State Fair Highlights

I know everyone has been wondering how my muffin contest went so take a look for yourself!

Here I am on my way to drop off the goods.


My muffins in the display case.


As you can see no ribbon is attached. :( But I was happy to see that they at least made the display case. I didn't take a pic of the winners but they did look quite tasty. If only I could get all those gluten free recipes! I did notice that mine were the only ones with muffin liners. I double checked and there was nothing in the gluten free contest rules that said you couldn't use them but I think if I were to do it again I'd remove them just in case.

The rest of the fair was a lot of fun. Cari, Mom and I had a girls day. We pretty much ate our way through the day. Here are a few our my favorite foods. (We ate much more than shown)

The new fry dog. It had almost a corn dog like batter mixed with french fries. The dog was dipped and it looked like pressed and then deep fried. It was served with dipping sauces. We chose the chili cheese and chipotle mayo. I thought they were really good despite the mediocre reviews I have read elsewhere.


New to us this year was the walleye cakes. They were delicious!! It was walleye, salmon, wild rice and other stuff made into a cake and fried. Highly recommend.


My favorite sight of the day was when pregnant girl HAD to get her big pickle.


One of my favorites every year - garlic fries.


All this food is making me hungry again! Luckily I get to go back tomorrow for the Milk Run and indulge in a few more of my favorites.

A week in concerts

This post is a little overdue but I forgot about it! Last week Angie so generously took me to 2 concerts. The first was Panic at the Disco/Fall Out Boy/Blink 182. I was super excited to see the show. I had forgotten how much I like Fall Out Boy. My phone ring tone is even a Fall Out Boy song which I didn't realize until were there. Panic at the Disco we just listened to but didn't watch. They sounded good. Fall Out Boy was great. Made me want to download their whole album. (all pics from my camera phone, not that great)



My video that worked out best from my camera phone. See if you can recognize the song. It's "This ain't a scene, it's an arms race"



One of the most fun things to watch at this concert was the mosh pit. I've been to a lot of concerts and there aren't too many that still allow the full on mosh pits. People were body surfing the whole time. During Fall Out Boy they actually stopped in the middle of one of the songs because someone body surfing had fallen and never got back up. Then they made the whole crowd take a few steps back. Darns kids! Play responsibly!



Blink 182 surprised me as I knew more of their songs that I thought I would. Their encore had the coolest stunt that I had ever seen. It started by the drummer's platform sliding to the front of the stage. Then they raised it into the air. Pretty sweet. THEN they titled the platform so it was perpendicular with the stage floor. If that wasn't crazy enough they spun him in circles while still playing a really good drum solo. It was amazing. I wish I would've taken a video of it.





The second concert of the week was Jason Mraz. I was never a big fan of his but I had heard he puts on a really great show. The rumors were true. It was a super fun concert - at least his performance was. I didn't like the opening bands. Jason had a very extensive band including 1 regular drummer, a bongo drummer, 1 woodwind, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone, 1 cello like thing, 1 pianist (who was super hot btw), 1 guitarist, and then multiple guest singers. My favorite part of the night was during the encore. He pulled this couple on stage and let them slow dance to his song. In the middle of the song, the guy gets down on one knee and proposes to the girl. It was so cute. Still gets my teary thinking about it!



Thanks Ang for the fun week! Who are we seeing next? :)

Fun Find

We went to the Prior Lake Farmers Market on Saturday and found this fun addition to our house. As soon as we saw it we knew it'd go perfectly in our kitchen. It's a handmade wine rack/candle holder made out of black metal. The price was right so we swept it off the market before any other buyers came along. Now we just need 3 candles to go on top and we'll be set. I love unexpected finds!

And the winner is...

Yes that's my messy kitchen. For the past week that's where I have been... experimenting with different recipes, trying to perfect my banana chocolate chip muffins for the contest. My first trial was using 2 different flour mixes - one that I have been using as my all purpose gluten free flour and the other was a new one I wanted to try. I made the 2 batches and let my trusty coworkers help judge. It was a landslide win for the flour I have been using. The other flour had masa in it and was too gritty for most people's liking. I had a couple critiques that there was too many chocolate chips in the muffins. (forgot to take pics of the 2 batches)

This week I decided to try using mini chocolate chips instead of the regular ones and a lesser quantity. I was also going to add a little more banana to see what that did. I made a batch Sunday night and from the start something seemed off. I kept rereading the ingredient list and couldn't figure out what it was. I shrugged it off and finished up. A few hours after I was done it dawned on me. I added 2 eggs instead of 1. oops! That batch actually tasted ok but a day later I went back to look at them and this is what I saw.



If you blow the picture up it's easier to see. There's this layer of grease on the top of all the muffins. DISGUSTING! Guess extra eggs is a no go. That night I redid my trial of extra banana and mini chips w/the correct amount of eggs. I also tried sprinkling sugar crystals on the top to see what that did. Gave it a nice coating.

Sugar on top


vs no sugar.


