New Minnesota State Fair foods come sweet and hot

Can't get enough corn at the Minnesota State Fair? How about some in your ice cream?

"This year, we thought, 'What speaks to the Fair? Corn. And ice cream,' " said Mike Olson, co-owner of the Blue Moon Dine-In Theater.

So there you go. Roughly two cobs - fresh, not canned - go into each quart of vanilla-base ice cream, said Olson, who also used the words "concoction" and "mad scientist lab" while describing his mixing process.

"The corn doesn't freeze," he noted, "It's a taste of summer."

For those who like summer even tastier, Olson will offer caramel-bacon and wild-blueberry toppings.

But other Fair food creators are shying away from "sweet and breezy" and going with more of a "kick in the mouth" approach.

Jan and John Stinchfield have dedicated their lives to quenching thirst, and now they've turned to the dark side. What better way to drum up business for their watermelon stand, Andrew's Watermelon, than to put a jalapeno pepper on a stick and disguise it with chocolate?

The recipe came from their son, who was born in Bogota, Colombia.

"He really likes the spicy food. He dips everything in chocolate. The guys think he's crazy," John Stinchfield said. "But I've had good comments about it."

"You gotta be a jalapeno person," said Jan Stinchfield, noting they'll sell two kinds of pepper pops: Macho Man and Senor Timido. One guess which one contains the hot pica pepper.

Jan went with the timido for the requisite taste test - "a little bite, because my husband kept pestering me. I don't want hair on my chest." After a couple seconds, "I had to put something cold in there, forget about rinsing it out."

For a couple that's been selling watermelon for 22 years, the new food choice is probably more practical than sadistic.

"Maybe I'll sell some beverages with it. They'll have to have something to drink," John Stinchfield said.

El Sol Mexican food might also have an answer, with its new horchata beverage: a drink of rice, almonds, cinnamon, vanilla and sugar.

But for the kids who don't know exactly what they want, Eddie Porcelli of Spaghetti Eddie's has a simple suggestion. How about some dirt dessert?

"It's a healthy thing," Eddie insists. "We got a little cottage cheese in there for health purposes."

Eddie's healthy creation starts with a fiber "flowerpot" that he lines with Oreo cookie crumbs to look like dirt.

....and then there were four!: Oreo cookie crumbs and all things ...

I made the Snickers cheesecake for Friday, as planned. I had checked to make sure I had Oreo cookie crumbs for the crust, and proceeded to use them. When I opened the Ziploc container they were in, the crumbs kind of had an odour, but I thought that's what cookie crumbs smelt like after being stored for a while. Wrong!!!! When I got the cheesecake out of the fridge on Friday to serve it, Ben made a comment about our cheese fondue still stinking (Ben likes mild cheddar, parmesan, and mozzarella. Period). I recognized that stench. It was the cookie crumbs - and they were rancid! Who knew cookie crumbs went rancid? Not I! Now I do. How long had I had them for you ask? I have no idea - probably the source of the problem. The rest of the unused crumbs went in the compost, the container in the recycling. We scraped the cheesecake off the crust as it was still fine. It seems the Snickers layer took it for the team. Thanks Snickers. I didn't know I could love you even more. While conducting the photo shoot of the hardboiled eggs Ro and I decorated for our annual hit off (last year's victor was Ben), Ro dropped my egg. I exclaimed my disappointment which resulted in tears which I proceeded to photograph. We hugged and made up. Ro then proceeded to win. I submitted a written reqest for the judges to investigate the circumstances leading to Ro's victory. I'm still waiting to hear back. :) Don't worry folks. I'll be back in it next year (barring a photo shoot accident). I find myself currently trying to purge my house of leftovers: 3 hot cross buns on my counter, 1 piece of carrot cake in the fridge (now gone by the time this was posted), decorated sugar cookies in the freezer, more than half a cheesecake in the freezer, Mini Eggs and Lindt bunnies in my cupboard.....I might be one of the few of the breastfeeding moms who has gained weight since giving birth. I think I might need to stop baking.......

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