In the Garden

Here's whats coming up in my garden, and in the flower pots too!

Cerinthe (a Mediterranean native flower that the upper most leaves turn purple to match the flowers) and Columbine that grows wild here.

Pink sea thrift and the tops of my little baby carrots. All of my veggies are growing on my deck in pots so who knows how well they will do, I'll just have to wait and see but it looks like they are off to a good start.

Zucchini & Cherry Tomatoes are starting to make an appearance. I started them from seed the first part of April.
My Lillie's are getting ready to bloom in my garden, I have several varieties including dwarf oriental and stargazer, they will make great cut flowers in the coming weeks!

Shrimp Scampi

Heres another favorite dinner of mine. In a restaurant that I worked at years ago, this was on the menu and I found that making it at home was just as easy. This is a great recipe when you have leftover rice as the rest pulls together in a jiffy. This recipe is per person.
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Shrimp Scampi
1 C Basmati or Jasmine rice (cooked of course)
10-12 medium Shrimp per person (peeled & deveined)
3 Tbsp. Butter
1 Garlic clove - minced
1 Tbsp. Lemon juice
2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Parsley - chopped
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Combine butter, minced garlic, & lemon juice in saute pan. Heat until butter melts, add in shrimp and toss to coat, cook until shrimp is pink and done. Add in salt & minced parsley, give the pan a final toss. Pour shrimp and all of butter sauce over warm rice, serve hot and enjoy!!
**Cooking basmati or jasmine rice; I prefer to wash my rice to get rid of excess starch, then when cooking, follow directions for water amounts (approx. 1 1/2 c to 1 3/4 c water, for every 1 c of rice), place rice & water in large sauce pot, add 2 Tbsp. salt for every cup of rice, and bring up to a boil & make sure to stir frequently. Cover pot and drop temperature to medium/low heat and cook 13 minutes. When done, remove from heat & let sit undisturbed, don't take the cover off, for 5 minutes, this will make perfect rice everytime!**

Head on over to the Grocery Cart Challenge for more great recipe ideas.

Ode to the Blueberry

I've turned into a crazy canning lady, I can't be stopped!!!!
I'm not sure whats got into me this year, but I've really taken a liking to canning stuff. So far I've canned Raspberry Jam, Chili Sauce, Marinara, & now I can add Blueberry Jelly to the list. I really wanted to make homemade Grape Jelly, one of my favorite jam/jellies, but I found it very difficult & expensive to locate unsweetened grape juice. After much debate it seemed only logical to make something more Alaska themed and I opted for Blueberry Jelly instead, plus blueberries are in season and easy to get, so a no brainer!
Did you realize that blueberries aren't blue inside?!? Well I didn't know that until I made this recipe. It is based on a berry jelly recipe in a canning book that I have, but I changed it up a bit based on other recipes I read involving the use of blueberries. This recipe makes 5, half-pint jars.
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Blueberry Jelly
3 1/2 C Blueberry Juice (2 C blueberries = 1 C blueberry juice)
*you will need to boil fresh berries in order to get the berry juice you need, this recipe is for 3 1/2 C juice so you will need 7 C fresh berries* You may be short/over the needed juice, if you are short the juice needed you can add in water to make up the difference.
1 Pkg Pectin
2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
3 2/3 C Granular Sugar
1/2 tsp. Butter (sub margarine)
1 Jelly bag or Pkg of Cheesecloth
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Carefully wash berries, remove stems, and place in a large sauce pot. Add 1/2 C water for every 4 C berries to avoid scorching them. Turn heat to medium/high and stir constantly until brought to a soft boil. Drop temperature to medium and cover, let simmer 10 min., occasionally stir breaking up berries. Once softened and broken up, remove from heat. Pour into jelly bag or a strainer lined with several layers of cheesecloth and let drip into a large pot 2 hrs or overnight until all of the juices have left the berries. If you force the juice out of the berries, the end result could be cloudy jelly!
Once the juice has been measured out to 3 1/2 cups, combine berry juice and lemon juice in large sauce pot, whisk in pectin until combined. Bring up to a rolling boil and continually stir mixture. Once at a rolling boil, add in all of the sugar, mix until combined. Add in butter (not necessary but will keep foaming down). Mix well and bring back up to a boil, continue to stir and let boil vigorously 1 minute.
After boiling vigorously for 1 minute, you can remove from heat, skim off any foam. Ladle into hot sanitized jars and water bath can them for 10 minutes.

A little strange on the inside, blueberries are only blue on the outside, you should've seen my hands when I was done with the recipe as they were stained a lovely shade of blue for a good day and a half!

Simmering berries getting all saucy in the sauce pot! Here they are straining in some cheesecloth, it took way over 2 hrs for all the juice to be extracted, overnight would probably be best, just lightly cover the top of the pot to keep the bugs out.

Measuring the freshly made blueberry jelly into canning jars. You can see that I made a double batch, I ran out of jars and had to pour the excess into a leftover container, oops!

Yummy Yummy Yummy, fresh blueberry jelly for breakfast, makes me happy!

