Focus

Seedlings, Day Four

2012-02-22T10:13:00.000-08:00

I've decided to use this blog to muse about my garden. I've decided that I love vegetables. But only real vegetables. As in, not the kind you buy at the store. So, I'm getting my garden on. This is utterly hilarious to those who know me, because I have a very black thumb, but I figure that South Carolina is pretty perfect climate-wise for growing things so maybe that will help me!

Anyway, one of the cool things about this house is that it came with a raised garden bed already! I did soil testing and began adding more soil and fertilizer to correct the PH levels and nutrient deficiencies. I need to test again in a week or so.

Meanwhile, I ordered a bunch of seeds. These arrived late last week. Some of them don't need to be started inside but others do. So, I Very Carefully read the instructions plus everything I could find on the internets. I set aside the outside ones and will return to them after the last frost (end of March, 'round here). This left me with my first crop of brussel sprouts and broccoli (I'll get two crops of those), some herbs, and the trickier tomatoes, eggplants and chili peppers. I popped them into their little sprouting pots and gave them a sprinkle of water.

The next problem was where to put the baby plants. The instructions specifically said that a windowsill was not the best option. A warm location with lights a few inches above the plants was suggested. I figured I'd try the top of the fridge. Really, this would have been perfect, except that my cat decided that HE wanted the top of the fridge and in Cat vs Baby Plants, Cat wins. So I rescued the plants from the cat and retreated to the laundry room. On top of the drier is a pretty warm spot! And I guess it worked because on day four I have nice big sprouts from my broccoli and brussels, and little sprouts from my herbs. Still watching the tomatoes, eggplants and chilis though!

Pee Dee Hog Hunt

2012-02-12T08:31:00.000-08:00

Sunset

Dawn over the Pee Dee

I was too busy to do much photographing on this trip, but these two views were too gorgeous to pass up. As you can see in the bottom image, I've been experimenting with Photomatix. I'm liking it a lot and will be purchasing a copy as soon as I get around to it.

It was nice to spend time out in the woods, even if it was a gross swamp and even if we didn't get a hog.

Backyard Birding

2012-01-30T14:09:00.000-08:00

Every evening around sunset, the back corner of my yard is full of cardinals and bluejays munching on this or that. In an effort to entice them closer, I've put a birdfeeder outside the kitchen window. So far only some sparrows have found it, but its only been up for day. Hopefully soon I will have pretty cardinals like this fine fellow right outside my window!

This is Winter?

2012-01-08T15:53:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the hiatus! We've just finished up the Big Move (again!). We're getting settled in - signed the lease on a place and tomorrow the movers come! More pictures soon!

Indian Garden to Plateau Point to Indian Garden to South Rim

2011-11-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

Day Six Miles: 7.8
Cumulative Miles: 50.5

October 31, 2011
South Rim
8:50pm

Made it out. Nearly got eaten by a mountain lion last night. Hike up wasn't bad - under three hours before breaks. Car was dead but got a jump. More later.

November 1, 2011
South Rim
7:30am

Ok... Now I have a bit of time to write! So, back to Plateau Point, sunset on October 30. We had dinner out there and chatted with the Ranger and "the Boys" for a while. We'd just missed seeing a condor on the rocks! Eventually, everyone left and we spent a happy hour or so doing star traces. A little after eight we packed it up - it had taken us 40 minutes to get out there and we were guessing it would take an hour to get back in the dark. Once we were off the Plateau and into the drainages, I caught some mule deer eyes in my headlamp. They were very obviously mule deer, even in the dark - you could see the ears and they didn't so much as glance at us. On we went.

A few hundred yards downwind, I caught a new pair of eyes with my light. These were lower, closer together, and shaped differently. No mule ears. And - worst of all - these eyes watched us, tracking and following. Without discussing anything, we both started booking it our of there, so fast that we made it back in 30 minutes! Only then did we start talking and realize that we had both independently concluded that it was a mountain lion! I guess we'll never know for sure, but I know what my cat's eyes look like in the dark. I spent the whole night trying to convince myself that I was ridiculous and it had been a deer, but I just couldn't. And that is how we nearly got eaten by a mountain lion.

November 1, 2011
Marble Canyon
8pm

Ok, so, back to Halloween. We rolled out of bed late, around 6, shoved food, water, stove and cameras into our packs and headed back to Plateau Point for dawn. We had breakfast out there before heading back to Indian Gardens to break camp. No more mountain lions tried to eat us but we did get the stink eye from a mama mulie, beautifully silhouetted against the dawn, who we disturbed! We hit the Bright Angel trail again at 10:30 for the final 4.5ish mile push to the Rim.

Our hike was broken into even thirds by two rest houses. The first leg was the worst - steep, and we'd skipped our usual midday snack! We rested an hour at the rest house for lunch though. Second leg went fast - not as steep. We stayed 45 minutes at that rest house, snacking and finally toasting with Baileys before the last push. It was steep, but we were so close it didn't matter! We reached the Rim at 3! We did it!!

Shortly thereafter, we lost our buzz upon finding out that the car was dead, but a nice ranger gave us a jump and we were off to steak dinner.

Today we drove to Lees Ferry to camp prior to Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon tomorrow. The wind was epic! We were eating dinner in the car when our tent collapsed! So we called it, stuffed the tent in the car and got a room here in Marble Canyon to enjoy a good night's sleep (and the three B's, Booze Bread and Butter).

QotD: "Our tent was just like, 'screw you guys, I'm going home!'"

Bright Angel Campground to Indian Garden Campground to Plateau Point to Indian Garden Campground

2011-11-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

Day Five Miles: 7.7
Cumulative Miles: 42.7

October 30, 2011
Plateau Point
4:40pm

The sun is setting on our last night in the Canyon. Tomorrow it is back to showers and stead dinners and the real world. I am definitely feeling a bit melancholy, but I'll save the reflections for tomorrow.

This morning we set out around 7:30 after a delicious breakfast of pumpkin pie. We had a slow start due to photography breaks, but the trail to Indian Garden was short and the switchbacks not as hard as I thought they might be - we made camp by 11:30. We actually had a relaxing afternoon playing cards before heading the 1.5 miles out here to the Point.

We brought out our victory dinner - beef burgundy - to eat between sunset photos and star photos. It's amazing out here - the plateau juts out over the inner canyon and you can see the Colorado and both Rims.

Cottonwood Campground to Bright Angel Campground

2011-11-07T21:43:00.000-08:00

Day Four Miles: 7.2
Cumulative Miles: 35

October 29, 2011
Bright Angel Campground
3:15 pm

One of the interesting things about these trails is that they are so populated. You can meet some interesting people and get to know those sharing the trail with you. On day one we hiked with Scott and Jennifer. Day two we kept leapfrogging with two large groups. Day three was pretty neat though - since we went up-and-back we met everyone who came in N. Kaibob that day. About a mile before we reached the Rim, we ran into a group of parents and young teens hiking in. When we explained that we were doing up-and-back, one of the men said "Wow, you guys are animals!" We laughed and continued on.

Later, back at camp, S headed for the latrine but had to stop and chat with all of our new friends along the way. Then, from back in one of the sites, "Hey! It's the animal!" I guess we have a nickname now! (We give them names too, like "blister guy.")

S plays mountain goat to get the perfect shot

Today we got a nice, early start. We packed up our gear and said goodbye to Cottonwood campsite #6 and were on the road at 7:30. We made Ribbon Falls around 8:15 and proceeded to stop for nearly three hours to take pictures! We also had an epic creek crossing before pressing on.

We stopped again around the halfway point and indulged ourselves with a hot lunch of leftover sketti and mishmash. 1.5 hours there. I think we kept not wanting to leave, since from this morning, every step we take is leading back to the real world and the end of this trip. We're already planning another, North-South-North but we need to get the boys in on that one!

Well, we're back in Bright Angel now, in site 6 instead of site 4. 6 is more private but also has more prickly pears. Tomorrow we begin the final two-day push to the south rim.

QotD: "I'm a man!" - Blister Guy on why he can bathe in the creek and we really can't. "Maybe it will make us hungry!" - as we try to finish dinner and our neighbors start toking up. "Cobbler Girls" - our other nickname!

Cottonwood Campground to North Rim to Cottonwood Campground

2011-11-06T17:17:00.000-08:00

Day Three Miles: 13.6
Cumulative Miles: 27.8

October 28, 2011
Cottonwood Campground
6:20pm

Sorry I didn't write more last night but we were in bed by 7! A quick sponge bath, dinner and we were zonked! All good though, because we were up before 5:30 this morning. We anticipated the trip to the rim to take as much as six hours. The woman a few sites down had done it in 3.5 but she was in crazy good shape. It's almost 7 miles to the rim and lots of elevation gain. As it happened, whatever we've been doing to prep for this trip has been working - we made the rim in just under 4.5 hours!

When you look at the canyon from a distance, all you see are reds and oranges and browns. When you get up close though, you see layers of purple, blue and green rocks as well. It's pretty neat.

The other thing that is hard to grasp from the outside is the scale. You look at the Canyon and think "Yeah, that's big," but it doesn't compare to how it feels when you are standing next to a boulder the size of a house, so deep in that you can't see either rim. Words just can't describe it and I know that even doing what I am doing I am only experiencing the smallest portion of what this Canyon is.

Anyway, two! rims down, one to go on our epic Rim to Rim to Rim trip. As I wrote on the Ranger Station Message board, AK GIRLS KICK ASS! Seriously, the only other person we've met so far with an itinerary as awesome as ours was a woman. The guys are totally wimping out.

Ok, sketti dinner now and hopefully star trails before bed. Night!

PS: "Hey, it's the animal!" Elaboration later.

Bright Angel Campground to Cottonwood Campground

2011-11-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

Day Two Miles: 7.2
Cumulative Miles: 14.2

The rut was on! Later we saw a buck trying to drive a fawn away from a doe.

October 27, 2011
Cottonwood Campground
3:45pm

Day Two hike is over! We had a slow start and got on the road at 9. Once we warmed up, the first few miles were great, following the creek up through a shady canyon. Then we broke out into the sun, which wasn't as nice! We did find a nice lunch spot with a view and stopped there for an hour. A little further was a trail split. The right fork was labeled "Ribbon Falls via Bridge" and the left was unmarked. Since we wanted to see the falls, we took the right fork. Bad Idea! Left fork just made you ford the creek before a level trail met with both Ribbon Falls and the trail to Cottonwood. The right fork made you climb a freaking mountain! We ended up skipping the falls - we'll get another chance in two days!

Home Sweet Home - Cottonwood Campground

South Kaibob Trailhead to Bright Angel Campground

2011-11-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

First light, just below the trailhead

Day One Miles: 7 miles
Cumulative Miles: 7 miles

My photography platform at Ooh-Ahh

October 26, 2011
Bright Angel Campground
6:00pm

Great news! I just managed to get the camera battery out after several long minutes with the leatherman! No more rationing! Yay!

Dawn at Ooh-Aah

We hit the trail (S. Kaibob) this morning around 7:30 and booked it down to Ooh-Aah point for dawn. My R knee was a bit unhappy to start but quickly settled in. The first three or so miles were easy-peasy. All the refits I did last week for pack and boots really paid off. The last few miles were steeper and harder mentally because you could see the Colorado and got this "almost there" feeling. A little after noon we were eating lunch on the north side of the river!

The sun struggles to peek through the clouds

We continued to Bright Angel and got our camp set up and cached some food with the Rangers before exploring. I did not expect the bottom of the canyon to look like this! I imagined a flat, desert-type area with the canyon walls blocking out the sky. Instead, we have a creek lined with cottonwoods and you are actually so deep into the "inner" canyon that you can't see the north or south rims at all. We had fantastic views on the way down though, even though it rained on and off. Glad I brought my rain jacket, I almost left it at home! Packs were pretty heavy (over 30% bodyweight) today, but they carried well.

