Friday, October 30, 2009

Lamp-cat

For Halloween this year, Nittany gets to be a lamp. He is not entirely pleased, but is becoming accustomed to the limitations of his lampshade. Of course, this requires some trial and error, which is why I spent half an hour cleaning up after he managed to flip his litter box straight over on top of himself.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Moose Run

The moon overlooks the mountains, the mountains overlook the lodge, and the lodge overlooks the golf course. This photo was taken on Arctic Valley, just prior to sunset. I wish I'd hung around longer and waited for alpenglow, but I wanted to get up and catch the sunset from further up the mountain.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Deliciouso

This is one of our recent acquisitions. Since Stacey and six months in the desert living with the Italians addicted the Husband to olive oil, and I have been lusting over this artist's work, it seemed like a perfect addition to our household. Of course, we can't really get good olive oil up here, but we're making do with what we've got.

Of course, I really want the trifle bowl, but it is several hundred dollars out of my price range and glass is not conducive to repeated moves.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

BBA #1: Anadama Bread

The first recipe in the BBA Challenge is anadama bread. Anadama bread is a New England bread - which surprised me, as I'd never heard of it in my life, despite growing up in New England! Maybe Connecticut just isn't cool enough.

This recipe is a pretty basic loaf bread, with the addition of cornmeal and molasses. The first step was to soak the cornmeal overnight. Now, it called for a coarse-ground meal, but all I had was fine-ground white cornmeal, so I just used that.

Next is to make a sponge, with yeast, water, flour, and the soaker. My sponge didn't get quite as bubbly as I'd expected, even after I let it sit an extra half hour. I grew impatient, and continued on anyway.

Once the sponge was ready, it was time to mix in the remaining
ingredients - more flour, salt, butter, and, of course, molasses.
Mr. Reinhart advocated for using a light molasses, but I happen
to be a huge molasses fan. So I used my strong, dark molasses, but I did use only 2/3s of what was called for in the recipe.

Kneading was a bit of a challenge, but I'm really still working out my technique in this area. After 20 minutes, with my dough still not passing the window-pane test (though it was close!), I gave up and just set it to rise.

Stacey had given me a heads-up at this point that hers moved a lot faster than the recipe indicated and accordingly I kept a close eye on mine and it had finished about 30 minutes early.

From there it was time to divide and shape! I've actually never made a loaf bread, but I think the shaping went well. The dividing though... well, let's just say this is one of those instances where I really wish I had a kitchen scale! My loaves ended up being clearly different sized.

Different sized or not, this bread is absolutely fantastic. I managed to wait until it had cooled to slice it up. I'm in love! Then I remembered that I had some brand new apple butter in the fridge - delicious! I'm about to try it as a ham sandwich for my dinner. I am definitely glad that I used the darker molasses. I don't think the bread is too sweet at all. It's got a nice, rich flavor. The cornmeal gives it an interesting texture, too. I will definitely make this one again!

The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The Great Bread Challenge Begins!

So, Stacey over at Magnifico! has issued me a bread challenge. We are each to cook our way through the Bread Baker's Apprentice, one loaf at a time. Since I (and the author of the book, no doubt) have no wish to post every single recipe in the book on my food blog, I will be using this blog to track my journey. Tomorrow begins with anadama bread.

Nittany Halps!

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Nittany helps as The Husband packs for his next trip. At least I got a month, right? And he'll be home for the holidays. Nittany has been very upset all day - no one can ever tell me that animals are stupid. This cat knows exactly what is going on when the suitcases come out, and he expressed his displeasure by knocking over The Husband's coin rack.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Moose is Loose!

It was a little too dark for me to get a really good shot, but this female is currently wandering up and down our street, munching on trees and bushes. I love moose so much!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Singing boy, pick up that fiddle; oh, and play that steel guitar

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Nittany is doing well. He's on antibiotics and prescription food. Still having some trouble with the litterbox, but he's managing it. Back to the vet on Monday for a follow-up. Still, combined with The Husband leaving again in a matter of days, I'm fairly stressed. And so today, with The Husband working late, I've been engaging in some music therapy.

Songs for the day:
If You're Gonna Play in Texas
Thank God I'm a Country Boy
Guitars, Cadillacs
Private Conversation

As a side note, this is my plug for 96.3 The Wolf. They play good country, plus rock and blues.

