County Fair Tea: Timetable

Woody Woodpecker Clock Manufactured in the 1950s by Columbia Time Products

Timetable

Up to one week before:
Make and freeze cinnamon rolls, without icing

Two days before:
Prepare pulled pork
Make honey roasted nuts

One day ahead:
Bake potatoes for potato bites
Prepare frozen bananas
Bake caramel apple bars

Two hours ahead:
Prepare sausage tarts
Prepare filling and toppings for potato bites

One hour ahead:
Bake sausage tarts
Slice potato bites
Ice cinnamon rolls

Half hour before:
Reheat potato bites, fill and top
Prepare onion rings, keep warm in low oven
Heat pulled pork, fill rolls just before serving

Ten minutes before serving:
Reheat sausage tarts for 5 minutes
Prepare tea

County Fair Tea: Caramel Apple Bars

Crust:
1 cup brown sugar
¾ cups butter
1 teaspoons apple pie spice or cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup flour
1 cup pecan meal or ground pecans
2 cups rolled oats

Filling:
4 large apples, peeled and sliced or chopped
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon apple pie spice or cinnamon

Topping:
10-12 ounces soft caramel candies (about 2 cups)
3 tablespoons milk


Preheat the oven to 400º. Grease or spray a 9 x 13” baking pan.

To make the crust: In a bowl, beat together the brown sugar, butter, apple spice, salt and baking soda until well blended. Stir in the flour, pecan meal, and oats; the mixture will be crumbly. Set aside 1 cup of the crumbs. Press the remaining crumbs into the prepared pan.

To make the filling: Toss the apples in a bowl with the salt and cinnamon. Spread them over the crust, pressing them in lightly.

To make the topping: In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the caramel with the milk. Drizzle the topping over the apples and sprinkle with the reserved crumbs.

Bake the bars for 35-40 minutes, until the caramel is bubbling and the apples are tender. Remove from the oven and cool to lukewarm. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, cut the bars into squares. Allow the bars to rest until the caramel firms up before serving.

County Fair Tea: Chocolate-Covered Frozen Bananas

I can just imagine all the afternoon tea purists and tea rules experts falling out of their chairs about now. Maybe someone will help them up. For the rest of us, we’ll be laughing and having fun eating these bananas. They really do bring out the kid in us. And they taste good too!

4 bananas
¼ cup lemon juice or orange juice
12 ounces chocolate coating chips, chocolate chips or semisweet baking chocolate
decoration: colored sprinkles, coconut, crushed nuts, rice krispies

Peel and slice bananas in half. Swirl in a small bowl of citrus juice in order to prevent browning. Insert a lollypop or popsicle stick in the bottom of each banana. Place on a tray and freeze for at least 2 hours.

Melt chocolate over low heat or in the microwave. Remove bananas from freezer. Dip each banana into the chocolate or use a spoon to pour the chocolate over the banana until completely covered. Immediately roll the banana in the decoration of your choice. The chocolate hardens very quickly so decorate each banana separately instead of waiting until you have all of them dipped in chocolate. Return to freezer until completely hardened.

County Fair Tea: Honey Roasted Nuts

No need to buy the most expensive nuts in the market for these roasted nuts. I used the store brand with great results.

1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon, divided
4 cups nuts of your choice
2 or 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Combine honey, butter, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, without stirring. Add nuts to the honey mixture. Mix until all nuts are coated. Spread on foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 325º for 10-15 minutes or until nuts are lightly browned. Cool 20 minutes. Combine sugar and remaining cinnamon. Remove nuts from foil. Toss with sugar and cinnamon.

County Fair Tea: Potato Bites

Big baked potatoes topped with a mind boggling choice of toppings is a big seller at my county fair. Even for this fun tea, a whole potato would be too much. In these potato bites, all the flavors are here but they are easy to eat and not so filling.

2 large baking potatoes
olive oil
½ cup sour cream
3 tablespoons cream cheese
2 tablespoons Ranch Dressing seasoning mix
Topping Ingredients: chopped bacon, chives, shredded cheese, hot peppers, green onion, chili powder, paprika, etc.