Sunbeams!

Left knee is a bit sore, right is fine. Feet are sore but no blisters! Chocolate Baileys cheesecake for dessert! Tomorrow should be pretty easy - 7 miles gently uphill to Cottonwood & Ribbon Falls. Should be gorgeous weather too, if a bit on the hot side - 70. For now, I will go be sociable before an early bedtime, sleeping to the roar of the creek.

PS. There are flush toilets! Cushiest backpacking trip ever!

Rain means rainbows!

October 27, 2011
Bright Angel Campground
7:30am

Camp is almost packed, but I wanted to write about last night while it's still fresh. After a few rounds of cards and cheesecake, S and I headed to the bathhouse to wash dishes and get ready for bed. I finished first and headed back to camp alone. Counting to find our site, my headlamp picked up a pair of reflective eyes! A glance at the site number confirmed that the animal was in our camp! I edged closer to see what it was and it jumped up on the table and stared back at me - a ringtail! Way cool. I never thought I'd see one in the wild. I froze, hoping it would stay so S could see, but when it decided I wasn't going to noms its face, it decided to noms my backpack, so I scared it off. The end!

The banks of the Colorado

Creek at Bright Angel Campground

So much food!

Home Sweet Home

Bright Angel Campground

Another Home Sweet Home shot

Canyon Eve

2011-11-03T17:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I survived my backpacking trip! In fact, I did more than survive. I went into this trip thinking that it would be a one time only deal. I'd do it to say I'd done it and never think of it again. Instead, we've already started planning routes for the next time!

I kept a journal with me during the whole thing so I will be making several posts over the next few days with entries from the journal, elaborations where necessary, and photos from each day. My first entry is from the night before we began our hike. It was a little bit drizzly that afternoon, but cleared up around sunset. After midnight, though, it stormed ridiculously for several hours.

October 25, 2011
Eve of Adventure
8:15pm

Hard to believe this trip is already here! S and I left Tucson early this morning and arrived at the Canyon around 3. We stowed our stuff and went for a quick sunset hike along the rim to warm up for tomorrow. It was a nice sunset but I am happier about the number of stars we can see! Not as good as AK but way better than Vegas! I have encountered the first problem already - my new camera battery is jammed! If I can't get it out, I'll have to be very careful and not do too many night shots. Early to bed tonight - will be in the canyon for dawn!

Dogie Trail

2011-10-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, my friend and I had planned to do a backpacking trip in Sedona last weekend only to have our plans foiled by illness. Being resiliant, we simply rescheduled for this weekend. So, Friday I got up early and made the 4.5 hour drive down just in time to snag one of the last remaining campsites. While waiting for Stacey, who had to leave later, I drove around taking pictures of the red rocks. I also bought a new camelback because in my absentmindedness I had forgotten a whole mess of things. I'm glad I did though - the new camelback seems MUCH nicer than the older ones, which always leak on me.

Stacey got in late that night and we got a bit of a slow start the next morning, hindered by the beautiful dawn light filtering through the trees as we attempted to break up camp. As a result, we weren't on our trail until almost 11, which meant hiking during the heat of the day. Interesting fact: as we drove the rural roads to the trailhead, we encounted a great big rattlesnake sitting in the middle of the road!

Last weekend a cold front had come through and temperatures in the area were a pleasant 40-60. Silly me, I thought that was normal. Nope! We started hiking at 80 and it got hotter from there. Additionally, it was a dry trail so we were carrying two days of water each plus some extra for cooking and emergencies: 22lbs of my pack just for water! Given that 40lbs is my recommended maximum weight and 30lbs is optimal, packs were HEAVY.

As if the heat and the sun and the weight of the pack wasn't enough, about two miles into the trip I started experiencing some, well, gastro-intestinal distress. I gotta say, hiking while sick is not fun! I couldn't cinch my waist strap tightly enough so the pack wasn't riding right and I was pretty miserable. I literally had to stop and drop my pack every 15-30 minutes. Not fun!

We limped along for another three miles or so before giving in when we found a lovely little campsite on a plateau overlooking the gorge. It was almost four by then. Not the 9ish mile hike we'd planned, but given my unfortunate condition I was just glad to have that pack off!

Stacey started kicking rocks aside to better clear a space for our tent when she unearthed a scorpion! Ick! At least that was as reminder to be extra careful!

Once the camp was set we pulled out daypacks and wandered around a bit, swooping back to our home sweet home just as the sun was sinking behind the cliffs. We devoured round one of dinner and waited impatiently for the stars to come out while we set up our cameras. I'd managed to forget my tripod, so I balanced mine on some handy rocks, using my hat for aiming!

Darkness fell and stars filled the sky, the Milky Way sweeping across directly over our heads. It was amazing - the second best night sky I've ever seen!

Mt. Humphreys

2011-10-13T14:09:00.000-07:00

The plan for this past weekend was to backpack around Sedona with a friend and then summit Mt. Humphreys, the tallest mountain in Arizona, on Monday. Unfortunately, my friend came down with a bug on Thursday and so we postponed backpacking for next weekend. Because next weekend isn't a holiday weekend, Mt. Humphreys was off the schedule so I decided to drive down and do it myself.

I got in just after sunset, set up camp, and immediately started taking star pictures. Unfortunately, the moon was nearly full so the stars weren't as excellent as I'd hoped for. Still, not bad for my first tries at trails!

The next morning it was up early to break camp and drive the hour or so to Mt. Humphreys trail head. It was quite chilly and I felt right at home! The first quarter mile wound across a frosted meadow before heading into the forest and the switchbacks. I was a little surprised to see the trail covered with snow and ice.

At first, the climb was no big deal. It reminded me a lot of Resurrection Pass actually, just a bit steeper. The ice made things sketchy in some places. The stretch from the treeline to the saddle, however, was physically the toughest part. The scraggly trees were covered in ice balls and every minute or so another tree would drop a bunch, sending them skittering down the slop and sending my avalanche-terrified heart pounding.

Finally, after three hours I reached the saddle. The views were most excellent. Since the trail was so bad, though, most of the other folks decided to head back down instead of continuing to the summit. I pushed on alone. Honestly, it was pretty nerve wracking to not know if there was anyone in front or behind me, what with my hiking by myself on such slippery and sketchy terrain. A broken leg with no one around could easily prove fatal. About thirty minutes later though, I gained a high point and saw that there were, in fact, people on both sides of me which made me feel better.

Getting from the saddle to the summit was not as physically draining as the final switchbacks were, but it was a mental challenge. There are at least three false summits and even if you know this as I did, it was still really hard to keep going after each "summit" proved to not be. Finding the trail was also almost impossible at times!

Eventually, though, I made it! I was on top of Arizona, with amazing views in all directions! It took four hours and fifteen minutes, longer than I had planned. I spent about 30 minutes on the summit before beginning what I figured would be a grueling descent, what with the snow, ice, and my knee problems.

In actuality, I made the decent in about three hours. I fell twice coming around a switchback, but the area wasn't dangerous and the falls weren't too bad. My knee wasn't even bothering me! Of course, marveling about that fact apparently jinxed me, because about a mile from the trail head my OTHER knee started hurting really bad! I limped along on it for a few minutes before wising up and switching my brace from one knee to the other, and was able to finish out the trail without further difficulty.

BBA #26, 27, 28, 29, 30

2011-10-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted a BBA challenge post. Partially this is because I've been stalled for about a year on the sourdough starter. I tried and failed a few times, then just forgot about it in the chaos of moving and all. However, I recently visited a friend who gave me some of her starter, so I used my baby "Zeke" to get me going on the challenge again.

However, when I started up with the sourdoughs, I realized that somehow I lost my photographs from the last four breads that I didn't remember to post when I made them! I've switched computers in the meantime, and maybe they're still here, but I haven't been able to find them. So here's a quick write-up on those four (what I remember), and my first sourdough.

#26, Poolish Baguette

This one was okay, but if I'm going to spend the time to make a poolish, I see no reason to not be making Pain a l'ancienne instead!

#27, Portuguese Sweet Bread

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I don't like sweet breads. However, on a TDY before I made this bread, DH had a sandwich with Kahlua pork and sweet bread, so I made the pork at the same time as I made this loaf. They went pretty well together.

#28, Potato Rosemary Bread

Without a doubt, this bread is one of the contenders for "Best Recipe in BBA!" I made two loaves and gave one to my (then pregnant) friend. It might have been the hormones, but she tore into this like there was no tomorrow! I don't think her husband got to try any, and I don't blame her, it's that good! As it happens, I finally have leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge. I'm going to make this again ASAP.

#29, Pugliese

Honestly, not particularly memorable. Maybe if I had used the durum flour it would have made a difference.

#30, Sourdough (pictured above)

Yum yum yum yum yum! Sourdough is a favorite in this house and this recipe did not let us down - apart from being even better the second day than the first! I did make a few mistakes working with my baby Zeke. I need to listen to the dough more than the timeframe given in the recipe. As a result, the bread was a little heavy and dense, but I think I can fix it next time! I also didn't get the crust and color that I'd want, but since I'm working without my best baking materials (notably, my baking stone), I figure that's not my fault!

La Madre Spring

2011-10-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

I have to say, I'm really enjoying the fact that a 4 mile hike with 700ft elevation gain up and then down is no longer a good workout for me. I don't know that I've ever been in this good of shape. The hike today was SUPPOSED to be longer and harder, but I had my first weather-abort.

I started out knowing that I'd have to keep an eye on the sky, since a cold front was coming through. There was a brief shower as I drove to the trail, and another shower higher up that left a lovely rainbow.

The sky was blue when I hit the trail, though! In fact, too much so. There was absolutely no shade and the sun was intense, even though it was relatively cool out.

The first rainshower was a gentle little drizzle that quickly faded back into blue sky, so I kept going. The second was harder and accompanied by some rather threatening clouds. I decided to push on to the spring, which wasn't far away, but I was definitely rethinking my plan to go all the way to the mines and cabin.

I made it to the spring without further precipitation, but it had dropped about ten degrees. With that and the clouds, plus the wind picking up, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and headed back.

Apart from the impending storm, the hike back was absolutely lovely. The weather was perfect for my Alaska-accustomed self and the clouds blocked out the sun.

I probably could have pressed on without trouble, but the storms hit only two hours after I got back to my car, which would have been cutting it a little close, especially with how far lightning can jump. I'm not sure if I'll go back and finish it up - the trail was a gravel trail which I HATE. It's really rough on the joints, I don't know why anyone would think it's a good idea!

Mt. Charleston

2011-09-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I summitted Mt. Charleston, the tallest mountain in the state of Nevada, standing 11,918 feet above the surrounding desert.

My alarm clock went off at 4:30am so that I could be hitting the trail by 6, the earliest it was possible to start without using a flashlight. The sun wasn't truly up, but colored the sky a pretty orange as I began.

The normal trailhead was closed for construction, so I had to use a spur trail that added about half a mile to the one-way trail length. A crescent moon hovered ahead of me as the sun started to gleam on the cliffs.

A little more than an hour into the hike I hit the switchbacks and began gaining altitude rapidly. It was very quiet - I encountered only one other hiker and two young mule deer bucks as I climbed.

By 9:30 I reached the top of the switchbacks. 4.33 miles in, and a gain of 3,102 feet.