So finally after all of this and much taste testing from others I have decided on a final recipe. I'm going with the latest version with more banana, mini chips, and the sugar coating on top. Entries are submitted this Sunday so wish me luck!

Too funny

Never tried sending something from another site. Listen to the first song. I'm not even all that thrilled about Favre as a Viking but it makes me super excited for football season to start! ahhhhhooooooo (that's the Viking horn sound)

Grrrrr

This is what you get when you send your husband to the northern woods of WI to help his dad sell off his cabin and all of his belongings...



This little bear needs to find his way back to the woods. He doesn't really seem to like the suburbs so much. I think Justin put him on our front porch to see how long it would take me to notice. (it wasn't long) Then of course he heads out of town and leaves him there. :P Anyone else have the last name of Jovle and want him? hehe. At least I didn't end up with the mounted bucks that I was repeatedly told I was getting.

For anyone who was wondering Justin and his dad made it safely down to FL. Justin helped him clean the trailer top and bottom, purge many bags of stuff, and get him all settled in. Sounds like Rick is all set for his new life full of hot FL sun.

Thanks to everyone who has helped entertain me the past couple weekends. All the girly time had been great but I ready for my family to get together again! Conner continues to mope around the house looking for his dad. So deprived...

TCF Bank

I got to take another tour of the new Gopher Stadium today. It was amazing to see all the changes since last time. The detail work is incredible. The maroon and gold/gopher/M theme is carried out in everything.

on the back of a lounge chair


in the sinks


backs of the stadium chairs


The tour took us everywhere from the outside to the press box, president's suite, DQ lounge on the club level, to the regular seats and finally to the field.


So fun to see everything up close. I took a lot more pictures than I can show here so check them out!

Randi the Ridgeline

Luck finally worked in our favor. We have been searching nearly all the dealerships in the Twin Cities area that had 2006 Honda Ridgelines with no success. Last night a new one was released in the Mankato area that was fully pimped out - leather, moonroof, navigation, backup camera, iPod adapter and many more. Justin went and checked it out today. I gave him the ok to buy as long as he thought I'd approve. 4.5 hours later we are the new owners!









(pictures compliments of Luther Mankato if you couldn't tell)

Mikayla Pics

As promised here they are!

Baby Mikayla Eid

A big congrats to Brent, Cran, & Mallory on welcoming their little one into the world! Mikayla was born yesterday (the 6th) at 12:33 pm. She was 6 lbs 15 oz, 18.5 inches. Cran reported that she has really long hair - up to an inch in places, Brent's nose and her mouth. She wasn't sure how much she looked like Mallory yet. I can't wait to meet her. Pics to come as soon as I do.

MN State Fair Contest

After much prodding from Grammy, Mom and Justin, I have submitted my entry into the "Northland Celiac Support Group Gluten-Free Baking Event - Quick bread, loaf or muffins" at the MN State Fair. I'm entering my banana chocolate chip muffins. The recipe originally came from my mother-in-law and I've modified it a bit to make it gluten-free. I've been dragging my feet because I wanted to test out a few different flour mixes but what better way to motivate me than to have entered! Might be a baking frenzy on Sunday. Stop on by for a taste test. :)

Lutsen Trip

This post is a little overdue but it was a busy week. And better late than never.

2 weekends ago Justin and I took a mini vacation to up north. My cousin got married up at Lutsen Resort, so we made a long weekend out of it and saw all the sites along the way. Thursday was our day to stop at all the towns/shops between Duluth and Lutsen. We started off fairly early and made it up to Duluth by lunch time.


Another stop was walking on the old road where Hwy 61 used to go around the cliff instead of through the middle of it. The cliff/tunnel is in the background. Justin and our crusin car are posing.


Of course we had to see the famous Split Rock Lighthouse. Justin tried to get me to hold it up. I think we got pretty close. Someday one of those pics will be perfect! You can kind of see how foggy the day was. There were many stretches were the lake could not be seen.


Friday we enjoyed a lazy morning. The fog cleared and the sun came out. It was perfect for our drive up the Gunflint trail (with the top up for most of it, still chilly) We started our stretch by eating at Naniboujou. Beautiful interior and great food.


On our journey up the Gunflint we stopped at a couple places and landmarks. This was a particular trail we took called the Honeymoon Trail. It was a steep hike up but had a gorgeous view that was totally worth it.


The rest of the day was fill with shopping and dinner in Grand Marais. Sat we got up and had to head back to Grand Marais so I could try the "World's Best Doughnuts". I'd say they were good but not world's best. Mr. D's in lax still wins that hands down. :) Finally it was wedding time! The wedding was a lot of fun. The ceremony was out right in front of the lake. Happy hour and dinner were on the deck under a canopy - perfect since it down poured for about 15 minutes after dinner. The night ended with a bonfire back on the beach. Here's the happy couple and their best friend who was the pastor. (Thanks to the state of CA)


That's a quick wrap up of the trip. Complete pics are finally up and posted.