One of the things I love best about living in a small-ish town is simply that here, people are real. I hear about a politician on the radio and it's someone I actually know, not to mention the radio host(s) as well. This is the kind of place where it's not unusual to run into someone you know at the supermarket, and you're almost guaranteed that there's someone you know at the farmer's market on Saturdays.
My dad said once that, living here, he was always disappointed when he had to fly out and he didn't know anyone on the airplane. It only happened a couple of times. Well, the same is still true for me. I usually know, at least by sight, one person on the flight. It was very strange, however, when Shane and I were in Germany, ill and exhausted, waiting to board our flight, when Shane poked me and asked, "Isn't that Cort?" (Our veterinarian, but we're friends with the family. In fact, his daughter was one of my bridesmaids.) He's well over 6 feet tall, hard to miss, so I picked him out right away. "And Connie!" I answered. (His wife.) Across the crowd, neither of us wanted to yell, so we waited for a few seconds to catch their eyes before waving. It turns out they'd been in South Africa, helping a colleague at a wildlife sanctuary.
Even though they were just a few rows ahead of us, we didn't get to talk with them much. Everyone was tired, and Shane and I didn't want to get them sick. Still, it was nice having them along. They were even on the same flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks, so we got to spend a few minutes talking with them when we were all on home ground again, waiting for our rides.
If I had to pick one thing I love the most about small town life, this would be it. When you really know the people around you, nothing is faceless. Our veterinarian is so much more than just someone we see when the pets are sick. That politician is someone I've sung karaoke with (he's amazing at "Piano Man"), and the radio DJ is someone Shane has played ultimate frisbee with, and so was the ER doctor when I broke my nose. The head of my department lives in my neighborhood, so I get to see her and her husband walking their dog when I'm out walking mine. These little moments of running into someone, or hearing someone, that I know make life a little bit more human. They take me away from my own troubles and make me smile. They are the moments that make me think I will never live in a big city again, even though there are parts of it that I miss. I would just be giving up too much.
We had our first snow this morning, although it didn't stick. Soon enough my small town will look like a winter wonderland, but for now I get to enjoy the anticipation. And when I can taste again, when my nose isn't stuffed up, maybe I'll enjoy a few cups of hot chocolate as well. :)
Friday, September 30, 2011
This could have been so much worse
Our honeymoon was amazing. Not to brag or anything, but it really was. We took close to 1000 pictures, and yet there was so much that couldn't be captured with a camera. The church bells constantly ringing in Zurich, the traffic in Rome which was just as crazy as I'd heard (Shane was nearly widowed the first day there when I didn't cross a street fast enough), the unexpected things that overawed us (I didn't think it would be a big deal to me, but when we stepped into the Sistine Chapel and I looked up, I almost started crying because it was just so...so much more than I expected, even having seen the image thousands of times), getting lost in Venice and realizing that the only wheeled vehicles we'd seen were strollers and a couple of wheelchairs, waltzing to the music in Piazza San Marco, the crushing crowds in the Oktoberfest beer tents and the sound of thousands of people drinking and singing with the band, wearing dirndls and leiderhosen. It was amazing.
And we got sick the last day in Munich. Horribly, horribly sick. Shane less so than me, but even he was pretty miserable. We had a day and a half in Frankfurt to kill, but we spent most of that in our hotel room because we were too sick to want to do anything. I am now able to say that flying with the flu is just as miserable as flying hungover. Today is the first day I've started to feel better, thanks to the ministrations of my pets as well as lots of tea and honey. I found a natural "cure" for coughs, which is just apple cider vinegar and honey mixed together. Try it next time you're sick and let me know how it works for you. I've still been waking up at night hacking my lungs out, but that happened even when I took a Nyquil.
