Subscribe to a new magazine

It had to be a magazine I didn't currently receive (no renewals) or one I've received in the past. One magazine I would ALWAYS pick up when making a stack of reading material to work through at Barnes and Noble was Real Simple. I even would buy one every now and then as a special little something to myself (that or Martha Stewart Living, forgive me my sins, but I love it). So today, when school was cancelled due to freezing rains, I looked at my birthday list and see what I could accomplish from home (only 23 days left!).  This was a real easy check off the list since I'd already decided a week or so ago that this was the one. I have gone paperless with my other magazines, but this is one I want for Saturday mornings, on the couch, with a cup of coffee, and that doesn't translate well through the tablet.

Try 5 new cultural dishes and complete recipes in one Paleo cookbook

These two complemented each other because the 5 new dishes came from the Paleo cookbook. I forgot to take pictures of each dish as I made it, but they were all delicious. It gave real purpose to my shopping and meal planning, which was important during the first few weeks that school started. I needed that mental break to think about and plan something besides 5th grade every night.

The five new dishes were:
Rogan Josh- much like curry, but a Kashmir blend of spices (I had no idea Kashmir was a thing)
Eggfoo Young- can't tell you if I had ever eaten before, but defiantly never had made it
Machacado- a Mexican dish made from shredded, dried beef, eggs, diced onion and tomato, and a touch of jalapeño
Scotch Eggs- OMG why have I never eaten these before? Sooo good.
Char Siu- (Cantonese) Definitely a recipe I would have never attempted without this challenge, because it requires prep, 30 minutes of marinating, and 1h 40m to cook, so of which involved turning, basting, then broiling slightly while keeping an eagle eye on it. I'm more of a set-it-and-forget-it type. Or stand at the stove for 30 minutes stirring stuff in a pan with a glass of wine in my hand. But it did turn out delicious.
Pad Thai- pretty darn good, but in Bethel, the ingredients are a bit expensive to get.


Also noted:
There were a couple other recipes that were just meatballs or salmon with new spice blends. The Morrocan, Chezch, and Bora Bora meatballs were all amazing and worth do-overs. The Salmon a L'Afrique Du Nord was ok, but I nothing I've been hankering to repeat.

The Book:

http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/wellfed/

5 New Spices

So I might have gone a bit overboard on preparing for this one. I did some ordering right after an intense inservice and a few days before school started, so I was a little stressed. So what to do to unwind a little? Read beautiful descriptions of exotic spices and order ALL of them.

There are still quite a few that I haven't tried yet. My favorite was the berbere seasoning. As Penzey's eloquently describes:

Awesomely hot and spicy North African-style hot pepper blend. No salt, no mild paprika, just a lot of Cayenne Red Pepper with the rich flavors of fenugreek and cardamom. It's not just hot, it's berbere hot.

Bible Study

Goal: Reread the entire bible

Since February 1

I am currently reading through the histories of the bible. It’s surprising how new and fresh every book can be when you return to it. For whatever reason, this time around, the continuous storyline is really easy to follow. The progression from having judges to kings helps keep the events straight. I’ve been trying to bullet point the main events as they happen. I also did 5 major event studies for the book of Judges.

I read the gospels around Easter and worked through the letters over the summer.

My plan is to then move through the prophets, reading them in chronological order. Then I’ll finish the poetry books, the law, and finish with Revelation.

Mushrooms!

Goal: Take a class at the community college.
Status: Complete!


KUC held a class this weekend called Mushrooms of Southwest Alaska. Dr. Laursen travels the world studying high latitude mushrooms. We learned a ton of technical stuff, including mushroom anatomy, reproduction, and taxonomy.

 We also went out to four different locations in Bethel to collect samples. Back in the classroom we identified them with help from Dr. L and his assistant Christen. It was amazing how many different types of mushrooms are right here, and how many of them are edible!

We made some spore prints of our specimens, which can be a huge help in identifying a mushroom. We also learned how to break down mushrooms into their genus and species. So much information to take in, but so much fun!

Dog Food

Goal: Get Yakko on homemade food diet

Status: Complete!

At one of the workaways in Australia, I was dog walking for a woman in Cairns. She had three large dogs (one being a puppy) and she mixed their food every night. It was rice and pet burger (which is way more popular there than here in the States). But it really made me consider what I was feeding my dog.

As soon as I can to Bethel, I started experimenting with some recipes online. I have used the Balance-It website a lot. You can enter in your pet’s details, choose the carb source you want to use, then select a protein. The site then generates recipes tailored to your pet. I have also used a few blog recipes from people who have tried formulas for a while. Yakko really liked a cottage cheese based recipe, but the cost is really not feasible to do very often. He liked the chicken and sweet potato mix as well. He didn’t like peas very much, but I am going to try mashing them in the food processor (like many suggest) before adding them again.

I was very lucky to collect several salmon from the free fish box in town last week. I cleaned them and have a full freezer of salmon for me, and I boiled all the extra cut pieces for the dog. He was really digging the rice and salmon mix, even though he had it for about a week straight. He hasn’t liked anything made with oatmeal yet.

I placed an order with US wellness, and tried out some of their pet burger. I mixed this with rice made with beef bullion and he hasn’t hesitated once. I also talked to a friend in town who’s had their dogs on homemade food for over a year now. They sent me the recipe and I tried it out. 

Bubba's Food Recipe

Yakko has been all over it! I make him do a trick before he gets to eat. Usually it's just 'stay' as I set the food down and walk away. But 'jump' seems more appropriate for his excitement at dinner time.

Mid flight excitement!

Pickling

Goal: Learn to Pickle food
Status: accomplished September 4!

The Cooperative Extension Service held a pickling class last Thursday for one night. We learned the basic steps and methods then broke into groups and each tried a recipe. We were able to sample pickles made by previous classes. Our group make Sweet Carrots. It was flavored with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and mustard seeds. We tasted the sample and it was like eating Thanksgiving!

Team Carrot filling packed jars with brine.

The beautiful finished product.