Krik's Picks

I went to the state fair for the first time in about 10 years. When people at the office heard that it had been so long since going, they said, “But Steve, you’re such a foodie. How can you not go to the state fair.” Well first of all, I’m not sure that I really am a ‘ foodie .’ Secondly, if I were a foodie, I’m not sure that the state fair qualifies as food nirvana. Being a cheapskate, I got into the fair for free. (As a volunteer at the milk booth, see the next post below.) I also parked at the free ‘Park & Ride’ lot by the University of Minnesota football stadium . I arrived at about 9 a.m. My shift at the milk booth didn’t start until 10, so I had time for breakfast. I wandered around, and thought about eating at one of the full service restaurants. I’ve never done that before. While I was walking, I passed a table where they were handing out samples of Motts applesauce. So that was my first state fair food – free. Next I saw the booth for Axel’s Bonfire . They offer...

I volunteered at the All the Milk You Can Drink booth at the Minnesota State Fair on Monday, Aug. 30. It’s something I’ve thought about doing for a few years now. Though I used to attend the state fair regularly, I hadn’t been for about 10 years. This seemed like a good excuse to go to the state fair while also helping out the dairy industry. The milk booth is a project of the Midwest Dairy Association . The University of Minnesota Ag Education Club organized the volunteers. In the weeks leading up to the fair, when I would mention that I was volunteering in the milk booth, I was surprised by how many people commented that it  was one of their favorite parts of the fair. It also gets mentioned frequently as one of the best bargains at the fair. When I arrived for my shift, the morning volunteers got our orientation. As you might expect, hygiene and sanitation is a major consideration. The supervisor went through the rules – each customer pays $1 for their first glass of milk....

As one of the activities during our Employee Celebration Day at work , the Diversity Council organized a salsa contest. That’s salsa the dip, not salsa the dance. It sounded like fun. So I organized a team. We had two of the attorneys from our Law Dept., my summer intern, and me. I may have gone a little overboard in planning. But what the heck. A contest is a contest, and the goal is to win, isn’t it? Our strategy was to select a recipe that included some unusual ingredients, so that it would stand out from the pack. We decided not to go with a fruit salsa. The entries would be sampled with tortilla chips, and I think of fruit salsas as more of an accompaniment to meat or fish. We perused a book I have – The Great Salsa Book . It’s available on Amazon. The recipe we found was tomatillos and avocados. It was a very simple salsa with just those main ingredients, fired up a little with chili peppers and cilantro and a generous addition of lime juice for tanginess. I’ve supplied the r...

1 lb. tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and coarsely chopped 1 avocado, peeled, pitted, coarsely chopped 1 serrano chili, with seeds 3/4 c. cilantro leaves 2 tbsp. lime juice 1 tsp. salt Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree. Preparation tips from Los Companeros de Salsa: We got better results from using a food processor rather than a blender. It tended to be thicker. We used half cilantro and half parsley. Some people don’t like the harshness of cilantro. Taste your chili pepper. We thought ours wasn’t as spicy as we wanted, so we added more than called for by the recipe. I think one of the keys to making any salsa is to allow time for it to sit, so the flavors can blend, before eating. Besides serving on tortilla chips, it also would be good on chicken or grilled fish.

One of my co-workers celebrated his birthday today (63). To celebrate, he brought in some bakery items from Hi-Quality Bakery in Cannon Falls. It’s a nice local independent bakery. Unbeknownst to Dave, someone else in the department also brought bakery in honor of his birthday. Hers came from Byerly’s , a nice local supermarket. With the unexpected bounty of bakery goods, we joked that one of the boxes was for President Obama who also celebrated his birthday today. Sadly, he spent the day in Chicago and didn’t stop by to claim his donut. So we took an informal poll – which is better? Local independent bakery or local supermarket bakery? Here are a few of the votes: “I vote the (Hi-Quality) bakery. Donuts get hard really quickly, but the bakery donuts were still very soft and fresh. Yum!” “I tried to pick similar donuts and the Hi-Quality Bakery was too greasy and sugary. Byerly's was a smoother texture (popover egg consistency) and frosting was creamy. My vote is f...