BaNNeR RooTS

Flub

I only try recipes that thoroughly inspire me. I only try recipes that I think will be deliciously delicious. I only try recipes that I think will kick ass. 

I thought I found one of those recipes. There was such a sense of anticipation because I had the recipe for this crunchy snack in my pile all winter and hadn't yet tried it...until a few nights ago. It flubbed. And I had such high hopes. I thought I'd share this food with friends, family and people who like crunchy food. I'm not going to.

The recipe was for fried chickpeas. The recipe was full of spices. Gobs of cumin and I love cumin. I was really cocky frying these little puppies, imagining the delight in people's eyes when they'd pop one chickpea in after another.

 So I finished frying them and yes, they looked pretty crappy but I ate a bunch right out of the pan. They were good. Really, really good. I thought I had it. I thought I was going to give so much pleasure to crunchy food eating people. And then the little buggers (I was going to say a different word but I already said ass up there) cooled. I popped some more and spit them out in the trash. Soft, not crunchy. Mushy. Not a good feeling. Fried chickpeas suck if you don't eat them right away. Sorry fried chickpea recipe. You didn't cut it. Snacks need shelf life. 

It's a good thing I'm a person who remains hopeful in dire circumstances. I know there are a countless number of recipes out there that will inspire me. Recipes that will be deliciously delicious. Recipes that will kick ass. I'll find them. We'll find each other and we'll show those fried chickpeas how it's done. And together, we'll bring gobs of pleasure to crunchy food eating folk.

Pancakes

I was on a blog-posting fast for a long time. Too long. In fact, someone said the apple pie on the post from forever ago was getting moldy. I won't name any names, but since I heard that, I've been a posting glutton Tony.

This morning I celebrated my quiet mornings. I don't go to work until 9AM and my husband has the morning routine with the kids since I mainly have the evenings. I say mainly because sometimes he does that too. He is a fantastic guy and I'm not even kidding. As I was saying, I've been enjoying my non-hurried, non-rushed mornings and today I went all out. I, without any guilt whatsoever, enjoyed a house pancake (aka: dutch baby, german pancake) all to myself.

This is how it went. I woke up and kissed the family goodbye. Then I really wanted a house pancake. So I made one. I figured, how many times do I cook something I don't really, really want but do it for other people? Lots of times. Heck yeah I can make something just for myself. 

So once it was out of the oven, I put some fresh orange juice on and sprinkled (more like blanketed) the pancake with powdered sugar, ate and was off to work.

Rice Pudding of My Life

Rice pudding is not a traditional Ivanoff dish. I did not grow up eating the stuff and actually used to snub my nose at the clumpy dessert. "Why would anyone make rice sweet?" was my thought process. Rice is for moose and gravy or caribou stir-fry. Not pudding.

I've changed my ways. If we have leftovers from moose and gravy or stir-fry, I'll make a quick pudding with canned milk, sugar, butter, vanilla and cinnamon. It's good. However my life was changed after a trip with the Ivanoff ladies to New York City last year when we went to this place. The pudding was so creamy and cozy. I loved it. Sid loved it. I loved it lots. I got the traditional vanilla pudding kind and Sid got the chocolate kind. Both were insanely good and for nearly one whole year I dreamed of eating Rice to Riches pudding. 

Well I found this recipe that comes darn near close from epicurious.com. I love the site. And what makes my toes curl is that you can create your own recipe box. A lot of our Christmas and Thanksgiving dishes are bred from epicurious. 

Anyway, this really is the rice pudding recipe of my life. I just made my second batch tonight. Make sure you really add the egg mixture slowly, slowly or else you'll have egg scramble rice and that's just plain yuck and weird. If you do it right, the pudding is smooth, creamy and I have the biggest crush on it right now. 

I can't stop talking about it. I'm not a big fan of that rough molasses flavor, so I added a bit of brown sugar instead. I think maple syrup would be yummy too. We're also going to try a chocolate variation. What's best is Fen and Joe don't even like it so us girls get it ALL TO OURSELVES!

My New Favorite

I went berry picking with some friends this past week. Both asked, "What do you do with salmonberries?" I told them about one of our favorite snacks--salmonberries with sugar and canned milk. 

Well I found a new favorite. It's salmonberries with sugar and milk on steroids. It's delicious. It's simple too. Instead of milk, I beat up some whipping cream with powdered sugar and layered the salmonberries and sugar with the creamy goodness. 

Thank you Jesse and Danielle for picking with me. Great conversations and I'll pick berries with you any time.

Quick story:

Whenever picking berries with Mom, Gram or my sister, nobody talks much. It's always kind of quiet. Sometimes someone would say something and we'd laugh but the peace definitely prevails during Paniptchuk lady picking. It's not like that when you pick berries with Jesse. He talks. He sings. He talks more. It's different. It's fun. 

