Blue Venom, Furious Racer Receive Pinewood Derby Awards

Blue Venom was the name of car 26 in this year's Pinewood Derby.
It received the "Best of Show" Award.
Furious Racer was the name of car 27.
It received the "Best Paint Job" Award.

Something's fishy

Do you like to eat fish or have you heard you should be consuming more Omega -3? I just heard a butcher share his 3 favorite suggestions for cooking fish. Since my Mother grew up eating fish daily, our family likes fish, so I'm going to try all 3. Please add your comment if you have more ideas or like these fishy suggestions.

Salmon Fillet: Put skin side down on grill, cover top with honey butter. Cook about 8 minutes. Gently flip over and the skin will peel off. Add honey butter to this side as well. You'll have a crispy honey butter side and a moist honey butter side.

Halibut Fillet: Spread mayonnaise on top of it as it grills.

Tilapia Fillet: Melt lemon yogurt in a frying pan and spread it over the tilapia as it cooks.

When I lived in Finland, I got to go fishing for Pike. It was so fun to fishing because you are constantly casting and reeling in. I like that better than sitting and waiting. Anyway, if you caught a fish, you were given a fillet knife. The superstition is you must pay for a knife or it brings bad luck, so you give a quarter or something to the gifter. I still have my fillet knife and enjoy filleting trout, etc.

Our sons went fishing for scouts and caught Bass in a local private pond, in exchange for clearing up some logs for the owner. One son's bass was large enough to eat and the others needed to be returned. Dad fried it in lemon pepper.

When I cook salmon it's in tin foil in the oven with lemon pepper and butter buds.
When I cook trout I fillet it and coat it with flour, salt and pepper and fry it in butter, as my Mother did.

Tiger Ears

It's time for "our state fair, is the best state fair, don't miss it, don't even be late!" One of the favorite treats there is Tiger Ears, scones made large and thin and served with honey butter, sponsored by the local Boy Scouts. We planned to go on Saturday, but changed to going the following Saturday. We could hardly wait for the Tiger Ears, so we decided to make these "scones" ourselves. Ours weren't as large and thin, but the kids liked them better.

The recipe is from my cousin who says she uses this recipe for everything, but any bread recipe will do.

In mixing bowl:
Dissolve 3 cups warm water, 2 Tbs. dry yeast, 1 Tbs. sugar and let sit 5 minutes.
Add: 1/2 c sugar, 2 tsp. salt, 1/3 c. oil, 6-7 cups flour, knead 5 minutes with dough hook.

For SCONES: Increase sugar to 1 c. After turning onto floured board, pat 1/2" thick. Cut, stretch thin. Let rise 30 minutes. Fry in hot oil.  For the tiger ears, just fill your frying pan half full of canola or vegetable oil and bring it to a medium heat. As it browns on the bottom side, carefully turn it over in the oil, so the other side can lightly brown too. Then remove onto a plate with paper towels on it to drain the oil. Enjoy!

For LOAVES: Shape into 2 loaves. Let rise 30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

For ROLLS: Do not punch down the dough after rising. Just turn onto floured board. Pat to 1" thick. Cut, stretch thin. Let rise 30 minutes. Fry in hot oil.

For CINNAMON ROLLS: Increase the sugar to 1 cup. After turning onto floured board, roll to 3' x 3' square. Spread with 1 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, lots of cinnamon, nuts and raisins, optional. Roll up, cut 1" thick and cut. Bake at 375 degrees 15-20 minutes. Cool some, frost with 1 cube magarine, 4 cups powdered sugar, 4-5 Tbs. milk, 1 Tbs. vanilla

Sanding the cars for the Pinewood Derby

Dad watches carefully as the sanding is taking place. He's purchased a special sanding pen

to get the fine edges. Notice the bat fins.
Oops, what? The other son needs help too. It's more of a challenge to get 2 cars ready with 2 sons for the big Pinewood Derby Night!

Dad and Cub Scouts Prepare for and Race the Pinewood Derby

After each car was cut out and sanded, it was time to begin

applying several layers of spray paint.

Here are the cars with out wheels and weights, but with drivers

being tested out for looks before another coat of paint is added.
The cars have been assembled with wheels and weights and Dad tries them out on the floor before the big race.
Car #17, black driver, batman foils, fire on front and sides
Car #16 blue driver, spoiler, lightning on front, flags on sides

Our Cars Are Ready to Race in the Pinewood Derby

Far Right is mine. Check out the totally graphite car on the left. He got 4th!
Ours are the middle and far Right ones. We raced each other in the first heat because our numbers were 16 and 17.
Close up of my lightning car. Lots of weights on the top back. When we put the weights on the bottom, it dragged, so we had to redesign it quickly. Oh, the younger kids were in the way of the photo op as they stopped at the end. The finish line is the blue line up further on the course. This is just the stopping spot.
Posing afterwards with just my car at the end of the course. We raced and raced and raced each other and many others after it was all over.