When we had down time on our trip we talked about how poor we'd be when we got home (Europe is expensive! Also, it's Shane's last day of work today--the lab is being officially shut down) and we came up with a plan to eat mostly out of our freezers at home. Thankfully, my little brother (who was house and pet sitting for us) figured we wouldn't want to cook when we got home, so he went shopping and made a big casserole for us. We ate the last of it yesterday afternoon, so I made dinner last night: salmon chowder. After all of the eating out we did in Europe, it's been so nice to get back to home-cooked meals. And if I cooked while listening to Rachmaninov's "Symphonic Dances", even better. :) I pretty much avoided any seafood on our honeymoon because I knew we'd be eating lots of it when we got home. (And we'll have to get very creative so we don't get sick of salmon.) Chowder was also a welcome change from the pastas and pizzas we'd had in Italy. (Even I got a little sick of so much starch, which I didn't think was possible!) Anyway, we had both our younger brothers over to share dinner last night, and it was fun despite how ill I've been.
It's good to be home. We need to spend a lot of time this weekend putting things back in order, though. So much cleaning and organizing to do!
Salmon Chowder:
Remove the bones and bake 1 large salmon fillet.
While it's baking, pour 6 cups of milk into a large pot and slowly start bringing to a boil. Stir frequently so the bottom doesn't scorch. At the same time, make a roux from 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of butter (melt the butter in a pan, then whisk in the flour). Temper it (pour in some of the heated milk) before adding to the milk. Spice it. (A little bit of nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.)
Chop up carrots and potatoes, add to milk mixture along with frozen corn if you want. Continue to stir frequently.
Cook some bacon, drain fat, and add it to the milk mix.
When the salmon is done (doesn't need to be baked through, just mostly done) remove the skin and any last bones and add it to the soup. Add one chopped onion and keep on heat until onion is fully cooked.
*I'm sure chicken could also be substituted for salmon, though we've never tried it that way. This is modified from a clam chowder recipe, so feel free to mess around with a variety of seafood.
And we got sick the last day in Munich. Horribly, horribly sick. Shane less so than me, but even he was pretty miserable. We had a day and a half in Frankfurt to kill, but we spent most of that in our hotel room because we were too sick to want to do anything. I am now able to say that flying with the flu is just as miserable as flying hungover. Today is the first day I've started to feel better, thanks to the ministrations of my pets as well as lots of tea and honey. I found a natural "cure" for coughs, which is just apple cider vinegar and honey mixed together. Try it next time you're sick and let me know how it works for you. I've still been waking up at night hacking my lungs out, but that happened even when I took a Nyquil.
When we had down time on our trip we talked about how poor we'd be when we got home (Europe is expensive! Also, it's Shane's last day of work today--the lab is being officially shut down) and we came up with a plan to eat mostly out of our freezers at home. Thankfully, my little brother (who was house and pet sitting for us) figured we wouldn't want to cook when we got home, so he went shopping and made a big casserole for us. We ate the last of it yesterday afternoon, so I made dinner last night: salmon chowder. After all of the eating out we did in Europe, it's been so nice to get back to home-cooked meals. And if I cooked while listening to Rachmaninov's "Symphonic Dances", even better. :) I pretty much avoided any seafood on our honeymoon because I knew we'd be eating lots of it when we got home. (And we'll have to get very creative so we don't get sick of salmon.) Chowder was also a welcome change from the pastas and pizzas we'd had in Italy. (Even I got a little sick of so much starch, which I didn't think was possible!) Anyway, we had both our younger brothers over to share dinner last night, and it was fun despite how ill I've been.
It's good to be home. We need to spend a lot of time this weekend putting things back in order, though. So much cleaning and organizing to do!
Salmon Chowder:
Remove the bones and bake 1 large salmon fillet.
While it's baking, pour 6 cups of milk into a large pot and slowly start bringing to a boil. Stir frequently so the bottom doesn't scorch. At the same time, make a roux from 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of butter (melt the butter in a pan, then whisk in the flour). Temper it (pour in some of the heated milk) before adding to the milk. Spice it. (A little bit of nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.)
Chop up carrots and potatoes, add to milk mixture along with frozen corn if you want. Continue to stir frequently.
Cook some bacon, drain fat, and add it to the milk mix.
When the salmon is done (doesn't need to be baked through, just mostly done) remove the skin and any last bones and add it to the soup. Add one chopped onion and keep on heat until onion is fully cooked.
*I'm sure chicken could also be substituted for salmon, though we've never tried it that way. This is modified from a clam chowder recipe, so feel free to mess around with a variety of seafood.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
"Reader, I married him."
