Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Sitka Berries



We've had a dry spring and early summer so the berries are coming out pretty late this year. We have a stream/ditch next to our house that has finally started producing enough berries to get more than just a small handful in any one day. Sophia loves the salmonberries and Brett will eat most anything, so in an effort to try to get Sophia to eat some blueberries, I came up with a muffin recipe that is healthy and hopefully tastes good enough for Sophia to enjoy our plentiful berries!



HEALTHY Wild Blueberry Mini-Muffins

2/3 cup unbleached white flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup wheat germ
2 tbsp flax seed meal
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups fresh blueberries

In a medium bowl combine the first 8 ingredients, use a fork to mix the ingredients, making sure to break up the brown sugar so there aren't any big lumps. Set it aside. In a mixer bowl, combine the eggs, milk, apple sauce, and vanilla. blend for 30 seconds. Add the dry ingredients just until moistened. Remove from the mixer and gently fold in the blueberries. Fill your greased mini muffin cups about 2/3 full using a teaspoon. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 14 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before removing the muffins to a wire rack. Makes about 48 mini muffins.

A lot has changed in a year

It has been over a year since I've posted a blog and I don't even know where to begin talking about how our lives have changed, for better and for worse....
Our life in Sitka has been a memorable one for sure. After the tragic accident of the CG 6017 helicopter crash last July, we have tried to make the most of our stay here in this great town. We've been camping, hiking, boating, fishing, and meeting lots of wonderful new people along the way.
I'd like to come back and continue posting about our adventures, so here goes......!!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Beautiful Day!

Today was the best day we've seen yet! You could see every mountain peak including Mount Edgecombe, the volcano!
The kids and I ventured down to the beach where lots of kids were swimming in the water! It was 55 degrees outside and the water was probably somewhere near 35 (only my guess). The sun was beautiful though! We watched as Lance took off from the air station.
Lance flew yesterday and today, the 2 most beautiful days we've had! He grins from ear to ear with excitement when he describes the flying views! I hope to be able to take a float plane one of these days!

Nature Day

So, You know from reading my Blog that I've really wanted to see a bear, right? Well, in Sitka, they have this place called Fortress of the Bear, where they have 2 brother brown bears that they rescued and have in captivity, so I couldn't wait any longer to see a bear, so I spent the $10 and brought the kids to see them!
When we were driving there, Sophia fell asleep so I drove up a little mountain and came across these bald eagles!


Seeing the bears made me and the kids happy! But it was just like seeing them in the zoo. I think seeing one in the wold will be much more of an experience!





After Lance got home from work, the skies were bluest we've seen so we decided to drive up Harbor Mountain Road to catch the view!



Brett loves chocolate!



We enjoyed them so much that i made a whole nother batch, this time doubling the recipe, so I froze them all for breakfasts and snacks later in the week!

Yummy pancakes!

A friend introduced me to this fantastic recipe and I couldn't wait to make it so I promised Sophia last night that we would make the special pancakes with chocolate chips in them, this morning! Thanks Clarissa!

Chocolate Chip Pancakes
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
1 large egg
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 cup chocolate chips
butter (for greasing skillet)

mix together flours, wheat germ, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
In another bowl wisk together the apple sauce, yogurt, vanilla, milk, egg, honey, syrup, and blue berries. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones just until blended. If the batter is too thick, add a little more milk. Add the chocolate chips and blend gently.
Butter a large skillet over medium heat. The skillet will get hotter over time so durn down the heat if it starts to smoke.
Drop small laddles of batter onto the skillet in batches Try to get chocolate chips and blueberries in every pancake! When bubbles begin to rise on the edge of the pancake, carefully flip them over. Continue to cook 2-3 more minutes or until the pancake is set.
(from The Sneaky Chef, Missy Lapine)

You can serve them with maple syrup but they really don't even need it! We were devouring them as soon as they were cool enough to eat!

Yesterday we made another one of Clarissa's delicious (and healthy!) recipes for Breakfast Cookies . Sophia was so excited we were making cookies for Breakfast!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Day 21, We're Home!

The announcement came on at 2:30 that we were 30 minutes away from Juneau so Lance and I got up and finished packing up the few things we had left in the room. For some reason, maybe it was a new ship pilot, but it seemed to take forever to get the boat docked. I was watching out my window and the deck hand literally laid down on the dock waiting. We finally got off the boat at 3:30. The sun was already up! Sophia stayed asleep during the transfer, but Brett was wide awake as soon as we stepped out the door of our cabin room. When I was putting him in his car seat, he got upset and all of a sudden sounded like a seal barking. I couldn't believe it, 3 weeks of traveling and he gets sick on the last day. He wouldn't go to sleep so once we were out in the parking lot, I rocked him to sleep and laid him down next to Sophia in the top bed in the motor home. We drove up the street in the motor home to a beautiful glacier. It was 4 in the morning and so peaceful. It was the perfect setting, just where you'd imagine finding a bear, first thing in the morning, quiet stream running into the ocean, trees all around....still no bears. So we took some pictures and drove back to the ferry terminal to get a little bit of sleep.

8 o'clock came very fast, both the kids awake now, we loaded onto the fast ferry to Sitka!! The last 4 hours of our journey, we were almost home!

We were sitting in the front of the boat when we heard our name announced over the intercom to go to the Solarium deck so we grabbed the camera and headed to the back. Immediately upon opening the door, the United States Coast Guard H60 Jayhawk was staring at us in the face. It must have been 50 feet off the stern. It was awesome!!

Grinning ear to ear, Lance asked if we could go up on the bridge and talk to the ship captain so they called him and he let us come. They loved the Coast Guard fly by! Lance talked to the captain, who was younger that he was, for a while, until the kids were getting into everything and we decided we'd better head back down stairs.

We grabbed some food and then went back to the front to watch as we entered the narrow passages through the islands. The captain said they saw a bear yesterday through there so I was ready to see it, searching all over the place. No bears but a lot of bald eagles. They are everywhere! Its really neat. The weather is about 59 degrees and over cast. We had a lot of sun this morning but the cloud cover quickly came in as the day went on.

(Sophia and our first look of Sitka in the background!)

We arrived in Sitka at about 12:45 and had a crew of guys from the air station there to meet along with our host family, the Krueger's. Sean drove with Lance to show him where to go and we made our way the 4 miles into town to find our apartment we're renting.

We have this cute little 2 bedroom apartment downtown, owned by a super nice couple who are so accommodating. They moved the desk out of the kids room so we could fit the pack'n play in since we wouldn't need it and then suggested they could take the box spring off Sophia's bed in case she falls off, she wouldn't have as far to go. Then, as I was getting things organized into or rooms, Lance was outside trying to figure out a way to get the Jetta out of the trailer and Jack offered to help him so he ran to his shop to construct a ramp to get it out!

Throughout the day Brett's cough got much better. Just sounds like a regular cold and runny nose.

The Kruegers invited us over for dinner so we went to their beautiful house with the beautiful ocean/mountain view to relax for our first evening in Sitka!

The kids both fell asleep on the way home so Lance and I took a joy ride around town, got home to put the kids to bed and started unloading all the groceries we'd stocked up on! Lance did all the hard work, hauling all the bags up the 20 steps to our apartment, I just had to put them all away. It was fun to lay it all out on the counters and see all the food!

We went to bed at 10:30 and it was still practically light as day out!