Velcom

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Several nights back, Kyle surprised me by getting off work early, arriving home and announcing that I had to get ready to leave, & he even helped me pick out an outfit (he did really well!). Still clueless, I got in the car and Kyle kept me in suspense until we arrived in Girdwood, which is about 40 min. drive south of Anchorage.
Kyle and I have talked about trying out a restaurant in Girdwood, the Double Musky, it is known for its awesome food and thus tends to be full most nights. We arrived shortly before they opened, and there was already a line waiting to get in.
*You'll have to excuse the horrible lighting in the restaurant, I used my flash once, and with the looks I got, decided it would be best to nix all flash photography*

We had some free time before opening, so we browsed around their gardens, Kyle even spotted a hummingbird.
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We decided to go all out for our dinner! We started off with a Shrimp & Sausage Gumbo appetizer. This was followed by a mixed greens salad and Jalapeno Cheese bread.
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For the main course, Kyle opted for the Crab stuffed Halibut topped with beurre blanc sauce, and I went crazy by ordering the Prime Rib. The prime rib was monstrous, over 2 inches thick, & we both had plenty of food to take home!
MMM....desserts, my favorite part of a meal! The servers bring around trays of desserts available, this makes them seem more tempting, and we fell for it by each ordering something tasty to try. Kyle picked the healthier blueberry cheesecake and I got the Double Musky pie, it tastes like a pecan pie topped with fudge and whipped cream. Very heavenly but a bit too sweet and I was unable to finish it.
What a great way to start the weekend; an unexpected dinner with my handsome husband, at a great restaurant located in the wilds of Alaska. Does it get any better?
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You can click HERE for more information about the Double Musky in Girdwood, Bon Appetit!

Staying in

Recipe for a great night in:
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aaaaPlay time with the crazy Pugs
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aaaaCanning homemade Marinara
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aaaaDinner & Movie
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aaaaSpending time with the ones you love
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Here's to hoping that you enjoy your evenings staying in, I know that I do.

Rain or Shine

We ventured south to Homer over the weekend. We had hoped the weather would be nice but it ended up raining the majority of the time we were out of Anchorage. Camping on the spit was less than enjoyable, wind and rain while assembling a tent is a bad combination, but other than that we had a great time.

Blooming mountain Lupine, and a lovely Starfish washed up on shore during low tide.

Our favorite restaurant in Homer, it is located right on the spit. The Fish & Chips is to die for!! The Halibut is caught fresh daily from the local fisherman and you get at least a pound of fish for your meal, really yummy and I highly recommend this restaurant for anyone venturing to Homer, Alaska.

The local watering hole, Salty Dawg Saloon, this place is always crowded and a bit rowdy, but a great place to leave your mark when you visit Alaska as the walls are covered with signed dollar bills. A little bit of toilet humor...made me laugh :-)

Bald Eagles are everywhere on the spit. They don't seem too fazed by all the people and will generally sit still long enough for you to snap a couple of pictures. The boat harbor in Homer is always packed and is a great place to visit and see what is being hauled in for the days catch.

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I love spending the weekends with Kyle, enjoying the beauty of Alaska, and making memories as we go along.

Treasures

So my treasure hunting for a step stool have failed, ugh! I checked multiple antique dealers in town and no one has a step stool like the ones I am after. HOWEVER...I did score two great finds.

My collection of antique glass floats has slowly grown over the years. In the center of the above pic, you can see my newest glass float that I picked up this week at one of the antique shops. It is purple, one of the rarest colors, used only by the Japanese Royal Fleet. I've been on the lookout for a purple float, for 5 years, and this is the only one I've found that was for sale. You can read HERE for more information on Japanese Glass Floats.

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And I found a lovely Fire King Jadeite Lotus plate. Originally, there would have been a cup to go with the plate, but I was unable to locate it in the shop. My Fire King collection is mainly the Azurite dishes but I do have some Jadeite and Milk Glass. Im still working on locating a nice display cabinet for my ever-growing Fire King collection.

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Pug Break

Our little Winston absolutely loves snow & ice. In the winter time, every time he goes outside he likes to bury his head in a snow pile and eat and eat snow until you drag him back into the house. The last couple of weeks have been warm and we've indulged his love of ice by giving him ice cubes to eat. Lucy & Frank aren't as interested in eating them as they would rather chase after the ice on the deck.
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Give me a boost

Being height challenged, I'm 5'5", I find that there are a lot of things that are out of my reach. Thankfully Kyle is 6'2" & he is able to help me when I need to get something. It's cute when he scolds me for climbing on the kitchen counters, I know he is doing it out of concern but sometimes I try to get it myself anyways, i know bad bad bad! That being said, I have been on the look out for a nice step stool for the last couple of years. Here's the step stool that I am after, what do you think?

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Haha...I know that my parents will recognize these! My grandmother had one, yellow I believe, and I remember it was always in her kitchen. Funny how the things that are old are becoming new again.

I have been checking online and have been discouraged while trying to locate a vintage step stool. You can purchase new *vintage style* step stools but they have plastic parts and are not as sturdy as the original, seems everything now a days is not only cheaper to buy but is made out of cheaper materials.

Here are some pics of the new *vintage style* step stools.

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I visited an antiques shop today and they recommend a fellow antique dealer in town. With any luck I'll be able to track down a true vintage step stool this weekend.

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