They just keep comin’ back for more.
Both Karen Mathis and Amber Flemlee are regulars at the Douglas
County Fair & Rodeo, and for good reason.
Mathis, who lives in Plum Creek, said it’s the competition that
keeps her baking for the open class food preparation
category.
She spends the night and morning before the event baking up a
storm, surrounded in her kitchen by 25-pound bags of flour and
sugar.
Baking is no easy business, she said.
This summer’s fair marks Mathis’ sixth appearance, and she is
always going for the big prize, a shiny blue ribbon.
Last year, her jalepeno-cheese bread won best of show, but she
did not stop there.
She entered white, rye, whole wheat, seven-grain, cinnamon
raison, banana and squash breads. And, of course, chocolate chip
cookies.
“I’ve been baking bread since I was 10,” said Mathis, 65. “I won
at the Iowa State Fair when I was a senior in high
school.”
Every year she alters her recipes so they are perfect, adjusting
for high altitude and other considerations.
“I love to cook,” Mathis said. “It brings me a lot of
satisfaction when I have a successful creative piece after I’ve
tweaked the recipe.”
She makes a point to enter a new category or try a new recipe
every year. With the fair less than a month away, she’s still
deciding what her chance-concoction will be.
“I’m still kind of thinking,” she said with a laugh, adding she
is pondering some kind of herb bread or similar fare.
She always takes the time to visit other exhibits, especially
the crafts, and Mathis said she loves seeing other regulars year
after year.
As for her family, they just love her cooking.
“Everyone has a favorite,” she said about the array of dishes
she cooks at home.
Amber Flemlee, 16, is also five-time fair pro going for her
sixth successful season.
Flemlee enters market and meat goats and tries her hand at
various crafts as well.
“I try to do one new project every year so that way I learn
something new,” she said.
Her forte is sewing, she said, but to mix things up, she is
entering in the horticulture and shooting categories, both new
territories.
For her horticulture entry, Flemlee is growing plants in a
nutrient solution instead of typical soil. Shooting has provided a
learning curve, but she excited about her improvement.
“I can tell I’ve improved from where I’ve started to now,”
Flemlee said.
An avid-4-H member, Flemlee said her experience at the fair has
changed her forever.
“It’s made a big difference in my life,” she said.