We're going to Europe on our honeymoon, so I won't be posting anything for a few weeks. I just want to sit back, relax, and enjoy our trip. Talk to you all again at the end of September!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Book Recommendations
I've read two fantastic and eye-opening books lately. The first is "No Impact Man" by Colin Beavan. I read this book in about a day and a half because I couldn't put it down. And when it was done, I wanted to start it over just to be sure I'd properly taken it all in. Suffice it to say, it was very eloquently put and very human in the way it was related. The premise is that the author, being a pretty average person, decided that climate change needs to be addressed and that it's up to each of us to start with ourselves by changing our habits. Without knowing really anything about how to live an eco-friendly life, he knew he had to do more than complain about politicians. And he had to drag his wife and baby daughter along on the adventure, too. Very philosophical and, as I said, very touchingly human, this book was marvelous. In the end, living a better and more sustainable life isn't (or doesn't have to be) about the planet: it can be about the people we're on it with.
The second book was "Slow Death By Rubber Duck" by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. It could be such a scary book (and yes, it did make me want to throw out my few remaining inorganic, un-eco products I've been trying to use up) but it was told with a fair amount of humor. The authors used themselves as the guinea pigs for all of their trials about the chemicals they were looking into, tested some of their own children's toys for the chemicals, etc. It's a very personal narrative about a big problem that affects literally every corner of the globe. (When these chemicals are showing up in the fat of polar bears, you know it's a problem, because there's no natural way for these bears to have gotten these chemicals. That means it's in the environment, and it spreads.) You might reconsider the things you let your children chew on, and what you bring into your home, if you read this. Not in a truly scary way, just as something that you should know and think about.
Finally, Shane keeps telling me lately that I should get a Nook or a Kindle. I've been wondering which is eco-friendlier, an e-reader or a paperback book that gets read several times? I don't actually know the answer. Of course, most environmentalists would say library books are the solution--and I do read library books--but some books are so good you just want to own them, and pass them around to all your friends. (Like the books listed above.) So which is better? I'm not sure, but I'm betting that when you're talking hundreds or thousands of books it probably gives the edge to the e-reader. Maybe I'll get one for Christmas. Knowing Shane, I might get one whether I want one or not. :)
The second book was "Slow Death By Rubber Duck" by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. It could be such a scary book (and yes, it did make me want to throw out my few remaining inorganic, un-eco products I've been trying to use up) but it was told with a fair amount of humor. The authors used themselves as the guinea pigs for all of their trials about the chemicals they were looking into, tested some of their own children's toys for the chemicals, etc. It's a very personal narrative about a big problem that affects literally every corner of the globe. (When these chemicals are showing up in the fat of polar bears, you know it's a problem, because there's no natural way for these bears to have gotten these chemicals. That means it's in the environment, and it spreads.) You might reconsider the things you let your children chew on, and what you bring into your home, if you read this. Not in a truly scary way, just as something that you should know and think about.
Finally, Shane keeps telling me lately that I should get a Nook or a Kindle. I've been wondering which is eco-friendlier, an e-reader or a paperback book that gets read several times? I don't actually know the answer. Of course, most environmentalists would say library books are the solution--and I do read library books--but some books are so good you just want to own them, and pass them around to all your friends. (Like the books listed above.) So which is better? I'm not sure, but I'm betting that when you're talking hundreds or thousands of books it probably gives the edge to the e-reader. Maybe I'll get one for Christmas. Knowing Shane, I might get one whether I want one or not. :)
The silliness of hankerchiefs, and other thoughts
Growing up, my dad always carried a handkerchief around with him. Yep, he still does, and he still blows his nose on it. I always thought it was quaint, and cute, and a little repulsive. When you carry around a handkerchief that's been used, you're carrying snot in your pocket. Why not carry feces, too? Except, I was reading over the weekend about someone else's zero waste project (more about that later) and it struck me that I find handkerchiefs weird but I don't find the idea of wiping my nose on my gloves during the winter to be nasty. (If you've ever been in true cold, you know that your nose runs all the time. Might as well face up to it--haha--and wipe it off.) Furthermore, how is it less weird to wipe my nose on a dead tree than a bit of cloth? It's certainly less wasteful. So I tried it. And it turns out to be not weird at all. I've got an old bandanna which I haven't used in years, but it's soft and it doesn't take up any room in my bag. So far, no weirdness and I don't feel any less "clean" for carrying it around.
