Great Minnesota Get-Together

We survived the state fair twice this year.  Last Saturday was 78 degrees and fabulous fair weather.  This Saturday was 88 degrees with 83% humidity.  It was awful.  The second time we went with my parents and Freya and John but we'd already seen and eaten most of what we were interested in on the first trip.

 I got these 2 skeins of yarn and some roving from the Minnesota wool producers the first time around.  I stop by their booth every year and always find something. 

 I hadn't used my spinning wheel since we lived in the apartment.  I spun and plied the roving single with a single spun from a gray wool/mohair blend I got from the now defunct Austin's Mohair Farm.

 I got about 370 yards of a worsted weight yarn.  I have no idea what I'm going to use it for but I am very happy with how it turned out.  Love those blues!

 Speaking of yarn, we saw this yarn bomb at the state fair!

 My parents were here this weekend and I always DVR episodes of New Scandinavian Cooking on tpt for them.  Andreas Viestad is our favorite host.  I love watching the show but they cook a lot of seafood which I don't have much experience with.  I was inspired to cook some Minnesota walleye from my freezer that Dave caught.  Unlike Andreas, I cooked this on our deck on a real grill and not an improvised outdoor setting like he does.  Seriously, check out the show.  You will yearn for Norge.  We stopped at the tpt booth at the fair and America's Test Kitchen was airing while we were there.  I'll proudly admit that I think Minnesota public tv is better than Iowa public tv and I luuuurrrrvvvved IPTV when I still lived there.

 I salted and peppered the fish, threw on some dill sprigs and sliced lemon and then folded it up inside parchment paper.  The packages went on the indirect heat side of the grill for 10 minutes and it was dee-LISH.  It was so flaky and not at all dry.  I will be making this again and I didn't even have to heat up the house.

 I used my dill earlier to make open faced sandwiches with mayonnaise and shrimp on home baked bread--also inspired by Herr Viestad.  I ate this with my cousins in Kvitsoy years ago.  Num num!  Can you see in these last two pictures why Scandinavian food is known as "white food"?  Very pale but tasty food.

 I got a huge IKEA shelf for my sewing room which replaced this little white shelf.  Dad moved it downstairs to my laundry/store room so I can put all my canning on it.  I just LOVE it!!  I can see and reach everything easily and now I have somewhere to put all the jars as we empty them out this winter.  I think I'm done canning vegetables for now.  I want to do applesauce again this year but they won't be ripe for another few weeks.

We had a whole week of hot humid awful weather and it is supposed to start cooling off.  I reluctantly let Dave turn off the A/C today and I know there's plenty of people who would tar and feather me for saying this...but I can't wait for cooler weather.  Now that fair season is over, I can knit whatever I want and even get busy in my sewing room.