Pack on the pounds

This Saturday I am attending a cookie exchange, hosted by a good friend from work. I usually don't participate in cookie exchanges because invariably the organizer will ask everyone to bring something like 12 dozen cookies and I don't have the force of will or kitchen space to create that many individual baked goods. Plus who needs that many cookies at home anyway? I can get fat and blobby over the holidays all by myself, no assistance from cookies needed.

My friend says I only need to make 2 dozen which is totally doable, so I signed up. Told her I'd be bringing my new favorite cookies, the chocolate dipped macaroons. I also volunteered to make my hot artichoke and spinach dip -- and THAT always makes me some new friends! Now, I am going to share this recipe with you all because I am infused with the spirit of holiday giving:

Audry's Artichoke & Spinach Dip

14 oz. (1 can) artichoke hearts, drained & chopped
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
8 oz. package cream cheese, softened at room temp
1/4 cup mayo (NOT miracle whip)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
mozzarella cheese, grated
french bread or crackers

Mix together cream cheese, mayo, parmesan cheese, garlic, basil and garlic salt. Add artichoke hearts and spinach, and mix until well blended. Store together until ready to use. Spray pan with PAM, pour in dip and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until top is browned. Serve with french bread or crackers.

This stuff is popular and we rarely ever have leftovers (once I actually saw someone clean the pan with her finger and LICK IT, so I'm confident that it's the bomb diggity) but you can just pop any extra in the fridge and then reheat in the microwave.

Food coma

We had an amazing weekend in terms of food -- hope you all did too! The Thanksgiving meal was very tasty and we're still working on polishing off the turkey. The smallest one I could find was about 13.5 pounds so we were going to have leftovers no matter what. I estimated about 3.5 to 4 hours to cook, and even now I am not sure what happened but that turkey was 100% done at the 2 hour mark.Which is fine but then I was behind on making all of the other dishes! We made it work, but did have to eat at 1:30 p.m.

Last week, D stopped by New Sagaya Market and picked up a couple pounds of fresh Alaska king crab. On Friday I boiled the legs for under 10 minutes in some salty water with a bit of lemon juice and they were perfect with a little melted butter. Nothing else needed and it was SO GOOD.

Gobble, gobble

Happy pre-turkey day everyone! My boss is leaving for the day and told me to go home, so I am going to do just that...right after I finish this post.  :-)

After weeks of tweaking the save-the-date postcards for the wedding, I think I've finally hit upon the final design. Those should go out next week (hopefully!)

I'm really jonesing for new technology -- including the Kindle from Amazon and the ever-present iPhone. My cell contract is up in May 2010 and after talking to D, it looks like we're leaning towards getting a family contract for two spanking new iPhones. Can't wait!

Big Wild Life

This photo by Bill Roth of the Anchorage Daily News is a great image -- a big bull moose crossing a midtown street with snowy mountains in the background. And the marquee text on the front of the bus says "Big Wild Life" -- our city's new-ish marketing slogan.

We're getting ready for Thanksgiving at our house. Our bi-monthly organic food box is coming today and I usually pick that up downstairs from my office. This box contains a bunch of yummy stuff we can use to make Thanksgiving goodies. I bought a turkey and all the trimmings this past weekend so I think we're good to go. Although I did forget whipped cream but can get by with the half/half in the fridge, sugar and an Ikea milk frother that my parents bought for me.

Book club selections

My book club is comprised of some really fun gals from work -- all different ages so we get a great cross-section of reading selections (and strong opinions about the aforementioned reading selections). We started our little group last February and since then one member has moved away (very sad about that) and one has pretty much dropped out. But the core group of 5 is still going strong.

Lately the books have been super depressing, so when my turn to pick came around again everyone asked that I select "something happy." I decided on David Sedaris, who is hilarious and I'm embarrassed that it's taken me this long to fall in love with his books! I've heard so much about him -- other friends have read his essays and even gone to book signings/readings. We had a good discussion about our favorite parts of the book I picked: Naked. Since then I have also read When You Are Engulfed in Flames, but really want to get to Me Talk Pretty One Day and Holidays on Ice. Sedaris just has a funny and sometimes poignant way of dissecting life, especially his own. If you can, get an audio book and listen to him read his own essays!

Bird watching

I'm not sure that people believe me when I say that the ravens around town are HUGE. Seriously, as big (or bigger) than my cats. I weighed Little Dude yesterday (currently coming in at about 18.2 pounds) and am pretty certain that the ravens would give him a run for his money in a street fight.