After the switchbacks, the trail changed to a much easier ridge hike. The birds of prey loved the ridge, using the thermals to swoop at high speeds from one valley to the next, just inches above the ground. One was so close to me that I heard the thwack of his wings as he broke out of his stoop! Mostly they didn't hang around long enough for a positive identification, but I did startle an owl at one point and a kestral flew near enough that I could see the distinctive colors. That was exciting - I love kestrals, but had never seen one in the wild before! There had clearly been a wildfire through this area at some point, as the area was dotted with burned and dead trees.

The trail got closer and closer to the summit. At 11am I geared myself up for a final push... only to round a corner and see that what I'd thought was the summit wasn't. So I pushed again... and again, what I'd thought was the summit wasn't! By the time I finally laid eyes on the flag, I was quite demoralized. Even the pretty yellow flowers went practically unnoticed!

The final quarter mile push to the summit was brutal. I was so tired and unmotivated that I would take a dozen steps, then rest for ten seconds or more! But eventually, at 12:30, I made it!

I didn't hang around for long though, since I still had another 8.5 miles left to go before dark! I only snapped a few pictures on the descent, quickly becoming too tired to risk stopping more than I had to. It would be too easy to stop for too long, and I didn't want to be hiking in the dark.

I finally made it back to the car at 6:25pm. Twelve hours and twenty five minutes round trip, 17 miles, and 4,279 ft of elevation gain and then loss. I had conquered Mt. Charleston!

Tucson Hiking

2011-09-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend I flew out to Tucson to visit my friends with whom I'll be hiking the Grand Canyon in a few weeks. Friday night we poured over the trail books and eventually decided on a hike that we thought was eight miles long, but I'm not convinced that it was. Every place I look seems to list a different mileage for the trail. Oh well! It was still a fun time and, even better, my knee didn't hurt at all! I don't know if it was the lower elevation, the lighter pack, or the fact that I switched from advil to aleve, but I was excited about that!

The way up wasn't so bad. I only fell behind once (I'm a slow hiker and am trying hard not to be!), but after a brief rest was able to keep up the rest of the way. The first half of the way down was a breeze as well, but once we lost elevation the heat was pretty brutal. We were happy to reach the trailhead again!

We also gathered some prickly pears - and paid the price picking prickles out of our hands the whole way back! They did make fantastic mojitos and margaritas though!

Prickly Pear Margaritas

The next day we drove out to Mt. Lemmon to get out of the heat. We did a short little hike just to get the muscles going and to work off some of the tasty dinner we were planning for that evening.

In other news, I realized today that the Mt. Charleston hike I've been planning is twice as long as I initially thought. 16 miles is a lot, but on the other hand we do have a 14 mile day with similar elevation change in the Grand Canyon, so if I can summit Mt. Charleston I'll feel a lot better about Evil Day Three. If the weather holds, I'll make my first attempt Friday.

Cathedral Rock and Little Falls

2011-09-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I've mentioned this here before, but exactly six weeks from now I will be at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, two days into a six-day backpacking trip with two good friends. Needless to say, I've been hitting the gym hard. The gym isn't enough though, and it's only this week that it's gotten cool enough for me to dare hiking outside here, even in the mountains.

This morning I rolled out of bed at 4:30am, threw together a few last minute things, and hit the road. It's an hours drive from home to the trailhead. When I arrived around 6am, I was the only car there. Another pulled up as I was putting my pack on, and I chatted with them briefly. Very nice gentlemen, and they were headed up a different trail than I was (and made me decide to try that trail next week).

A few switchbacks up I stopped to take pictures as the dawn was breaking across the entrance to the canyon. I am not generally a morning person, but the dawn combined with the cooler weather may have converted me.

From there I continued the 1.5 mile climb up to Cathedral Rock, hovering about a thousand feet above the trail head. And I do mean hovering:

I was moving slower than I'd hoped to, and not only because I was stopping to take a lot of pictures. I need to do a lot more hiking in the next few weeks!

It took me an hour to reach the saddle (picture below, center left), and then another 15 minutes to scramble up to the top. I was moving pretty slowly on the scramble, because the "trail" was right on the edge of a thousand foot drop and full of loose rocks. Of course, once I got to the summit, I realized that it wasn't actually the trail - I'd missed a turn at some point! Oh well.

The summit was gorgeous. Great views and cool weather, a few puffy clouds in the bright blue sky. I hung around for fifteen minutes rehydrating and taking pictures before starting down the correct trail.

The descent was easier on my cardio but tougher on my knee. I'm going to need to watch that closely, even with the brace, trekking poles and advil it was acting up. I descended in an hour, but that includes two side trips to see the seasonal falls (unimpressive) and a 10-minute stop to watch a hawk who had landed just in front of me.

Once back at the trailhead, I had a little snack and debated my next move. I'd intended to climb Echo Overlook, but I didn't really want to push my knee since I'm doing some more hiking in Tucson this weekend. So I compromised and headed up to Little Falls, which is only .8 one way instead of 2 and has less elevation gain.

The falls were small but gorgeous so I was glad I checked them out! Next time, I think I'll aim for the loop trail to summit Mt. Charleston at nearly 12,000 feet!

Lake Mead

2011-09-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

I'll start this off by being blunt: I hate the desert. I find it to be ugly, uninspiring, washed out and, of course, hot. But still, I was starting to go stir-crazy here in the city and I knew I had to get out.

Since just going out into the desert to take pictures wasn't very inspiring, I decided to pick up some camera toys I've been eyeing for some time. Neither of the places I stopped had the cable release I wanted, but I did get a polarizing filter!

Of course, since I got the filter, it wasn't a sunny day. Still, the filter's pretty cool!

So I drove out to Lake Mead to snap a few shots.

I wasn't very impressed with the part of Lake Mead I saw. Next time I'll go the other way around.

Still, some of the pictures came out pretty good!

Summer in Pennsylvania - What # test for beaver?

2011-08-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

I just came back from a week vacation at my family's cabin in upstate Pennsylvania. It was a fun time and I got to take a lot of pictures!

Forget-me-nots after a rain.

A Belated Happy 4th of July

2011-07-25T20:19:00.001-07:00

PCS Days 16-21 - Wildlife

2011-06-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

PCS Days 16-21 - Landscapes

2011-06-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

I had to break this post up because I had so many fantastic pictures from Yellowstone!

My favorite shot - a fisherman, geyser, and hot spring all together!

Looks inviting, but this pool is probably around 200 degrees F!

Signs of the '88 fires were everywhere, but so was new growth.

Lamar Valley - beautiful and full of wildlife!

Artist Point - the most gorgeous and impressive place in the park.

PCS Days Seven-Fifteen

2011-06-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

All we could see of Mt. Rainier. Silly clouds!

Bruneau Sand Dunes

They're pretty impressive.

Quail are adorable!

Hawk getting chased off by blackbirds.

Sunset on the dunes.

PCS Days Four-Six - Ferry

2011-06-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

The view out of our little window.

Canadian Lighthouse.

And, finally, how I spent my time on the ferry. Had a lot of people interested in my work - someone even asked about buying! Not bad for my first two hats. I finished the second in four hours.

PCS Day Three

2011-06-24T17:14:00.001-07:00

PCS Day Two

2011-06-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

Today was one of our longest days of driving. It took over 10 hours to get from point A to point B. Fortunately, most of the drive was through my favorite landscapes - tundras, taigas, and alpine meadows.

The porkies were out in force today, including this massive fellow who made me stop while he crossed the road in front of me, shaking his quills menacingly at me all the while.

We found a few flocks of tundra chickens too. Don't they look tasty? This cock ptarmigan tried to chase The Husband away from his hens when The Husband tried to use the outhouse!

We also saw a brown bear cub, but he was just as startled as we were so I didn't get a chance for a picture. Fingers crossed for more bears though, since we're spending tonight on the Chilkoot river!

PCS Day One

2011-06-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

Today we launched a month-long journey from Anchorage to Mos Eisely (I'm quite proud of that pseudonym, by the way, it's entirely appropriate). As we encounter wireless hotspots, I'll try to post pictures from the trip.

This one is a spring picture of the same lake I was ice fishing on three months ago, seen below. Quite different, huh?

Speaking of which, I realized that I never made a post about that weekend. Back in March I spent a long weekend in Chickaloon with a few hundred other women taking the semi-annual Becoming an Outdoorswoman Weekend. It was an absolute blast - I went ice fishing, learned how to cure salmon eggs, started fur sewing, and mushed a dog team on an actual Iditarod sled. Total fun!

Baby Polar Bear

2011-05-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

A month ago, a cub was abandoned on the North Slope, rescued, and brought to the Anchorage Zoo. Just this week, she's been out for the public to see for two hours a day. However, she is of the opinion that two hours is not enough, as evidenced by her climbing, bouncing, and clawing at the door to "outside" before she was let loose in the bigger cage!

She has lots of toys to play with, but particularly enjoyed the box and the bowling ball. I wanted to reach in and give her a huge hug!

Burlap sacks are also pretty fun!

As a polar bear ought, the cub enjoyed frolicking in a tub of water. By the end of her hour, she was pretty muddy!

Currently, the cub can be seen at the Alaska Zoo from 11-12 and from 4-5. If you're in the area, check it out! She's adorable!

Arctic Terns

2011-05-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

The Arctic Tern is one of my favorite birds ever. They're really amazing, migrating from the Arctic to the Antarctic twice a year - 12,000 miles each way! They eat bugs, and they are way cooler than seagulls.

Since we are leaving soon, I really wanted to see the terns again. Fortunately, they just arrived back in Alaska and we took a trip down to the marsh where they nest today.

I love watching them swoop around. They have this weird ability to nearly hover in mid-air. It's so cool!

The Great One

2011-05-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

The Alaska Range overlooks the Anchorage Bowl. Denali, Foraker, and Hunter loom large on the horizon.

Kenai Adventures

2011-05-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

Portage Valley

This weekend The Husband and I headed down to the Kenai for a weekend of fun, adventure, and black bear hunting. We didn't see any bears, but we did see a bunch of tracks, so we were at least in the right place!

Either a good-sized sow or a young boar. My money's on the boar

Even though we didn't get a bear, we did see a bunch of wildlife. This cock grouse was eager to defend his harem against our intrusion. I also brought home a snowshoe hare for the stewpot.

After our hike, we made time for a stop in one of our favorite towns, Seward. It had gotten a bit rainy, and we didn't particularly feel like camping in the rain, so we went on down to the Army Rec camp. I wanted to see the otters and, as usual, they obliged. This one gave us a great look as he motored his lazy way along the shore.

Dinnertime for Otters!

On our way back to Anchorage, we stopped at the Wildlife Conservation Center. The WCC is a great rehabilitation and preservation center. I particularly like how the enclosures are large enough for the animals - large enough that visitors may not get to see them, because the animals comfort is first priority. Despite the large pens though, the grizzlies put on quite a show for us!

The WCC's first birth of the year, a baby caribou!

When we were unloading the car, a momma and yearling decided to watch. They actually passed right behind us - less than 20 feet away! I froze when I saw them so close, but The Husband didn't notice!

Northern Lights - 3/9

2011-03-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

The other day there was a solar event, so I was keeping an eye out last night. After a hint from a friend on facebook, I decided to drive out. I was wearing PJs and didn't bother changing - if I had gotten dressed, there certainly wouldn't have been any lights, right? Anyway, I grabbed the camera and off I went.

Within minutes of leaving home, I could see faint glows. They kept appearing and disappearing so I was worried I'd miss everything! By the time I got out to my spot, all you could see was a very faint band on the horizon. I settled in to wait. Shortly, I noticed pale, thin bands arcing across the sky - kind of like the trail a plane leaves. I pulled out the camera, and sure enough the bands blossomed into color, running east to west directly above me, through the Big Dipper.

Here's a picture to the west, with the moon. You can see how narrow the band was at first. It was really cold (especially with no socks and no jacket!) but I scarcely noticed!