This morning I was musing about the fact that, when you have a few nice things but not enough that they're commonplace in your home, you really want to take care of them. Shane and I, despite our expectations, received an expensive but really nice knife set as a wedding present from a group of family members. (A friend who went to culinary school said, "Treat those well and you'll be able to pass them on to your children or grandchildren. That's a good, quality brand.") Since nice knives are never supposed to go in the dishwasher, ours don't. In fact, if they've just been used for vegetables we don't do more than rinse and wipe them off. No need for soap, since there isn't any worry about cross-contamination or anything. The reason this crossed my mind earlier is because I was taking my lunch dishes over to the sink to clean and I thought, why do I need to wash these out? They weren't very dirty (one held grapes, the other piroshke) and they didn't have any contamination from meat. Did they really need more than a rinse? I decided no. The dish soap at work (which I didn't bring in) isn't eco-friendly, so who knows what is in it. Plus, the less we use that's less money to spend on soap and fewer resources used cleaning dishes unnecessarily. How many times could we avoid the work and hassle of cleaning things? Like cups used once for water? (I have one cup that sits on my desk for water. I clean out the tea mugs regularly, though, because of the milk I use.) How many fewer times per year would we need to run our dishwashers if we reused our dishes when they don't absolutely have to be cleaned? I admit, I don't always do this at home. Sometimes I'll get out a plate for dinner and, once the food's on it, realize that I could have simply re-used my toast plate from earlier. Zero waste isn't just about getting rid of garbage, it's also about trying to get the inefficiencies out of our lives. I call cleaning things that don't really need to be cleaned inefficient, don't you? Much better to spend that time with Shane, or walking the dog, or teasing the cat.
I've also started dumping stale or "leftover" water into my watering can to use on the plants, rather than dumping it down the drain. There's something about our hard water that creates a film on water that's been heated and it's extremely unappetizing. It also gets worse the longer the water is heated. (You should also see what it does to tea....) So I don't simply re-heat the water in the pot. But the plants don't care, so that's how I reuse it. Even noodle water, or the water I've been using to blanch veggies before freezing, is good for plants. It's been helping me water my garden, and providing whatever nutrients it's leeched out of my food to my other food-producing plants.
I made this granola recipe the other day (minus the seeds because I plain old forgot them), and it's pretty amazing tasting. Not only that, but it only took minutes to make. It was almost zero-waste--I found everything I needed except the spices and honey in the bulk section (honey in a glass jar, though, which I can return), and I didn't see a need for parchment paper. (The granola came right off the pan without it, no worries.) Since I was making sort of open-face, toasted sandwiches for myself that night for dinner, I doubled up on the oven and got two things for the heat of one. Awesome. I'm just storing it in a big glass container on the counter, and it's going pretty fast. My favorite way to eat this so far has been over yogurt with some dried fruit on top. A 2-cup serving in one of my Pyrex containers kept me feeling full from breakfast time (around 6:30 this morning) to noon. Definitely a keeper.
