Numero Uno!

Today is our first wedding anniversary, the great bambino of anniversary's! We have survived, and really I mean that, our first year of marriage.  Any other year it would be no big deal, tack on another number and let's move on... this year was a CrAzY year... and we survived.

We got married and went on a camping trip as our honeymoon a few days later.  Shortly after our return from camping Sever got on a plane and headed back to Alaska.  A few weeks later with one day notice I picked Sever up from the Seattle airport and we drove north to Alaska.  We then bought a lot where we planned to build a house.  After a few months of lot prep we began home construction on February 1st.  Just last week we moved into our home.  Whew...that was the short hand version of our year.  So with this anniversary really we just wanted to stay home (now that we have one) and veg.  Well, both of us knew that if we stayed home we would wind up working on the house all weekend... so we packed up the camping gear and headed north for the weekend. 


Here are a few (or 30) pictures of our adventure!

 Anchor Pass Cabin

 

 How 'bout that ride in, Moser?  It was a little rough! 

  Shrimp pots! 

For some reason we needed a lot of rope?!

 

Our rental car for the weekend!

“Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There's, um, shrimp kebabs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp and lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... That's, that's about it.”

 

 Moser sitting on the cooler

 SE rain, all weekend!

 Most people have a pot puller around here...not us.  Really, I only pulled 2 pots, Sever was the work horse... it's hard work! 

 

 You want me to do what to these cute things?!

 All in the name of love, shrimp shucking!

  Cabin view, not bad.

Making dinner, jambalaya!

 "I guess that's why they call them JUMBO shrimp" 

Time to reel it in for the weekend.

{Recipe} Quicky Sticky Biscuits

The weather here has been less than pleasant and as a result I have been baking.  It started with cookie dough and ended (until tomorrow) with whole wheat bread.  In the middle were these aaaaamazing sticky biscuits, yes biscuits. 

Quicky Sticky Biscuits

Recipe from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor

Ingredients

For Pecan Sauce: 

1 Cup Firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 Cup Dark corn syrup 

3/4 Cup unsalted butter (there is no substitute) 

1 1/2 Cups chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted 

For Biscuits:

4 cups All-purpose flour 

2 Tablespoons baking powder

1/2  teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 Cup very cold or frozen unsalted butter (cut into pieces)

1 1/2 to 2 cups cold buttermilk 

For the Topping:

1/2 Cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 stick unsalted, melted butter

 Method 

(Carry out in this order)

Preheat oven to 425º 

SAUCE: Combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, and butter. Melt over low heat.  When the butter is melted, increase the heat to high and bring to a gentle boil. Cook uncovered for 3 to 5 minutes until the mixture thickens. Stir in chopped nuts. Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 inch pan. set aside. 

BISCUITS: In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture. Blend until most of the mixture looks like coarse crumbs, some will be pea size. - Make a shallow well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk.  Use a fork to blend the buttermilk into the flour to create a soft dough.  If the dough seems too dry as you are stirring it, add the remaining 1/2 cups of buttermilk. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead a few times to make sure it comes together. Pat the dough into a 3/4 inch-thick rectangle. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 12 square biscuits. 

TOPPING: In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar and cinnamon. Brush the tops of the biscuits with some of the melted butter and sprinkle with some of the cinnamon-sugar. Place the biscuits, evenly spaced, cinnamon-sugar side down, into the pecan syrup-lined pan. Brush the tops (once the bottoms) of the biscuits with more melted butter and sprinkle with a little more cinnamon-sugar. 

BAKE the biscuits until golden brown and puffy, and the sticky pecan sauce is bubbling around them, 15 to 17 minutes. Cool slightly, then place a large serving platter over the top of the pan and invert it. Remove the pan and allow the pecan sauce to fall around the biscuits. Serve Immediately. 

COMMON SIDE EFFECTS: Food Coma 

Enjoy!

The house that WE built

Well, we are just a few weeks away from sweet victory.  The house is nearly finished, we have certain luxuries such as flushing toilets and granite counter tops.  Tomorrow will bring hot water and shelves in our closets.  Pretty crazy to live the experience of a home construction.   For many days we have felt as if we are living in the movie Ground Hog's Day...where one day repeats over and OVER again.  Not recently however as small battles have become victories and we are almost ready to {dear I say it} MOVE IN!  Hallelujah!


Here are a few updated pictures, forgive me as I have been a horrible blogger lately.  Sever has enlisted me as the project manager for the house.  I breathe fire down peoples necks all day long and don't care to blog about it, because really it isn't as cool as it may sound.  Thankfully I don't have a future in project managing, well I guess I do manage projects but only ones that involve crayons and glue.  I will be teaching Kindergarten again in the fall, time to dust off the danskos and head back to the classroom :-)

 Countertops 

My beloved range hood, Sever is very good to me :)  People keep asking why such a big kitchen...they clearly don't know me.  

 Bathroom sinks!

 Master bath vanity

  View from the front hall, Sever and I did all the tile work :)

 Master

 One of the last milestones: permanent power!

...

And need we not forget where it all began just a few (ha!) months ago!

The Best Sugar Cookies. Jerry, the BEST!

Have you ever seen that Seinfeld?  Watch the clip here!

Back to the cookies... 

My sister found this recipe on one of my favorite blogs, The Hostess with the Mostess.  I have to agree, they are the best.  A thick and moist sugar cookie with a light frosting.  Powdered sugar frosting isn't my favorite so next time I will switch that out.  Enjoy! 

THE BEST FROSTED SUGAR COOKIES:

via The Hostess With the Mostess 

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 400º.
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl & set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until mixed well. Add the dry ingredients in slowly & mix well. Chill for at least an hour to stiffen the dough. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin & cut shapes with cookie cutters OR form dough balls and flatten into thick circles with your hands.

Bake 8-10 mins or until just the edges of cookies start to turn a very, very light golden brown. Don’t over-bake. For an extra-doughy consistency, remove the cookies before the edges start to brown.

FROSTING:
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 Tbsp milk
1 egg yolk (optional)
5-6 cups powdered sugar (thicken to desired consistency)
food coloring

Whisk butter, vanilla, milk and egg yolk together. Slowly mix in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until the frosting reaches your desired consistency. If it gets too thick, add more milk in very small amounts, about 1 tsp at a time.

A House is...

a House for  Me US!  Remember that great children's book?  My favorite thing about teaching is reading picture books to kids.  With every lesson I teach I always read a book or two (or 10) to help the kids better understand the objective of the lesson.  I love children's books!  Ugh...time to go back to the classroom. 

A house is a house for us....we (Sever works a lot harder then I) have been working really hard on the house.  Sever has all the plumbing roughed in and the electrical will be roughed in today.  It has been fun (yes, fun) to see the whole house building process.  Yesterday I spent an hour telling Sever exactly where I want the cans to go (for recessed lighting) in my kitchen...but really, who knows how bright it will be when we move in.  It is the little things like that where you really hope you are making good decisions.

In other news...our cabinets have been ordered.  After much thought, I went with an antique white color...wood finish is so over rated :)  Well really my logic was that I would want darker cabinets and here in Alaska I don't think that is a great choice.  I want to brighten up things as much as possible because Lord knows that in December we only see the light for a few short hours. 

I am off to the tile place this morning to pick out flooring and counter tops....wish me luck as this is where the battle begins.