Thursday is garbage day in our neighborhood and the ravens all come out to pick through our trash bags. They have no fear -- cars drive by and the dumpster-diving continues. I mean, look at the size of that bird...it's bigger than the turkey I'm planning on buying for Thanksgiving!

We're lucky in that that we are not required to use bear-resistant trash cans. Our house is about a mile from a bear corridor but they never come into our neighborhood -- I hope it stays that way. We do see our fair share of moose though.

Alaska TV

People in the Lower 48 are fascinated with Alaska and that is evident by the number of programs popping up on tv about our state...but hey, we watch these at home like everyone else! Now that we have a DVR cable box I am recording shows like crazy -- including the new Alaska State Troopers series.

A classic Alaska show is "Deadliest Catch" and this blog is an interesting read: Diaries of a Greenhorn Producer. It details all of the crazy stuff and behind-the-scenes activities on one of the crab boats.

Coffee on a cold day

We go through a good amount of coffee at our house -- but it's the regular stuff, like Folgers, because D doesn't particularly care for my flavored and foufou brands. I only ever drink my stuff on the weekends. After finally finishing a bag of the Kona coffee that my sister sent me from Hawaii (soooo good, peoples -- you have no idea) I opened up this bag we brought back from Minnesota last year. It's from a charming little cafe' in Slayton, where D's grandma lives.

When we told the owner we were from Alaska, she said that someone from our state orders coffee from her website! Small world. The place used to be a bank (hence the name, "Left Bank Cafe") and she showed us the old vault in the back which now is a storage area. I love all that old historical stuff.

I bought this little Krups coffee grinder off of Amazon and it works so well. Would totally recommend it. Although I did grind the beans a little too long so the brew turned out a little bitter.

It's so nice to have a warm cup of coffee to start out the morning -- especially when they are cold and blustery like today. We're slated to have below-zero temperatures through the end of the week (it was -4 on my way to work today!)

Winter comes around again

D moved the boat out of the garage a couple weeks ago, so we're able to park both cars inside once again. It's perfect timing since the temperature outside has plummeted to below zero in the evenings and early morning hours. We've only had snow on the ground for about a week and it's a bit of a shock to have really cold weather already. But on the flip side it is nice to come home to a toasty warm fire -- D builds a fire in the woodstove to heat the house when the temps dip below 20 degrees.

Evening sunset begins. Time: 3:35 p.m.

The hoar frost is back!

 

Saturday update

I'm working today...the State Troopers are filming a scene at my place of employment for a series of holiday ads about preventing DUI's. The weather is kind of gray so it's not a huge deal being inside for the afternoon -- and the upside is a few hours of overtime that will go towards the wedding budget!

The dog gave me quite a scare this morning -- 5 minutes before I needed to leave for work he was nowhere to be found in the backyard. Turns out the back gate was open just enough for him to wiggle out. I called D (who was out running errands) and he spotted Drift tagging along on another dog's walk! He was less than a block away so thank goodness D found him.

I still sort of dislike you...

It's really great that our pets no longer hate each other with a burning passion, but I'm not sure we'll ever see the day when the cats and dog sit next to each other for a long cuddle. Case in point, Pepper jumped in my big travel purse as I was gathering items for my trip last week and Drift got a little too close for comfort:

And here comes the face slap...

Back in AK

Hi all -- I'm back in Anchorage, trying to adjust to a snowy landscape after being in warm Texas weather. Yesterday I was able to stay home and rest up before returning to work. D had a holiday as well because of Veterans' Day. It was a weird day in terms of weather -- really windy, then a short blizzard, more wind and then a shot of sunshine before it got dark.

In Texas

I'm currently in Houston, staying with my 2 college roommates before we head out to San Antonio today. We have a weekend full of college reunion events on the schedule, so my posts will be sporadic or non-existent for the next week. The weather is amazing here (mid-70's!) so I'm soaking it all up. Happy Friday everyone!

V-8 kitty

Cats are so odd! Pepper loves tiny little spaces and couldn't wait to crawl in here. She hunkered down while I wrapped the plastic around her.

Then the dog walked by and he got quite the shock as a cat paw came out of nowhere to whack his legs.

Moose-o-rama

Yesterday I drove by the area where D parks his truck at work (he is currently doing some work at my workplace -- we're remodeling) and out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement...

There were actually a total of 3 moose - mama and 2 calves -- but the other calf was already ahead of these two. They really seem to like this area.