This morning I was musing about the fact that, when you have a few nice things but not enough that they're commonplace in your home, you really want to take care of them. Shane and I, despite our expectations, received an expensive but really nice knife set as a wedding present from a group of family members. (A friend who went to culinary school said, "Treat those well and you'll be able to pass them on to your children or grandchildren. That's a good, quality brand.") Since nice knives are never supposed to go in the dishwasher, ours don't. In fact, if they've just been used for vegetables we don't do more than rinse and wipe them off. No need for soap, since there isn't any worry about cross-contamination or anything. The reason this crossed my mind earlier is because I was taking my lunch dishes over to the sink to clean and I thought, why do I need to wash these out? They weren't very dirty (one held grapes, the other piroshke) and they didn't have any contamination from meat. Did they really need more than a rinse? I decided no. The dish soap at work (which I didn't bring in) isn't eco-friendly, so who knows what is in it. Plus, the less we use that's less money to spend on soap and fewer resources used cleaning dishes unnecessarily. How many times could we avoid the work and hassle of cleaning things? Like cups used once for water? (I have one cup that sits on my desk for water. I clean out the tea mugs regularly, though, because of the milk I use.) How many fewer times per year would we need to run our dishwashers if we reused our dishes when they don't absolutely have to be cleaned? I admit, I don't always do this at home. Sometimes I'll get out a plate for dinner and, once the food's on it, realize that I could have simply re-used my toast plate from earlier. Zero waste isn't just about getting rid of garbage, it's also about trying to get the inefficiencies out of our lives. I call cleaning things that don't really need to be cleaned inefficient, don't you? Much better to spend that time with Shane, or walking the dog, or teasing the cat.
I've also started dumping stale or "leftover" water into my watering can to use on the plants, rather than dumping it down the drain. There's something about our hard water that creates a film on water that's been heated and it's extremely unappetizing. It also gets worse the longer the water is heated. (You should also see what it does to tea....) So I don't simply re-heat the water in the pot. But the plants don't care, so that's how I reuse it. Even noodle water, or the water I've been using to blanch veggies before freezing, is good for plants. It's been helping me water my garden, and providing whatever nutrients it's leeched out of my food to my other food-producing plants.
I made this granola recipe the other day (minus the seeds because I plain old forgot them), and it's pretty amazing tasting. Not only that, but it only took minutes to make. It was almost zero-waste--I found everything I needed except the spices and honey in the bulk section (honey in a glass jar, though, which I can return), and I didn't see a need for parchment paper. (The granola came right off the pan without it, no worries.) Since I was making sort of open-face, toasted sandwiches for myself that night for dinner, I doubled up on the oven and got two things for the heat of one. Awesome. I'm just storing it in a big glass container on the counter, and it's going pretty fast. My favorite way to eat this so far has been over yogurt with some dried fruit on top. A 2-cup serving in one of my Pyrex containers kept me feeling full from breakfast time (around 6:30 this morning) to noon. Definitely a keeper.
Time to relax
All right, I didn't get everything done that I wanted to. I didn't go berry picking. (I did get some rose hips, but not that many and I'm frankly not quite sure what to do with the 2 tablespoons of usable food product I got out of them....) But it was a good weekend, and even better that I gave myself time to relax. One phone call to my mother nixed that feeling of peace (love you Mom! stop freaking out) but I got it back.
I did manage to freeze a lot more local carrots and celery. When I bought the three stalks of celery the farmer said, "Three? Do you freeze them?" So I told her about my mirepoix starter kit. (Mirepoix is the French term for the mix of onion, celery and carrot.) I harvested potatoes, found out that rather than just trading in my tea canisters I can actually just get them refilled at the store (for 10% off, no less), and did a good deal of biking around town. I also canned some tomatoes yesterday (they cook down so far--only 5 cans out of all those lovely tomatoes!) and cooked up a giant batch of piroshke ("Russian hot pockets", as one friend describes them--the ones I made have cabbage and carrots in them) so that I don't have to cook for the rest of the week. I'll even have enough to feed my little brother when he arrives tomorrow.
I got my bridesmaid gifts ready: books and homemade vanilla extract. I didn't realize how easy that is! I had to order the vanilla beans online, but I used locally produced vodka. And that's all you need. Cut open the beans and toss them in vodka, shake every once in a while and it should be good to go in about 8 weeks. How easy is that? You can even reuse the beans--when it starts getting low, just add more vodka. If you need to, toss in another bean or two. The spent beans can be dropped in sugar to make vanilla sugar. I'm totally making my own extracts from now on. And I can't wait to see what else I can make from those vanilla beans! I already know I want to make a vanilla syrup, so that hopefully I can get Shane to stop using coffee creamer. (Have you seen what's in it?!) Make the syrup, mix with milk, pour in your coffee, and ta-da!
