yesterday was devoted mainly to 4H. in the afternoon we had the year-end horse awards banquet. this is sponsored by the club that hosts the shows during the summer. they provide pizza, pop, and cake, all you have to bring is a door prize. people bring everything from candles to horse treats to baked goods. i contributed a horse-themed mini album. i would show you photos but i forgot to take any! it had lots of machine stitching, pink cowgirl papers, ribbons, and 4H clovers.
4H'ers that had perfect attendance at all the horse shows always get a cool gift. one year it was belt buckles, last year it was embroidered camp chairs, and this year they got nice thick sweatshirts with the clover logo embroidered on the front and the name and date on the back. the big prize every year is the best horse project award. it comes with a huge traveling trophy that the winner gets to keep for a year with their name engraved on it. my girl compiled her portfolio and submitted it for consideration this year. so it was finally the day to find out if she had won.
the entries require detailed records of feeding, care, riding, vet visits, and costs for the entire year. (yeah, we won't dwell on that total. it does bring to mind the adage about how to make a fortune in the horse business. start with two fortunes. heh.) other parts of the entry include a summary of the year's events, including examples of citizenship and leadership within the horse project area. of course i was hoping that she would win, but you never know who else submitted an entry and what their project included.
she did win, and i got a photo with one of the family members who initiated the award. we had to clear off a few things on the table at home for it to fit - it's big! we didn't mind, though.
the banquet is also a fun time because we get to see friends that we usually only see at the shows. so we stayed to help clean up after and visit awhile. then it was home to make two dishes to bring to family night for our club that evening.
i can manage in the kitchen, but i would usually rather be scrapping, organizing my scrap space, or thinking about scrapping! so i knew what i was going to fix, and even had gone to the store to get two of the items ahead of time. one of the dishes i was going to make got vetoed, so i had to come up with something quickly. the thing about going to 4H potlucks is that you cannot bring something from the store. i mean, these are people who usually raise the food, fix it, and bring it in amounts that insure nobody ever goes hungry. so to just pop into the store to pick up something at the last minute is totally lame. this is just a tiny bit stressful if you are someone like me who doesn't raise the food i am going to bring. i did have 3 homegrown tomatoes left (i guess i did raise part of what i brought!), and the fixings for taco dip, so that's what i did. whew.
the first thing i made was cherry cream cheese tarts. the picture is small on account of they don't exactly look like a magazine photo. but they disappeared fairly quickly, so i consider that a success.
and here's the taco dip. yes, i did get the chips at the store, but i figure the homegrown delicious mouth-watering perfectly ripe tomatoes offset the store-bought chips. oh, and next time, i need to remember a serving utensil for the taco dip. maybe by the time my girl graduates from 4H i'll have it down. maybe.
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