Kitchen Aid Mixers and Microwaves

Tracie asked me this morning if I would be baking rye bread so often if we didn't have our kitchen aid mixer. No. This is one labour saving device! Also, we bought a convection microwave oven. Having a microwave that has some power to it is kind of awesome. It cooks things quickly, and has the added feature of being a microwave oven. The scale in the photo is also pretty good. Weighing ingredients has a benefit for baking especially (so I've been told).

Tracie is working on a quilt for a friend who is leaving Alaska for Colorado. She's a good friend and a wonderful person - Kelly Kane, best of luck to you wherever you are. We'll see you in beautiful Colorado!

Pete Briggs Picks up Pigs

Tiffany (a good friend in Bethel) asked Tracie to pick up some piglets for her from Wasilla and put them on a plane to Bethel. She has interesting requests sometimes, but this one wins. So, Peter got to pick up two porkers, package them up in the truck, and pull their posteriors back to the palacio. The two piglets are pictured here:

Their prickly, petlike parent is pictured here (700lbs of pure pork):

We've been told we will have a lifetime supply of delicious things from rural Alaska now! Smoked salmon bellies and the such... mmmm...

And for those that don't know... there is a Dr. Seuss poem that starts "Pete Briggs pats pigs". This is now a true story. This Pete Briggs has now patted pigs.

Tracie took them for their flight to Bethel last night at 2:00am. They got to go through the MVP line, and I hear the inflight movie was Babe (or Charlotte's Web?). Maybe fate will be kind to them... =)

Ryebread

One of the best things I've baked (and continue baking)... rye bread... thanks to Grethe's recipe by way of mormor. We normally cook two big and two small... and give one away to some lucky person each week. It might be you...

(I've added 1/3c wheat berries, 1/3c steelcut oats, 1/3c powdered flax, and 1/3c gluten... the last seeming to help with the crumb of the bread??)

Mormor's 90th Birthday

This is who it's all about. Mormor. Mormor is one of the most important people in my life. So many of my memories growing up have her as a part of it. The small but so important things that make us who we are. She'd read to me, and she still tells me how much I looked forward to learning how to read. She'd get me to do things for her (like pull some metal wire garden bed fencing out) and be so appreciative. Being around Mormor made/makes me feel like I could do anything, and anything I did would be right. Her honesty and compassion are so contagious, and her voice is the one at the back of my head when I need to make the right decision. Food is probably one of the keys to our relationship, and importantly, helping her with it. Whether decorating gingerbread men or helping her make vanilla kranse, like many third generation kids, I learned a lot about Denmark through eating. This is a good kind of learning, and sticks with me. I just pulled a few loaves of rye bread out of the oven, and having a slice smeared with butter (the Danish have one of the best concepts... teeth butter. Where when you've bitten your bread, you can see teeth marks in the butter) reminds me of her and my childhood. Oddly enough, as a vegetarian, I think that I will still say my favourite food would be mormor's rye bread with liver paste and pickled beets. I get to forever remember how good that was. I think I could go on for so long about how special she is to me. At her birthday party I had so much to say to her, but found myself at a loss for words... and much tears. I'm even tearing up a bit now. It's such a good feeling to love someone so much that wanting to tell them how much they mean to you is almost impossible. While I wish in some ways that I was more articulate speaking in front of my family, I know they understand. Even if I had prepared what I was going to say, I know I would have been no better off. She's my mormor...

So... I finally sat down today to print photos, burn CDs and assorted things to send out to the family. April 6th was my grandmother's 90th birthday and we had the first family gathering where EVERYONE was there! It involved two great parties and much family! I can't think of a better reason for celebration than something involving my mormor!

This is the whole family! A better bunch we would not have been without our Mormor!

These are mormor's girls: Chriss, Elizabeth and Grethe.

Mormor's grandkids: Michael, David, Sarah, Peter, Ian and Paul.


Chriss and her family (Tracie, Peter, Chriss, Amanda, Michael and Nicholas).

