Iowa State Fair '17: Just a Mess of Pictures

My buddy Rob gave me a real phone for my birthday, so I didn't take our old digital camera to the fair this year. The phone takes better pictures, but I'm still getting used to the timing. That's my excuse, anyway.

Daphne and I have a rule about eating at the fair: there are no rules. There are also no calories, no too much of a good thing, no diet, and no regrets. The ISF comes around once a year, and we make the best of it. 

We started out each day with a breakfast of fried cheese curds. (Remember our rule and judge not.)

Charlotte was excited to go farming at the "Little Hands on the Farm" exhibit. Pioneer donated a slew of hats for the kids to wear. Nice job, Pioneer. Turns out Char didn't care about the "farming". She just wanted the free Cheetos... 

Really Char? We have Cheetos at home.

Mazes are a big deal to our kid, so we spent a few minutes navigating this attraction.

"Ooh, look at the cutie pigs!" 

This picture doesn't look like it is a triumph, but Charlotte couldn't climb the ladder that lead to this spot on the playground last year. She tried a few times, but she got scared at the height and frustrated with number of kids cutting in front of her. This year she climbed it like a champ.

Like big mazes, Charlotte also enjoys big puzzles.

If I ever find one of the vintage egg-shaped chairs for a decent price, it is soooo going into our basement. I'm not even going to ask Daphne for permission. 

This stand bragged it had perfected the poutine that the Canadians had created, but I was skeptical. 

It was okay, but we have had much better poutine north of the 49th parallel.

The pork chop on the stick is always good, though. 

The sand castle was impressive. I kept wondering what would happen if it rained. I was told that they put a tarp over the castle when the forcast calls for that.

Charlotte loves cotton candy. It is the last she ate on Super Sunday.

While Char stuffed herself with melted sugar, I ate a good ol' hamburger, and Daphne had some grilled veggies on a bun. See ya next year, Iowa State Fair! 

Now it's time to start our diets again...

Fall is Here, and The Farmers' Market is Gone

October 22 was our last visit to the Downtown Farmers' Market, and it was our first time to try the Local Yocals' poutine. We went with a small, traditional poutine. 

If I get chance to order this next season, I'd top it with the fried egg. The meat and fries were great, but the gravy was too thin to warm the cheese curds. I think the egg would have helped with that.

It's hard to beat the fall colors. Even a colorblind guy like me can appreciate them.

That's not a muzzle on Maggie; it's a Gentle Leader. It's a type of leash that prevents Mags from pulling too hard on walks. Every time she pulls, the Gentle Leader turns her around. She can eat and drink with the leader, so it has nothing to do with her mouth or teeth. It's too bad some people mistake the leader for a muzzle and assume Maggie is a dangerous. Even Char can walk our 90 pound dog when she has a leader on.

Okay ladies, it's time to say goodbye to the farmers' market. We'll be back in 2017.

Our Canada Trip: Poutine Edition

Daphne and I love to eat, but neither of us require a fancy meal to enjoy ourselves. I suppose you could call us "lowbrow foodies." Case in point: poutine. It might sound fancy, but here's the definition:



Yup. It's just fries, gravy, and cheese curds. Three things that shouldn't go well together, but they just do... and then some.

You can get poutine here in town, but I was excited to try the dish where it originated. Here's the first one we had in Montreal. It was the classic version.

Char was not impressed.

Later that day we tried a "smoked meat" version of poutine.

We didn't know it at the time, but Montreal-style smoked meat is unique to the city. It reminded us of pastrami or corned beef, but according to wikipedia, it is "a type of kosher-style deli meat product made by salting and curing beef brisket with spices. The brisket is allowed to absorb the flavors over a week, and is then hot smoked to cook through, and finally steamed to completion."

I don't know much else about Montreal smoked meat, but I do know that it was a very good idea to mix it into the poutine.

The next poutine we tried was at the Montreal airport while waiting for our flight. This one had sausages and mustard gravy. Daphne said, "Look at what's in this. How could this ever be bad?"

We were advised that The Chip Shack in Charlottetown had the best chips on Prince Edward Island.

We made that our destination to try lobster poutine.

Honestly, we didn't have a poutine we didn't like. But I did see some that I didn't want to try. Daphne spotted this at the grocery store. We shook our heads and slowly walked away.

UPDATE

Daphne and I were jonesin' for poutine a few days after landing on American soil. We thought we could try our take on the dish. I had grilled some huge pork chops for my birthday dinner, so we stopped by HyVee for supplies. Some baked French fries, Wisconsin cheese curds, and chicken gravy from a jar was mixed with the pork leftovers cut in strips.

You know what? It was pretty good! And we didn't have to use our passports to eat it.

A few days later we stopped by the Royal Mile to see how Iowa/British people prepare poutine. The chips fries were good, and the pot roast was a nice twist.

I think the Monsons have found their go-to comfort appetizer.