May 2010

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the count down is on!

May 26, 2010 in home skillet | 4 comments

Summer! Mighty’s last day of school was today. One kid down, one to go.

We have been so incredibly lucky with the boys’ schools since moving here. I beat myself up for the longest time over our decision to stop homeschooling. However, after the boys settled into their school routines and we got to know teachers and classmates, we grew to feel blessed to have such a nurturing atmosphere to foster our kids’ love of learning. We’ll miss Mighty’s preschool endlessly but are happy to be sending him off to J’s wonderful elementary school next year.

These last few weeks of school have really done me in though. We’ve had so many field trips and other school activities that I’m euphoric for us all to have a mellow summer vacation. The idea of having all three kids home for the summer almost seems relaxing now, whereas a month ago, it sounded unbelievably daunting. The May craziness must be a mental build-up to force me to remember how awesome it is to have no schedule and to be able to sleep in every single morning!

On top of all the pandemonium going down around here, Brian was in Seattle all last week for a conference. I don’t love to be left alone (unless I’m truly alone), but I do like the reminder of how much I should appreciate all that he does around here–and the treats he brings back. Like the delicious coffee and tea from Pike’s Place Market, and some seriously decadent gourmet chocolates from Fran’s.  The smoked salt caramels were to.die.for. Trust me. I wish I had one to share with all of you.

He totally spoiled the kids with goodies, but the biggest hit for the boys was the headbands from Chinatown.  They have been all about the kung fu moves since watching the Karate Kid a few weeks ago. It’s so hilarious to watch how serious they are about beating the tar out of each other and trying to remain Daniel-son-stoic the whole time. Well, until it gets taken too far and I have to break it up. Like usual.

Brian also was met with a surprise upon returning.  We gave the front porch a little makeover while he was away, complete with two rad lime green adirondacks (so glad Juneau has a Home Depot now!) and oodles of flowers. Now he can grill out in style.

I now have a strawberry/rhubarb/blueberry crumble cooling on the counter for dessert tonight.  Perhaps we’ll eat it on the porch with chilled wine in the glow of a citronella candle and the beautiful Alaska evening sun. Yep, summer is gonna be lovely.

the big five

May 24, 2010 in birthdays, family, mighty | 9 comments

Mighty turned five yesterday!

That makes for a whole lotta smiles he’s brought to my face over the years (and a whole lotta grief and super glue, too!).  Silly little man.

I love you, Monkey!

tidepooling

May 24, 2010 in alaska, exploring nature, tidepooling | No comments

I took the kids tidepooling with J’s class last week. I have to admit, I have always been really interested in the land up here; from the trees and flowers to the birds and bears, but I know so little about the small creatures of the sea. This was my first real experience venturing out into the tide pools with people who could teach us all about what we were finding. It was incredible! The kids were utterly fascinated by all the foreign critters we found, and I have a new obsession. Between this trip and our last field trip to the NOAA facility, I have learned so much.

Did you know that most sea stars extend their stomach outside their bodies to soak up all the food around them?  News to me!  They eat closed mussels by prying open the shell with their bellies and ingesting the meaty inside. Talk about strong abs. This explains why there are so few mussels covering the rocks below the tideline. The mussels above the tide survive because the sea stars can’t live out of water long enough to eat them up. I always noticed the absence of mussels below the water but never really thought of why. Pretty little starfish are crazy talented predators, as it turns out.

Of all the strange things we saw, the chiton freaked me out the most. They just look like little spiny monsters, all tucked away, ready to jump out and bite your finger when you poke it. Seriously, doesn’t it look like a curled up backbone? My kids’ imaginations are getting to me.

We saw a lot of eels, which are wriggly and slimy just like snakes and evoked the same light-headed, oh-my-goodness-I’m-gonna-pass-out-if-I-look fear in me… but I got over it. Kind of. Here’s another creepy little monster:

I don’t know what it was, but it was definitely alive.

The thing that struck me the most during this exploring was how many times I had wandered the beaches up here, never bothering to take a really good look, flip rocks over and get down on ground-level to notice the tiny things.  Most of the creatures we found were no bigger than a fingernail, but they were exquisitely beautiful and intriguing. Exploring with kids is so wonderful for so many reasons, but I am most thankful for their curious bright eyes, pointing out the details that I would so often overlook.

