Alaska to Washington - Day 2

Our second day on the road took us from Tok, Alaska across the Canadian border and all the way to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

Sights along the way included flowers, a border crossing, bears, a lynx and 2 babies, more mountains, Kluane lake, and remnants of a forest fire from the 1950s.

Photo Friday

Moving from Alaska to Washington. Day 1

We got a very late start since we were actually packing up, cleaning, and leaving our house in Alaska.

We left at 6:00pm and arrived in Tok, Alaska at midnight.

Sights along the way, Matanuska glacier, a moose crossing the road, trumpeter swans, crooked black spruce trees and lots of scenery.

Honeymaid Fruit Salsa

 


I found this recipe about a year ago on the back of the graham cracker box. It's really easy to throw together and can be modified to add additional fruit or change some of them out. I've added diced kiwi & mango to the other fruits in the recipe. Next time will try pineapple.

HoneyMaid Fruit Salsa
Serves 8

1/4 cup chopped red apple
1/4 cup chopped seedless grapes
1/4 cup canned mandarin orange segments, drained & cut in half
1/4 cup chopped strawberries
2 Tbsp. apricot preserves (also good with peach Simply Fruit)
Graham Crackers or Graham sticks for dipping


Mix fruit and preserves until well blended. Place in small strainer over bowl (funny, I don't ever remember seeing that part of the instructions and I'm sure I've never drained my fruit). Refrigerate at least 30 minutes (I rarely do this when I first make it either).


NI per 1 Tbsp: 80 calories, 1g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 95mg sodium, 18g carbohydrate, <1g fiber, 9g sugars, 1g protein.

Fluffy White Snow

Here's a quick street scene from this morning. We woke up to about 4" of the fluffy white stuff today. Now I'm going to play Christmas music!

Sent from my HTC

Steamed Buns Success!

Last night I attempted steamed buns for the first time. I've never even eaten them before but thought I should try them. I followed the basic instructions I found on Bento for Beginners and came up with these measurements.
1 cup Fiber One pancake mix
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup white wheat flour
Mix together pancake mix and water then add in flour. Turn out onto lightly floured surface & knead. Form a log shape & cut into 4 equal pieces. Fill each piece with desired filling (I used a veggie mixture for Meatless Monday) and steam for about 20 minutes. They turned really tasty but next time I will try to get more filling in them.

Pumpkin Scones

Fall is definitely upon us here in South central Alaska. Most of the trees are past their peak color and the leaves are dropping quickly. Soon we will see "termination dust" on the tops of the mountains. Termination dust is the name for the first snow that signals it's time for the outsiders to leave. I hope we don't see it for a while but you never know.
Fall makes me want to bake, although i don't consider myself much of a baker. Today I made Pumpkin Scones. They're quite tasty but not exactly scone density or texture. Any suggestion on where to tweak the recipe?

Pumpkin Scones
Makes 20 small scones

2 1/2 cups Bisquick heart smart baking mix
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg or egg sub equal to 1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 - 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp coarse sugar
Mix first 6 ingredients together in to a soft dough. Drop by medium cookie scoop on to baking stone. Flatten slightly with back of a spoon. Brush milk on to each scone & follow with coarse sugar. Bake at 425 for 11-13 minutes.

Where's the rest of my post?

The previous "scenery" post is lacking another photo and the written part describing what was going on.
We took the dogs for a walk by the Matanuska river today. The mountain in the background is Pioneer Peak. Neptune loves to chase sticks and play in the water but we have to keep to the side chutes of the river because the water is so fast moving & the whole river comes from a melting glacier 60+ miles upstream.

More Scenery

Blogging from my porch

Still hot summer wherever you are? I happened to find a moment to sneak out to my porch and have an afternoon coffee in the sunshine. This is one of the nicest days we've had in a while so I had to take advantage of it. The first photo is my porch glider - all decked out in SUNSHINE! Can't contain my giddiness I just love the sun. The other two photos are from my drive this morning. Big clear skies & big dark mountains. Hope you enjoy!

Photo Friday

These are two fused glass pendants I made at the Wow Factory while we were visiting family in West Virginia. I just entered the one on the left into the Alaska State Fair. The fair starts in two weeks and I'm always anxious to see all the crafts, quilts, livestock, giant giant veggies, and flowers that are entered. My husband on the other hand is less than thrilled about going to the fair and says "it seems like we were just there!" but he is nice and goes along anyway.

Photo Friday

These are wild bluebells growing along the side boundry of the golf
course we frequent. I love how they let the wildflowers do their thing
along the edges of the course. Yesterday I saw bluebells, wild
geranium, wild rose, and the beginning of fireweed. I'll share pics of
the fireweed later in the summer when it really takes off.

My supervisor

This was my Sunday evening reading material and my "supervisor"
Neptune. He must really want me to make them some treats. I found this
dog cookbook the other day at Barnes on the bargain table. It has a
TON of yummy (even for people) sounding recipes. I'm definitely going
to have to make some soon. Watch for the post.