The cuisine of the American Midwest draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas, and is influenced by regionally and locally grown foodstuffs and cultural diversity.
Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment, and used as a fat in baking, sauce-making, pan frying, and other cooking procedures.
The Minnesota State Fair is the state fair of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Also known by its slogan, "The Great Minnesota Get-Together", it is the largest state fair in the United States by average daily attendance and the second-largest state fair in the United States by total attendance, trailing only the State Fair of Texas, which generally runs twice as long as the Minnesota State Fair. The state fairgrounds, adjacent the Saint Paul campus of the University of Minnesota, are in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, midway between the state's capital city of Saint Paul and the adjacent city of Roseville, near the Como Park and Saint Anthony Park neighborhoods of Saint Paul. Residents of the state and region come to the fair to be entertained, exhibit their best livestock, show off their abilities in a variety of fields including art and cooking, learn about new products and services, and eat many different types of food—often on a stick. The Minnesota State Fair was named the best state fair in the United States in 2015 by readers of USA Today.
Snow sculpture, snow carving or snow art is a sculpture form comparable to sand sculpture or ice sculpture in that most of it is now practiced outdoors often in full view of spectators, thus giving it kinship to performance art. The materials and the tools differ widely, but often include hand tools such as shovels, pickle forks, homemade tools, and saws. Snow sculptures are usually carved out of a single block of snow about 6–15 ft (1.8–4.6 m) on each side and weighing about 20–30 tons. The snow is densely packed into a form after having been produced by artificial means or collected from the ground after a snowfall.
The New York State Fair, also known as the Great New York State Fair, is a 13-day showcase of agriculture, entertainment, education, and technology. With midway rides, concessionaires, exhibits, and concerts, it has become New York's largest annual event and an end-of-summer tradition for hundreds of thousands of families from all corners of the state. The first fair took place in Syracuse in 1841, and took permanent residence there in 1890. It is the oldest and one of the largest state fairs in the United States, with over one million visitors annually.
The Saint Paul Winter Carnival is an annual festival in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States.
The Miss Minnesota USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Minnesota in the Miss USA pageant. It is directed by Future Productions based in Savage, Minnesota since its inception in 1995, which also directs the state pageants for Colorado, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Butter sculptures are three-dimensional works of art created with butter, a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. The works often depict animals, people, buildings and other objects. They are best known as attractions at state fairs in the United States as lifesize cows and people, but can also be found on banquet tables and even small decorative butter pats. Butter carving was an ancient craft in Tibet, Babylon, Roman Britain and elsewhere. The earliest documented butter sculptures date from Europe in 1536, where they were used on banquet tables. The earliest pieces in the modern sense as public art date from ca. 1870s America, created by Caroline Shawk Brooks, a farm woman from Helena, Arkansas. The heyday of butter sculpturing was about 1890–1930, but butter sculptures are still a popular attraction at agricultural fairs, banquet tables and as decorative butter patties.
The Miss Oregon competition is a regional scholarship competition that selects the representative for the US state of Oregon in the Miss America pageant. The annual event includes contestants from across the state and awards scholarships to the participants.
The Miss South Dakota competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the U.S. state of South Dakota in the Miss America pageant.
The cuisine of Minnesota is a type of Midwestern cuisine found throughout the state of Minnesota.
Robert Longhurst is an American sculptor who was born in Schenectady, New York in 1949. At an early age he was fascinated by his father's small figurative woodcarvings.
Butter is a 2011 American comedy film directed by Jim Field Smith, from a screenplay by Jason Micallef, starring Yara Shahidi, Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell, Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone, and Hugh Jackman. The film is about an Iowa State Fair butter sculpture contest and the competitors and onlookers who attend said contest. It premiered at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival on September 4, 2011, and was released on October 5, 2012 by The Weinstein Company through its RADiUS-TWC distribution arm. The film is said to be a satire of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. Butter received mixed reviews from critics, who questioned Smith's direction of the film's script in terms of humor and satire and the performances from the ensemble cast. The film was a box-office bomb, grossing $175,706 worldwide against a production budget of $10.8 million.
Caroline Shawk Brooks was an American sculptor. Well known for her work sculpting in the medium of butter, she also worked with more traditional materials such as marble.
Linda Christensen is believed to be the only butter carver in the United States who works with live models. She is known for carving the likeness of Princess Kay of the Milky Way along with the 11 Princess Kay finalists out of 90-pound blocks of butter at the annual Minnesota State Fair. Each year, her work draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Dairy Building, where the Midwest Dairy Association sponsors the butter carving in front of fair goers. The newly crowned Princess Kay and 11 finalists each spend about six hours with Christensen in the rotating 40-degree butter booth, as Christensen carves their likenesses out of butter. Princess Kay sits in the booth on the first day of the fair while the 11 finalists get their likenesses carved over the remaining days of the state fair.
Milk Queen is the title awarded to the winner of regularly-organized competitions by Dairy Associations in many countries.
Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery is a producer of cheese curds located in Ellsworth, Wisconsin. It has retail locations in Ellsworth and Menomonie, Wi. The cooperative ships throughout the United States and Ellsworth Cheese Curds are found in grocery store chains in the upper Midwest. Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery is also a milk processing and whey drying plant.
Fairlife, stylized as fa!rlife, is an American brand of ultra-filtered milk distributed by The Coca-Cola Company. In the United States, the milk comes in five flavors: reduced fat, chocolate, strawberry, fat-free, and whole milk.
Rachel Latuff is an American educator and beauty pageant titleholder from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who was crowned Miss Minnesota 2015. She competed for the Miss America 2016 title in September 2015.
The Miss West Virginia's Teen competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the U.S. state of West Virginia in the Miss America's Teen pageant.