All of this and we are just beginning to scratch the surface. I need to find a good tidepooling in Alaska book, if anyone has any suggestions. I would really like to know what that little balloon-like orange thing is? Some of the kids were calling them sea weenies, but it’s possible they were just trying to embarrass the adults. I’m afraid to google that one.

juneau at its best

May 19, 2010 in alaska, weekends | 10 comments

The weather here has been outstanding. Warm, sunny…. not terribly buggy yet. I have taken so many pictures over the last week that I want to post a play-by-play of my hours spent outside… but I’ll spare you. I picked out just a few shots from over the weekend for ya instead.

The friday night lighting at the Mendenhall Glacier was powerful. The clouds were just beginning to clear for our glorious stretch of sun, and there were lots of small icebergs out in the lake. Brian took the last shot of me and Bird and here’s another really neat one.

My boy is becoming quite the fisherman! He is raring to go as soon as he gets out of bed these days. This Dolly Varden was entirely his catch: from the lure selection to the landing. He’s going to be feeding us all before too long.

It’s nearly impossible to keep these kiddoes out of the water. I thought they’d outgrow it when we left the warm waters of Texas.  Um, no. Bone-chilling or not, the clothes eventually become soaked and the mom gives up trying to keep them out. But trust me, the water is Cold. With a capital C. They swam with icebergs, at dusk, in the glacier-fed lake (see above pictures). **Shiver!** I just realized I should keep two or three sets of clothes in the car for all three kids, and not just the potty training toddler.

There’s our weekend for you. Now that I finally got around to posting it on a Wednesday night. I’m putting this sunburnt body to bed now. Nighty night!

food. it’s so good.

May 18, 2010 in Uncategorized | 5 comments

Just some random shots from the kitchen table over the last few days.

Grilled portobello sandwiches topped with spinach, leeks and feta. One of my favorites; unfortunately, I’m the only mushroom lover around here.

Saturday night’s extremely easy and very delicious meal. Habanero and Green Chile chicken sausage (from Costco!), this pasta salad with fennel from the CSA box, and steamed artichokes, also from the box (I got four of them! heaven!).

What did you cook over the weekend? Are your weekend dinners predictably simpler or do you put forth more effort to wow when the family’s all home?

spruce tip jelly

May 13, 2010 in alaska, canning, recipes | 24 comments

I have been really anxious to start harvesting edibles from the forest this spring! I read up on what’s available at this time of year and the thing that jumped out at me was spruce tips. Back during the Alaskan gold rush, homesteaders used spruce tips in jellies and teas as a source of vitamin C to prevent scurvy. As it turns out vitamin C is my favorite vitamin (growing up on a citrus orchard and all). So off I went to harvest some tender young spruce tips to make a batch of jelly.

It was a nice day so I didn’t wear long sleeves, or gloves. Big mistake. By the time I was done, I was poked something awful and had a momentary reaction in which my arms swelled up and it looked like I had the measles. Does this make me allergic to spruce? Not to be deterred, I continued on with my mission.

Spruce tips are only available during a short window in the spring. Apparently, once the tips grow into branches, they are not quite as tasty. And much more dangerous as the needles turn from soft feathery edibles into mean razor blades.

I have never made spruce tip anything before–I didn’t know what to expect from the jelly taste at all. Alaskan’s Winter Ale is made with spruce tips and I’m a big fan so I figured the jelly must be good. And guess what? It’s divine! Nearly perfect, in my humble opinion. It’s herbal, it’s acidic, it’s sweet. It’s definitely worth the skin piercings and heavy doses of benedryl (ok, I’m being a little dramatic. Next time, I’ll just wear long sleeves and gloves). In fact, I am going to be heading right out during this short window to pick buckets more to make some home brew. I’m sure I can enlist Brian’s help in that endeavor.

Spruce Tip Jelly

I based mine on this recipe, but I didn’t really want to make a giant batch so I halved it. Mine could be more gelatinous but the flavor is really good. I imagine it would be awesome mixed with some kind of fruit. I think I’ll make a batch of tea to freeze and mix with salmonberries when they ripen. I used Sitka Spruce tips because that’s what we have in our yard, but you can use any spruce, pine or fir tips. Makes eight 8 ounce jelly jars.

