Bakers face off at Northwest Montana Fair

Diane Slobojan cuts the wet dough into the dry mix. There’s no mixer involved, just elbow grease and a sharp eye for detail. She’s making chocolate chip cookies at her home in Kalispell, demonstrating techniques she’s learned through the years with 4-H and cooking for a family of six.

Once the dough is mixed, she adds chocolate chips, a few nuts and they’re ready for the oven. Creating a perfect cookie is no small task. She rolls the dough carefully in her hands into a ball. Not too big. Not too small.

When they bake, the cookies come out round and crisp, but not quite right, so she adjusts the oven temperature — the recipe called for a 375 degree oven, so she lowers it to 350.

That did the trick — a darn near perfect cookie. In the course of a few minutes, a half-dozen cookies disappear as “test” subjects.

Slobojan has been the superintendent of the Home Culinary and Dairy Department at the Northwest Montana Fair for too many years to count — at least 30, probably more. She graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1960 and baked and sewed from an early age.

“I had an aunt that helped me make cookies when I was a little kid,” she said during a visit to her home last week.

She married veterinarian Tim Slobojan in 1964 and having a big family also meant she had to cook, and cook, and cook. She loves it.

With the Northwest Montana Fair coming up later this month, the hope is that more people, young and old alike, will enter their home-made goods in the fair’s myriad of contests this summer. The home culinary section alone has entries for everything from pickles to snicker doodles and cherry pie.

Slobojan’s own coup de grace was not chocolate chip cookies, but dinner rolls, using a recipe from a friend’s mom in North Dakota. For nine years straight, her rolls won top honors.

Slobojan’s favorite dish is neither cookie or canned. It’s “frog eyed salad.” Made from acini di pepe pasta, the dessert salad takes two days to make and features sweet pineapple sauce, fruit and Cool Whip.

This year’s top prize at the fair, a $350 cash prize, will go to the best huckleberry pie. Last year, the contest drew more than 50 entries.

Huckleberry pie is a tricky dessert to make. Not only does the crust have to be flaky, the huckleberries can’t be runny. The pies are also judged on their outward appearance. A pie just can’t taste wonderful, it needs to look wonderful. It’s a difficult balance.

As superintendent, Slobojan doesn’t judge entries herself, two other judges see to that, but she oversees the entire process. Fair week makes for some very long days, but all in all, it’s a lot of fun.

“The fair is wonderful,” she said. “It’s a great place to see your neighbors and friends.”

This year, the fair will feature a cookie-decorating contest for kids on Aug. 16. Children ages 6-12 can pre-register Aug. 13 for the contest.

The winning girls and boys from the age 6-9 and 10-12 categories will be awarded a fishing rod and reel courtesy of Snappy’s Sports Senter and KALS Radio. Every child who participates will receive a ribbon.

Bakers wanting to enter the huckleberry pie contest must submit their entry at the Expo Building on Aug. 18 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Judging will begin at 2 p.m. Second place pays $200, third place pays $100, and fourth and fifth places pay $75.