Thanksgiving.....

Five hours of cooking, too few photos but a few glimpses-

Homemade potato/cheese/jalapeno Pierogies for starters....

Bethel Cranberries for sauce........

Turkey Underground.....(Homemade Seitan and stuffing covered with pastry dough) and my feeble attempts to decorate the top with a turkey. I only know how to draw a turkey using my hand, so it looks like a handprint (the knife blade is covering the turkey's head)....

A nice mellow candlelight evening with just the two of us for dinner......(well five I suppose if you count the 4 legged moochers)

Hope yours was just as lovely!

Getting in on the game

Seems my sister and her family are getting in on the blog thing, check my sidebar for links to their freshly created blogs.


I have been soooooo very bad about posting these last few weeks. I started working again, I'm now an archives technician at a government agency I won't name here. It's enjoyable and very low stress thus far. The only slight difficulty is the getting up at 6am part. I'm not really a morning person (as my family may well attest). I'm hoping this job will help me decide if I truly want to be a librarian (or perhaps I should rephrase), rather if I truly want to invest all my time and salary for the next 2-3 years in pursuit of an MLS degree. We'll see.......



We finally got some snow, but this photo is from last year I have to admit. No, the lake is not yet frozen this year (and yes, I am getting pretty worried that it won't be by Dec. 29, so if you're coming you may want to bring a canoe). The snow is a welcome change, it brightens things up and quiets the road noise a bit. I'm looking forward to more, hopefully sooner rather than later. I'm anxious to get out skiing on the trails.

One Down, Sort Of

One 2 1/2 year old unfinished project complete. Aren't they beautiful? Some of you may not appreciate the color selection, but then you probably never cared for the colors I painted my house in Bethel either.


It feels great to finish something that I'd kind of given up hope on ever completing. I guess I need to thank Oona for getting me going again. After seeing her post on the slippers she was making, I dug mine out and got her to help me figure out where I'd left off on mine. I probably should have asked for a wee but more help though because it appears that over the course of 2 1/2 years, not only did I lose my place in the pattern, but I sort of forgot which style of slippers I was making....was it high cuff or low cuff?


Oh well, now I have one of each! Yep, I goofed on the second slipper and made a high cuff one, thinking that was what I had made before. But it wasn't. I knew this was an issue before I felted them. I knew it was an issue two rows into the orange cuff, when the slipper I was knitting had more rows of purple between the sole and the cuff....but I was lazy. I didn't rip it and fix. I figured felting was a forgiving process, perhaps with some stretching I could make one match the other....but it wasn't as forgiving as I'd hoped. And now there's no way to rip and fix.

Live and learn......at least they are done, sort of.

Uncle Ted

Laura, Get Away From the Internets!

Spicy

Goodness, I guess its been a while since I posted. So much for those goals......

So earlier this summer, Peter introduced me to pickling carrots and beets. Little did he know the food preservation monster he was creating. Since then, we've done more carrots and beets (though sadly not as many as I'd like), pickled peppers, cucumbers, crabapple jelly (from our tree) and last night, this hot pepper jelly:


I know its probably not something most people who knew me as a child would think I'd make into jelly, but we had all these peppers from our box, as well as the obligatory onion laying around and it sounded interesting to say the least.

My mother is probably reading this, jaw dropped in amazement because I was the kid (and lets face it, college student as well) who subsisted pretty much on cheese and bread, or cheese and pasta, or any other cheese/starch combination. I did not eat vegetables, except potatoes (duh, cheese and starch), cucumbers, corn, and beans. I ate the same thing everyday for lunch throughout junior high school-- refried beans and (you guessed it) cheese in a tortilla, and the same thing everday for lunch in senior high school-- two rice cakes with peanut butter (and no healthy PB back then, I was all about the jif) and a kiwi fruit.

I branched out into meat in college, steak only at first, and then in Bethel just perhaps 4 years ago, I tried my first hamburger (oh god was it good). I've slowly incorporated more and more veggies to my diet, first red peppers, then broccoli, then eggplant, spinach etc. This year was the first year for beets, which I love more than life itself when they are mashed up with potatoes and fried into little patties, or mixed with shredded cabbage and carrots and a little blue cheese. I could fantasize about beets all day....Dwight Shrute does at least have beet farming going for himself.

But back to the jelly and food preservation....Last weekend we were at Title Wave, taking a breather from tiling the floor. Normally we get our coffees and head over from Kaladi, I beeline for the knitting and sewing books and Peter heads to architecture. Well imagine my surprise when I discovered the knitting and sewing section is now located next to the cookbooks, which means I will likely never make it into the other side of the store anymore. As I perused the shelves, my eyes were drawn to the spine of this gem, and since I had a gift card burning a hole in my wallet I snatched it up. The book is great, she's got explanations for all those things that you've always been told to do/not to do, and there are a number of recipes with very clear directions for how to properly process and preserve.

The book is put out by Storey publishing, who also did this favorite of mine, as well as recent books by the harlot. They emphasize down-home, do it yourself type books and I think I may be turning into one of their biggest fans. I've been pouring over the canning book all week, planning my next foray into food preservation and I'm thinking I might need to add a pressure canner to the wedding registry (which I am keeping by the way).

Now, since the theme of today's blog is food preservation, everyone please think good thoughts for Tiffany, who is presenting and interviewing in Fairbanks this week for a big old grant from Alaska Marketplace to make chum salmon jerky goodness for Alaskans. Good Luck Tiffany!

