2018 Recipe Round-Up

2018 held new recipes, lots of tried, true family favorites and memorable moments, but I also said goodbye to one of my favorite shows~The Chew. 

With no renewal for the 2018/2019 season, I lost one of my most valuable go-to's for new recipes, techniques and daily laughs with the hosts. It was great while it lasted, I'll give them that! 

Image from jacquespepinart.com

I even managed to keep a written record of most of our dinners for the year in a daily planner. This is something I'm hoping to continue into the new year, as well as put my first entry into my READ from Christmas. This is a beautifully illustrated book to hold all the memories from dinner parties or family get together's. I'm pretty excited about it and debating on getting a Canon Ivy to instantly add photos from our celebrations.

In 2018, we ate everything from moose to jackfruit. I've even been super helpful and complied a Pinterest board with all our top recipes from the past year. 

If you're wanting to adapt Meatless Mondays or try something different, give jackfruit a try. 

Pulled "Pork" (Jackfruit) Sandwiches

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 med onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans Jackfruit in brine, drained

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp Worcester sauce (if you are a vegetarian, read the ingredients to make sure it doesn't contain anchovies, as many do)

1/2 bottle of barbecue sauce

Turn Pot onto Sauté

Add olive oil when the pot is hot,  then saute onions and garlic until softened

Add jackfruit and seasonings and stir

Close lid, press Cancel, and set Pot to Manual/Pressure Cook at high pressure for 4 min.  (I know it seems like you should have to add liquid, but trust me - there's enough from the onions and jackfruit.  Shhh.  It's going to be okay.)

Natural release for 10 min, then release the rest of the pressure.

Shred with a fork(s) or potato masher. 

Add 1/2 bottle of your barbecue sauce of choice, stir, and serve on top of toasted hamburger buns with coleslaw. 

After Christmas I browsed around the local stores and looked at so many cookbooks for inspiration and what to possibly to add to my collection. Anthony Bourdain's Appetites might be the next addition to the kitchen shelf. His chopped liver on rye looked quite intriguing and adventurous. Flipping through the book, I immediately heard his voice narrating each and every page. His voice is right up there with Mike Rowe and Morgan Freeman. I also peeked inside the newest release from Carla Hall-  Soul Food. She shared some deep South favorites and this mouth watering delights like Ham Steaks with Cantaloupe and Blackberry Sauté. FYI-Costco carries all the necessary ingredients for this dish in case you want to make it for a crowd and I'll be trying out that recipe in the near future. An honorable mention to Christopher Kimball's Milk Street:Tuesday Nights cookbook for hundreds of new weeknight meals but full of weekend flavor. I still haven't picked up the newest Cooking Light magazine, but as always it will have several new recipes to throw into our rotation of favorites. 

If you're looking for one cookbook to add to your personal collection, my pick for 2018 is Alaska from Scratch. Maya's recipes do not require special ingredients or fancy gadgets and if it's a wild game recipe, she normally includes a substitute that people from the Lower 48 can readily find.  




I've been following Maya's blog since 2013 and finally got to meet her in person back in May at her book signing. She's such a sweet person and meeting her in person was a blogger/fan-girl top memory.






I'm hoping that 2019 leads to many adventures, whether they're in the kitchen or out exploring!

Follow me at my new site, I'll continue to cross post on both for a bit! 

End of Year Musings

After a conversation with a friend yesterday, I began thinking about personal resolutions for the new year. How does one not set themselves up for failure?  Do you set simple or a realistic goal to achieve to in the coming year? Each new year brings a clean sheet of paper in a 365 page novel of one’s life and most people strive to live an abundant life, hopefully become a blessing to others and the generic wish for others to have health, love and peace. 

My youngest and I just finished reading a book set in the early 1900’s, where the mother of the main character recorded all her children’s resolutions in the family bible and then read them aloud during their New Year’s Eve celebrations. I found this a interesting idea for families to track their goals for the year. 

In year’s past, our family has adopted a “Happiness Jar” and jotted down things that have brought us joy or happiness daily. A task so simple, but made you analyze a bad day just for the smallest glimmer of joy that was contained within it. Then on New Year's Eve, they are read aloud and you reflect on the past year. It makes you realize that your bad days aren’t even comparable to those who have it worse off than you. It’s crazy that something as so simple, could have a profound impact on one’s life.

With the advent of social media, people are once again posting their top nine or best nine photos of the year selected by followers. It might not even be one of your top nine memories contained within that grid. It just  happens to be a picture that most people happened to ‘like’ at one given time. I think back on what a whirlwind 2018 has been for our family. We stepped outside our comfort zone in so many ways. We bought a house, became more involved in our church and spent more time making memories together as a family. What surprised me the most its that some of these things didn't even show up on my top nine or could tell a fraction of 2018’s story. So, I ended up choosing my own top nine; Nine pictures that meant more to me, than the 2.2K "likes"I had received this past year. 

There are certain things that I’d like to personally strive towards in 2019, but the main thing that keeps circling my thoughts is not let other’s steal my joy. Daily, I see bickering and just plain nastiness towards one another, whether it’s in a public setting or from keyboard warriors on social media. This tends to get me down and makes my heart hurt. We need to heed Paul’s words from Colossians and clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and most of all, love.

Be the joy in 2019. 

{Colossians 3:12-17}

Observations from the Stacks

Question: Why does this older gentleman have two laptops?

Photo Credit

Observation:

Mid 50’s to late 60’s, enamel souvenir pins adorn his brimmed hat. Well-kept snow white beard. Columbia style button up shirt with sleeves rolled, pants and lightweight fishing vest. One laptop (right) and iPad/tablet with keyboard attachment (left). Smart phone in hand. Seated at a table between travel non-fiction and cooking non-fiction.

