Thursday, April 22, 2010

Not much

We lost the little house, darn condo. It didn't sell in time so that is that. I figure it wasn't meant to be. We have decided to keep the condo on the market. Having the condo on the market really sucks. The condo is boring as is and now we can't even make a mess because we have to clean it to perfection every morning in case someone comes by to look at it while we are at work. We have also been pushed out onto the streets in the evening by realtors wanting to show the condo. We had to be gone from 6:30-8pm last night. What the heck are we going to do for an hour and a half on a weeknight? Thank goodness we had free moving tickets. Pat and I do not go to movies, we Netflix. Last time we went to a movie together was 2005. The show was so-so, glad it was free.

We are going to Ira Glass this weekend, but next weekend we plan to spend the weekend on the land. Let's hope the snow is gone.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Happy Birthday Mom

No cabin this weekend


Still snowing,it's really the 14th. Same thing is going on @ Funny River


Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Tainted


What a weekend we had! It was supposed to go a little something like this.
Blakes birthday on Saturday. Taxes needed to be done. Condo needs paint and organization. All of this was side tracked by a moose. When we got to Blake and Juley's house on Saturday Blake was on the phone. Juley said he was getting "the call". The call is road kill. We, the Adolfae's, are on this list and they called right as we got there for the party. The boys loaded up the trailer lightening fast and headed out, leaving us ladies to BBQ and party without the boys. They arrived shortly with a moose wrapped in a tarp and strapped to the trailer. All that evening and all the next day they processed the meat. Ground, vacuum packed and delivered to all the people involved by Sunday night. The next day Blake called and said that the moose meat was tainted and we had to return it all. The moose had been tranquilized 34 days ago to have a tracking collar put on it. The tranquilizer stays in the animals system for 45 days and was unsafe to eat. That stinks in so many ways. First, it was a lot of work and second, we had already eaten some. Blake spoke to the biologist and got documentation on what sort of chemicals we might have coursing through our veins but other than that there was not much we could do AND we didn't get any moose meat. They returned us to the top of the list, so lucky us, we get to do it all again soon.

Happier times

On another note, our condo is officially on the market. Tell your friends!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Waffle Falafel


A few weeks ago Pat and I saw a documentary called "Sandwiches that you will like" and one of those sandwiches was falafel. It looked SO yummy! We sought out some suggestions for a place to get this treat locally. It was unanimous that we try "Falafel King", so we did. Let's just say that we were less than thrilled about the falafel. The falafel in the documentary was a giant pita that they put lettuce, tomato, hummus, 2 giant smashed falafel, cucumber salad and Tzatziki sauce on before they rolled it up, wrapping the end with paper to avoid all those delicious ingredients from escaping out the bottom. That was not what the falafel king provided us. We got a little pita slashed open stuffed with little falafel balls, some kind of marinated cucumber, onion, tomato, cabbage slaw with a little cup of some weird sauce, a cross between hummus and Tzatziki sauce on the side. Not only did it taste less than stellar, the after effects were enough to swear off falafel forever, seriously. I could not settle for just the end of falafel for us so I kept searching the internet figuring we could make it better ourselves and found Waffle Falafel. This appealed to me because I was less than excited that falafel balls are deep fried, so falafel cooked crispy on your waffle maker was worth a try. I also found a recipe for a falafel Tzatziki sauce that sounded yummy. So last night I made this creation and man was it good! The falafel was crisp and tasty and the sauce was a perfect accompaniment to it all. Not to mention a thick slathering of hummus that was like the cherry on top. Definitely a keeper.

Here is the recipes I used if you are interested.
Falafel:

* 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained
* 1 medium onion, finely chopped
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 1/4-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped (1 tbls dried)
* 1 teaspoon coriander
* 3/4 teaspoon cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons flour

Add onion, chopped garlic and pepper flakes to food processor first. Process a bit until the size of eraser heads or a bit smaller. Add beans, herbs and pulse, stir, pulse until pieces are about the size of large pin-heads. No further. Turn the results into a bowl, add cumin, salt, and flour. Stir to combine. Heat waffle maker on medium and form the mixture in to golf ball size and cook one at a time on the waffle maker until crisp. Keep in 200 degree oven until all are done.

Falafel Sauce:
Whisk together 1/2 cup yogurt (I used low-fat), 1/2 cup tahini, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 minced garlic clove, 1/2 tsp cumin powder and salt to taste. Add a few tablespoons of water if the sauce looks too thick.

Need some luck


Pat and I put an offer in on this house. They countered and we accepted it. Awesome and nerve wracking at the same time because it is contingent on the sale of our condo. If you know anything about Pat and I it is that our condo is, well I don't even know how to put it in words but we love it and hate it at the same time. It appeals to our frugal being, cheap and efficient. It also is the bane of our existence, keeping us indoors and boring us to death. The little house is just that, little. 200 square feet smaller than our condo and no garage. We are justifying the loss in square footage by making a trade, 200 square feet of house/garage for 6400 square feet of yard and for Pat and I that is well worth it. The yard is fantastic, lots of bright light and room to built Pat a shop/studio/storage type of building. The neighborhood is nice, which is hard to find in Anchorage at our price range and we have been told that the neighbors are great also. So at this time I ask you all to put out some serious mojo or prayers or finger crossing or whatever brings you good fortune for the sale of our condo in a timely manner. Thank you.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

There's a thief in our midst


This is our dog the thief. This is his latest heist. I run with Russell every other day and at least once every couple weeks he picks up random toys along the way. I feel terrible about it because I never notice that he has anything until we get home, this one is a little more obvious but usually its smaller dog toys and balls and his big jowls disguise anything in his mouth, AND he runs behind me. Darn dog.

On other note, it is dumping snow. It has been in the high forties for the last couple weeks, I even saw 50 one day, and now it is cold and dumping snow. I am ready to say goodbye to Winter and hello to Spring already!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Treehouse Update & Joe's birthday

Sometimes our great ideas are missing basic elements for success. In our case, the idea is a treehouse like this one.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Homes/1997-12-01/Life-In-A-Tree-House.aspx

We thought it would be a definite go considering that the treehouse in the article is also on the Kenai Penisula but after the maiden voyage to the land we are now questioning if it is possible. Our trees, at least the ones close to the cleared area, seem too small to support a cabin. Bummer. I think that we are going to stick with the original idea; make a quick "bunk house".


We are a little disappointed but have not given up, we know there are four perfect trees somewhere on our 9 acres that are just begging to have a tree house attached to them.

One another note, we went to Joe & Carlee's house last night to celebrate Joe's 28th birthday. Blake and Juley brought Joe and Pearl, it was nice to see them and Pearl is getting so big. We also had an unexpected visitor who earlier in the day had eaten the bark off of the tree in Joe & Carlee's yard. That's Alaska for you!

We made delicious homemade pizza in the oven and on the barbecue. Now we know that we can make pizza on the land, which is a good thing because we love to make pizza.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Mission not so accomplished


Nothing compares to fishing the Kenai in late July for red salmon. They are fast and furious and a blast to catch. The bummer is, you are only aloud 3 a day per person. Obviously that is not enough. So what we do is what we call "Fish Camp", basically we fish and then sleep in the car for a week so we can stock the freezer. It is so much fun. Why do we sleep in the car you ask? Bears. I feel safer with metal and glass between me and a snarly grizzly than a flimsy nylon tent. Call me crazy, I just sleep better.

We are always looking for a nice place to build a cabin for a permanent fish camp and WE GOT IT! Last year we found 9 acres off Funny River Road in Soldotna. The lot has a previously cleared drive and a "basement" was built but is in ruins and will be demolished, which I am secretly super delighted about! Some of the interior wood is still good so I can not light it on fire as I had previously hoped but tearing down nail by nail will be just as fun.

Our plan is build a bunk house in a few days in spring and then build a cook shelter and anything else that we decided needs to be done, then we will build a real cabin in a year or two. This is the beginning of our documentation of this adventure.

Our first trip to the land was March 27, two weeks later than Spring Break, that is when we originally were going to take the maiden voyage to the land. It was not exactly what we thought it would be. Turnagain Pass was fine on the way over, a little bit of snowfall but we were behind the snow plow for the most of it. It was smooth sailing the rest of the way to Detroit Street where we discovered that the road still had too much snow to drive on. We parked and unloaded the car and made several trips down the quarter mile road to our land, it was so magical to see OUR land covered in an untouched blanket of snow. The magic wore off as we realized that we could do nothing due to said lovely snow. The basement could not be demolished, too much wet snow on top and there really is some reusable lumber inside it. There also is a stove inside that is rusty and the door is broken but we still want to get it out and we couldn't do that with out a vehicle, too heavy. So we decided to drive back home.

To say the pass had gotten worse would be an understatement. It was snowing hard and with huge flakes. That, with the 10 foot high snow walls on the sides of the road was a little nerve wracking. It snowed the whole way around Turnagain Arm until just about Rabbit Creek. Could have used a hot tub to relax when we got home, that's for sure.

We will try again in a couple weeks.