Grethe and her family (Brooke, David, Grethe, Larry, Paul and Joanna).
Elizabeth and her family (Vance, Elizabeth, Ian and Sarah - looking very scandinavian indeed).
And Mormor and Nicholas. Knowing that another generation is under the influence of a mormor (mormormor?) is a good thing. I know that Tracie and I very much would like to introduce mormor to our kids (when the stork brings them). And to quell any potential rumours from this, we would like kids but no buns in the oven yet. =)

Thank you for reading this post. I can't think of a better or more meaningful subject.

Garden & Flor

The office is moving on up... got rid of various area rugs, and just installed Flor tiles. Makes it look a heck of a lot more professional. They're a great modular tile with a whole bunch of options. I need to check my estimation skills though... we wound up with more than we needed (I drew the tiles the wrong size in AutoCAD... big brain fart). Better than too few though. We'll figure out a way to use what we have left on our side of the house...

We also worked in the garden on a very lovely, sunny day. We found some pieces of a garden shelter that we have repurposed as trellises ( I heart Craigslist)... so, are trying kiwi vine, hops, and woodbine vine. Tracie planted the garden beds with a whole bunch of veggies. We set up some lines for peas to grow up. Some bush beans too... and potatoes. We've hit the limit for the amount of mulch we can use in the yard, so no more shredding leaves and chipping branches to compost. Rather than being one large compost pile, the other side of our yard is now scheduled for landscaping.

Bike to Work Day!

So, I work from home... but somehow managed to bike to work today! Tracie signed us up for counting bicyclists, so Tracie, Laura and I went down to the Seward/Chester trail intersection and counted! And... as fate would have it, we have our first chilly/wet summer day (after weeks of awesome weather). But, we're tough and the census was done...

Biking away from work to count and then come back to work.

My lovely Tracie.

The awesome Laura.

And me...

To those in Anchorage that work outside their homes and bike to work... way to go! We're hoping the new city Bicycle Plan makes it easier and easier in the future (and safer).

Back to Alaska

Was in Oregon last week (after Vancouver) and spent time at the Oregon Garden for a workshop on Green Infrastructure. The Garden is great, and it was fun to see all of the species of plants there that we can't use here. Kind of like a zoo... for plants... I guess that's the definition of something like an arboretum...

Also saw Frank Lloyd Wright's only building in Oregon... the Gordon House. Suffice it to say, it's quite inspiring to see good design...

Then I got to hang out with the Johnson famdamily. It was fun to see Victoria's softball game, Wilson's baseball game (and playing catch with him...), and Madeline getting all crafty with friendship bracelets (and taking photos). Suffice it to say both Tracie and I think we have neat nieces and nephews (Nicholas on my side included... Thomas the train-type picture below sent by Amanda).
Victoria up to bat...

Wilson warming up (getting ready to serve some killer pitches to unsuspecting small people)

Madeline with the good ole 'me taking picture of you' camera shot.

Michael perhaps glowing even more than Nicholas... "if only I had Thomas when I was a kid..."

It was great fun to see the Krauthoefer/Johnson clan briefly while I was touring through... including two stops at Burgerville!!! (Tracie gets jealous...)

It's nice to be back at home though... I like my Tracie.

Peter & The Mad Hacker Skill Set!

Shhh... don't tell Tracie I'm posting here as well. I'm in Vancouver, and decided to take a Tracie shot of a meal... =) Little ahi tuna burgerwiches with sweet potato fries... and a good beer.

The Vancouver skyline is kind of unique. The buildings are skinny and tall. Each floor has something like 1-4 apartments/condos on them. It keeps the skyline a bit more open, and really has a neat effect.

I was actually in Vancouver for a reason too... a Canadian Society of Landscape Architects board meeting. Oddly enough, I'm the representative for the Northwest Territories (it's where I'm from originally). One thing I've spearheaded is a Video Challenge... see this for something we did as an example: CSLA Board Video