I told him my Gram would probably say, "Araa. He doesn't be quiet," or just, "He talks lots." I think he felt a little unsure of how to conduct himself, so I told him I liked his singing and he shouldn't stop. 

So we picked and I got scared of a ptarmigan. I know. I didn't think ptarmigans could be scary either, so learn from me and don't misjudge them.

Anyway, it ended up that we found some good patches picked a bunch of salmonberries and my Gram would've probably said in the end, "Wow. He picked lots." Good compliment.

So maybe I'll try singing. But probably not when I'm with Gram.

Biscuits

I have gooey memories of eating my Mom's Baking Powder Biscuits. She never used a biscuit cutter, so the biscuits looked more like craggly hills than flat, round biscuits. Yes, they were very rustic and I loved them. And when I learned they were from the red Betty Crocker Cookbook, I felt like the world was bit less magical. Really? They're not from some secret recipe club? Or even from an old, crackly-paged magazine? They're so good!  

Whenever Mom made Baking Powder Biscuits we'd cut them in half and eat them with butter and cranberry (really lingonberry) jam. Yum. And always there were hard-boiled eggs. And fruit cocktail served in melamine bowls. So comforting.

And while I've come to peace with Betty, Sidney found a biscuit recipe from this book I think Mom would've added to her recipe collection. Sid found it in a kids' cookbook we got at a garage sale...one of those kids' cookbooks you think you probably won't find anything worth keeping, but I was wrong. So very wrong. It's so good and I realize I've already posted about this recipe before.

The recipe is called Ham & Swiss Cheese Biscuits. And since we never have ham or swiss cheese on hand, we use either moose breakfast sausage or bacon with cheddar cheese. Mmmm.

Sidney's Over-Good Biscuits

(she named them herself)

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup cold butter, cubed into little pieces

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

crumbled sausage or chopped bacon, cooked...'til it seems right to you. 

2/3 cup milk with a splash of vinegar or lemon juice in it 

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. With your fingertips, flake in the butter until it's uniformly crumbly. Or you can use a pastry blender or two knives, but we like using our fingers. Stir in cheese and the meat. Stir in buttermilk. 

3. Slop the dough on a floured surface and  knead until a good dough forms. Not too much though! Roll out until 1/2 inch thick and cut biscuits with a little mason jar, glass tumbler or recycled aluminum can. Place on baking sheet.

4. Bake until browned, roughly 13 minutes.

Before baking

We made some of Sidney's Over-Good Biscuits this morning and ate them with bacon and more bacon and eggs, overeasy. And for an overly Over-Good Biscuit, spoon on some blueberry jam or fireweed jelly.

When we make these with moose breakfast sausage, we make a gravy for a uber yummy biscuits and gravy breakfast. We also still like Betty's Baking Powder ones. With cranberry jam and boiled eggs. Thanks Ma, for teaching me to bake biscuits...but mostly, to enjoy them, no matter where the recipe comes from.

We're BACK!!!

Again, our internet's been down. I realized how much we rely on email/internet to keep in touch with family members. AH!! I miss you guys.

We're doing well. Every night we get a chance, we head to the beach for firewood. Fen cuts and I stack the wood in the truck while the kids play and beach comb. Ahhh...so satisfying. We're all looking forward to woodstove warmth.

I have to share another of my Mom's favorites. Every summer when the Ivanoff clan would cut humpies for dryfish at Eaton Station, all the aunties would make pots of uuraq (it's like fish soup, but don't call it that or some people might laugh at you) for dinner. Mom could eat it everyday in the summer. I love, love, love that Joe and Sidney like this simple meal. And while most humpies are maluqsuqs (half dead and nasty looking), you can find some fresh ones if you're patient.

Uuraq
1 or 2 humpies (depending on how many people you are feeding)
potatoes
onion
salt

Clean and gut the humpies. Cut the head and tail off. Cut each fish into 3 or 4 steak pieces and place in a pot. Add cubes of potatoes, chopped onion and cover with water. Add salt to taste and heat until boiling. Skim off the gray stuff that floats to the top and simmer until potatoes are cooked.

You can also put fish eggs in the soup. Joe LOVES the eggs. Mom used top her bowl of uuraq with ketchup or kim chee. It's also really good with a spoonful of seal oil and some tukayuk.
UURAQ! (oo-ruq)

The Bubbling Sourdough pot

One of my favorite sights in the morning is the bubbling sourdough pot. My Dad used to make sourdough pancakes for us when we were growing up. He still makes them for all the grandkids and it's always fun to see who eats the most. Thanks Dad!
Got sourdough?

I learned the ways of sourdough from an old book I got from Gulliver's Used Bookstore in Fairbanks. (I have to add that this is our favorite store in Fairbanks and me and Joe's dream is to open one just like it here in Nome.)

