roasted goodness

christmas has come early here in palmer thanks to my wonderful aunt bonnie!!

an amazing box of fresh aneheim peppers arrived on monday and today i stood outside (its warm today, 15 degrees) and roasted them on the grill. they are now tucked into the freezer awaiting the perfect day to make a hot batch of green chili.

everyone getting their holiday shopping done?

anyone as stressed out about it as me?

shame really, the big focus on consuming. trying to teach a 3 year old that this time of year is not based on getting presents is impossible.

knock knock

"hey, got any turkey? sticks and twigs are in short supply out here you know. come on, i know the fridge is full of leftovers, hand it over!"

sitting on the couch moments ago, i hear "crunch, crunch, crunch" on frozen, stiff snow and looking directly at us is this teenaged monster eating the bush planted on the far side of the house.

these guys are not shy.

everyone full of turkey? we've just spent a lovely long weekend with friends and great food. and, its only saturday! a few more days of freedom with no plans in sight.

jade and lydia had a fantastic time arguing over toys and jumping all over the house. hope the turkey day festivities were great fun for all.

eat

joe's cranberry chutney is a borrowed recipe from a wonderful co-worker at hospice. it is a must-have to accompany any tasty turkey on thanksgiving... and it beats the hell out of the canned stuff both for taste (not too hard) and especially presentation.

you will find no shapely can rings here folks! - and you will impress your in-laws by adorning your table with this stuff.

happy cooking and eating friends. we count our lucky stars we have you in our lives.




joe's cranberry chutney

1 lb. cranberries

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup golden raisens

2 tsp cinn

1 1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp allspice

1 cup h2o

1 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup chopped celery

saute the onions and celery

simmer first 8 ingredients uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. stir in remaining ingredients and simmer until thick, about 15 minutes. you can store in fridge up to 2 weeks.

gobble

thanksgiving approaches.
what do you have to be thankful for? i think lots.

the clinic has been busy the past week or so. diagnoses have been the ususual run-of-the-mill variety with a few uncontrolled hypertensions and abdominal pains thrown in for fun. thank god regis made me buy that pda.

we have been staying warm here in our abode as daylight diminshes to about 7 hours.
note the nice woodpile?

we havent really noticed too much difference in daylight yet, although as i have mentioned before the light is low and flat, beautiful. in a month we will start to reverse and gain light (my cup is half full!)
obviously, i am in denial about the shortest day which boasts just 5 hours 26 minutes of daylight.

we are heading to anchorage for turkey day and looking forward to seeing rich and leslie and especially that little lydia.

who wants to hikau?

daylight fades so fast

pink light and only lunch time

bedtime comes early

celebrity spotting

it is 11 degrees here today and we are looking at blue sky and sunshine. it seems that in the winter, things clear up and cool down. the sun offers a half-hearted attempt at warming things up by hanging very low.

so, an apology to all those of you who get here by mistake.
the blog meter is an interesting and surprising tool. i now know that there are people who get here because they do a search for something like "northern lights" (we havent seen them yet, so i will spare you the blow-by-blow description of this awesome spectacle) or for "snorkel stove" (to the the person in minnesota looking for snorkel stoves, i hope you found the picure of the toasty hot tub but more importantly, the tip that the stove was purchaced on craigs list in anchorge) .

to all of you who get here because you know us and are indulging me by wanting to know how we are surviving this beautiful and chilly place, thank you.

post a comment and let me know you are reading.

jeff had a very successful time at the alaska miners association meeting and even got to meet a celebrity of sorts. our newly elected, republican governor, sarah palin. he even managed a photo op by telling governor palin, "my wife would be thrilled if i could get a photo with you".

right-o, thrilled indeed... (:

palmer transfer

this old rotting ford was found on a trek thru the woods while looking at some land for sale. (dont panic friends, we always look, we will come back someday.)

today i have the house to myself and a toasty fire in the woodstove.
7 hours, 47 minutes of daylight now. the cats are refusing to go outside and the dogs leave the deck only for the few moments it takes for them to do their business.

how about those elections, eh? maybe if rummy had resigned months ago the GOP wouldnt have lost so many seats.
i am proud of you colorado, going purple and all.
its about time.

i am now off from work for several days. i must say.... yippeee! i saw nothing too exciting at the clinic the last few days. a buckle fracture- casted, a cyst drained. pretty boring, and mostly full of impatient patients with colds wanting antibiotics.

"the average person gets about 6-8 viral illness per year. viruses are hard to deal with, because as you know, antibiotics target bacteria. the only thing we can do when you are ill with a virus is symptom management."
"the life of a typical viral illness is 10-14 days. if you think you are getting worse instead of better at that 10 day mark, let me know. otherwise, here are some things you can do to make your symptoms more manageable."

lather, rinse, repeat.

j is in anchorage at the alaska miners convention. does this sound exciting or what?? staying at the sheridan and doing lots of hobnobbing. hope he makes some good contacts.

waiting for the snow to fall
to cover us all.

VOTE

is anyone there?

for my own personal enjoyment, lets try something i have stolen from a very funny blog called http://fatdoctor.blogspot.com - love her.
1. grab the nearest book. no cheating! the nearest book.
2. open the book to page 123.
3. find the fifth sentence
4. post the text of the next four sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. dont you dare dig for a cool or intellectual book on your shelf. pick out whatever is closest!

heres mine:

once i asked my son how he feels about his situation. "happy and sad," he answered. "sad because i have problems. happy because im doing so good." after much thought and worry, i decided to tell him about fetal alcohol syndrome.

hmmm.

big wooly mammoth...er, musk ox

sunday in the valley. raspberry pancakes and lattes. mmmmm. arent sundays wonderful? something about the day suggests permission to stay in pj's longer than any other day, of saving toothbrushing and hair combing till either someone threatens to drop in, (insert loud laugh here. no chance these days) or we need to run out of the house for something.

today we visited the musk ox farm. be warned, i will now proceed to give all kinds of (largely) uninteresting and previously unknown facts about musk ox.
first of all, musk ox are not ox, nor do they produce musk. they were named musk ox by european explorers who first saw the great beasts in a muskeg (a soil type, also a peatland or wetland type called a bog, common in arctic and boreal areas) and they looked like oxen.
they are native to the artic areas of canada, greenland and alaska and are ancient- rubbing shoulders with the wooly mammoth! the population here was largely wiped out in the late nineteenth century. they were reintroduced to alaska in the early part of the century, traveling all the way from greenland.

musk ox wool (qiviut, an inuit word) is highly prized for its softness, length and insulative value. it is 8 times warmer than wool. (yeh baby, 8 times!) also, when looking at wool under a micorscope, wool has tiny barbs, which is what makes it so itchy when wearing it. qiviut; no itchy barbs.

so some anthropoligist got this idea to create a cooperative in the 1950's . the cooperative, headquatered in anchorage, collects qiviut from the 2 farms here in ak. and those in canada and then sends it to isoloated native alaskan villages, where in turn, navive women weave and knit it into scarves and hats in patterns native to that particular village. these hats and scarves are sold (for lots and lots of money, the average hat; 300 bucks) and a percentage is given to the individual. at the end of the year the profits generated by the cooperative are distributed to the members.

you might wonder, how does one get this lovely qiviut from these woolly beasts? ( they average over 450 pounds). its all hand combed, with not-so-fancy picks. you know, the kind you would use on a big fat perm, 70's style. AKA: afro.

i just have one question. who knew?