I guess I can't really say that I relaxed this weekend. I did manage to read some, but popping up to go do something else at the end of every chapter isn't exactly "relaxing". But I did get stuff done that I wanted to do, and I'm not stressing out anymore about wedding stuff. I'm just excited. I walked to work today with the biggest grin on my face. Less than a week to go!!
I did manage to freeze a lot more local carrots and celery. When I bought the three stalks of celery the farmer said, "Three? Do you freeze them?" So I told her about my mirepoix starter kit. (Mirepoix is the French term for the mix of onion, celery and carrot.) I harvested potatoes, found out that rather than just trading in my tea canisters I can actually just get them refilled at the store (for 10% off, no less), and did a good deal of biking around town. I also canned some tomatoes yesterday (they cook down so far--only 5 cans out of all those lovely tomatoes!) and cooked up a giant batch of piroshke ("Russian hot pockets", as one friend describes them--the ones I made have cabbage and carrots in them) so that I don't have to cook for the rest of the week. I'll even have enough to feed my little brother when he arrives tomorrow.
I got my bridesmaid gifts ready: books and homemade vanilla extract. I didn't realize how easy that is! I had to order the vanilla beans online, but I used locally produced vodka. And that's all you need. Cut open the beans and toss them in vodka, shake every once in a while and it should be good to go in about 8 weeks. How easy is that? You can even reuse the beans--when it starts getting low, just add more vodka. If you need to, toss in another bean or two. The spent beans can be dropped in sugar to make vanilla sugar. I'm totally making my own extracts from now on. And I can't wait to see what else I can make from those vanilla beans! I already know I want to make a vanilla syrup, so that hopefully I can get Shane to stop using coffee creamer. (Have you seen what's in it?!) Make the syrup, mix with milk, pour in your coffee, and ta-da!
I guess I can't really say that I relaxed this weekend. I did manage to read some, but popping up to go do something else at the end of every chapter isn't exactly "relaxing". But I did get stuff done that I wanted to do, and I'm not stressing out anymore about wedding stuff. I'm just excited. I walked to work today with the biggest grin on my face. Less than a week to go!!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
This week in crazy....
Part of me finally feels like I have all of the wedding stuff under control. (Notice I said part of me.) And at this point, it pretty much has to be good enough. Shane leaves tonight for the moose hunting trip/bachelor party. Cross your fingers that they have luck!
Back at home, I think I'll be spending most of my time doing my last autumn preparations: cranberry and rose hip picking/preserving. Maybe another trip to go blueberry picking? Harvesting my potatoes, getting more rhubarb in the freezer, which is getting quite full. I'm slowly trying to make the refrigerator freezer into our produce freezer, and leaving the other one for meat and fish. It hasn't fully happened yet (there's still a lot of crossover) but it will get there. Shane and I agreed that when we get home from our honeymoon we need to figure out what, exactly, we do have in our freezers and start planning meals accordingly. (Please note: running a mostly empty fridge/freezer takes a lot of electricity. When it's fuller, it doesn't have to work as hard because the other cold foods help to keep the temperature down. As we work down in the chest freezer we'll start putting in jugs of water that we've frozen outside. This also works as an emergency fresh water supply in case of emergency. Smart, huh?)
We also had the home weatherization people in our place this week. Shane and I both had to rearrange our schedules a bit to either let them in or talk to them/sign paperwork. (As if life wasn't crazy enough for us right now!) But it was good. They put in some extra weather stripping and, at least in a few places, some more insulation. They insulated the water tank. They also vented the dryer outside (it was just blowing into the garage, which is not only gross but dangerous--the supervisor told me that dryer fires are the number one wintertime cause of home fires in Fairbanks) and put a vent in our bathroom to help with the mold problems we've been having. Hurray! We got a number of nifty little toys, too, like a temperature/humidity monitor, a timer for plugging in the truck, a special brush for cleaning the coils on the back of the fridge (should be done at least once a year), new CFL light bulbs (which actually only replaced our least-used bulbs), and he did a complete electricity audit with me to help with ways to lower our electricity bill. (Like not using the heat dry setting on the dishwasher, which I don't do anyway.) Apparently our fridge is only costing us about $8/month, which is pretty good around here. Overall it was pretty fantastic. It's a "very leaky house", but this should help make it less so and hopefully our landlord won't have to raise the rent on us. Once again, fingers crossed....