To the east, with the Chugach mountains and the Star-On-The-Mountain. The glow from Anchorage and Eagle River can be seen.

Spruce trees. Note the line from the airplane off to the left!

Lazy Day

2011-03-09T18:15:00.000-08:00

Being a cat is so tough...

Mush!

2011-03-05T19:50:00.000-08:00

We started off the day watching the ceremonial Iditarod start. As a fundraiser, they auction off the chance to ride in the sled with the musher during the Anchorage start. The rider in this sled, however, is this year's Teacher on the Trail. She'll travel from check-point to check-point, blogging and posting lessons for students across the country.

After the Iditarod start, we headed down to the Fur Auction. Fur Rondy started as a get-together for trappers across the state to sell their furs, so this is really the beginning of it all! There are several different auctions throughout the two weeks of Rondy. This particular one was run by the Alaska Trapper's Association. Since I am taking a fur sewing class later this week, we came home with a red fox and a beaver. I was also a second away from getting a tanned lynx for the ridiculously low price of $175, but someone else snapped it up.

Our cat isn't sure what to think!

We ended the day with the 4th annual Running of the Reindeer. It's great fun, and the proceeds go to Toys for Tots. On the right, you can see how close we came to getting run over by the reindeer with the smallest antler of all!

Eagle Eye

2011-03-02T20:41:00.000-08:00

This fellow was right on the side of the highway as we drove home from Talkeetna the other weekend.

In other news, the lights have apparently been out the past two nights, but I'm recovering from The Plague so I've been going to bed at ridiculously early hours. I've got my eye out for tonight though - activity level seems pretty steady at 6. I'll check again in a few hours and if it hits 8 I'll take a short drive.

Cityscape

2011-02-19T18:08:00.000-08:00

A clear view of the city from Earthquake park.

It was a gorgeous day, with Denali quite visible. I really want to get a picture of Anchorage with Denali in the background, but Earthquake park is not at the right angle. Next time I'll try going up Hillside - once the snow is gone I can try Flattop, too.

Aurora Borealis

2011-02-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I woke up to find a friend had messaged me on Facebook. "The lights are out!" she said. My reply was "Why on earth didn't you call me???" She promised to call, and as I watched NOAA's aurora report, the call came. The Husband and I hopped in the car and started driving to find a place away from the lights.

Nearby, we could see it but just as a dull band of light, nothing different from what I'd seen in the north east on occasion. So we kept driving. Eventually, we made it out to the Knick where I pulled over for the first time to watch.

It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Ribbons, just dancing in the sky over the valley.

Unfortunately, the highway was between us and the lights, so it was difficult to get a good shot - note the truck at the bottom right of the picture! So we hopped in the car to find a better spot.

Next, we pulled off at the Hayflats. The lights were dimming a bit, but I grabbed the tripod and we hiked 50 yards off the highway where I took the following shot. Better, but I wanted to make some adjustments to the settings. Unfortunately, they were nearly gone!

This is a cropped version of the second shot - if you enlarge it, you can see the mountains at the bottom, which is why I like it so much!

We still held out hopes that if we continued north, they might brighten up. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. A bit north of Wasilla I snapped this shot, braced on the car, and we turned around and headed home. It was an amazing experience.

Next time, I will stop as soon as I see a good show and I will take as many pictures as I can in the hopes of getting some better shots!

Turnagain

2011-01-28T17:12:00.000-08:00

Dawn at 10:30am as we drove down the Turnagain arm.

The view from atop Mt. Alyeska. Almost perfectly clear - and therefore, cold!

Sub-zero temperatures make for glorious views.

Snowshoeing Adventures

2010-12-29T20:45:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas, The Husband and I loaded up the car and headed down to the Kenai Penninsula. We reached the Hope trailhead for Resurrection Pass just before 11 am, strapped on our packs and snowshoes, hitched up the sled, and hit the trail. We hiked in 7 miles or so to Caribou Creek cabin.

It was an exhausting trip - especially since the way in is almost entirely uphill! We made it to the cabin after sunset, but before true dark. Immediately, we set about building a fire. If you've ever tried to build a fire from frozen wood, you understand the difficulty of our task! It took at least four hours before the fire was able to be left unattended for even a few minutes! Once we got the fire going, things started to warm up though. They warmed up even more when our white gas cookstove had a flareup! We took care of that with no injuries, fortunately, but that was the low point of the trip. I was ready to crawl into my sleeping bag and not move for two days. Things got much better once we'd fixed the cookstove and the woodstove kicked into gear.

The cabin was quite cozy with the wood stove! Unfortunately, the stove absolutely chewed through wood so we had to spend half of the next day chopping more. It was a lot of work; I was definitely wishing for a chainsaw!

We even had an outhouse!

The view from the front window - gorgeous!

There is nothing cozier than a candle-lit cabin at night, when there is no one but you and your family for 400 miles.

The stars were brighter the first night, but I was far too cold and too exhausted to take out my camera.

Winter Fun

2010-12-06T19:44:00.000-08:00

We've decided that we simply cannot wait until spring to do more hiking and camping, so this weekend we did a test-drive on snowshoes. We managed about 5.5 miles in 3 hours, getting back to the trail-head after sunset but just before dark.

You could definitely tell the difference between snowshoeing on the packed trail or on unbroken snow. We kept switching off who was going first so that one person didn't get too tired. By the end, my legs were definitely feeling it! You use slightly different muscles than in regular hiking.

Our goal is to do a snowshoe/camping trip between Christmas and New Years. The cabin we're renting is about eight miles in, and there will probably be more snow than there was this weekend. There should be between 5 and 6 hours of daylight by then, so eight miles should be doable! We'll spend a few days around the cabin looking for bunnies and such, then hike back out. Very excited!

Devil's Creek

2010-10-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

We took a last opportunity to get out before the snow hit and hiked Devil's Creek trail. About seven miles in we reached our campsite. The mountains above it were filled with sheep. Unfortunately, it was a month after the season closed! I did get several grouse, though.

After setting up camp, we dropped packs and hiked another three miles before turning around and heading back to camp. We nearly had a critical dinner failure when the stove went out and the Husband couldn't get it to light again. This was, of course, solved after he read the directions.

There wasn't any snow yet but it was still quite cold. The ground was mostly frozen. I was comfortable enough after putting on two of everything - including hats and scarves! I need a new sleeping bag!

Fabulous Fall

2010-10-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

This fall, we had the amazing chance to spend a week in the back country with two of our friends. The Husband had a caribou tag for the Kenai Mountains, so we loaded up our packs and headed out into the middle of nowhere. The thing about nowhere? It's beautiful.

We spent several days camped near this beaver lake. During the day we hiked the mountains around. During the evening we watched the beavers work and play. And during the night... words cannot encompass the beauty of the stars overhead when you are eighty miles from the nearest gas station and fifteen miles from the nearest road. I only had a little point and shoot though, so no star pictures.

The crowberries were fat and tasty. We'd scoop up handfuls as we walked. Meant to bring back a few gallons, but we got distracted.

View from the top of the mountain. We climbed it twice in a day, because as soon as we hit the valley floor, we looked up and saw the 'bou! Once we got to the top though, they were gone.

While we didn't get a 'bou, we did get a bunch of ptarmigan, enough to mostly get rid of the nasty dried meat in our dinners. This was my bird, cooked in the Bakepacker with a bit of bisquick and herbs for breading. Delicious!

I'm back!

2010-10-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I do apologize for the hiatus! We have been so incredibly busy here, but now I have a break and would rather update here than clean the house! So, here are some pictures from the end of summer. The above is from our trip to Denali. We saw all of the Big Five, which was exciting. We also got very up close and personal with a sow and two cubs. I chose the most adorable to post here!

This picture, also taken in Denali, earned me an honorable mention at the State Fair!

The Airshow was back in Anchorage. I'm not a big Airshow fan, but we went and I got some nice pictures. Also, a delicious chimichanga from a cart.

To finish off the summer, I had some close encounters of the ungulate kind when I went to check on the berries in the back yard. With all the leaves up, I ended up accidentally getting in-between mama and baby... fortunately, we all survived!

A whale of a time...

2010-07-20T00:11:00.000-07:00

Another week, another weekend in Seward! I really do love that place...

Anyway, this weekend we were down to do a sight-seeing charter with the in-laws. This is particularly neat because it's the first time I've been able to get out in the bay with my good camera (good camera does NOT go on fishing trips!). I was very excited, particularly since last weekend we saw humpbacks breaching and even an orca.

The day was rather gray and rainy, which was less than pleasant, but par for the course. Still, it wasn't so bad. We had a table inside, and the outside was covered. We were quickly rewarded, before even getting out of the harbor, by a bald eagle.

A few minutes into the bay we got very close to an otter. Of course, I've got tons of otter pictures, but could always use more! And we did get VERY close. He was adorable, pretty much sleeping as we all stared at him.

As it turned out, the highlight of our trip came early. We were just passing Fox Island when we sighted a pair of humpbacks.

Then the fun began.

We were able to witness some really amazing stuff, things that people who've lived here their whole life have never seen.

And I sure wouldn't have wanted to be on the other end of this!

Later on, I got some of my favorites - puffins! Both horned and crested.

Horned puffins are my favorite, but don't tell the crested puffins. Shh!

Fishin' is the Mission!

2010-07-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the second annual "Fill the Freezer" fishing trip. See, we like to eat fish. We like to catch fish. But we don't like to do much work, so once a year we hire a charter and have them do the hard work.

That, and it's darned hard to catch a halibut without a boat.

Now, I get very, very excited about this trip. So excited that when Saturday rolled around I hopped out of bed and pretty much had the car packed by 10 am. Whereupon the husband felt it necessary to remind me that racing down to Seward Right Now wouldn't make tomorrow morning come any faster. I admitted this was true and waited most patiently.

Once we finally got on the road our trip started out auspiciously. Not two minutes from home a juvie bald eagle swooped down in front of our car and killed a mouse! I tried to get a picture, but he wanted some privacy for his meal. We got into town with no troubles other than the drizzle we hoped would clear up for the next day.

I think I woke up every hour that night to check the clock and see if it was time to get up yet. At 5 am I hopped out of bed and made sure everything was ready. We checked in at 6 am to find that our neighbors were all there for fishing too! Quite a coincidence, but we ended up being on a different boat. Our was also the last boat to leave, but by 7 am we were cruising on out of the harbor, where we were met by a sea lion chowing down on a salmon. Clearly, a good sign!

It took about 2.5 hours to get out to the halibut grounds - I manfully endured the open ocean with the help of some Dramamine (yes, I do get seasick, but not embarrassingly so!). I expected the halibut fishing to be similar to last year - some waiting, only one fish hooked at a time. That was not the case. As soon as a hook hit the bottom, a halibut latched on to it. As a result, everyone on the boat limited out in less than an hour, but they were all smaller 'but and never a good chance for pictures since you were constantly reeling one in!

The Husband's 'but. He got the biggest one of the day from our boat, a whopping 20 lbs. Last year we were reeling in ones twice the size! But dinner-plate 'but is good eating.

My 'but.

After we limited out, we packed up and headed back into the bay about an hour to reach the salmon grounds. The coho (silvers) were running, with the occasional humpy and rare chinook. The salmon are a lot more challenging than the halibut. They'll slip off the hook if you give them an inch. In fact, The Husband got a bite first thing, but it gave him the slip.

After I had reeled in my first one, the cries of "whale" started coming. Off the back of the boat were some humpbacks and boy were they having fun. I actually stopped fishing for a minute or two to watch as they repeatedly fluked and breached, just like you always see on TV. But this was real life! Fishing and whale watching combined!

By the end, I'd gotten 5 cohos (the limit is six). The only fish that got off my hook was a little humpy that I didn't really want anyway. I did have a few bites that I missed the set on - if I hadn't made that mistake, I'd've limited out! Husband came home with two, and also would have limited if he hadn't lost a couple and missed a few sets. We still did good though! Only one other couple did better, both of them limiting out.

Last year when we headed home, our boat broke down. I must be a bad luck charm or something, because as we were getting ready to head home, another boat broke down and our Captain decided to break the rules and tow it in. That cut our speed in third, and it took several hours longer to make it home. But on the way we saw a killer whale! Just a dorsal fin, but still cool.

Due to the delay I didn't get to take care of the fish quite the way I wanted. No time to pull out pinbones or anything, since we were beat. But it was still an amazing, fantastic day and we have plenty of fish for the next year!

"Pixies, mepps and spinning glow
Coho Fly is the way to go.
Fishin' is the mission and I'm on my way
Going to find a big one to make my day!
Sockeye, pink
Coho, king
Dog salmon running mean!"
- Kevin Downie

Kenai Wildlife!

2010-06-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

We started our day by heading down to the Wildlife Conservation Center near Portage. There was this adorable baby musk ox there, and the bears were more active than I'd ever seen!

Nom nom! Tasty bone! Just as soon as I put my camera down, he threw the bone into the air - it was pretty neat!

As soon as we reached Seward, we headed down towards Caine's Head in search of sea otters. We found no less than half a dozen, plus a seal that I didn't get any photos of.

Mommy and baby... even though baby is almost as big as mommy! I really want this same picture, but when baby is just a little fluffball.

Not one, not two, but three otters! They are so cute playing together!

Bye bye!

And here's a juvie bald eagle. He took his dinner out onto the gravel bar so as not to be disturbed... except by that seagull lurking around behind him!

BBA #25 - Pizza Napoletana

2010-06-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

Pardon the smooshed appearance!

This pizza dough was absolutely fantastic! The only trouble I had is that I found it very difficult to shape. It tended to tear, I'm not sure why.

I made two different pizzas. The first looked a lot better, since I used plenty of cornmeal to slide it onto the baking stone - unfortunately, I used so much cornmeal that I sent black smoke billowing throughout the house. Between that and how good it tasted, I didn't get any photos of the first pizza. This second one I tried to avoid the whole burning-thing, and used too little cornmeal instead, resulting in this smooshy look. I must practice!

BBA #24 - Pannetone

2010-06-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

Here's my first complete failure. After two attempts, I still couldn't get the seed culture going, so this bread will officially wait until I get to the sourdough section. Then I shall reattack!

Gardening

2010-06-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

I have about a dozen posts I need to make, including several more BBA posts, but I have absolutely no motivation.

In the meantime, enjoy some pretty flowers from my garden. These are my favorites, my bleeding heart and my forget-me-nots.

Earrings

2010-05-31T22:22:00.000-07:00

I've got a post about Colorado coming soon, but in the meantime, here is a bit of a follow-up to my last post. These are earrings I just made tonight, using porcupine quills and seed beads. I've got a plan in mind using nice ivory and jade beads, but I wanted to do some practice!

I did learn a few lessons from working with the quills. First, always throw away clipped barbs before doing anything else - otherwise you'll lose them and spend a good amount of time on the floor looking for them before your cat eats them. Also, while you can thread the quills straight onto the wire, it is easier to run a needle through first, then the wire. You break fewer quills that way!

Alpine Creek Lodge

2010-05-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend was our third anniversary. We spent it at Alpine Creek Lodge, off the Denali Highway. Thursday, we hopped in the car right after work and started driving. We made it to Cantwell around 11pm and crashed for the night in a little motel. Then it was up bright and early for the remaining three hour drive.

Alpine Creek Lodge is about 70 miles from Nowhere, with Nowhere being Cantwell, AK on one end (population 222) and Paxson, AK (population 43). It is on the Denali Highway, which would not merit the name in any other state, being a 130 mile dirt road with about five little hotel/B&B's spread out along it. We wanted to get away from it all!

The road is teeming with wildlife - this beaver was one of the first things we saw, along with moose, caribou, and porcupines. There are bear out there, but we didn't see any. The caribou was a bit concerned by us, but not overly so.

We had the fortunate timing to be driving by just as the F22s from Elmendorf were flying an exercise right over our heads. We watched for 10 minutes or so as they circled and dropped flares and such. Pretty awesome!

We got to the lodge at 11am, got situated, packed some lunch, shouldered our packs, and headed off. We hiked about 7-8 miles down an ATV path that terminated in this gorgeous lake where we got to watch caribou grazing, terns and ducks and swans flying about, and beaver building. Absolutely fantastic!

On the walk back, we found a fresh grizzly track that hadn't been there before. I measured it with my hand - 6 inches across! Since we were ostensibly bear hunting, we took a look around, but didn't see anything and it was getting late, so we headed back to the lodge. A 14 mile or so day, done in 7 hours with full packs - we were done in! But Jennifer, the owner, had dinner ready for us and we spent the evening recovering.

This is the view from the lodge. Isn't it amazing? The lodge is quite rustic, as you can see from the first picture. It's not 100% finished yet - the bottom floor is all done, as is half of the second floor. Inside, it's decked out with rooms on both sides, plus a large common area in the middle, for eating, sitting about, watching TV, and playing games. Wi-fi is also available, and there are two full bathrooms.

We didn't stay in one of those rooms, though. We had the Trapper's Cabin, which is the little cabin in front of the lodge. For an extra few bucks a night, we got a sitting room with a wood stove, a bedroom, and a kitchen. It's not entirely functional yet - no water, limited electricity, but the privacy and space were great to have. Very cozy, with a fire going!

The next day we used the information we'd collected already and set up on a ledge overlooking a creek, a likely spot for bear as we'd seen some sign. It was about an hour in, 2-3 miles or so. We arranged it so that one of us would be watching from our "blind" while the other got to wander about some. The Husband went back to where we'd seen the fresh print the previous day and scouted around a bit. He started tracking an even larger bear - 7-8 inches across on the print - until he found cub tracks alongside and backed off quickly. I mostly wandered about in the tundra, looking for sheds - but I did go into the spruce forest long enough to find a porcupine which turned out to be my first kill. We'll be having porky stew next week!

Apart from another porcupine The Husband bagged, we didn't come back with anything else. Never saw a bear, but it was great to be surrounded by such beauty and silence the whole weekend. If anything, the drive back was even more gorgeous than the drive out!

On our way out, we found this beaver on the side of the road miles away from any pond. He was quite distraught, hissing at us when we stopped, and trying to dive into the dirt when we drove past. I felt bad for him.

Scouting out a little dirt road that led into the next valley (we'd heard there were bunnies out there), we found a moose on the edge of a lake. I watched him for a while, and sure enough he obliged us by swimming across.

This caribou was quite curious about us on the drive back home. He was very energetic, too!

Altogether, an amazing weekend. I highly recommend stopping by Alpine Creek Lodge if you're in the area, even just for coffee and tea and a chat. Everyone is amazingly nice, and the surroundings can't be beaten!

Just watch out for that grizzly with cubs!

Wildlife Photos

2010-05-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the absence! Things have been absolutely nuts around here, what with the end of the school year and the start of a hugely busy summer. We leave Thursday for a bear hunt/anniversary retreat up the Denali Highway!

But before I go, I thought I'd leave you a few shots from the last two weeks. Mostly at Potter's Marsh, though the last one is Eklutna Lake. I'm very excited because all of my favorite birds are back!

First, the Sandhill Cranes. They tend to prefer the mudflats over by the rifle range (stupid birds), but we caught this flock winging overhead at the marsh! Great to see.

Green Teal. Love'm! How can you not, with such gorgeous colors? There were dozens flocking around the marsh.

Pintail. Not a favorite of mine, but I do like this shot, with the reflection in the water.

Arctic Tern! I love love love these birds! They are so much fun to watch, as they dip and dive through the air, and way cooler than stupid seagulls.

More teal, flocking in for a landing.

Not a bird, but this muskrat is a bit of a rarer sight at the marsh. We actually saw two this day!

Birders, help! I'm having trouble identifying this pair! They're diving birds, and from a distance I first thought loon, but the head shape is wrong... What do you think?

BBA #23 - Pane Sicliano

2010-05-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

The 23rd bread in the BBA challenge and I still have a while to go! This bread was a lesson in reading comprehension for me. I'm going to blame it on The Husband finally being home and messing with my schedule. I had several reading comprehension issues, but the bread survived it!

The first reading comprehension came Saturday as I mixed up the pate fermente. As I was mixing, I read the formula again only to find that this is a three day bread, not a two day bread. Ooops. Fortunately, I only work afternoons on Monday and the bread could be baked before going into work. I'm not sure what I did to the pate fermente, but it came out a lot wetter than usual!

Onto day two. I took the pate out to lose its chill. It's supposed to sit out for an hour - well, we went to run some errands, and The Husband multiplied "some" into "many," and it was over two hours before I got back to the bread, which had a distinctly yeasty smell. In a hurry, I mis en placed everything, looked over the formula again.... Ooops. Seminola flour? How did I miss that?! I had no seminola flour. So I dug through my cupboards and ended up using oat flour instead. I proceeded to knead the dough. It rose quite swiftly and was ready for shaping.

The shaping part was totally fun. This qualifies as one of my favorite shapes, along with the epi and fougasse. Simply put, the dough was formed into baguettes, then spiraled in from each end simultaneously to create the traditional "S" shape - though my boss asked if it was supposed to be a treble clef, which gives me an idea to try next time I am experimenting!

This morning, I set up the oven for hearth baking, explained to The Husband about the steam pans, and popped the bread in. Halfway through I rotated the pan 180 degrees as always. Five minutes away from my timer going off, I said to myself "Self, when doing hearth baking, don't you usually reduce the heat after the first minute or two?" "Why yes, self, usually I do. I wonder why this formula didn't? Let's see." After rereading the formula: "Oh. It did say to. Ooops." And I swooped to pull out the bread.

Despite all that this poor bread suffered, it actually came out quite tasty, something both The Husband and the coworkers agree upon! I shall have to try it again when I actually have seminola flour, though!

Alaska Awesomeness

2010-05-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

So there we were, driving down Northern Lights in the middle of town, when I glance out at the sky. "Oh," I said to The Husband, "There's an eagle."

"No," he corrected, "there are TWO eagles."

Still driving (yeah, I know), I craned my head to catch sight of two eagles... locked together in the sky.

I pulled over as fast as I could and grabbed for the camera, but by the time I was able to get a shot, they had separated and were just spiraling around high up.

Isn't Alaska awesome?

BBA #22 - Pain de Campagne

2010-04-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well, here's a bread that I'm not going to be making again. The taste was just boring. Meh! It was a pretty standard recipe, using pate fermente. The only change was 1/3 cup of "different" flour. I went with wheat, though you also could have used rye or something more exotic.

Despite the taste being boring, it was a lot of fun to get to mess around with different shaping techniques. I made three different shapes today. The epi is still my favorite, but I think the fougasse has potential as well!

Tundra Swans

2010-04-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

I took a trip down to Potter's Marsh today. The eagles weren't out, but the two swans we'd seen last weekend had multiplied into a dozen and I got some great shots as they flocked overhead.

Pretty neat, huh? They stayed together for a while, then broke into a bunch of smaller "V's" and circled overhead a bit.

Alaska has two kinds of swans, Trumpeter and Tundra. These here are Tundra. They're difficult to tell apart, since the largest difference between the two is size. However, Tundra swans frequently - but not always (see, hard to tell apart!) - have a yellow spot in between their eyes and their bill. And as you can see in this shot, the yellow spot is quite visible. Tundra swans they are!

