’s note – I think 2 Tbsp oil is too much for a ¼ cup of onions but that’s just me.) Add all the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes. Score the frankfurters and marinate them in the sauce a couple of hours.

Black Beans with Anchos – serves 6 to 8
1 pound dried black (turtle) beans
2 dried ancho chili peppers (Ann’s note: dried anchos are really dried poblanos. If you don’t see anchos in the grocery store, but do see poblanos, use that as a substitute.)
1 or 2 stalks celery
3 small strips smoked country bacon (also known as “speck”)
1 cup mined onion
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt to taste
Coarsely ground black pepper to taste

Pick over, rinse, and soak the beans in cold water to cover overnight. (Or bring to a boil, simmer one minute, turn off heat, and let soak for 1 hour before proceeding.) Drain.

Wash the anchos, split them and discard the stems and seeds. Pour on just enough boiling water to cover them, weight them under it, and leave to soak for an hour. Then puree them along with their soaking water.

Cover the beans and celery with fresh water, bring to a boil, and let simmer for 1 hour. Do NOT add salt. Add the bacon. Saute the onion and garlic in a little oil and add them to the beans along with salt and coarsely ground pepper to taste.

Continue to simmer the beans until tender, which usually takes about 2 hours, sometimes less. (Ann’s note: Ha! Liar, liar, pants on fire!) It’s a good idea to bake them for the latter hour because they’ll be less apt to stick. Black beans should be a little soupy; the juice cooks to a dark, thick pot liquor treasured by most bean fanciers.

"The SPAM Cookbook" - Sam Choy's SPAM Loco Moco

Date I made this recipe: September 5, 2010

The SPAM® Cookbook – Recipes from Main Street by Hormel Foods, compiled by Linda Eggers
Published by: Gopher Prairie Press
ISBN: 978-0-9841674-0-1, © 1998
Recipe: Sam Choy’s SPAM® Loco Moto – p. 79

Well, kids, school is now in session and today’s recipe showcases how a word can have more than one meaning. Okay get your pencils ready for the word of the day: Spam.

Those of the more modern generation associate the word “spam” with junk emails sent out to numerous individuals in an attempt to wreck havoc with the world…and specifically my computer.

This past Friday, someone hacked into one of my email accounts and sent a spam email to my entire address book saying that I was in London (ha! I wish!), that I was mugged and I needed money. (And while it is true that a buck or two would be helpful, I would likely have not contacted my friends via email to hit them up for $1500 bucks!).

This spam caused me to be locked out of my email account for two days running. Can we talk about how frustrating that is? It also caused no less than 7 people to call me to see if I was okay. And the thing that cracked me up most of all is the requirement that I sign in to my email account to email the support team to tell them that I’m locked out and need my password reset. Not to be snarky but how, pray tell, am I supposed to sign in to say I need help signing in when I cannot sign in?

So I wish I would have been the recipient of the other spam…as in SPAM®, the precooked canned “ham” product made by one of Minnesota’s own, Hormel Foods Corporation, located in Austin, MN. (By the way, years ago, I did some work with the Hormel Credit Union. The woman who answered the phone always pronounced it “Hor-mull” but we (we rubes, perhaps?) always called it Hormel…like caramel. I’m not sure which is correct but it made me chuckle).

Okay, show of hands: how many of you had SPAM® as a kid? Because I have to tell you folks, you were either in the rank and file of families whose moms stretched a food budget by including an occasional Spam® dinner in the mix or you weren’t. And to my amazement, several of my friends, all whom grew up like me in the 60’s, seemed to have missed out on this life-changing experience. I am happy to say that we were a SPAM® household! (Although not often and when it was, it was always doctored up (as my mom would say) by cloves and a ham glaze.)

So, okay…SPAM®…the history…SPAM® was first produced in 1937 and was widely used by US troops during WWII. Perhaps this is why my father, a WWII vet, didn’t mind my mom making SPAM® for dinner every once in a while.

In 1970, the comedy troop, Monty Python, wrote the SPAM® song (which I always thought went “Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spamity Spam…” but a quick check of the lyrics indicates that it did not. How disappointing. But who cares? I’m going to sing it the way I sing it and there it is.). And years later, SPAMALOT, a spoof of Camelot, and likely the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, hit the Great White Way and that, as they say, was that. I’d venture a guess to say that SPAM® likely experienced resurgence after that and rightly so.

So by now you must be wondering how it was that I even came to go down memory lane and make this SPAM dish and for that you can blame it on the Minnesota State Fair.

Although I’m usually on an “every five years” attendance plan, I went to the fair this year with my friend, Mary (for reasons too long and involved to go into here). And not more than two seconds into the place, we spied the SPAM® sign on one of the buildings. And it turned out to be a SPAM® gift shop. And people—oh, the joy of seeing that beloved SPAM® name (not to mention the blue and gold colors which, by the by, are the same as the University of Michigan’s – Go Blue!) on everything from golf clubs to flip flops. (The flip flops were especially cool because the word SPAM® was carved out on the bottom so it would leave an imprint in the sand).

And so of course there were two SPAM® cookbooks for sale, one of which I had seen before but have not yet purchased, and the other was new to me and so that’s the one I went with. It’s a little book and while lacking in photos, it more than made up for it because there were recipes from around the U.S. just in case you wanted to tailor-make your recipe to your region.

And so that led to me making the infamous (I am not kidding here) Hawaiian dish, Loco Moco. And not just any Loco Moco but Sam Choy’s Loco Moco, Sam Choy being a famous Hawaiian chef and all. And actually, not just Sam Choy’s Loco Moco but Sam Choy’s SPAM® Loco Moco. Does it get any better? I think not.