Friday, October 16, 2009

It only took me 45 days...

To miss a post. I apologize! Between dress rehearsal, grading, end of the quarter work, and freaking out about my cat's potentially fatal disease, it completely slipped my mind. I will continue to post pictures here, but I'm not sure about the every day thing. We'll see how it goes!

In other news, Nittany is fine right now. He has medication and new food and I have fixed his water fountain (which might have been the cause of this all in the first place!). Currently he is curled up downstairs trying to lick away the hospital smell from his fur.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

#44 Mmm-Mmm!

Probably my favorite candy. Well, one of, at least. The Husband doesn't like them much but he did send me a lot of bags to keep me happy while he was gone!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

#43 Happy Fall!

A bit late, as the leaves are all down, but I finally got around to giving Mr. Moose his Pumpkin outfit. Besides, it's about time I took down the welcome home sign as The Husband will be leaving again soon.

Monday, October 12, 2009

#42 Lights

Well, I wasn't entirely sure what to take a picture of today. I carried my camera around everywhere I went, but nothing came to me. Finally, as The Husband drove us home from Dairy Queen, I realized I was running out of time! So I just started snapping shots and realized that if I move the camera around I can make funny light shapes! They came out pretty cool, all bright and pretty.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

#41 The Valley

A view of the Valley behind us as we head back to Anchorage. I've been wanting to get a shot like this for a while, and with Chris driving today I finally got the opportunity! I'm glad the Valley still has termination dust, because ours was apparently a trick! Usually you can watch the dust creep steadily down the mountainsides, but this year it got halfway down and started creeping back up till it's all gone!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

#40 Cute

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I finally got myself a tripod! Tripods are such amazingly useful things, I don't know why it took me this long to get one!

Friday, October 9, 2009

#39 PotCat

We made mashed potatoes tonight.

Nittany likes.

For the record, I have a picture of my husband as a baby sitting in a pot pretty much like that.

Also, in other news, the cat has discovered how to turn on the lights in the entertainment unit. Several times this past summer I woke up to find the lights on. I decided it was Nittany's fault, but concluded that it was from the way he slid down the unit to get back to the floor.

How wrong I was.

The other night we were sitting on the couch, watching a movie. Nittany hopped up on top of the entertainment unit and made sure he had our attention. Then, tap-tap-tap, he pawed at the touch-controlled lightswitch, turning the dimmer-switch to full. Looking most pleased with himself, almost as if expecting applause, he then jumped down to the ground.

Our cat is an alien.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

#38 Let Them Eat Cake!

It's becoming a tradition - when The Husband gets crappy news from the Air Force, he takes me out for something delicious. Last time it was Coldstone. Tonight, as you see!

For the record, it's not super crappy news. Basically, we knew that Bad News was going to happen. It just twisted some things to make it potentially worse. So on and so forth.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

#36 Icy!

The ice on the roof of my car this morning. It was pretty chilly, below freezing even at 10 when I left for work!

Monday, October 5, 2009

#35 Armed and Ready

Today, fully a third of the students at School A were out sick. A THIRD. Incredible. Me, I've been fighting this cold off pretty much since The Husband came home. This weekend it exploded a bit and I have been treating myself very proactively. Hopefully I don't get worse, and definitely hoping I don't lose my voice.

Technically, I suppose it might be a mild case of H1N1, but without a fever or other flu-like symptoms I'm not getting tested... though The Husband is making me schedule an appointment for Friday if I've still got this going on. We'll see. So far this isn't even as bad as the cold I had last spring, just very long running.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

#34 Backpack Kitty Sez...



im in ur backpack, stealin' ur lernings

Saturday, October 3, 2009

#33 Chowder

There's nothing better on a cold, rainy day!

Friday, October 2, 2009

#32 Cindy

You ought to see my Cindy
She lives a-way down south
And she's so sweet the honey bees
All swarm around her mouth

Get along home, Cindy, Cindy
Get along home, Cindy, Cindy
Get along home, Cindy, Cindy
I'll marry you some day!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

#31 Peter's Creek

Husband picked me up from work today and we headed out to Peter's Creek. Didn't see any grouse, but these little fellows were all over the place. We also saw a bald eagle hunting, lovely snow-capped mountains, a full moon, and sunset over Susitna, Spurr, and Redoubt. A great hike, even if my shoulders are now hurting!