Simon & Seaforts

We got a couple recommendations for an Anchorage restaurant called Simon & Seafort's (one plug came all the way from Florida, from Grandma & Grandpa's friends!) We decided that it was high time to check it out. Let's call it a "Welcome to Anchorage" dinner.

Pomegranate Mojito- one of my favorites!

  

French Onion Soup. R & I are trying to perfect our recipe, so we've been trying it out at lots of restaurants lately. Fresh bread and Gruyere cheese makes such a difference!

Field Salad with Candied Walnuts. I really didn't like this salad at all. The dressing was too sweet and I'm not the biggest fan of fresh fruit in green salads-- unless it's mandarin oranges in an Asian Salad...

Ross's Whiskey Steak with fried onions.

My crab & shrimp stuffed Halibut. This one was really good :) Too bad the side veggies were undercooked and basically inedible. 

All in all, this was a very nice meal. I'm sure we will go back there many, many times- especially since they have earlybird/week night specials.

Now we need to find somewhere to celebrate our "Just Moved in Our New House" meal... :)

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Dreams-- from a new room

We've now got all our stuff (with minimal damages) in Alaska and we are moved into our NEW house!

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

That's the sound of sleeping in your OWN bed after being separated for a month,

after unpacking endless boxes for what seems like 48+ hours...

Well, there might have been a snow board lesson squeezed in there too... :)

 

I really liked snow boarding, even though I fell a LOT.  Now I gotta get better so that my tailbone doesn't hurt so much. Operation "Less Falling" is now underway...

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Double Vision

Sometimes I have trouble making decisions, especially when it's late at night... So you get a two-fer. What's your favorite?

View #1
A.

or...
B.

Let's try another,
View #2
A.

 or
B.

Last one...
View #3
A.

or
B.

It's fun, right?

Way better than that machine at the eye doctor (Which is better 1 or 2, A or B...?). Speaking of the eye doctor-- I'm 20/15 since surgery, so no more machine for me--EVER!!!

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Chocoflan?

I got an email from Natalie last week that said she was making Chocoflan. Now this intrigued me for 2 reasons:
1) I have never EVER heard of Chocoflan, and if you haven't noticed, desserts are kind of my thing. What's this? A dessert that I've never tasted NOR heard of? Please continue. I must know more.
2) Natalie doesn't use her fabulous kitchen that often, so I figured this must be a pretty special dessert to warrant the effort.

She sent me a couple pictures... How can you go wrong with cream cheese flan atop chocolate cake, all smothered with caramel?

Look at those layers! 

I am dying to know if Nat had a bundt pan before making this dessert. What's going to be the next sweet to be made in it? Carrot cake? Chocolate cherry cake? Monkey Bread?

All my baking "stuff" is in boxes right now, so I'm thankful I could enjoy this dessert vicariously!

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Prank Call

Would you believe we spent 4 hours painting after work today? Believe it. The color looks great, there's just a LOT of walls- we even had help with the high ceilings. It will be so much better to have the painting done by the time our stuff arrives! I think we're done painting now... I really hope not to see a paintbrush, blue tape, spackle, or rollers for a very long time...

My posts are going to be brief this week because of all the move stuff going on, BUT I have a story to share...

Last week (during a school holiday) my boss's 2 youngest boys (2 and 6?) got into their mum's purse and found her cell phone... ooooowwwwaow! Well who else would they want to call besides DAD?? Boss got 8 phone calls in a 30 minute window and each time the boys said, "Dad, do you know how to unlock Mum's phone?, te he he" It was pretty cute.

I'm sure girls would never pull a prank like that?

:)

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Home Sweet Home

WE GOT THE KEYS TO OUR HOUSE THIS WEEKEND!! So exciting!!! Our stuff gets delivered on Thursday and I am realllllly looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again. No more stiff back and waking up with a crick in the neck. A certain gray dog occasionally finds her way into the bed and a Queen is just a bit to small. Speaking of Roma, she went through a doggy door for the first time! She was skeptical, but the bacon on the other side was irresistible. Roma will be testing out her new backyard set-up this week- heated garage, doggy door, and fenced backyard... at last!

We're pretty wiped out from all the fix-it chores around the house, but it's going to be so worth it. Soon very soon!

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Lost Charleston Pictures

Do you recognize where this picture was taken??

CHARLESTON, SC!

We moved right after Thanksgiving, so I never had a chance to post pictures from our November trip :)

We took a day trip to the USS Yorktown, an old aircraft carrier docked in the Charleston bay...

Air craft carriers have some low ceilings. Dad had to watch it...

Momma enjoying the marsh views from the boat.

Beautiful Clouds.

