Cooking and Crafts

How to de-stress when there's nowhere to go... cook & craft!

So there is only 7 weeks left in the school year.  Yet, there is so much to do!   

The state testing is this week.  Then, I'm traveling to Mountain Village for Language Arts curriculum planning for next school year.  The following week I am taking a group of seniors into Anchorage for the senior trip.  After that, I will be planning and setting up prom.  Then, I am in charge of putting together the graduation ceremony.  One week later, we will be packing up our house to move over into a different one.   Finally, during the last week of school, we will be packing up our classrooms to get ready for the move to the new school in August.  Phew.  Here we go.

Moose Meatballs

{Ingredients: 1 lb ground moose meat, 1 egg, 2 tbsp chopped onions, 1 tsp salt}

Mix together by hand, roll into meatballs, and place on foil.  Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Naan Flatbread

{Ingredients: 1 Tbsp dry active yeast, 1 c. warm water, 1/4 c. white sugar, 3 Tbsp milk, 1 egg, 2 tsp salt, 3 1/2 c. flour, 2 tsp minced garlic, 3 Tbsp melted butter}

1. In a large bowl, dissolve 1 Tbsp yeast in 1 c. warm water.  Let stand about 10 minutes until frothy.

2. Stir in one egg, 3 Tbsp milk, and 2 tsp salt.

3. Put 3 1/2 c. flour and 1/4 c. white sugar in another bowl.  Add mixture.  Stir together.

 3. Knead for 6-8 minutes, or until smooth.  Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise about 1 hour until the dough has doubled in volume.

 4. Pinch dough, and knead in 2 tsp minced garlic (optional).  Pinch off golf ball sized pieces of dough.  Roll into balls and place on a tray.  Cover with a towel, and let rise 30 minutes until dough has doubled in size.

 5. Heat skillet (or grill) on High heat.  Lightly oil the cooking surface.  Flatten out dough (the size of a pancake) on a floured surface.

 6. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until it gets puffy.  Brush uncooked side with melted butter, and turn over.  Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned about 2-3 more minutes.

 7. Enjoy your Naan Flatbread!

Seed Bead Earrings

I wanted to learn how to stitch earrings.  So, I learned the "brick stitch" and the "ladder stitch" by watching this video tutorial on youtube: 

{Click Here}

This is the first pair I made for myself.  It took about 6 hours.  I made a second pair with a friend and we each made one earring.  That took only 4 hours.





I made a third pair for another friend. By then, it only took me 3 hours to make them.

Making the earrings is a tedious task, so it's good practice for building patience.

I started the earring with the clear beads using the "ladder stitch."  Then, I use the "brick stitch" to build a pyramid up with the silver beads.

Finished with the top of the earring.  Now, I will add the columns of fridge on the bottom. 

The finished product:

More Sunlight

Not much has happened around here in a while.  We are getting our students ready for the big state wide assessment called the SBA's.

This week we made another trip to Emmonak for some cheaper gas and groceries.

Filling up at the gas station in Emmo.

This is the sun at 6pm.

These are the markers that guide the trail from Emmo to Alakanuk.

In March, the sun is starting to set around 8:30pm.

9pm sunset.  Now it get completely dark after 10pm.

Iditarod Video and Moose Jerky

Here are the highlights from our trip to Anchorage last weekend:

Leaving St. Mary's for Alakanuk on a C-207.

I'm sitting in the very back row.  This was my second time riding on a C-207 and I was still scared to death!

Mountains in Anchorage.

We got another snow storm when we came back home.  This time it was unusually warm, 34 degrees, so the snow was sticky (normally dry and powdery).

So we did some landscaping on our porch.

I gave another try at making moose jerky.  I think it will turn out better this time, with some advice from my mom's friend.

 1. Thaw out ground meat.  Here is 2 lbs. in the bowl. (This is the moose our friend got and we helped cut and ground all weekend a few weeks ago.)

 2. Mix in cure & seasonings according to directions on the package.

 3. Fill the jerky gun.  This holds 1 lb. at a time.

 4. Squirt out strips 1/4 in. thick and spread apart.

5. Cook for 8 hrs. in dehydrator at 160 degrees.  Rotate trays about every 2 hrs. and flip jerky half way through.

The Iditarod 2013

Dash 8 airplane from St. Mary's to Anchorage.

This weekend we made a trip into Anchorage.

Iditarod sled dogs

Caribou burger at the Snow Goose Restaurant.

A carnival set up downtown.

 

Slow snow falling.

 Saturday morning we got to watch the Iditarod dog sled race start downtown.  I was more than excited.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  The start in Anchorage is actually fake.  The real start begins 11 miles away in Willow, Alaska.

The dog sled teams transported their dogs in these kennel trucks.

A musher putting "booties" on her sled dog's paws.  They wear booties because snow would pack in the cracks of their paws which could freeze and cut the paws.

 

Dogs eagerly awaiting the start of the race.

The dogs were very excited.  They barked and jumped and pulled forward in their harnesses.  "What are we waiting around for?  Let's go!"

The mushers each wore bib numbers.          Enjoying the warm, above freezing weather!

 

The Fur Rondy Festival was also going on downtown.  Dozens of fur traders set up booths along the street selling hats, pelts, and other furry items.

Each Iditarod team can only have 12 dogs.

The dogs were the stars of the show.  Cameras everywhere.

This is Team Dee Dee.  This is musher Dee Dee in her pink coat.  She is a breast cancer survivor and all of her gear and equipment is pink.

Dee Dee's pink dog sled harnesses.

A lot of dog sled teams were decked out in matching colors.

                Every two minutes another sled team would begin at the start line.  The line up order was determined the night before in a random draw.  There were 66 teams entered in this year's race.

As part of the Fur Rondy Festival a lot of fur traders had big clearance sales.  

Make a guess at how much this fur coat costs???

Special Sale: $18,995.  Hey, it's 50% off, what a deal!

Fox and beaver hats for sale.  The average beaver malachi hat costs $275.

Reindeer hotdog stand selling hotdogs made from caribou meat.  So good!

  

This was after all 66 sled teams passed through the street.  The city brought in the snow to make a track.  Bulldozers cleared the streets after all the teams left.

 

  

 

The carnival in the daytime.  Awesome mountain view in the background.

Anchorage Wal-Mart

The view walking out of the store.

Driving around the city.

 Not taking the simple things for granted.

Back at our favorite cafe, Snow City.  Never disappointed.

Driving up to Flattop Mountain in Chugach State Park for a hike.

Flattop Mountain

We only made it about 200 yards past this sign because it started getting dangerously steep.  In the winter, if you want to make it to the top safely, you better have the proper gear: snow shoes and ski poles.

 

Looking over the city and the Cook Inlet.

 

This Corgi came waddling up the trail.  He was on a walk with his owner. 

The is the first Corgi I've seen hiking a mountain.  He was happy, but very out of breath.

Flattop Mountain in August:

The same picture in March: