The Last Laugh

Yesterday, a dear friend of ours came over with her children for a short visit here at our house.

She has a girl the twins' age and a six year old boy as well. 

 Ruby and the little girl, had fun looking at books and jumping on the bed together,

but her big brother was more awesome than Quinn could fathom. 

Cliff and I tried to play interference but he was a seasoned wrestler and Quinn was 

thwarted at every turn, playing victim to all manner of six year old atrocities.

Before our visit, I had given Quinn a graham cracker that was 

completely slathered in peanut butter, 

not knowing that our friends' little boy had a peanut allergy. 

Near the end of the play date, our friend sent her son out to wait for her in the car.

In a couple of minutes, he came back in saying, "mommy, my eyes are itching" 

as he closed the door, he glanced back at Quinn with one last incriminating look, declaring, 

"and his mouth smelled like peanut butter!"

Cliff responded by saying, "Maybe you're allergic to Mr. Quinn."

 As we imagined our [truly very sweet] 6 year old friend riding home
itching his little eyes we couldn't help but think that
Quinn got the last laugh with his super powered peanut butter mouth!

*No friends were harmed in the writing of this blogpost.  

Benadryl and an ice-cream cone, it has been reported, quickly took care of the itchy eyes.

Mendenhall Glacier

We loved visiting the Mendenhall Glacier while we were in Juneau!  

This is an awesome panorama of the glacier as well as Nugget Falls, 

and the icebergs floating in Mendenhall Lake if you can zoom in on it! 

 The weather was perfect for playing on the beach so we just took it easy and let the kids play and play.  

The water was too cold for them to want to be in the water for too long which 

made our job [of keeping them alive] much more simple.  

We decided to give up on our job of keeping them clean and so we all just had a lovely day together!  

Quinn eating sand at Glacier Beach ... Don't knock it til you try it!

(Can you spot sister in the background?)

I laughed when I was cleaning out the stroller and found that Cliff had 

escaped with a few rocks, yep, he's Rene's son alright.

2013 Locavore Lessons

Lesson #1: Living Local [In Sitka] is not possible without friends.  This is a part of the way God designed us to live in community and relying on friends, both old and new, played into my locavore journey substantially!

The twins and I spent one morning picking huckleberries at Totem Park which was really fun.  While we were there, our friends, Mallory & Nancy came along and they picked and hiked along with us for more than an hour, not keeping any of the harvest for themselves!  Nancy also pointed out some "chicken of the woods" growing on a tree that is pictured in the bottom right quadrant. 

At one point on the walk home I was just so hungry that the twins and I stopped and ate all of our berries right there!  They tasted soo good but I was sad that I didn't save ANY for the next day or to share with Cliff.  However, when we got home, my friend, Yvonne had left a huge 2 pint container of huckleberries on my porch that she had picked for me!

Also in this photo (above) is local water from the artisian well in the Nalgene bottles, homegrown mint from my friend, Nicki, as well as my homegrown rosemary, basil & sage.

Cliff and I do not hunt or fish, so if we are going to enjoy the bounty of Baranof Island, we are at the mercy of our friends to share their hard work with us.  Oh how thankful we are! Our freezer has never been without fish or venison in it. 

Thanks to Kent for the venison backstrap (wow!!), breakfast sausage & Roast!

Thanks to Bob & Miles for the Coho that I stir fried with broccoli, snap peas, beets.

My new friend, Ellen, grilled the king salmon (pictured above, bottom left) piled high with vegetables and herbs especially for Jasmine, Kari and I when we gathered one night for our locavore dinner!

Kari prepared baked beets (wrapped simply in aluminum foil and baked at 350 for 45-60 minutes) that were phenomenal!  We have since enjoyed them at home in place of a baked potato.

Our friends, Jim & Lesa opened their chicken coop to me, allowing me to stop by everyday and check for eggs, which was exciting and delicious! (And a little scary, I have to admit!) I hope we get chickens someday!

Look at the difference between this store bought egg with the lighter yolk (right) and the homegrown eggs from Jim & Lesa (left) with the deep yellow yolk. Fascinating!

The #1 ingredient I missed in my diet during my locavore challenge was fat.  Olive oil, coconut oil and butter were welcome additions back into my diet when my challenge ended. Crystal Light lemonade was a close second, I love crystal light!

Lori Adams, a friend of mine that runs Down To Earth, an amazing, local u-pick garden provided me with a ton of great vegetables that our whole family enjoyed all week.  This was a huge part of my lunch & daytime snacks as was the smoked salmon from our friend, Chuck.

Turnips, kohlrabi (a first for me!), celery, beets, onions, carrots, one tiny, spiny cucumber, tomatoes, broccoli, fennel & rainbow chard were among the vegetables our family ate.  It took me forever to wash and chop all the veggies and I realized how spoiled I am buying pre-washed veggies at the store!