I basically love this picture. Dad is my sous chef making sure the caramel doesn't burn. We were on a mission to make amazing Pumpkin Bread Pudding with a Caramel Whiskey sauce.

 

Thanksgiving dinner: Braised Beef Short Ribs with goat cheese polenta and pancetta brussel sprouts

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Asian Chicken Noodle Broth

Jamie Oliver came over for dinner :)

We made his Asian Chicken Noodle Broth-- so good on a cold day! This scored very well on Ross's "Work vs. Reward Matrix" and clocked in under 30 minutes. Which means you should probably try it... There was definitely some ingredient improvising on my part (Alaska and fresh produce do not go hand in hand), but it would only be better with the fresh stuff.

 

In case you didn't see the cashews, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds... :)

 

Asian Chicken Noodle Broth
(17 minutes)

Recipe Courtesy of GOOP. 


This is a really quick dish but you’re going to have to multitask, cooking your veg and noodles in one pan and your chicken in another. Read through the recipe before you start so you’ll be prepared for what’s going to happen. You’ll be amazed at the results - just like something you can get in a posh noodle bar.

Serves 2
• 1 tablespoon mixed seeds (pumpkin, poppy, sun flower)
• a small handful of raw cashew nuts
• 1 quart chicken broth, preferably organic
• 2 skinless chicken breast fillets, preferably free-range or organic
• 2 teaspoons five-spice powder
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• a thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
• ½ to 1 fresh red chili, to your taste
• 4 ounces rice sticks or vermicelli
• a handful of snow peas
• 6 thin asparagus spears or 4 regular-sized spears
• 6 fresh baby corn or 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
• soy sauce
• juice of 1 lime
• a small handful of spinach leaves

Put a medium frying pan or wok on a high heat and add the seeds and cashew nuts to it straight away, while it’s heating up. Put a large saucepan on a high heat. Fill the saucepan with the chicken broth, heat until very hot, and put a lid on it. Toss the seeds and nuts around until heated through nicely — this will take a couple of minutes. While this is happening, slice your chicken breasts lengthways into 3 pieces and put them into a bowl. Sprinkle the chicken with the five-spice powder and a good pinch of salt and pepper and stir. When the seeds and nuts are done, transfer them to a plate. Put the empty pan back on a high heat. Add a little olive oil to your hot pan with your slices of chicken and cook for 5 minutes, until golden, tossing and turning every now and again.

While the chicken’s cooking, peel and finely slice your ginger and slice your chili. Take the lid off the pan with the chicken broth and add half the chili, all the ginger, your rice sticks (or vermicelli), snow peas, asparagus, and corn, with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring. Halve the lime and squeeze in the juice. 

By the time the rice sticks (or vermicelli) and veggies are done, the chicken will be cooked. Take a piece of chicken out and slice it lengthways to check if it’s cooked all the way through — when done, remove all the chicken from the pan and slice each piece in half to expose the juicy chicken inside (please don’t be tempted to overcook it). To serve, divide the spinach leaves between your bowls and pour over the broth, rice sticks (or vermicelli), and vegetables. Divide the chicken pieces over and scatter with the toasted seeds, cashews, and remaining chili.

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Beer Festival

We went to the Great Alaskan Beer and Barley Wine festival with some friends on Saturday. You get a little glass and some raffle tickets upon entry- the keys to tasting hundreds of different types of microbeer and barley wine. I hadn't ever tried barley wine before, but BLEEEEECK! I'm not a fan. I really thought I'd like it more since I usually choose wine over beer, but no no. Not this wine. It reminded me of the German Apple wine (vien) which I almost couldn't choke down... Anyways the beer was great. We really like "Alaskan" brand beer (brewed in Juno) and when it's on sale it's even cheaper than Bud Light. Bargain! You'll get to taste it too when you come for a visit...

Cheers!

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Landscaping with Photoshop

Over the weekend we took a drive to Girdwood, a ski resort just outside Anchorage. We didn't ski, we were just looking for an excuse to get out of town, explore, and enjoy our couple hours of sunlight.  Along the freeway there are designated photography spots, with amazing views.

I've mentioned before that I use Photoshop to give pictures a little uumph. It really makes all the difference and will take your pictures to the next level. Here's how I would breakdown quality of a picture: 30% camera, 30% lens, 40% post processing (ie Photoshop).  I took one of the landscapes from our trip and applied a couple different Coffeeshop Blog actions. The first picture is the original SOOTC (straight out of the camera) shot for you to compare. Which one is your favorite?

SOOTC

 Boost

Ice Pop + Blue Sky

  

Lomo

Moody Pop

Autumn Glow

These pictures make me cold. It was -10 today!

