Ooooook- lahoma! Part One

What a trip! And where to begin?? I am not what I would call and "adventurous" person by any stretch of the imagination. I lived in the same town, and even the same house in that town, for the first 18 years of my life, then moved a whopping 30 minutes away for the next three, then made the big move to Utah (ha ha!!) after that. I don't like driving in new cities because I have no sense of direction whatsover and always get lost, sometimes even in my own town! Oh the shame!! So what possessed me to fly across the country to meet complete strangers? I decided it's time for a change. So this trip was step one.
I flew from SLC to Dallas, TX in the first part of my flight. I get airsick and did not have a very enjoyable flight. No puking, but it came close. I was concerned I would not find my way to the connecting flight in Dallas and imagine my dismay when I get to the Dallas Airport and discovered my flight is 3 terminals away. But I made it, just barely!! I arrived in Tulsa without puking (hooray!!) and then it hits me, I know what flight my friend is arriving on, but I have only seen pictures of her. How am I going to find her?? I did track her down though and she was just as sweet in person as she is in her emails. We get to the car and she hands me the directions and says, "I hope you can read a map because I'm terrible with directions and I'm counting on you to get us to the hotel." I said, "Girl, we're in trouble!!" We did get lost a couple of times but we found the hotel in the end! Then I met Angela and her daughter, Maria. Later we picked up Robi from the airport. They are all Southerners and let me tell you, Southern hospitality really does exist. I have never been treated so kindly in all my life. People were just so respectful of others and kind while driving, I've never seen anything like it. I felt like I spent the weekend with the ladies from "Steel Magnolias."

From left to right, Angela (Mama Duck), Robi, and me getting ready to enter the fair.


I did not realize my trip to Tulsa would make me part of their cake group, but it did. I am thrilled because these ladies are amazingly talented decorators and the leader of the group, Angela, knows EVERYONE in cake decorating. I'm now well connected. :) What does being part of the group mean? I'm now invited to come to Angela's mansion in Kentucky every couple of months for a weekend packed with her teaching us all new cake decorating techniques. She houses and feeds us, all we have to do is get there. See what I mean by Southern Hospitality? Angela calls herself the Mama Duck and we are all her little ducklings, I'm Duck #4. :)

Can I just tell you the people of Oklahoma take their State Fair seriously? They have massive dedicated buildings for the fair. Massive!! The livestock building was unbelievable. I spent most of my time in the fine arts building though and it was just as impressive with two levels. The cakes took up a sizable corner of the building. The decorators were still setting up when we arrived. It was so great to watch them making last minuted adjustments. I could not believe how many cakes were there. I don't even know the final number. It was spectacular. They had set up two fully functioning kitchens at one end of the room for demonstrations. A lady from Australia, Pam Archibald, and the former executive chef of the White House, French Guy, were teaching. More on them in my next post. I'll track down his name too. :) Meisner is is last name!


We had to taste some of the food at the fair. I have not been to a state fair in probably a decade, so it was fun to see all the rides and vendors. My favorite fair food was the grilled corn and the lemonade, I have never ever ever had lemonade that good in my life and unless I go back to Tulsa I probably won't ever again. Yum!! From left to right it's my friend Narcy, me, and then Robi. These are the girls I shared a room with.


Just so you know I actually did see some cakes, here is one of my favoirtes. The theme was Hollywood Glitz and Glamour and this cake was based of Halle Berry's dress when she won the Oscar. If you see that burgundy lace looking stuff, for those non-decorators that is called string work, and you make it with size 000 (very very small diameter) round tip and it actually floats off the sides of the cake and looks like real lace. It's extremely difficult work. Those lines under the top tier are not actually touching cake, they are floating.

To Be Continued...