Rub potatoes with olive oil, poke with a fork to release steam and bake in a 425º oven for 1 hour – 1 hour and 15 minutes, depending on size. When cool enough to handle, slice potato into ½” rounds. Using a melon baller, scoop a small amount of potato from the center to make a well. Take care not to break through the bottom of the potato.

In a small bowl combine the sour cream, cream cheese and Ranch seasoning. This mixture can be put into a piping bag if a more formal presentation is desired; otherwise, dollop some of the mixture into the indentation you made, mounding it up.

Top the potato bites with any of the ingredients listed above or come up with your own topping ideas.

County Fair Tea: Pulled Pork with Barbeque Sauce

This recipe makes more than you’ll need for the County Fair Tea. Freeze the leftovers for another time or eat them the next day.

2 boneless pork loin roasts 2 ½ to 3 pounds each
1 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups ketchup
2 cups diced celery
½ cup steak sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup vinegar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
party rolls

Place roasts in a Dutch oven; add water and salt. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for 2 ½ hours or until meat is tender. Remove roasts and shred using two forks; set aside. Skim fat from cooking liquid and discard. Drain all but 1 cup cooking liquid. Add meat, ketchup, celery, steak sauce, brown sugar, vinegar and lemon juice. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 1 ½ hours. Serve on party rolls.

County Fair Tea: Sausage Tarts

Make more of these than you think you’ll need because they are so tasty. My photo, as usual, doesn't do them justice.

1 pound Polish sausage or other fully cooked sausage
1 large sweet onion
2 green, yellow or red peppers
1 package frozen puff pastry

Thaw the puff pastry. Slice sausage into ¼” pieces. Fry peppers and onions.

Using a biscuit cutter, cut rounds from the puff pastry to fit a mini muffin tin. Spray or grease tin. Fit pastry round into the tin. Place sausage slice, pieces of pepper and onion into the pastry case.

Bake at 400º for 20-25 minutes or until nicely browned. Pop out of the tin and cool on a rack.

County Fair Tea: Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls, served warm, have been a big hit at my local county fair for several years now. You can smell them baking long before you see the stand. Instead of a scone with this tea, a cinnamon roll will hit the spot. Cinnamon rolls are not difficult to make but they are time consuming. Most bakeries sell these if you don’t have the time to make your own. Avoid buying cinnamon rolls from the grocery store or any other place where they might sit for more than a day. Not even warming can save a stale cinnamon roll.

¾ cup milk
½ cup shortening
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 packages active dry yeast
½ cup warm water (110º to 115º)
4 ¼ to 4 ¾ cups flour
2 eggs

Scald milk; add shortening, sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm. Sprinkle yeast on warm water; stir to dissolve.

Add 1 ½ cup flour to milk mixture; beat well with electric mixer at low speed 1 minute. Beat in eggs and yeast.

Gradually stir in enough remaining flour, a little at a time, to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn onto lightly floured board; knead until smooth, satiny and no longer sticky, 5 to 8 minutes.

Place in lightly greased bowl; invert to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, 1 to 1 ½ hours. Punch down and turn onto board. Divide in half.

Roll each half into a 16” x 8” rectangle. Combine 1 cup sugar, ½ cup melted butter and 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon. Spread half of the mixture on each rectangle. If you like, scatter 1/3 cup raisins over each rectangle. Roll lengthwise as for a jellyroll; seal edges. Cut in 1” slices. Place, cut side down, in 2 well-greased 9” square pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, 30-40 minutes. Bake in 375º oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove to wire racks to frost with Confectioners’ Sugar Frosting.


Confectioners’ Sugar Frosting

To 1 cup confectioners’ sugar add enough milk to make mixture of spreading or drizzling consistency. Add ½ teaspoon vanilla and a dash of salt. Stir until smooth. Spread or drizzle over Cinnamon Buns.