I bought turnips last weekend at the farmer's market, but we honestly had no idea what to do with them. I knew when I bought them that I didn't want them for anything this week, but the farmer's market will probably be gone when we get back from our honeymoon, or at the tail end and with few vegetables. (They generally go until the snow falls.) So I'm trying to stock up. We don't have a root cellar, and the garage is too warm even in winter. Shane had the brilliant suggestion of using the second bedroom as a sort of root cellar, since it's generally quite a bit cooler than the rest of the house. So I'll be storing our turnips and potatoes in there this winter.
I grabbed a book from work about Alaska berries and what to do with them. Rose hips, look out! There are some very yummy recipes in there that I'm looking forward to using. Like rose hip cookies, and different fruit leathers, and how to freeze/can stuff properly.
It was almost frosty this morning (I could see my breath as I was biking to work) so I'm battening down the hatches and getting ready for winter. Almost ready. And since I'm not the only one with big preparations to do, good luck to those of you on the East Coast! I hope hurricane Irene is gentle with you.
Back at home, I think I'll be spending most of my time doing my last autumn preparations: cranberry and rose hip picking/preserving. Maybe another trip to go blueberry picking? Harvesting my potatoes, getting more rhubarb in the freezer, which is getting quite full. I'm slowly trying to make the refrigerator freezer into our produce freezer, and leaving the other one for meat and fish. It hasn't fully happened yet (there's still a lot of crossover) but it will get there. Shane and I agreed that when we get home from our honeymoon we need to figure out what, exactly, we do have in our freezers and start planning meals accordingly. (Please note: running a mostly empty fridge/freezer takes a lot of electricity. When it's fuller, it doesn't have to work as hard because the other cold foods help to keep the temperature down. As we work down in the chest freezer we'll start putting in jugs of water that we've frozen outside. This also works as an emergency fresh water supply in case of emergency. Smart, huh?)
We also had the home weatherization people in our place this week. Shane and I both had to rearrange our schedules a bit to either let them in or talk to them/sign paperwork. (As if life wasn't crazy enough for us right now!) But it was good. They put in some extra weather stripping and, at least in a few places, some more insulation. They insulated the water tank. They also vented the dryer outside (it was just blowing into the garage, which is not only gross but dangerous--the supervisor told me that dryer fires are the number one wintertime cause of home fires in Fairbanks) and put a vent in our bathroom to help with the mold problems we've been having. Hurray! We got a number of nifty little toys, too, like a temperature/humidity monitor, a timer for plugging in the truck, a special brush for cleaning the coils on the back of the fridge (should be done at least once a year), new CFL light bulbs (which actually only replaced our least-used bulbs), and he did a complete electricity audit with me to help with ways to lower our electricity bill. (Like not using the heat dry setting on the dishwasher, which I don't do anyway.) Apparently our fridge is only costing us about $8/month, which is pretty good around here. Overall it was pretty fantastic. It's a "very leaky house", but this should help make it less so and hopefully our landlord won't have to raise the rent on us. Once again, fingers crossed....
I bought turnips last weekend at the farmer's market, but we honestly had no idea what to do with them. I knew when I bought them that I didn't want them for anything this week, but the farmer's market will probably be gone when we get back from our honeymoon, or at the tail end and with few vegetables. (They generally go until the snow falls.) So I'm trying to stock up. We don't have a root cellar, and the garage is too warm even in winter. Shane had the brilliant suggestion of using the second bedroom as a sort of root cellar, since it's generally quite a bit cooler than the rest of the house. So I'll be storing our turnips and potatoes in there this winter.
I grabbed a book from work about Alaska berries and what to do with them. Rose hips, look out! There are some very yummy recipes in there that I'm looking forward to using. Like rose hip cookies, and different fruit leathers, and how to freeze/can stuff properly.
It was almost frosty this morning (I could see my breath as I was biking to work) so I'm battening down the hatches and getting ready for winter. Almost ready. And since I'm not the only one with big preparations to do, good luck to those of you on the East Coast! I hope hurricane Irene is gentle with you.
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