Category Archives: Culinary feats

News From the North

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(Orange cookies with chocolate chips)

Time is flying by and the daylight is increasing at a phenomenal rate. After the dark lull around winter solstice, we picked up noticeable amounts of daylight every day. Now, the morning twilight is at about 8:15 a.m. and the evening twilight ends about 10:00 p.m. We’ve put foil up in our bedroom window so our cave is nice and dark and welcomes sleep.

Well, a big decision has been made. We will only stay one school year in Shishmaref and are now packing up. The best advice we read was as soon as you know you are going to move, start packing! It looks like we are heading to Anchorage. There are so many interesting places to live in Alaska. For our goals, Anchorage seems like the best fit for the next several years.

We’ve loved living in the village of Shishmaref. The natives are kind and friendly. The environment up here is amazing. I am glad that this experience has been part of my story.

Honestly, the school has been difficult to work in. The values of those who we work with and for don’t synch up with ours. There are so many things that could be easily done to improve the education of the children up here. Maybe someday I will be able to tackle that problem from the chair of the state’s education commissioner.

For now, it’s time to get ready to move from 22 miles from the Artic Circle to 350 miles from the Artic Circle.

Last week in Shishmaref

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The good, the bad, and the tasty this week.

The bad. We heard that every year about this time, there is a lice breakout. I don’t know enough about lice to know if the eggs hibernate until a certain temperature, or what happens. I have learned more about lice this year than I ever wanted to know! The only bugs that I have seen up here are flies and tiny red spiders that live outside. We missed the short window of mosquitoes in the summer. This has been an unusual year in the sense that there have been several outbreaks of lice. It has become such a big issue that they are shutting the school down next week, during our spring break, to thoroughly clean. It’s a bit of a drag for us because we shower and do laundry at the school. Fortunately, we have a friend who lives in a house with running water, so we’ll have a backup plan. Makes me itchy every time I think about it.

The good. We saw the most amazing display of northern lights last week. The lights, when visible, can be seen anywhere from 11 p.m. to 3 or 4 a.m. Those are sleeping hours for us. The first time we saw the lights, it was because someone pounded on the door to wake us. Last week, I was shocked awake by Jack jumping up out of bed exclaiming “the lights” as he looked out our bedroom window. Apparently, people were banging on our door and throwing snowballs at our bedroom…I didn’t hear any of it.

I didn’t bother taking my camera out because I didn’t think I could capture them. You’d think because we are so far north, the aurora borealis would be seen all the time. Because of the path of the lights, this has only been the third night this winter that we’ve seen a decent display of the aurora. Imagine looking up at the sky and seeing greenish swirls above and all around. By the horizon, we saw just a hint of purple in the lights. They traveled and moved swiftly. They are said to dance. They curved and morphed from streaks to bands before my eyes. Beautiful and amazing.

The tasty. The week ended with pecan turtle bars. A soft butter cookie base with a buttery, sugary, carmel-y layer covering chopped pecans. The whole cookie was then blanketed with swirled melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. They were cut in small pieces in order to enjoy one or two with less guilt. Oh, my!

Kiwi Oatmeal Bars

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A few months ago, our school received kiwi as the fruit of the week. A surprising number of students enjoyed the kiwi. The ones who did not like their kiwi gave the fruit to their teachers. So, Jack and I took about a dozen fruit home. The kiwi were aging faster than Jack and I could eat them. I decided to try out the jam feature on our bread machine with the remaining kiwi. The jam has been sitting in our freezer waiting to be eaten. Honestly, kiwi jam didn’t really sound that appealing. It looks kind of interesting — bright green with tiny black seeds. Jack thought a blueberry tart with a kiwi jam layer would be good.

After doing a bit of research about what could be done with jams, I settled on a raspberry oatmeal bar recipe. I followed the recipe except for the type of jam…homemade kiwi! It came out terrific. The tasty bars are mostly sweetened by the jam and have the healthy properties of oats. Mostly, they taste delicious. After eating two, Jack suggested my next endeavor should be my own little bake shop. He says my baking is now that good. Thanks, Jack!

Crunchy, tasty, chocolatey goodness

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Eleven weeks to eat through the pantry…

Confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, flour, eggs…

Of course, chocolate brownie biscotti. Just enough crunch to keep me interested. Devilish chocolatey taste to keep my sweet tooth happy. Baking three times took more time than the usual baked treat, but it was totally worth it.

P.S. Jack says these were the best biscotti he’d ever had…ever!

Home Baked Bread

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A picture perfect loaf of wheat bread.