County Fair Tea: Onion Rings

Everyone loves a blooming onion, a whole onion which has been batter dipped and deep fried. Not quite right for a tea though. Instead add onion rings to top off your salad. Hold the onion rings in a low oven until ready to plate the salad. Here's a good recipe for onion rings:

large sweet onions, separated into rings
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
several dashes hot sauce
cooking oil for frying

Heat cooking oil in a deep pan several inches thick. Temperature should be 375 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl; in a measuring cup, whisk milk and egg and hot sauce. Add liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Combine but don't over mix. A few lumps are okay.

Dunk the onion rings into the batter and then carefully put them into the oil, a few at a time. Flip them as they begin to turn brown to cook both sides. They are finished when both sides are golden brown. Remove them to a paper towel to drain and sprinkle with salt. Allow the oil to come back up to temperature before adding the next batch. Oil that isn't hot enough will give you soggy onion rings.

County Fair Tea Menu

Blooming onions are always a fair favorite so I’ve added that to the salad course in the form of baby field greens with onion rings.

For the scone course, we won’t be having scones but instead we’ll have a cinnamon roll.

On the savory side, pulled pork on party rolls, baked potato bites and Polish sausage tarts would fit the County Fair theme perfectly even if they are a bit unusual for a tea.

For the sweets course, I did find a treat on a stick--a frozen chocolate covered banana. We’ll have roasted nuts too. And instead of caramel apples which would be hard to eat, we’ll have caramel apple bars.

For our tea course we’ll be serving Tieguanyin, a dark roast Oolong, perfect for September and able to stand up to this hearty menu.

County Fair Tea

This week our local County Fair is being held. To me that means animals in the show rings, beautiful displays of vegetables and flowers, country music acts, carnival games and rides and best of all, food.

Everyone loves fair food. It varies around the country and it can be quite strange though. If it can be coated in batter and thrown in a deep fryer, it will probably make it to some fairgoer’s hand. I’ve seen deep fried candy bars, pickles and cake. Stabbing food onto a stick seems to be another fair favorite, turkey-on-a-stick, pork chop-on-a-stick, the ever popular corn dogs…which also have a stick. We all laugh at this kind of fair food but people enjoy it and eating it just once a year isn’t going to kill anyone.

So to celebrate fair week, I’ve put together a County Fair Tea. No, I won’t have any food on sticks but I might have a deep-fried treat. The flavors and the fun of fair food will definitely be present at this tea.

To decorate for a County Fair Tea, think folk art. If you have something you collect, gather it for the table. I have a small collection of folk art chickens that I’ll use for my tea. I have a few bale-top canning jars in a pretty blue. I’ll use those for flower vases. And for the flowers themselves, sunflowers. Use a tablecloth that coordinates with your folk art collection. I’ll use a simple blue gingham. I have plain white dishes that will keep the table from being too busy. You might consider serving tea, not in pretty flowered teacups but instead serve it in glass canning jars. You can find these with handles—good for serving hot tea.

Music for this tea can only be country. That’s not something I generally listen to but it is perfect for a County Fair Tea. I like the old twangy stuff but country music comes in a lot of different styles today and I’m sure you can find something you like. Crank it up as your guests are arriving to get everyone in the mood. Of course, you’ll want to turn it back down as soon as you begin serving.

If you want to send your guests away with a treat, caramel popcorn in a big clear bag tied with a pretty ribbon would be terrific. You could keep these ready by the door in a big basket. Since my decorating scheme is chickens, I’ll use an antique egg basket.

I don’t usually recommend games or activities for teas but for a County Fair Tea, you’ve got to play at least one game. You could play a couple rounds of Bingo and offer fall chrysanthemums as prizes. Or you might decide to play that old favorite, Now You Have It, Now You Don’t and use prizes that your guests have wrapped and brought. It is hokey for sure but everyone will recognize that, play along and have tons of laughs being silly.

Some teas are rather formal with food that perfectly fits the afternoon tea mold. We wear our best manners and speak with our inside voices, careful not to laugh too boisterously. This definitely isn’t one of those teas. Tell your guests to wear their jeans and sneakers. Keep all the fun of going to a county fair and just for this once, throw afternoon tea decorum out the window!

Tomorrow I’ll give you the County Fair Tea Menu. I think you’ll like it.