Smoked salmon & beach asparagus!

Another lesson learned was where to access local foods in Sitka.  There were several sources I knew about in general but to actually utilize the sources has made it much more likely for me to use again! 

2013 Locavore - 3 day challenge

Snap peas from my friend, Lori's, Sitka U-Pick garden!

I'm on day one of a three day locavore challenge!

Have you heard of the growing locavore food movement in the US?

If not, here is a definition:

A locavore is someone who exclusively or primarily eats foods from their local or regional foodshed or a determined radius from their home (commonly either 100 or 250 miles, depending on location).

By eating locally, most locavores hope to create a greater connection between themselves and their food sources, resist industrialized and processed foods, and support their local economy.

The majority of locavores do not give themselves a strict radius from which to eat, but instead buy as much of their food as they can from farmers, growers, and sellers with whom they have a relationship or whose growing or producing practices appeal to them. 

I was inspired by a friend of mine, Kari, who is currently on a 14 day locavore journey and I 

decided to join in and try it out myself.  

Cliff and the kids are joining in for dinner times, but I get first dibs on the lunch & breakfast food because I'm not sure we will have enough for all of us to make it three days!  

For us, a locavore eats food that is caught, harvested or grown on or in 

the waters surrounding the island we live on! 

Why am I doing this?  The first reason, I admit, is for fun!  

The second reason is to better familiarize myself with the local food 

options available to us in order to take more regular advantage of them.  

I will give an update on how things went once I'm done.  

Wish me luck!

Before & After - PSE 9.0

Our nephew Buddy recently had the opportunity 

to compete at the National level of the Junior Olympics 

which was held in North Carolina. 

His event is the steeplechase, wherein competitors run a 

3000m race whilst jumping over several

high hurdles (steeples) and then immediately over (or through) 

a water trap on the other side.

I had never paid much attention to this event until 

Buddy started competing in it.  

Now, I'm a fan!  

My brother, Andy, captured this moment of Buddy 

pushing off the steeple to propel

himself over the water trap with his camera phone.  

I'll certainly give him credit for stopping the action!

He sent me the photo and asked me to work with it to see if I could 

improve it as he is hoping to enlarge a copy for his office.

Andy suggested removing a good portion of the track and the two men serving as water sweepers.

I did so using the crop tool and the clone tool in Photoshop Elements 9.0

I removed the backpack that was sitting on the track as well.

I also increased the contrast, lightened the exposure and increased the saturation slightly.

Once I was done with those edits, 

I followed this tutorial to enhance the sky using the 

gradient tool to make the sky more properly exposed and a layer mask to make sure

that the reporters booth building wasn't too dark.

Always fun to learn a new trick!

Aren't the colorful shade tents in the stands so festive?

Appy Birthday 2013

I had a great Birthday this week! 

Here are a few moments that were 

captured & edited on family phones!

Cliff, Betty, Mr. Quinn & Ruby Baby at Cliff's Baseball game.

Edited using the Camera+ iphone app.

Pizza Party at the Ballpark, with Jack, Jennifer, Jessica & Joanna.

we got to watch Cliff play under the lights!

Edited with the Camera+ Iphone app

Rhoda's quilt still cozy after 20 years!

These photos were made into a collage using my pic stitch iphone app.

Joanna and Ruby!

Jennifer took this photo and edited it with the 

Rhonna iphone app.

Quinn & Ruby have really enjoyed their little wading pool this summer!

Our neighbor gave it to us and after cleaning it up and duct taping the tiny holes it has been a hit!

We've had such mild warm weather that has been a blessing for 2-3 months now.

I added the text and border using the Typic Pro iphone app.

Salad in a Jar!

This spring, my friend, Karin, had the idea to create some pre-made salads "in a jar"

that we could grab and eat for lunch or use as a side dish for dinner.

We both used Pinterest to find variations on the theme.

 To extend the fun, we even went grocery shopping together prior to assembling our salads!

What?! Who does that?

We chose to make 5 different salads, we took home 2 of each recipe

for a total of 20 salads made in one afternoon!

We made

Taco Salads

Strawberry poppy seed salads

Chicken Cobb Salads

Quinoa Fruit Salads

Quinoa Vegetable Salad

In all, it was a fantastic venture!  

The end goal was met: we ate more salads when we prepared them ahead!

We've since made them together one other time and 

I made them with my Freezer Friends as well.

Here are some tips if you want to do this yourself:

1) Use grape tomatoes so that they don't get soggy

2) Layer the toppings on the bottom of the jar then stuff as many greens in the top as you can.

3) When you serve the salad, turn it upside down into the serving dish.

3) Skip dressing in the jar - just dress it when you eat it.