Theory #1                                                                      

                             

His name is Theodore and recently became a tour guide for one of the cruise lines here in Fairbanks. He spends his off days inside the local library studying local lores and legends to make his guided tours the most profitable. His arch nemesis, Sharon has won tour guide of the summer for the last 8 years. Theodore hates Sharon with a passion and has successfully collected more souvenir pins from travelers as tokens of appreciation than she has in the last 15 years. Theodore’s hatred stemmed from overhearing Sharon say some ugly things behind people’s backs. Theodore wished she had heard Clara talk about her orthopedic shoes. The only thing Theodore can’t accept is that he is the sole person responsible for abandoning Stubbs and his littermates in downtown Talkeetna some 20 years ago. His actions haunt him daily since the news of the mayor’s death. Theodore enjoys the cold side of the pillow and Saturday evenings are reserved for documentaries narrated by Morgan Freeman. His favorite song is “Rhinestone Cowboy” by Glen Campbell. 

Presently..Life in Alaska

So. Here we are. Finally living in Alaska. Is it all we've dreamed of? 

Well...

Moving during the winter, I can tell you one thing for sure. It doesn't snow as much as it did in Upstate NY. It's not a bone chilling wet-cold type of climate and I'm not outside shoveling EVERY TWO HOURS. However, I don't think we've witnessed enough of Alaska's beauty nor experienced all the seasons to make a final decision. Then again, we had a pretty terrific view once we disembarked the ferry in Haines. Time will tell if we're cut out for living in the last frontier or if our hearts' still long for North Carolina blue skies.

Autumn is arriving soon and so are the movers...

Autumn is my favorite season. There's football, crisp cool air, leaves changing colors, Halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and of course all things pumpkin flavored or scented. And in the North Country that means apple cider and cider donuts. 

It also means a time of change and preparedness; back to school, animals prepare for Winter and the Army tells us it's time to head to another duty station. 

So after 3 years in Upstate New York, we're moving to Alaska. More specifically the largest interior city in Alaska, Fairbanks.

 It's population is roughly the size of Salisbury, NC, the birthplace of Cheerwine. There are no sit-down chain restaurants, just a few fast food options. Everything else is a locally owned restaurant, which is going to be kind of a nice change. Their coldest months are November and December, but here in upstate NY its January and February. Another welcome change is the amount of snowfall. Fairbanks averages 65 inches of snow all winter and here in Watertown, they average 106 inches each year. The winter of 2014/2015 we saw 181 inches. That's 15 FEET of snow! And I'll take sub zero temps over crazy amounts of snow anyday. 

My husband is over the moon and excited about all the hunting, fishing and endless outdoor activities and of course no silly NY gun laws. I'm pretty excited too, mostly for the opportunity to see the Northern lights in person, all the wildlife, ice sculptures and cooking all the wild game that makes its way into my kitchen. 

Our kids are slowly warming up to the idea of a new state, new city, and new friends. But we've made the best out of every duty station we've been assigned. Now we 'hurry up and wait' for the movers to arrive and enjoy one last fall season here in New York. 

Happiness is...

One of my New Years resolutions is to appreciate all things that I've been blessed with in life and to be grateful for them. Much like stopping to smell the flowers, I want to pause at the end of each day and jot down something that made me happy. I recently stumbled across this idea multiple times on New Years; first when a friend posted that she had just opened their '2015 jar of happy'. It was filled with random snippets of dialogue from her children, memories from living in Korea and other fun times throughout their year. The second time I saw a happiness jar scroll across my newsfeed was from the personal page of Elizabeth Gilbert.

I read through several posts from Elizabeth's fans and was intrigued by several of their stories of how they found happiness even on a horrible day or time in their lives. 

After seeing jars filled with gratitude and happiness, I knew that this was something that I really wanted to do during the year ahead. I want to remember one good thing that happened during my day when the rest of it might have been a bit more chaotic. I want to look back a year from now and see that even on my darkest day, it was filled with light. 

As I said in my first blog entry for the year....

I really want this year to be focused on happiness and not let any negativity seep in and destroy what I've got going on in my life. I've joined a new community of like-minded people that just want to be happy and I like that idea. 

So here it is.  Just a simple jar with a lid that I picked up at a local craft store. I wood burnt the tag and tied it in place with jute. Colorful things make me happy, so I picked up some 2x3 inch cardstock to jot my happy moments on. I had the word happiness leftover from a scrapbook and taped it to the bottom of the jar. For less than $10, I created something that will bring me joy in the year ahead and I think that's pretty neat. Along with writing down happy moments, I'm taking it a step further and including wallet-sized pictures of happy times with my family from throughout the year. I know when I see a picture of us having a family game night, it'll remind me of the fun time we had playing Catan on New Years Day. Another idea is to eventually compile all the happy moments into a scrapbook after we open the jar on NYE.  

I'm looking forward to 2016 and all the happy things it has in store for me. 

Happy Birthday Hunter!

Today my dog turns FIVE! 

My sweet Weimaraner, Hunter has turned five and is slowly going gray around his muzzle. He's been my deployment/hubby isn't here buddy since we rescued him almost 3 years ago. It's hard to believe that I wasn't a "dog" person until I got him and now I couldn't picture him in my life. He's already traveled cross country twice, once to the beach for the very first time and the second time when we moved from Kansas to New York. 

Hunter loves car rides, playing at the dog park, chasing squirrels on our walks, laying on the couch with his sister, Bella and cuddling with me while I read. He loves to steal potatoes and hide them around the house, catch frogs and bring them inside and even purrs when he's happy. 

Happy 5th Birthday Hunter!