(Not) My Priority (anymore)

Thank you Board of Game for not advancing the Nelchina non-subsistence area proposal. Now, if you could kindly remove the income requirements (subsistence does not equal welfare), and re-establish a rural priority, we'd all be just dandy!

Hungry Teresa? I'm heading down to the freezer right now for some much appreciated dryfish.

Last Night

There is something so nice about a Friday evening spent in the kitchen. Upon opening thursday's veggie box, I was delighted to find these beautiful eggplant and spinach and knew immediately what I would do with them. A few months back, a certain pizza place (in too close of proximity to our house I might add) informed me they would no longer be making my favorite pizza, the eggplant parmesan. So, after a trip to costco to indulge in a bottle of good red wine, I devoted last night to creating my version of the perfect eggplant parmesan pizza (and a small batch of eggplant parmesan proper for the freezer).

Any solo cooking event is greatly enhanced by good music and the Dawson-inspired playlist I hastily made provided the perfect soundtrack. I can't remember exactly who / what was on there but ESL, Feist, Neko Case, Old Man Luedecke, Jenny Lewis and Carolyn Mark were on there...and for some funky fun, a little George Michael, G. Love, and of course, Beastie Boys.

When the music was over the pizza was ready and not only did it prove to be healthier than the original (almost entirely whole wheat crust, baked breaded eggplant instead of fried, and only 1 oz of cheese), but absolutely delicious as well. I'm sorry, but I was thinking with my stomach when it was ready and did not pause to take a photo. The rest of the evening was spent working on beastie the blankie and watching Fast Food Nation, an interesting movie. Funny it had the same effect on me as the book. When it was over, I really wanted French Fries. The ending of the movie is not for the faint of heart however, and it (along with today's beef recall) will keep me off meat for awhile.

Tonight I'm supposed to meet up with friends to see The Whipsaws play at Blues Central but since I've still got half a pizza, half a bottle of yummy wine, half a blanket to make and at least 5 hours of instant viewing on ye old netflix account, I think I'll stay in again. Sorry guys, I'm old and lame......or maybe I just miss all the quality movie/cooking/knitting time I used to spend this time of year back in Bethel.

Inertia

I feel like the dogs today. I'd love to just lay down on the couch and nap a bit. It's cold, outside and in and I want to snuggle up with a down blanket, good book, and cup of hot chocolate.

Guess I'll have to settle for down booties on my feet and hot chocolate while I work.

Oregon, My Oregon

Another highlight of the summer was a trip to Oregon to see my family. This is Wilson, nephew extraordinare, showing off his increasingly rare find (partial sand dollar) and very sandy hands. I spent the first few days of my trip in Newport, which was a treat as I hadn't been to the beach house in the summer in about 3 years.

Midway through my trip, I met Peter in Seattle and we drove up to Kelowna for his cousin Paul's wedding, with a sidetrip to Edmonton to visit his Mormor. We had an enjoyable day visiting with her and the wedding was lovely. Peter had to return back home after the wedding so I dropped him back off in Seattle and returned to Portland for a few more days.

The drive to Seattle and back was a lovely excuse to quell my fast food desires--I ate at Burgerville twice (spicy black bean gardenburger and thick shake made with real, plump, local, berries- how I love thee).

When I returned, Mom decided we should look for possible Oregon wedding locations, so my sisters and I piled in the car and off we went, perusing wineries and miscellaneous country locales. We went up to Hopewell to say hello to my Great Grandma Scoggan, and out to Sheridan to visit the church my mom went to growing up (she claims they say she was the second best organist they had). It was pretty fun, despite the sweltering 95 degree temps, I hadn't driven around on those country roads in many years. Portions of the last two days were spent looking for a wedding dress (successfully I might add) and registering at Crate and Barrel, though now that I've read this book, I'm thinking of canceling the registry. We'll see though (it would be nice to have matching dishes for once).

Now I must leave to go get to work on Winter Goal #3....................

A New Beginning

Another attempt at this blog business, though no one except Laura or Peter would know that. Today was the first day it really felt as though winter was on its way. A brief glance out the window this afternoon resulted in a sudden pang of excitement (its going to snow soon) and sadness (summer is definitely over and by the looks of it, fall is near to done too). The mountains were more than dusted, the snowline now nearing the houses on the highest-up bits of hillside. In honor of the changing of the season, here's a photo from the summer highlight trip to Yellowknife/Great Slave Lake. I have no idea actually where this was taken, somewhere along the Alcan between Ft. Nelson and Whitehorse (yes, that really narrows it down, doesn't it?)

As always, I'm hoping to accomplish a lot this winter and so I'm publishing the list here, so that all you readers can hold me to it.
1) Ski at least 2 times a week (as long as snow conditions allow), either classic or skate
2) Do the Tour! I will minimally do the 25k, but ideally I'll do the whole thing, classic or skate
3) Put in at least 2 hours a week at the loom
4) Do at least one cabin trip
5) Finish a knitting project or two before I start any new ones
6) Plan the darn wedding
7) Start writing letters to friends again
8) Eat all the fruits and vegetables in our box every week

I know that I will have more but that's a start. Its sort of like my New Year's resolutions, but I guess I prefer to make Equinox resolutions (look for the next set come March).

Peter went to Homer for a few days for work so I'm going to watch a movie now with Jackson, the as-of-late incontinent, on one side, and Mason, he who desperately wants to be walked, on the other. Asia, fat cat, will no doubt nap on my lap.
Cheers for now.