Moosetastic!

2010-04-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

As we drove home on my mom's last night in Alaska, we were overwhelmed with a plethora of moose. Four moose, yes, four! were haunting the road to my house. One young bull and three cows, including this incredibly interesting one. She's got a tag in the right ear and a radio collar. Beyond that, her coloration is interesting as well. It's hard to see in this shot, but she's got a white ruff of fur on the top of her neck, and there's scarring on both sides. Imagine the stories she could tell!

Alaska Adventures

2010-04-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

My mom came up to visit this weekend, to see me play in the ASO concert. She doesn't leave until early Wednesday, so we spent a lot of time outside seeing the sights. Today we were at ERNC again. I love the way the mountains reflect in the water.

This female Hairy Woodpecker was hanging out right in front of us on the trail. There were actually a few. I was surprised at how big these birds are!

About halfway along the Loop, we found this moose in the woods. She just stared at us and did not move at all, not even when we started walking again. Weird.

This swan is actually one of the Potter's Marsh swans we saw yesterday, but there's one at ERNC, too!

Later in the day we drove down the Seward Highway to sheep mountain. There were two yearling Dall Sheep, one napping and this one that was hopping around a bit.

Eagle River Nature Center

2010-04-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

On a trip to the ERNC, I found yet another of my mated pair of eagles. The first caught my eye as he was winging away. As I pulled over to debate following him, I found his mate sitting just above my head!

The moment I got out of the car, I found this Downy Woodpecker just in front of me. I started to track him as he flittered from tree to tree, but a magpie distracted me.

See how green his tail is shining in this light? I've never seen it look like that. Usually it gets a blueish cast!

The chickadees and common redpolls were all over the bird feeders. I loved this shot!

Moosen

2010-04-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

The moose have been at this poor tree almost constantly over the past week, stripping the bark in an effort to hold out until green things start growing again. There were actually three here, but I couldn't get all three in the same shot. If my moose-judging is up to par, we've got a female on the left, a male on the right, and the third is a yearling bull, complete with baby antler-nubs. Maybe our local female, last year's calf and... maybe the previous years? Or perhaps I'm stretching things a bit.

BBA #21 - Pain a l'ancienne

2010-04-05T19:12:00.001-07:00

I am in love. Add this one to my favorites list from this challenge! The best part? This bread is easy to make!

On the first day, the ingredients are combined. This is not an enriched dough - all there is is flour, salt, yeast, and ice-cold water. These are stirred for several minutes (not kneaded) and then refrigerated overnight.

The next day, the dough must warm for a bit to finish rising. Once it has doubled, though, you simply flour it and turn it out gently, patting it into a rough rectangle. The rectangle is carefully sliced into six, and the baguettes are baked three at a time on the bread stone.

Even best, this is a forgiving bread. I smooshed and stretched and dropped baguettes all over the place, but it didn't matter! This bread is intended to look rustic.

Inside, the crumb has wonderful holes, but the best part is the cool, creamy texture of it. I've never tasted anything like that before, much less anything that came out of my oven!

This is a hit!

BBA #20 - Multi-grain Bread Extraordinare

2010-04-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend's bread was this multi-grain bread. This bread incorporated a soaker, which is a technique we've been using from the get-go in this challenge. We were given much more leeway in what grains to use in the soaker, though. I ended up going with a mix of polenta and quinoa.

I've not done much work with grains before, and it was a bit of an effort to get everything incorporated into the dough (the rice was particularly irritating). My hands and arms were definitely sore by the time I gave up on kneading and called it a day.

The bread rose nicely and baked to a nice golden-brown. I didn't get to eat much of it, since I took it all into work, but I did use it for my tuna salad. Quite tasty, and perhaps a little better for me than regular bread. I'm still not a huge fan of sandwich loaves though. Perhaps next time I'll use the dough to make rolls.

Potter's Marsh Eagles

2010-04-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

I went to visit my favorite eagles, only to find out that - gasp! - their nest hadn't survived the winter! Fortunately, they are most industrious birds and have already constructed a new monster of a nest a short distance away from where the old one was. See how hard this one is working, carrying sticks back to make the nest even better! Unfortunately, the new nest is positioned so that it will very, very difficult to see once the leaves come in. I guess it's a good thing I saw the eaglet last summer, because I don't think that will be possible now.

Break-up

2010-04-03T00:12:00.000-07:00

You can always tell it's Break-up because the moose come back. This makes six that I have seen this week!

Eagles

2010-04-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to get the tires switched on my car. I hoped to avoid the mad rush of the weekend before the deadline, but even so I figured it would be several hours. The lady at Car Care agreed with me, so I picked up some subway and walked on back home... only to be called to come pick up my car within 15 minutes of getting home. Turns out there were some cancellations and three mechanics teamed up on my poor little civic.

It wasn't all a waste, though! Thanks to my walk I got to see "our" eagles - the mated pair whose nest is less than a mile from my home. They're fairly elusive as eagles go, largely because their nest is much more hidden in the summer, particularly compared to the Potter's Marsh eagles. I think I'm going to try to find a good spot from which to nest-watch this summer. The nest is about a 1/4 mile off the road, right on Ship Creek. Maybe if I go along the opposite bank I can find a good angle.

Of course, I didn't have my good camera, but the little pocket one did a decent job since they were so close!

Only in Alaska...

2010-03-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

Today, I had a revelation. I realized it would be easier to motivate myself to continue longer runs if I took a different route - one that didn't have me passing by my house every 1/2 mile, tempted to just call it quits. My change was successful; I ran for 35 minutes today without stopping! I figured I'd better cool down after that, and so walked the 1/2 mile loop my house is on. Or tried to. My cool-down was interrupted by this gal. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor (and eager to get my camera), I ran the rest of the way home, then immediately drove back with my camera.

Only in Alaska...

Equinox

2010-03-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Equinox, everyone! The sun is back, days are longer than nights, and my sleep schedule has successfully been disrupted by daylight savings time. I have begun my goal, which is a photo merge of both Solstices and both Equinoxes, with this sunset merge of the spring Equinox. As you can see, the sun is setting behind Mt. Spurr. Just to give you an example of the dramatic changes at this latitude, the mountain towards the left of Spurr is Mt. Redoubt (recently erupted!). The sun several weeks after the winter Solstice sets several degrees south of Redoubt, near to Iliamna which is hidden by the clouds in this shot. At the far right is Mt. Foraker, neighbor to Denali which is just hidden behind the trees.

BBA #19 - Marbled Rye Bread

2010-03-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

Wow! This bread is a winner! I was a little nervous after reading some other people's blogs on this bread, but mine came out fantastic! The dough was very supple and enjoyable to work with and the bread was quick - only five or so hours from mixing to pulling the bread out of the oven.

This rye bread tastes fantastic. It's not dry at all, and the hint of molasses is just the right touch to complement the rye flavor.

The coolest part of this bread is how awesome it looks with the marbling and swirling. This is accomplished by making two separate doughs. To my surprise, there was only one difference between the two, and that was a coloring additive to the dark dough. Caramel coloring was recommended, but since I didn't have any available I used an alternative - two tablespoons of cocoa powder dissolved in two tablespoons of water. Not as dark as I'd imagine it would be with the caramel coloring, but not bad at all.I used two different shaping methods and two different baking methods for these loaves, as you can see from the pictures. I'd intended to use a loaf pan going in, but the formula mentioned that free-form baking was preferred. My free-form loaf got pretty fat in the middle, but still quite nice.

The best part was marbling. For my free-form loaf, I went with the actual marbling technique, which consists of chopping the doughs into small pieces, mixing them together, and smushing them up into one big lump of dough. You can see the marbling results at the top of this post.

The second method I used was the swirl method. For this one, the light and dark doughs are divided in half (after being split in half for the two loaves, of course). Each piece is then rolled into an oblong. These are layered together, then rolled up lengthwise. The picture is a little blurry, but shows the swirl quite nicely.

A breath of tropical air...

2010-03-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Spring Break in Guam! Unfortunately, my favorite pictures are still in Guam with The Husband, so you'll have to wait on the gorgeous palm trees and beautiful fish, since I wasn't willing to risk my camera falling into the ocean. I did take it with us in-land though, and found some lovely flowers. Lovely and huge! I love the color on this one.

BBA #18 - Light Wheat Bread

2010-02-23T18:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice, simple loaf of bread. No pre-ferments, nothing fancy. I doubled this recipe to make two loaves, since I had need of one to give away.

I was surprised at some of the add-ins for this bread. I guess I didn't expect it to be enriched. The honey makes sense, but the really weird one was powdered milk. Go figure. But it tastes good, so I guess it works!

This bread was very relaxing to knead. It was quite smooth - no dealing with sticky-ickyness. Since I'd doubled the recipe, there was a LOT of it, though! Look at that monster!Here are my lovely loaves, cresting the pan just before baking.Nothing better than a slice of warm wheat bread with honey butter!

BBA #17 - Lavash Crackers

2010-02-23T18:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a BBA first for me... I liked this recipe so much that I went off and made a whole 'nother batch the very next day! But I'm jumping the gun a bit here.

This formula is very simple. Essentially, it's a pita dough. Flour, honey, oil, yeast, etc. In fact, you can make pitas with this, and I did use half of the dough for that.

After mixing, kneading, and one rise, this dough is rolled out into a paper thin rectangle. And I do mean paper. It's shocking how big such a tiny ball of dough can get! When you're first mixing the flours and other ingredients together, it's definitely the smallest amount of dough we've worked with thus far.

Anyway, the resulting rectangle is carefully transferred onto a pan (not as hard as you would think) and sprinkled with spices. I used a base of maple pepper and cayenne, with some poppy seeds, sesame seeds and sea salt for contrast. The crackers are then baked at a low temperature for 20 minutes or so. Once they cool, they are nice and crackly. You can shatter them after baking or slice them pre-bake into the shapes you want!

I don't really like crackers. But I could eat these all day! They're great with some port salut spread on top, but even better just plain.

BBA #16 - Kaiser Rolls

2010-02-23T17:50:00.000-08:00

Yet another dough with preferment. The preferment really is a great idea though, so little work for so much more flavor.

Honestly, this dough was nothing special, so this post will be brief. The best part was shaping it. Traditional kaiser shaping involves complex folding and layering. Modern kaiser shaping involves buying a tool specifically for that purpose. Fortunately, BBA gives us a middle of the road opportunity, which does not require extreme amounts of work or any amount of money, yet still looks pretty darned good.

To shape these rolls, each section of dough was rolled out into a rope. The rope was then knotted, and the free ends tucked around again. I was dubious at first, but they look fantastic!

As far as taste goes, these are alright. Challah rolls are still my favorite for sandwiches, though.

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

BBA #15 - Italian Bread

2010-02-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a few weeks, thanks to the annual Anchorage Folk Festival (which is tons of fun, by the way!), but I am back with BBA! The fifteenth bread is Italian bread. This bread is very similar to the previous French bread, but the dough is enhanced with a bit of sugar, a bit of olive oil, and a bit of malt powder.

I started with a biga, which is a preferment very similar to last time's pate fermente. Refrigerated overnight and everything. My biga came out of the fridge with several large bubbles - I don't know if that was supposed to happen!

After letting the biga warm for an hour or so, I chopped it into bits and mixed it with the rest of the ingredients.
I found this dough to be fairly stiff. After 16 minutes and no windowpane test, I gave up and set it to rise. It doubled very quickly, so I split it in half and shaped each half into a batard and left it to proof again on my nifty bread thingy while I got the oven ready. Once the bread was ready, I slashed it - fairly awkwardly, I might add; I need to work on that - and popped it in the oven.