Back in September, my first attempts at bread failed. I couldn’t get the dough to rise right. I figured the temperature in the house up here must be too cool. I read in my rice cooker manual that there was a bread function. Lo and behold, it worked. Since Jack and I have a little rice cooker, our loaves were cute little round babies. They lasted for two good sized sandwiches with an oddball end sandwich left over. That worked for awhile. Then we decided it was time for a real bread machine. After quite a bit of research, we ordered a Zojirushi BBCC-X20. What a terrific machine. It bakes beautiful loaves of bread. I’ve tried herb bread, cheese bread, wheat bread, pizza dough, and kiwi jam!  All terrific! There is nothing more satisfying than eating a hot slice of bread straight from the oven. I used to always say “I will never use a bread machine.” Ugh, I’ve been bitten by every single “never” I’ve ever uttered! Life is too short to knead and tend home made loaves of bread.

Read the whole review at: http://www.amazinggrazefarm.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_reviews_info&products_id=84&reviews_id=6

Clearing the Pantry

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The last day of school will be May 20. The food goal is to eat everything in our pantry by the end of school. Who knows what culinary creations may occur during this process. The pumpkin craisin bread came out delicious. Just out of the oven and barely cooled, half of one loaf is already gone!

Most of what we have left seems reasonable to eat and create with. I’m not sure about the 50 pounds of dried beans and bags of pecans and almonds. Stay tuned…

Grocery Shopping

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(The current mode of transportation for us is a snowmachine towing a sled. Cool, huh?)

Last summer, we shipped up 30 rubbermaid tubs full of provisions for the year. We calculated out how much rice, beans, pasta, flour, canned products, tea, coffee, etc. that we thought we would need. We spent a full day shopping, packing, and shipping our groceries. From Anchorage, it cost about $.75 per pound to ship the containers to Shishmaref. In addition to the mailed tubs, we stuffed three coolers full of frozen goods (meat, juice, veggies) and hand carried those out here. We actually saved all of our lists and have them analyzed and ready to use again this coming summer.

We estimated as best we could what we thought we would need for a school year. I’m impressed how well we have done. We have supplemented our initial shopping with items from the two stores in Shishmaref. The stores have quite a bit of ready-to-eat processed food. We were surprised at how much was available at the stores. We are careful. Sometimes the products are outdated. Our grocery shopping at the stores is usually eggs and fresh fruit or veggies. The eggs run about $8 per 18. Because eggs are too hard to ship ourselves, we rely on the stores up here.

People up here take opportunities to go to Anchorage to do fill-in shopping. Otherwise, we can “bush order” groceries through the mail from Fred Meyer or a couple of other companies. Most companies will charge a packing fee, the cost of the groceries, and the cost of the shipping. Besides flying in and out of here, groceries are our biggest expense.

We had an opportunity to go to our district office last weekend. The picture above is the last of the grocery shopping for the year from the village store at Unalakleet. We bought frozen vegetables, apples, butter, onions, gum, and other items. After spending $212, hopping a 10-seater bush plane, and being toted behind a snow machine on a sled,  our groceries are home and we are stocked up for the last part of the school year.

What to do with half of a bag of marshmallows and a Saturday afternoon…

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Chewy chocolate cookies fresh from the oven stuffed with chocolate chips, pecans, and marshmallows. A few more marshmallows topped the cookie bites during the last two minutes of baking to give them that just toasted taste and look. Yum!

Banana Split ala Alaska Bush

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We spent the last couple of days finishing up projects and watching lots of football with friends. A perfect end to a great weekend? A bush-style banana split. Curious?

(Warning-the following blog entry may make you crazy with cravings for a banana split…read on with great care…)

Bananas rarely appear at the store. A beautiful golden bunch was waiting for us at just over a dollar a banana. They were perfectly ripe and unbruised. They tasted creamy and sweet. These bananas begged to be used in the perfect split.

Several months ago we happened across heavy cream at the store and bought them out…twelve cartons. We quickly realized that we had two weeks in which to do something with these or else they would spoil. We made four different kinds of ice cream: rocky road, chocolate chip, vanilla bean custard, and toasted almond. We also froze whipped cream topping and squash pie filling. Whew…used every carton.

A good banana split needs more than just ice cream and bananas. Toppings! We found a bottle of Smuckers caramel sauce at the store. Ok, that was good. How about hot fudge…homemade! Oh my…I made the best hot fudge I’ve ever had in my life. It was chocolately and smooth and oh, so tasty.

Nuts! Don’t forget the nuts. Jack toasted up some chopped pecans in butter. He sauteed them long enough for them to get hot and absorb the buttery goodness.

There it was…a creamy golden banana, halved.  Scoops of home-made rocky road, vanilla bean custard, and chocolate chip ice creams. A drizzle of caramel topping. An avalanche of home-made hot fudge –so hot it melts the ice cream –. Generous scoops of toasted pecans drenched in butter. All topped with a few dried cherries.

The dish was set in front of us and two minutes later it was a glorious memory.