4) If you make taco salad, put the nacho strips in a baggie on top so that they stay crisp

5) The non-greens salads (quinoa) worked really well, 

just like you'd buy in a deli but they didn't last as long

6) toppings that worked well were: carrots, snap peas, blue cheese & boiled eggs.

7) Our favorite greens were a combination of swiss chard, spinach, red leaf lettuce and purple cabbage

8) prior to assembly, you pretty much set up a salad bar on the kitchen counter 

with all the toppings first and a huge bowl of greens last. 

We walked through with our individual jars gradually filling them up!

Puddle or Tire Swing?

When given the choice 

between the awesome tire swing at the playground or 

the puddle underneath the awesome tire swing at the playground, 

Quinn chose the puddle.  

Of course he did.

Hearty Roasted Tomato Soup

We were blessed with 3 bags of marked down tomatoes this week!

I washed, halved & lined them up on baking sheets

Drizzled them with olive oil, salt, pepper and plenty of garlic.

I roasted them in the oven at 375 for an hour. 

The house smelled amazing!

After roasting, I poured the entire contents of the baking tray into my big soup pot,

added broth, fresh basil and balsamic vinegar

then used an immersion blender to blend to a hearty consistency.

We enjoyed some that night and froze a few bags for later use.  

This is a recipe I made frequently when I lived in Uganda & 

it always reminds me of those days.  

Its such a fresh tasting soup!

 I'd make it more but we don't often have a surplus of tomatoes in Alaska.  

For those of you who do, here's the recipe

in PDF format, straight from my cooking journal.

Enjoy!

Printable Hearty Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe

National Aunt & Uncle Day

July 26th is National Aunt & Uncle Day. 

We are so thankful for the wonderful aunties and uncles that our kids have!

We praise God for each of you!

Uncle Ted & Quentin on the beach with Mt. Edgecumbe in the background.

Ruby and Uncle Andy

Cousin Megan, Auntie Kim & Quinn

Uncle Jack & Quinn with their matching shoes!

Auntie Root with my cousins, Sara & Kirsten before the babies were born!

Auntie Jenn & the babies in a bucket!

The babies haven't met their aunt Susi yet but they enjoy the special blankets that she made for them!

Aunt Rhoda with arms full of babies!

Quinn with Uncle Dan and cousin Reid

Uncle Matt is pushing the twins in their stroller in the photo above.

A great winter hike through Totem Park at Christmas.

Uncle Mel and Ruby

Aunt Holly & Quinn

Aunt Connie & Ruby

Aunt Mary with Cliff & Ruby 

Aunt Holly & Ruby

Aunt Holly with cousin Meg and Baby Ruby at only 6 weeks old!

We are so VERY THANKFUL for this unforgettable lunch that Aunt Juanita & Grandma Rene planned for us.  Aunt Juanita & Uncle Kenny gave us their son Rick's baby quilt made by Cliff's Grandma Bertha & Warren & Rene gave us Cliff's baby quilt also made by Grandma Bertha.  We look forward to our next lunch with Uncle Kenny in heaven.  He passed away early this year.

Here are the babies cuddled in with the quilts their great grandma Bertha made!

National Cousin Day 2013

July 24th is National Cousin Day!

Quentin & Ruby have AWESOME cousins!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Cousins Reid, Ty (can you see him in the gilly suit?) and Megan 

made our sweet bees first Halloween spook-tacular!

Cousin Mark Daniel & Mr. Q

Cousin Meg, my brother's daughter, is only 2 months older than the twins.

Cousin Joy has her arms full!

Feeding the twins early on was quite a trick using pillows to prop them up!  

Thanks, Cousin Jojo!

Haines cousins, plus Jess and the twins!

Carter and Quinn

Jessica feeds and cuddles the babies twin-style

Buddy sneaks in some sweet time with Q at nana's retirement luncheon at Purdue.

Ty, Megan & Reid love the babies so much.

So thankful that cousin John had an open period at school this past year and 

that he made it a priority in his busy schedule to come spend most of them 

at our house with the twins.  

Priceless!

Reid likes to get frequent text updates on how the twins are doing. 

He often texts and asks for pictures!  

Channel Club dinner with 7 cousins

Sweetie Cousin Megan with both babies

     Krystal with Quentin - those two hit it off!

My cousin Tami made her first trip to Sitka this spring!

We were so thankful to be with Grandma Rene in this picture at Cousin Ben's wedding reception, thanks for taking the photo cousin Reid!

I love this photo of cousin Krystal feeding baby Quentin

It has been a joy keeping in touch long distance with Cousins Clint & Leslie as they raise 

Baby Johnny who was born exactly 7 days after our twins.

There is still time to request an Independence Day Postcard if you haven't yet!

Just comment before Friday on this post.