The bread browned nicely and is quite soft. The holes in the crumb are tiny, at least on the loaf I sliced open. I have higher hopes for the other loaf - it looks puffier!

Winter Moon

2010-01-24T21:45:00.000-08:00

I love taking pictures of the moon. Eventually, I plan on getting shots during all of its phases. Here, the moon is waxing almost halfway full. I love the way it looks in the blue sky with the frosted branches.

BBA #14 - French Bread

2010-01-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

So, I had tons of "prep" pictures for this bread. Until I realized that I didn't have a memory card in my camera. Ooops!

Anyway, I was pretty nervous going into this bread. I was concerned about getting the crispy crust, the moist crumb - in short, getting artisian bread out of my little home-oven. But that's what this challenge is all about, right?

This dough starts with a pre-ferment. I used the pate fermentee, so Friday I mixed up a basic dough - flour, salt, yeast and water. After a rise, I popped it into the refrigerator. After that, you can use it anytime in the next three days. I waited two.

First, you let the pate fermentee warm up a bit. Then it needs to be cut into small pieces so that it can be incorporated into the final dough more easily. To the pate fermentee, I added more flour, salt, water and yeast, mixing it into a ball. Mine was fairly dry so I had to add more water. Then it was time to knead. And knead. And knead. After 20 minutes, my dough was smooth, tacky but not sticky, but still nowhere near passing the windowpane test. Eventually, I gave up and set it to rise.

The dough doubled in an hour. Following instructions, I gently degassed it and let it double again, about another hour. The dough is then cut in three, careful to degass as little as possible, and shaped into batards, which are sort of rough torpedo shapes. Then I let them rest for a few minutes before shaping them into baguettes - long and skinny. I let them proof for another hour in their little couches before popping them onto the very hot cookie sheet that I use since I am still lacking a stone.They came out beautiful, with a lovely crunchy crust. The color could be better, I suppose, but since it's the best I've ever gotten, I'm not complaining!

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

BBA #13 - Focaccia

2010-01-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

I have to say, I wasn't sure it would be possible to love a bread more than I loved the challah. But, ladies and gentlemen, focaccia has done it! This bread was beyond amazing and was a huge hit at work as well.

Now, this is definitely an enriched bread, but it's the kind I like. We're not talking sugars and eggs, we're talking olive oil and herbs. Specifically, herbed olive oil - which is easily made by warming up some oil with your choice of herbs. I used mostly Italian herbs, plus cayenne.

Meanwhile, you get to mix up the dough. This is a very wet dough, no kneading required. Just stirring. The dough is turned onto a floured board and gently folded in thirds much like the ciabatta.

After the folding process, some oil is spread on a pan. The dough is placed atop, and topped with some of that lovely herbed oil. Then comes the fun part. Using your finger tips, you poke the dough gently to spread it out over the pan.

Look at those bubbles!

Now comes the hard part - overnight refrigeration. Heartbreaking, I know, but worth it for the flavor.

The next day, more oil is applied, more finger poking commences and then comes the moment when you bake it. You can add toppings and everything!

Now, I have to say - if you are going to eat this straight out of the oven, no toppings are needed. The next day or so, they're okay. And since this makes so very much focaccia, I topped half of mine and left the other half plain. Delicioso!

Next time I make this, I think I will either omit or cut down on the oil beneath the bread, as I find I like a crispier crust. But overall? Not much else to change - this is a winner!

BBA #12 - English Muffins

2010-01-10T19:21:00.000-08:00

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

I was really excited going into this - even though I rarely buy English muffins these days, I have many fond memories of them from my childhood. I meant to make these before The Husband left again, but slacked off. Oh well.

The dough was pretty fun to work with, nice and smooth. I did not, however, keep my dough wet enough. More on that later.

After rising, the dough is divided into 6 sections and each is shaped into a small boule. They rise again!

Most of the cooking of this bread is done in a skillet instead of the oven, though they do get finished in the oven. It's neat to be able to watch them cook!
This is where I realized that my dough wasn't wet enough. As you can see above, the muffins didn't spread out at all in the pan, and stayed quite round and thick. Still, they did brown nicely.I also did not get the much coveted "nooks and crannies" in my muffins, but they still tasted good! I don't know that I will be making them again, not until I figure out how to fix some of the troubles I had!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T19:28:00.000-08:00

Mt. Spurr overlooks Anchorage and Elmendorf AFB.

And guess who got Photoshop for Christmas? Thanks, Mom!

BBA #11 - Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread

2009-12-30T15:58:00.000-08:00

The observant among you will notice that, while my bread has a lot of cranberries, the walnuts are decidedly lacking. That's because I didn't use them. Sorry, walnut fans!

Anyway, I think this is the last "sweet" bread for a while. Huzzah! Quite frankly, I just can't eat sweet breads like I do basic breads. I think it's because they don't go so well with cheese, and cheese is the best.

This bread was very "meh" for me. There was nothing new in the preparation - we've mixed in berries before in the cinnamon raisin bread. The braiding was just like the challah. Oh! The recipe called for something like a tablespoon and a half of lemon or orange extract. I used orange and it's a bit overpowering. Definitely cutting it down if I make this bread again.

I moved the oven rack higher, to avoid the toasty bottom that my challah got. It was a good thing I did, this bread cooked quickly for me, too!

Anyway, the bread is tasty enough, especially with a dollop of apple butter.

Anchorage at Night

2009-12-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

Anchorage just after sunset, seen from Earthquake park. The lights are just turning on and the moon is almost full.

BBA #10 - Cornbread

2009-12-24T15:40:00.000-08:00

The BBA is, with one exception, a book of yeast breads. This cornbread is the exception. It's a quick bread, using baking powder and baking soda as leaveners. Looking at the recipe, I wasn't sure what to think. First, it only uses 1 cup of cornmeal. Second, it uses whole corn kernels, which I am not generally a fan of. And third, there's bacon. Now, I like bacon, but it just seems weird to me!

As a quick bread, this bread was simple, easy, and fast to make. It did require an overnight soaker of buttermilk and cornmeal, but apart from that it was very much a "mix it, toss it in the pan, and bake" recipe. I ended up soaking my cornmeal for an extended length of time, due to some time confusion on when I'd actually make the bread. It worked alright, though!

This bread is very sweet. Surprisingly, I really didn't mind the corn kernels as much as I do in other recipes. The bacon, however, didn't add anything at all to the bread. If I make it again, I will probably skip the bacon.

While this isn't a bread that I would just eat alone, it is a very good companion bread for a meal - particularly some chili! The sweetness combines perfectly with the spice in the chili, creating the perfect mouthful!

BBA #9 - Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

2009-12-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

I started this bread right after getting home from work. I chose not to include the walnuts, since I have an aversion for nuts in my breads. I also forgot to buy raisins, so I substituted cranberries. Taking Stacey's advice I soaked them first. Working them into the dough was a bit of a challenge - cranberries everywhere! Still, I eventually managed to beat the dough into submission and set it in an oiled bowl to rise.

About an hour into the recommended two hour rise, the Husband came home. Cooking dinner has not been my strong suit lately, so he suggested going out to eat. I eyed my dough, shrugged, and said "Sure!" It had already risen some, so I quickly divided it, shaped it, and popped it into loaf pans. I was pretty cautious when adding cinnamon sugar to make a swirl - too cautious as it turns out. You can barely tell it's there!

Anyway, we went out to dinner, which ended up taking somewhat longer than the loaves should have been rising. I ran back into the house, full of concern, to find the loaves nowhere near cresting the pan. I gave them another 30, then popped them into the oven to see what might be seen.

They ended up baking fine, although one in particular had definite rising issues still. Despite that issue, the bread came out pretty tasty. I gave the Husband a bit soon after they'd cooled and he made a bit of a face, but then I took a loaf to a party last night and he fell in love with it. Men are so weird sometimes!

Anyhow, not bad but not a favorite of mine. Onwards!

Palin-tastic.

2009-12-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

I was out early this morning for a gig. By the time I got home, I was starving and the Husband was both starving and hungover. We decided that a frozen pizza was in order and headed to the commissary... only to find the parking lot stuffed full and a line ringing both the inside and the outside for the Sarah Palin book signing we'd completely forgotten about.

It took a while, but we did get our pizza.

Alyeska

2009-12-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

So, I hadn't realized just how difficult it is to take pictures this time of year. Even on my half days, when I go into work the sun isn't even over the mountains. And again, even on the days I'm done relatively early, all I'm seeing is the last gleams of sunset as I drive home. Today was one of those days I really wished I had my camera with me, as the rising sun on a clear day turned Denali pink-and-blue, but I really have too much stuff to haul back and forth to work as it is. So instead, I shall share with you a shot from this weekend. I apologize for the quality - I was a horrible person this weekend. I didn't have my nice camera on top of the mountain, only my lame hand-held one. And for the next shots, I realized I didn't bring my zoom lens with me either!

Above, skiiers on Alyeska overlook Girdwood and the Turnagain Arm.

Below, as we drove home, we found some Dall Sheep (or sheps, as my brother likes to call them).

Do you see the sheep?

Okay, how about now?I'm really kicking myself for not bringing the zoom lens - these guys were as close as I can count on them getting!

BBA #8 - Cinnamon Rolls

2009-12-01T20:36:00.000-08:00

This week the Husband has an exercise to deal with - basically, lots of time at work. So he requested some goodies to bring in for the guys. As cinnamon rolls were next on my list and I didn't much want to have them around my house, this seemed perfect! Of course, less than perfect was trying to cram a whole bread into the 4-5 hours in between the end of work and bed-time. But it all worked out in the end!

The dough-mixing went very smoothly. I was able to use my hand-mixer to cream the butter and sugars together. The actual kneading went super fast - to my surprise, instead of the 12-15 minutes the book suggested, the dough was passing the windowpane test before 10 minutes were up. I set it to rise then, which was silly move #1. The dough, despite passing the test, was still quite chilly. I'm blaming that on the fact that it didn't rise much. However, being on a tight schedule, I went ahead anyway.

The dough was very easy to roll out, but I do recommend flouring the counter first. It did stick a little. I did have trouble rolling the dough. It kept wanting to fold instead of roll! But eventually I ended up with a log (though the middle was much fatter than the end!). Slice, slice, slice, and there was a tray of cinnamon buns ready to rise.

Eventually.

Sometime.

I think...

Well, eventually I gave up and popped them in the oven. Didn't seem to harm them at all, they still came out tasty and fluffy!
The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread

Next time, I think I'll try making the sticky bun version, largely so that I can make my own grilled stickies in true Penn State fashion! Maybe even for Christmas day, if I'm really ambitious.

One thing I wasn't a big fan of - the fondant topping recipe the book provided. It was far too sweet for my tastes!

In other news, I'm right on track to reach the cranberry celebration bread for Christmas. But before then, cinnamon walnut bread and corn bread!

"I'll have a crown and coke!"

2009-11-28T17:01:00.000-08:00

A true part of our semi-alcoholic family, Nittany waits patiently for the "bartender" to stop taking pictures and get him his drink, already!

Winter Wonderland

2009-11-23T21:28:00.001-08:00

Sunday, we went out hiking at Peter's Creek. The snow isn't too deep, so we figured it was a great time to go. All in all, it was a fairly quiet day. I love the way the trees look against the snow on the mountainside.

As we were heading back, we came across a flock of chickadees.

Most of the streams were frozen over, but this little trickle broke through.

Shake that thing!

BBA #7 - Ciabatta

2009-11-20T17:45:00.000-08:00

I love ciabatta. Love, love, love, love, love.

