Wednesday in Numbers: County Fair Edition

What a day! There’s nothing like a lot of humidity at a county fair full of prize-winning animals to make for a necessary shower at the end of the day! Last year, our day at the county fair fell on my birthday. This year, being the day BEFORE my birthday, I made sure to walk an extra amount to counteract the inevitable birthday treats tomorrow.

And, on to the numbers:

237: Campers in attendance

10: Campers in my group between the ages of 4.5 and 6

4: FANTASTIC junior counselors with my group

87: Degrees Fahrenheit outside

6: Spinning rides my campers went on

2: Rides my campers said “OH MY GOSH NO WAY” when I asked them if they wanted to go on

4.5: Fried cheese balls consumed

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18: Inches high the shared slushie cup was that my girls shared

10: Very blue tongues that followed sharing said slushie

64: Photos taken

6: Photos that included kind of creepy carnies

1: Photo that looked way better fake-aged (I’m up there in the top cart)

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75: Ride tickets used

10: Blue sno-cones purchased

4: Sno-cones that were both blue and red

6: Sno-cones that were both blue and green

2: Sno-cones that were completely consumed

~11,000: Questions asked about what we were doing next

44: Minutes each way spent on the bus

7: Inches of corn dog consumed

9: Varieties of farm animals viewed

22: Inches of the largest zucchini on the 4H winning vegetable table

1: Counselor who got hungry looking at said vegetable table

3: Rolls of sushi ordered at dinner by Sarah (a now self-named FBIT, or Food Blogger In Training. She took the pictures of her plate)

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2: Rolls of sushi ordered by me at dinner

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1: Rice bowl full of spicy goodness

2: Pieces of “experimental sushi” sampled (rolls of crab, asparagus and cucumber, topped with mango and strawberry)

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1: Adorable cupcake keepsake vase sent to me for my birthday by my mom

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10: Hot pink carnations also sent to me by my mom

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58: Mini cupcakes made to share with campers and counselors tomorrow

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1: Exhausted camp counselor heading to bed…

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Mara @ What's For Dinner?, July 28th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Baking, dinner out, friends

Cumulonimbus

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**This is the THIRD time I’m typing out this post after stupid Ecto ate it twice before. Anyone know how to fix this?**

Why am I referring to clouds again? Well, there are a multitude of reasons…but before I get to that, a definition:

cu·mu·lo·nim·bus [kyoo-myuh-loh-nim-buhs] –noun,plural-bus. a cloud of a class indicative of thunderstorm conditions, characterized by large, dense towers that often reach altitudes of 30,000 ft. (9000 m) or more, cumuliform except for their tops, which appear fibrous because of the presence of ice crystals: occurs as a single cloud or as a group with merged bases and separate tops.

[source]

In ordinary, normal, everyday English though, cumulonimbus clouds are those tall pouffy clouds that look like they’re sitting on something in the sky.

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[source]
So much of today, I felt like I was above the clouds for, as I said, a multitude of reasons.

Reason #1: All of your kind and genuine comments on my post from last night truly uplifted my spirits! I checked my comments a few times today, and each and every time, my mood would get better with your amazing comments! Thank you SO much, and as my mom used to say, “poop on you!” to the negative commenters!

Reason #2: I made a fan-freaking-tastic dinner! I started out with something I’ve been thinking about since I made it last: Gina’s raw sushi rolls with cauliflower “rice”. They were just as good as last time, and I filled them with cucumber, avocado, and some shredded crabmeat.

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I continued with a delicious spinach salad with a pan-roasted Ahi tuna filet. I bought the most amazing-looking tuna filets at Trader Joe’s yesterday, and I’d been thinking about them all day, so I knew they had to be on the menu. I whipped up a quick salad dressing with:
  • 1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tsp. minced garlic
  • 1 tsp. oregano

I shook them together and then set the dressing aside while I pan-roasted the tuna filet in a super-hot skillet with some olive and sesame oil. I over-cooked it slightly, but it was still delicious! While it cooked, I cut up my cucumbers, dressed the salad, and then sliced the tuna. The whole darn thing got sprinkled with sesame seeds.

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Reason #3: Lemon Vanilla Cloud Cookies

After last night’s coconut clouds, I knew I had to perfect the recipe. I hesitate to call these meringues because they’re lacking the sugar that standard meringues have, but I’m good with calling them clouds. They sound so happy!

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Lemon Vanilla Clouds
Ingredients
5 egg whites, brought to room temperature
2 packets Splenda (or 1/4 c. sugar)
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 vanilla bean, halved and scraped

Directions
Heat the oven to 200*. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the lemon juice, zest, Splenda, and vanilla, and whip until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spoon onto a clean and dry cookie sheet, then place in the oven until lightly browned and dry (about 2 hours).

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Reason #4: There’s a great thing happening on my OpenSky shop tomorrow! OpenSky has been hosting cooperative shopping deals called GroupShops and I’m going to be apart of one from 9 a.m. tomorrow until midnight on Friday. All the details will be revealed tomorrow morning, but what I can tell you is that it involves EnviTotes and will be under $25!

Click here for the special EnviTote GroupShop!


So after a day of feeling above the clouds, and then eating some clouds, it’s time for me to land and go to bed shortly…

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8 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, March 9th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in fish or seafood, simple recipe
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