Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Finally a few Auroras
Well, it's been a while hasn't it. The aurora was better earlier in the evening but we went swimming and grocery shopping. It was a nice night to be out though. The moon was super bright as you can see, too. Ahh winter. Hagen will probably have some decent ones, too (John Hagen.net)
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Goat Cheese
Eat your heart out Tim Cherry! Yeah, so last night we went to watch indie rockers The Mountain Goats. Being here in Fairbanks of course no one knew how to rock out in the audience. The bonus of course is that I planted myself in the first row pretty easily. We had a good time even if they only played for like forty-five minutes. This is the band:
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A close up of the bassist:
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And of course pictures with the band itself (the bassist):
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The Drummer:
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And the singer/ other guitar dude:
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So that was totally fun. Jessie, Johnson, Rob and I went. Then we saw one of my classmates (hah, I'm in school again) Chad and another IARC professor Harper, too. It was pretty fun.
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A close up of the bassist:
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And of course pictures with the band itself (the bassist):
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The Drummer:
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And the singer/ other guitar dude:
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So that was totally fun. Jessie, Johnson, Rob and I went. Then we saw one of my classmates (hah, I'm in school again) Chad and another IARC professor Harper, too. It was pretty fun.
More Pie action
So, been busy doing some stellar pies this winter and wanted to get the word out about them before I forget the recipes. I've been mixing it up a bit since Thanksgiving.
Here's a great pie I turned into a lemon meringue. The crust is awesome but touchy if you want to do it yourself. The butter action in it made the crust want to slide down the pie tin. But still super good and the lemon is awesome. I think I doubled the zest and that was good, to.
Lemon Chess Pie
Here's my new reigning favorite pie. I made a graham cracker crust for it rather than the nilla wafer crust they suggest but whoo, what a pie! For the chocolate I used Green and Black's dark chocolate & ginger chocolate bar plus a swiss dark chocolate. Next time I'm going to shred my own ginger. The ginger really added a lot to the pie which was already super. I forgot to pick up milk for the recipe and so used soymilk instead but it turned out just fine so perhaps that's the way to go next time. I added a couple dollops of sour cream to make up for the less fat which might have been key, too. Super pie though. I still remember this one so fondly.
Chocolate Pie
This maple buttermilk is another raging good pie. The buttermilk plus the maple syrub was awesome. The custard turned out perfect and the syrup gave it a nice flavor. I experimented with another buttermilk pie last year but it wasn't nearly as good as this one. Five gold stars!
Maple Buttermilk Pie
This apple pie was on my thanksgiving list but I can't remember if I got to it or not. Anyway, second time around it was great. The sourcream is a subtle yet awesome addition.
Creamy Apple Pie
Here's the last pie. It's a regular favorite. I use the graham cracker crust in this one for that chocolate pie and others. I double the recipe though and use sugar in the raw sugar which has big crystals that are raging good later in crust form. Anyway, it's a key lime and nice and tart. When I do the fruit pies I steal all the zest I can from the lime / lemon before squeezing it and then dump a bunch of it into the pie. The zest is a nice extra bit. Some people don't like getting chunks and bits in their pies but that isn't me.
Key Lime Pie
Here's a great pie I turned into a lemon meringue. The crust is awesome but touchy if you want to do it yourself. The butter action in it made the crust want to slide down the pie tin. But still super good and the lemon is awesome. I think I doubled the zest and that was good, to.
Lemon Chess Pie
Here's my new reigning favorite pie. I made a graham cracker crust for it rather than the nilla wafer crust they suggest but whoo, what a pie! For the chocolate I used Green and Black's dark chocolate & ginger chocolate bar plus a swiss dark chocolate. Next time I'm going to shred my own ginger. The ginger really added a lot to the pie which was already super. I forgot to pick up milk for the recipe and so used soymilk instead but it turned out just fine so perhaps that's the way to go next time. I added a couple dollops of sour cream to make up for the less fat which might have been key, too. Super pie though. I still remember this one so fondly.
Chocolate Pie
This maple buttermilk is another raging good pie. The buttermilk plus the maple syrub was awesome. The custard turned out perfect and the syrup gave it a nice flavor. I experimented with another buttermilk pie last year but it wasn't nearly as good as this one. Five gold stars!
Maple Buttermilk Pie
This apple pie was on my thanksgiving list but I can't remember if I got to it or not. Anyway, second time around it was great. The sourcream is a subtle yet awesome addition.
Creamy Apple Pie
Here's the last pie. It's a regular favorite. I use the graham cracker crust in this one for that chocolate pie and others. I double the recipe though and use sugar in the raw sugar which has big crystals that are raging good later in crust form. Anyway, it's a key lime and nice and tart. When I do the fruit pies I steal all the zest I can from the lime / lemon before squeezing it and then dump a bunch of it into the pie. The zest is a nice extra bit. Some people don't like getting chunks and bits in their pies but that isn't me.
Key Lime Pie
Winter
So, it's winter now and we were at a conference this past week at the Princess Lodge. The Chena is frozen right now and while we were hanging out waiting for a dinner to begin we went for a walk and finally got a picture of the people driving across the river:
It's awesome, every year at least a couple vehicles crash through the ice as the winter comes to a close. Guess it being February it's still a little early for that to be happening yet but I remain hopeful.
It's awesome, every year at least a couple vehicles crash through the ice as the winter comes to a close. Guess it being February it's still a little early for that to be happening yet but I remain hopeful.
Skijoring!
So, when it's been warm enough we've gotten out skijoring a few times. The trails in the area go everywhere.
The dogs tend to love it... before:
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and after:
A couple weeks ago we went up into the logged area with Midge and then the next week we took the whole gang on another route. The sunset was as awesome as you might imagine:
Pretty cool times even for just walking. Now we just need the weather to warm up more. It's been in the -20s to -30s for a week and a half at least. Grr!
The dogs tend to love it... before:
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and after:
A couple weeks ago we went up into the logged area with Midge and then the next week we took the whole gang on another route. The sunset was as awesome as you might imagine:
Pretty cool times even for just walking. Now we just need the weather to warm up more. It's been in the -20s to -30s for a week and a half at least. Grr!
House Pics
Hi Everyone, well, after a bit of time away from the computer we're back and better than ever (or something). Thought I'd start the day with some house pictures. You've seen the outside already:
Here's a few shots of the inside so you can see how cool it is in there, too.
Downstairs--
Upstairs--
So, life is pretty good at the moment.
Here's a few shots of the inside so you can see how cool it is in there, too.
Downstairs--
Upstairs--
So, life is pretty good at the moment.