That said, this bread was a bit intimidating from the get-go. Wet dough, me mixing only by hand... and I've read the accounts of those BBAers who have gone before me. Bubbles? Said most of them. What bubbles?

Actually, it was probably a good thing that I'd read the other blogs, so that I wasn't super depressed with my own mini-bubbles. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I started last night with a poolish, which I had used previously for BBA #2. Unfortunately, I'd been making bread earlier that day as well so all of my bowls were dirty. I loaded up the dishwasher, scavenged a bowl out of the camping supplies, and got my poolish bubbling happily before popping it into its chilly refrigerated home. Fast-forward to this morning.

I wandered into the kitchen, put on my apron, got out my flour and other ingredients, opened the dishwasher to take out some freshly washed bowls...

Oh. Apparently I forgot the all-important step of actually turning on the dishwasher last night.

Ooops.

So there I was, scrubbing dried bread-dough-bits out of a bowl. Not the way I wanted to start my day!

After that little mishap though, things proceeded smoothly. The recipe given called for 6 tablespoons of water, plus whatever was needed to make the dough the right consistancy. The option was also given to replace the water with olive oil. I definitely needed a lot more liquid than the 6 tablespoons of water, so as I added more I alternated between water and oil. I'm really not sure how much I ended up adding!

Then it was time to stir.

And stir.

And stir some more.

My arm felt like it was about to fall off, but all the ingredients were incorporated! Hurray! I was afraid of stirring too little, as not kneading long enough is one of my weaknessess, but in retrospect I think I went a little long this time.

Ciabatta is a very delicate dough and must be handled gently. Shaping is accomplished with careful folding - under no circumstances do you want to degass this dough! So I was most cautious as I folded, rested, and folded it again. I thought it looked a little funny, but after it rose for a while it looked more like what I expected.

While it was rising, I was improvising. Because the dough is so soft, the final rise after shaping calls for using a couche. A couche is basically a little nest for the dough so that it will keep its shape as it rises. I do not have a couche, so I floured a dishtowel and balled up some other towels to make the sides of my "nests" a little stiffer. It seemed to work well!

The baking went quickly - two minutes occupied with the steaming process, then another 20 or so (with a turn of the tray in the middle, of course). And boy did my house smell good! I waited the bare minimum before cutting into my bread, eager to see if it looked as good on the inside as it did on the outside.Well, the holes weren't anywhere near as big as in the picture, but they are there, little tiny ones in the middle-top! And really, it tastes so good no one will notice if you don't tell them!

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

Nittany Bakes!

2009-11-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, the apron is not Nittany sized!

BBA #6 - Challah

2009-11-14T19:20:00.000-08:00

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

I have to say, I am getting very tired of all these enriched breads. I went into the challah episode just hoping to get through it so that I could move on to some ciabatta. However, this bread has proved to be very intriguing - particularly the braiding of the bread.

All together, this was a very fast bread - less than six hours from start to finish. It's fairly basic, apart from the addition of the eggs: mix, knead, rise, degass, rise, shape, rise, bake!
At first the dough was a little sticky and it never quite got the silky texture I was looking for, but it was pretty quick to pass the windowpane test, so I commenced the rising process. After the second rise, the dough had become quite silky and was really fun to work with during the shaping process.

After some debate, I decided to make one smaller loaf, then use the other half to make rolls. I wasn't entirely sure how big the rolls ought to be, so I just divided that half of the dough into six. Then it was time to braid.
This is where I really fell in love with this bread. It just looked so gorgeous sitting there, and the little roll-knots were so cute! I could scarcely stop taking pictures long enough to pop it in the oven. I'm glad I did though, because this bread browned up beautifully. The rolls came out a bit larger than I had expected, but I think they're the right size. Perfect for sandwiches!One note: this bread cooked a LOT faster than the book indicated. I expected the rolls, being small, to cook quickly, but even so they were a bit scorched on the bottom and I pulled the loaf out just in time!

In which Nittany finishes my soup

2009-11-12T21:12:00.000-08:00

Bookshelves and soup. Some of my favorites! Also, some of Nittany's favorites. At least when there is soup involved, he is less likely to start removing books from the shelf to get my attention!

Snowfall

2009-11-08T21:16:00.000-08:00

The first snowfall of winter 2009. A month and a day later than last year's first snow, but I'll take what I can get! Let's break out the skiis!

BBA #5 - Casiatello

2009-11-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

One summer in college, my family took a vacation to Ireland. We saw a lot of amazing things there, but one of my strongest memories is from the morning we were leaving. We left the hotel quite early, so that we could walk around Dublin one last time before heading for the airport. We passed a bakery that was just opening and stopped for breakfast. I got a sausage roll that was fresh out of the oven and was quite probably the best thing I have ever eaten in my life. I've tried to recreate it, to no avail.

Until I tried the casiatello, that is.

Oh, it's not perfect. Not the same. But it's much closer than anything else, and I think that with some tweaking, I can definitely make this mine.Now, I was a little nervous about this, after the difficulty I had with the brioche. Casiatello is, after all, a brioche variant. But my sponge was bubbling merrily, right on schedule and even a little early. It wasn't quite as awesome as the bagel sponge, but was still pretty cute.
This time when I stirred in the other ingredients, they actually combined the way the brioche should have. I took my time with the butter too, while watching the game (don't even MENTION the results of the game, please), and took breaks for my hands.

Then it was time to stir in the meat and cheese. I had an Alaskan salami (mmm, Rudolph) and mixed the recommended provolone with Irish cheddar and a bit of habenero jack I've been hoarding.

This dough rose well. Not particularly fast, but not slow either. After some juggling to get pans ready in time, I set the loaves to bake. They were still a little small, but oh so tasty!
As I said earlier, I am definitely going to be playing with this recipe in the future, to create something as close as possible to my Dublin sausage roll. I shall keep you posted!

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

BBA #4 - Brioche

2009-11-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

This was... well, a minor failure. Things went wrong at just about every step, but the final product tasted alright. I'm pretty sure it did, anyway, brioche isn't one of my favorites so I'm not exactly sure what it "should" be.

Last night I started the sponge. Problem one came when the sponge didn't get as bubbly as I'd hoped. No idea why! I decided to continue, thinking that maybe it was supposed to be like that - after all, what do I know about brioche? So I added in the eggs and stirred in the flour, salt, and sugar. Then it was time to add the butter.

Problem number two. I don't have a stand mixer, so I had to do this by hand. It was getting later, I was tired, and the Husband actually had time to talk, so I did this all while on the phone as well. When I gave up, the butter wasn't fully incorporated, but my hands were covered in blistered and I was done! So I spread it out on the tray (note: do NOT forget to spray with oil before covering with plastic wrap!) and popped it into the fridge.

This morning when I checked on the dough, I was pretty sure that it wasn't right. It didn't seem as hard as what I'd seen from bloggers who have reached this point before me. I wasn't sure if the earlier problems had caused this, or if 16 hours chilling wasn't enough. Whatever, I figured, I've gone this far. See how it comes out. So I maneuvered the dough into the pans and set it to rise.

This took hours.

And hours.

And more hours.

By this point, I have my casiatello just about ready to go into the pans (pans which the brioche is still occupying), so I pop the darned things in the oven. They rose a little more, but never crested the pans. Despite their compressed exteriors, the interior looks alright. But I do have to say, it was pretty nasty how much grease came off these things as they were cooling. I don't think that I will be trying this one again, at least not any time soon!

BBA #3 - Bagels

2009-11-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

I love bagels. Delicious, chewy bagels, frequently covered in melted cheese. Bagel sandwiches. Bagels for breakfast, bagels for lunch, bagels for dinner. Bagels! Needless to say, I was most excited to try this recipe.

Now, this wasn't a complete success (although I still have hopes for the other half of the batch waiting in the fridge) - but more on that later.

This recipe started off with a sponge - and what a sponge it was! I tell you, this was the most adorable sponge ever!

After letting it sit for an hour or two, I pulled it out to take a look and it talked to me. I could hear the bubbling from across the room. It was really cool, I was almost sad to mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Now, this recipe called for two ingredients which are rather difficult to find for the home cook. Fortunately, Stacey lives in a more... accessible... part of the country than I do, so she was able to obtain some malt powder. And, because she is fantastically awesome, she mailed some to me!

I spent the rest of the evening kneading and shaping before popping the bagels into the fridge to retard overnight. I think the shaping is where I made my first mistake. Not having a scale yet, I couldn't weigh my dough to make sure I had the right size, so I had to guess. I shaped 6 regular sized bagels and 12 mini-bagels, and endeavored to make them the right size.

Early this morning I found myself unable to get back to sleep. So, before the clock hit 6am, I was in the kitchen preheating the oven and boiling some water. I pulled my six regular bagels out and... wow. They were pretty large, some of them, and I think because they were so large, they'd sort of flattened and spread out, rather than maintaining a nice puffy rise. The mini bagels looked fine, so I decided to just finish off the large ones and see how they came out. So I popped them in the boiling water, two by two, then into the oven they went.

When they came out, they were nicely golden brown - but pretty flat. They smelled right though, so after impatiently waiting for the 15 minute cool-down to finish, I sliced one open and dove in.

Delicious. Chewy, and incredibly flavorful. I don't usually enjoy eating my bagels with nothing on them, but I'd scarfed down half a naked bagel before I realized what I was doing!

I'll definitely be making these again, and experimenting with flavoring the dough (my favorite ever bagel is a cheddar-jalapeno bagel, I must recreate it!). Hopefully I'll be able to get a puffier result next time!

Regarding toppings: Personally, I'm not a huge fan of crunchy bits of stuff on the outside of my bagels, but I did top three of these - if for no other reason than that they make a better picture that way. The mini-bagels will be topped as well, as they're intended for my coworkers come Monday.

BBA #2 - Greek Celebration Bread

2009-11-01T16:24:00.000-08:00

The second bread in the challenge is artos, a Greek celebration bread. Traditionally used as part of religious celebrations, the bread would be baked at home, then brought to the church for blessings. The basic recipe and shape of the loaf can be adjusted depending on what holiday it is for.

The first step is to make either a sourdough starter or a poolish. I haven't gotten a starter going yet (and it takes a week!), so I went with a poolish, which is easily made the night before. Quite simply, flour, water, and yeast are left to ferment overnight. Beautiful and simple! It is also incredibly sticky, as I discovered the next day.

The next day, the poolish is blended with a whole mess of ingredients - the usual salt, yeast, and flour are joined by milk, honey, spices, orange zest, and almond extract. It took a lot of stirring to combine them, because the poolish was just so darned sticky. Eventually they bonded enough that I could begin kneading. It was fairly sticky, but not too bad. I kept it going for 15 minutes or so, until I got as close as I've ever gotten to passing the windowpane test before I set it aside to rise.

The rise was uneventful, and the shaping simple with the advice the book gave. Pretty neat, actually, I don't think I've ever made a boule shape by hand. I split the dough in two as recommended by those who are further ahead in the challenge than I am. I'm glad I did, the loaves still came out to be a good size!

The second rise was a bit more troublesome - I had some trouble with my loaves drying out (Alaska is soooo dry this time of year!), and some difficulty figuring out if they were actually done rising or not. Eventually I gave up and popped them in the oven anyway. It all seemed to work out fine, with a lovely golden-brown result.

Now, to be frank, I'm not a huge fan of sweet breads, so I probably won't be making this again. I'm not entirely sure why, but I just prefer a plainer loaf. That said, I'm sure this bread is fantastic if that's your thing. I wish I'd added some raisins, but it still tastes great - especially toasted with whipped cinnamon butter.

Lamp-cat

2009-10-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

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.

Moose Run

2009-10-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Deliciouso

2009-10-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

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.