Now before I get into the Loco Moco recipe, I have to pause here for station identification and to tell you that prior to me buying this cookbook, I had decided to try to make something that was “fair-worthy” for this blog but was having a heck of a time doing so. I don’t have that many Minnesota cookbooks and the ones I looked through did not have a recipe that really sent me flying.

And then there’s the problem of “the stick”—as in the running joke for years and years and years is that all the State Fair food is on “a stick.” Because, people, most of it is!

This year, for instance, you can get deep-fried bologna (wow—I spelled bologna wrong and had to run through the Oscar Mayer song until I got the letters right!) …on a stick, and deep-fried bacon cheddar mashed potatoes…on a stick…and so on and so forth. In previous years, it was pork chop…on a stick and alligator…on a stick and “hot dish” (casserole)…on a stick. We don’t have time to discuss the “deep-fried” portion of our program but let me just say four words that should make you shudder: “deep-fried cheese curds.” (Okay, technically “deep-fried” is a compound word and only counts as one word…so sue me).

So…if I had purchased the other cookbook, I could have made a SPAM shish kabob on a stick (because there was a recipe for that) and called it a day but that was way too easy. And so I locked and loaded on that island favorite, Loco Moco.

For those not familiar, Loco Moco is a favorite Hawaiian dish that includes meat and gravy, a fried egg and rice. Although I didn’t have a loco moco while in Hawaii (why, I do not know) at least I tried the Hawaiian lunch plate that consists of meat (usually fish) plus rice plus macaroni salad. Ours is not to question why.

And given how Hawaiians love their SPAM® (for reasons that are still had to fathom), it should come as no surprise that it was included in a Loco Moco recipe.

Now I will give you this: I am not a big fan of salt and although I could have gone with low-sodium SPAM, that would be cheating, and I’m not too fond of brown gravy, especially the mix kind that is loaded with sodium. But when in Rome…or when in Hawaii…or when at the Minnesota State Fair, one makes compromises. So eat it and enjoy it! Mahalo (or should I saw “Moo?”)

Sam Choy’s SPAM® Loco Moco (*not currently on a stick but give us time) – Serves 2
1 can SPAM® Luncheon Meat, chopped (the recipe says 7 ounce but all I found was 12)
½ cup chopped onions
1 package brown gravy mix
4 cups cooked white rice
4 eggs, fried any style

In a large skillet, sauté SPAM® and onion until lightly browned, and set aside.

In a small saucepan, empty brown gravy mix and stir in 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and let simmer 1 minute. Place warm rice in bowls. Fill with SPAM® mixture, then eggs and top with gravy.

"Blue Ribbon USA - Prizewinning Recipes from State and County Fairs" - Marjorie Johnson's Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake

Date I made this recipe: September 1, 2008 (Labor Day)

Blue Ribbon USA-Prizewinning Recipes from State and County Fairs by Georgia Orcutt and John Margolies
Published by: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 10-0-8118-5484-1
Recipe: Marjorie Johnson’s Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake – p. 58-59

Well, the Minnesota State Fair wraps up today, just in time for me to use my newly-purchased Blue Ribbon USA – Prizewinning Recipes from State and County Fairs. Although many recipes from other states besides Minnesota sounded interesting (some even horrifying: I have never, ever heard of adding cream of mushroom soup to my beloved Michigan Pasties –pronounced pass-tees. The horror!), they didn’t strike my fancy.

Instead, I turned to the recipe created by the woman who embodies the Minnesota State Fair, indeed, to be clear, IS the State Fair, and that is Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake made by Minnesota’s own Marjorie Johnson.

Now the first time I went to the fair, it was clear to me that this woman was a winner, as evidenced by the multiple blue ribbons in the baking categories. And for a while, she was our little secret. But the next thing you know, she was on Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show, then Jay Leno found her and made her a regular and she is now as famous as some of the Hollywood Celebrities.

The thing is it couldn’t have happened to a nicer woman. Marjorie is a bundle of energy, that just pours off her 4’8” frame that is outfitted in her signature red (as far as I know, Marjorie doesn’t wear other colors) and her stints on Leno have been hilarious. And her baking isn’t too bad, either!

This recipe is really easy and the cake is very moist. I have only two complaints that I am almost afraid to voice in fear of offending the baking goddess: I would have liked more streusel in the middle of the cake and I was hoping for a bit more sour cream taste. Other than that, I enjoyed making this blue-ribbon winner and hope you will, too!

Marjorie Johnson’s Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake – makes two cakes

Batter
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter, softened
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups sour cream

Streusel
2 tablespoons butter, melted
½ cup packed all-purpose flour
¼ cup sweetened flake coconut
½ cup (2 ounces) sliced almonds or chopped nuts

Glaze
½ cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
¼ teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
1 to 3 teaspoons milk

Heat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 8- or 9-inch cake pans.

To make the batter: Combine the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl and cream with an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk to blend. On low speed or by hand, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients alternately with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Spoon one-fourth of the batter into teach prepared pan.

To make the streusel: Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix with a fork. Sprinkle one-fourth of the mixture over the batter in each pan. Spoon the remaining batter equally into the 2 pans. Sprinkle the top of each with an equal amount of the remaining streusel.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops of the cakes feel firm to the touch. Remove the cakes from the oven and let them rest for 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edges and remove from the pans by gently inverting each one onto a flat dinner plate, covering it with a wire rack, and then carefully flipping it right-side up to cool on the rack.

To make the glaze: Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir with a spoon until smooth. Drizzle over the tops of the cooled cakes.