Pick roundabout four cups of spruce tips–just after the brown papery covering has fallen off and before they get too mature. Rinse in cold water and give a light chopping. Cover the tips with water and simmer for 10 minutes. Let stand overnight, strain with cheesecloth.

3 1/2 cups spruce tip juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 package fruit pectin (I used Sure-Jell)
5 cups sugar

Mix juice with lemon juice and pectin, stir until dissolved. Bring to a full rolling boil for 2 minutes and don’t let it boil over (it was a giant mess to clean up). Pour into jars and place in a boiling water bath* for 10 minutes.

*I don’t have any fancy canning products.  I just use a big pot with a small towel in the bottom instead of a rack (to cushion the glass jars and keep them from banging together and breaking during the boiling). Here is a good website to read more about canning.  It always seemed so intimidating to me before I started doing it… but I haven’t had a bust yet.  So give it a shot!

Check out this website for more recipes with spruce tips–and please, if you have an ice cream maker, try this so you can tell me about it.  Why don’t I have an ice cream maker?

swampy acres

May 10, 2010 in Uncategorized | 6 comments

We took a little trip to our local farm today with Mighty’s class. I had to share some pics in case you were lacking for some cute in your life lately.  It was, sadly, cow-less.  I’m still looking for cows in Juneau to win a bet that hasn’t been settled in, oh, 13 years?  I just don’t see why there are not cows here, darn it.  Why?

climbing mountains, catching fish

May 10, 2010 in alaska, parenting, weekends | 3 comments

Mother’s Day weekend was just about as perfect as perfect can get. For one, it was gloriously sunny here–and warm. I wore sandals for the first time! Our sunny weekend also coincided with Juneau Appreciation Day so we were able to get out and play tourists for the day on Saturday. We took the tram up Mt. Roberts to do some hiking but were kind of sidelined by all the snow that was still up there! So we had snowball fights in our short sleeves and bare feet, and a nice picnic overlooking downtown. Not a bad alternative.

Not only did I get oatmeal pancakes for breakfast Sunday, I got my truck washed, lunch out, and my dinner caught for me by my two strapping boys and their patient dad. It was our first catch of the year! And J’s first Dolly Varden. Delicious!

As I meticulously picked all the bones out of the kids’ fish before I served it to them, I thought about how special it is for them to have the experience of catching their own food. I really hope that by being witness to the cycle of life, they grow to respect both the earth and themselves more. Food awareness has always been crucial in our parenting, but up until this point, the extent of how we subsisted had been primarily of the gathering/gardening sort (aside from our grocery shopping, of course). In our years away from Alaska, we had done little to maintain the hunting aspect of feeding ourselves. J didn’t even like the fish, but he ate it anyway because we talked a lot about how the fish gave its life for our nourishment, and I think he understood. Mighty, however, was not about to try it. Here I go sounding all cheesy on you again, but I’ve really been noticing how our way of life up here is just different. In a really good way.

While Brian and the kids cleaned the car outside Sunday morning, I relaxed in the house watching Bruce Springsteen videos on YouTube (is it cool to admit that?) and listening to the Joy Division Pandora station while I did the dishes. If I can hang out with people I love, eat good food, and listen to good music, I’m a happy mama.

mother’s day

May 9, 2010 in Uncategorized | 7 comments

Happy Mother’s Day to all my beautiful mama friends and family out there! Being a mom is truly a gift and I am so blessed to have such amazing mothers around me to share in the joys (and trials) of it all. Thank you all for inspiration and support. And a giant thank you to my mom.  I love you, Mama!

my beautiful mom, me and sister emily ~ alberta 1980

four generations 2008

mother's day weekend 2010

it's a wild ride!

yoyo

May 6, 2010 in little bird, parenting | 3 comments

My girl. She is cracking me up lately! We just got into an “argument” about how she does not want to be two. I want to be OLD! She told me. Oh little one… old is fun, but really? I want to ride piggyback when I’m tired and the pillow creases on my face to go away after I’ve been awake for ten minutes. I can see the teenage years are going to be a hoot.

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