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Green Gator

 There once was a green alligator.

Basically irresistible.  Look how cute.

Then there was a pup. Also irresistible.  Look how cute.

Pup meets gator. 

Pup thinks the gator tastes yummy.

 Pup gnaws on the gator for a good couple hours. Uh oh. The gator springs a leak.

 Pup thinks this looks like a fun game.

Pup wants to show her mommy and daddy all her hard work... 

THE END.

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Rims

I finally have snow tires on my car and it makes all the difference!

Check out those black rims! Just like Scotty's corvette :) Not really. Of course there's more to the story. Those rims are the cheapest ones you can get on the market these days. When you're plunking down the change for a second set of tires the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of moo lahh on rims. Especially with all the snow, ice, salt, gravel, and muck we drive in. Last week there was a warm snap and we were finally able to see the asphalt on the road (it's gone now). The roads here are so torn up - the studded tires, winter tires, freezes, etc create huge ruts. In the icy weather those ruts cause drivers to get trapped and run off the road. It's really unusual. There's huge medians on the freeway for that very reason. On our AM drive into the office there's often a couple cars in the ditch.

Here's the other thing to watch out for while driving...

I snapped this picture from the back porch. The moose were eating lunch on our grass.

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Andes Cream Cheese Mint Softies

Check out these Andes Cream Cheese Mint Soft Cookies, also known as "Ooeey-Gooey-Cream-Cheesy-Minty-Melt-in-your-Mouth-Ness".

Enough Said.

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Reflections

I am feeling a bit reflective this evening. It all started when I was greeted by a display of itty bitty string bikinis when I entered the door at Target. You see, I was still shivering from the walk across the parking lot (15 degrees today) and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the prominent bathing suit display. Really Target? You've gotta do better at regional marketing...

Things I Miss from Texas:
*Family and friends
*HEB grocery store
*Marshalls, Homegoods, Bath and Body Works, TJ Maxx, William Sonoma, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Pottery Barn...
*Restaurants, especially Tex Mex
*Warm weather
*Sun, sunlight, daytime
*Ranch (no venison sausage :(...)
*Lake House (trade in water skis for cross country skis)
*Austin (Hook 'Em!!)
*Wearing shorts/skirts/capris (the majority of my wardrobe is useless here right now)
*A fenced backyard (potty with Roma is way more difficult without one)
*Running (it's just too cold and a bit too complicated to get a good outdoor run during the winter)
*Price per square foot (you don't realize how good you have it until you leave Houston)
*Prices of everything now that I think about it
*Grilling outside every other night
*Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream
*Katy Mills Mall
*Houston Rodeo

Things I love about Alaska
*Seafood, mainly ALASKA KING CRAB AND WILD SALMON!!
*Micro brew-- this state has GOOD beer!
*Breathtaking scenery, even from the office window
*Outdoor activities- Cross country sking, hiking, snow shoeing, downhill sking, snowboarding, fishing, canoeing, mountain biking, ice skating... I'm sure there's more I have yet to discover
*Camping (yet to try)
*Seeing the stars at night (we plan to take a trip outside the city to see Aurora Borealis soon too)
*Lighted ski paths (can ski AFTER work even though it's dark)
*3-Dimensional Terrain
*No sales tax
*Getting paid to live here
*Growlers (A glass jug that carries fresh micro brew to go. A WAY more economical way to imbibe..)
*Alaskan Accents
*Unadulterated FRESH air (my lungs have never been happier)
*White Christmas
*Photography opportunities

I'm sure the list of the things I love about Alaska will grow as it gets warmer AND the days get longer!

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Snow dog?

Here's some pictures of Miss Roma at the dog park. She's trying to become more of a snow dog, but she'll still start shivering if she stands or sits too long.

1

Mediterranean Yum-O

We made this quick'n'easy Mediterranean Salad last night...

Red onions, kalamata olives (yes, olives are growing on me), feta, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, a romaine heart, chick peas- all tossed in a red wine/olive oil vinaigrette. We added chicken (because we're Huebel's) and it was a fresh, flavorful meal. This is my kinda meal, so we will definitely make this again!

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Close-Ups with the new MACRO

Ross got me a little photography some'thin some'thin for Christmas... a new camera lens! It's the 100 mm macro lens that I'd been asking Santa for all year. Guess I was good :)

You can get close...

Then, go even closer...

The lens is able to capture detail at a much closer level than the other lenses in my inventory. Hmm, what's this?

 Hint... This isn't Roma's eye.

A Macro lens is gonna be great for close up food photography. Now, we just need to move into our house and get our kitchen stuff back. Just a couple more weeks till we close!

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