This blue-ribbon winning item is NOT what you think it is.

Last Sunday, I stopped by the Altamont Fair to get in some last-minute fair-gazing, drop off some leftover supplies at the Arts and Crafts Center donation box, purchase a few snacks, and pick up my artworks from the Fine Arts Building.

During my travels, I stopped by the Blue Ribbon Culinary building and watched as people picked up their prize-winning canned goods and pies and cakes. And it was at that moment … that I saw this seemingly incongruous item with a blue ribbon attached to it.

Wait … what in the name of Colonel Sanders is going on here?

Am I seeing things? Did someone just bring a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken into the Fairgrounds and it picked up a blue ribbon? I mean, I do enjoy a few bites of the Colonel’s extra crispy fried chicken, but I’m not imagining that a bucket of K-Fry would outpace Nana’s handed-down-through-the-generations fried chicken recipe.

And in the moment, I was reminded of the times when the Albany Times Union would host their annual “Best of the Capital Region” advertising campaign and stroke-fest. You know … the ones where people end up publicly begging for readers to vote for them so that they could get that coveted “I am the best of” red circle award and use it in their advertising. And I remember when the Times Union’s self-determined food critics would kvetch because someone DARED vote for Olive Garden as best local Italian restaurant. Quel dammage!

So I’m looking at a bucket of KFC with a blue ribbon on it.

Okay. I gotta ask. And thankfully, one of the judges was actually at the Blue Ribbon Building. I pointed out the KFC blue ribbon winning item and asked how this was possible.

“Oh,” she cooed, “That’s not a bucket of chicken.”

You’re not going all René Magritte on me, are you? Ceci n’est pas une Poulet Frit Kentucky?

“Look inside,” she said.

And inside the KFC bucket … were drumstick-shaped cookies. The blue ribbon was for homemade cookies and for presentation of the cookies in a unique way.

Okay, now I feel like a dope. Sheesh.

But hey … I learned something new. Even in baking and cooking, there’s still ways to present your creations that can catch people off-guard – in a good way.

Then again, I didn’t try to go one step further on this … and find out if the cookies were baked with a secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices, or if while eating the cookies I would discover that they were finger-licking good.

Ha.