The night before, mix 1 1/2 cups of water and enough flour to make a thick batter. Add some starter to the mixture to sit and work overnight. In the morning, before making pancake batter, return some starter to a jar to keep for future usage.

Laureli's Sourdough Cakes
2 cups starter
1 Tbls. sugar (for browning)
2 Tbls. oil
dash of salt
t. soda (for sweetness...add more if you want sweeter cakes)
jigger of water

Heat a cast-iron pan on med-low heat.

Mix the sugar, oil and salt with the starter. place the soda on top and before mixing in, pour the jigger of boiling water on top of the soda until dissolved. Fold in the soda and you should hear a cool, hollow sound while moving the spoon around. This means bubbles are forming in the mix and you'll have fluffy happy pancakes. Yes, they really are happy.

Fry the cakes on your heated pan and serve with butter, bacon grease, peanut butter, syrup (blueberry syrup's YUMMY on these) or fireweed jelly. Mmm...bacon grease. A little indulgence every now and then is a good thing.

One time we put cut up pieces of fried bacon in the batter and we'll definitely do it again. YUM! Of course blueberries are good too.

We're BACK!!!

Whew! What was supposed to be a weekend trip to Anchorage turned into a week-long rendezvous. Joe and Sidney met me in Unalakleet and we spent nearly a week hanging out with the family. Our favorites were, and always are, playing outdoors. Every spring the trout jump like crazy at the North River Bridge, so a dipping the line is on everyone's brain list of things to do. Way fun! Our nephew, Kael, caught his first trout ever and gave SOME away to his papa, as per the old tradition. We asked him, "Who are you going to give it to?"
"ME!"
Silly. Karen fried it up and he ended up giving some to papa, who was very proud of his grandson.
Note: The trout are really Dolly Varden, but who calls them that up here? I guess the polka dots on the fish resembled Dolly Varden's polka dot dresses she wore, so they named them after her and her stylish choice. We like to turn Dollies into uuraq, one of Sidney's and my Ma's favorite.
Uuraq:
In a big pot, put in cut up potatoes and onions. Cut the dollies into three or four steak pieces and place in the pot. Cover the yummies with water and add salt to your liking. Bring to a boil over a campfire and simmer until the potatoes are done. Add seal oil, tukayuk or kim chee (my mom liked this).

The first picnic at "Fast Water" or "powers Creek" or "kuiiqhaq," or whatever you call it is ALWAYS a big welcome to summer. The creek is the water source for Unalakleet and the mouth is a fun place to picnic, throw rocks and sticks, play Indiana Jones, beach comb or just plain old bee ess around the fire.
Most of all, we just loved being with family and the kids always enjoy time with their cousins. Kadyn and Arctic are real pals to Joe and Sidney has fun with everyone, but mostly Kael and Colton, her little guys.

Here's Kael, the one we talk about A LOT...

Kael came to Banner Creek with us on Friday and did we have fun with him! Yes, my wish for him to visit was granted and I am a very happy auntie. On Saturday it snowed, yes, SNOWED, so we weren't able to play at the beaver pond or anything cool. We did get to show him some cool stuff though. He saw musk ox, mergansers (the ones with punk rock feather 'dos), tern eggs and an owl. Behold my favorite Kaelism -- he calls our outhouse the White House. I think we'll call it that until we elect a new president. chuckle.
Thank you Karen!!!

For two weeks we've noticed a tern couple hanging out at our beach and we now understand why. Two eggs lay where we often play and Fen highlighted the area with large stones. We will eventually mark the area with a fence of some sort. Oh, we hope for the best, but worry about times like the raft race when there's a lot of traffic. please be aware of our tern eggs. It's silly. Any other place, we would have taken the eggs to fry up for breakfast, but with the eggs right on our property, it feels like we have to defend them. However, Joe was ready to clobber the mama and papa terns after getting some hair plucked out by one of the stressed-out birds. Today, he was down at the river and a bird bopped his head and he even bled a little (but not bad, whew!) We had to explain the instincts of parents defending their babies after he declared war and marched down with the sword he made and a Darth Vader helmet on his head. He understood and ceased the operation.

I think that's all for today. I feel like there's so much to say after being away for so long. While traveling, Fen built the floor to our entryway. We'll start framing the walls once we figure out where the windows go. Sidney has a cute smile with her missing teeth. She got to help Heidi plant her garden.
I have to share this. She had a short list of things she wanted from Anchorage...
work gloves
red lipstick
green wallet
All were put to use right away.

Joe is on a serious Indiana Jones kick after reading the books and watching the movies. He goes everywhere with a whip (nylon rope), a play cowboy hat (which he wants to eventually switch to a real Indiana Jones wool felt fedora) and his toy pistol.

OK. That's really all for today. I'll see you tomorrow.