MAC 2015

Liam's high school rifle team participated in the Mid Alaska Championship this Friday and Saturday. It marks the end of the high school rifle season (Liam is also on a recreational  team, the Midnight Sun Sharpshooters) Rifle is a big part of our day to day around here. I committed to opening the range and beginning and sometimes running the whole of practice when necessary for Lathrop's team this year. So that meant, every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday  from two thirty to about five thirty-ish  and Saturday from twelve-thirty  to five. We have had quite a bit of interpersonal drama this year, but I have very much enjoyed working with these young athletes and seeing them win some awards today was a great end to the season.
Liam won an individual bronze medal for his score in smallbore, a 562. And our team won the team high for air rifle, we lost the smallbore team by two points but won in overall combined! An excellent day of competition!

This picture shows Liam with his very first shot in smallbore. They shoot fifty feet and begin in kneeling position. The shot shown is a perfect bulls eye.

Sports

We have sports in our house on Thanksgiving too!

Things in my purse

Time to switch to a larger bag, doing so this is what I found to be in my tiny summer handbag. I generally use use a larger bag for winter to fit mittens and such. Also so I make sure I have my nook for long waits on kids.

Best chocolate birthday cake

Yogurt Cake

So good I've made it twice in a week! Freddies had my favorite Brown Cow cream top Maple yogurt on mark down so I had lots of tasty yogurt to use up. Really good plain cake:
Link to the kitchn

How to

Make 100 cream puffs: first get out your special spoon made by your daughter to mix the choux paste :)

Noodle

I made my Grandmother's recipe for homemade noodles the other day. I still don't love them, they are too chewy I think. But my family loves them, so chicken and slicks for dinner.

Snow

There was a winter storm for the last day or so, beginning early Tuesday through noon Wednesday. They really meant it evidently, we were without  power for most of the afternoon and night and it is still flickering today. It has stopped snowing for now so I thought I would  measure our total snow. The table had no snow on late Monday when this storm started it's dump and it has been snowing steadily through early Wednesday morning.

Cupcake

I was volunteered to provide dessert for our first Rifle match. Match against Delta and Tok, our team won but Liam didn't do well with small bore 528, better in air with 566. We host a meal was what I was explaining about, everyone  from our team potlucks. I was already written into our sign up sheet for dessert! The kiddos requested cupcakes and so I chose butterscotch with seven minute icing and a peanut butter jelly cupcake. The PBJ ones didn't make enough to leave at home, but I made sure to save back a few butterscotch  ones. I took 4 dozen cupcakes  to the match and came home with 0 so I would say they were a hit!

Maiden voyage

Stan and Lorna gave us this really nice fermenting crock a few years ago for Christmas. It has just been admired in our living room until today! Only a small batch of plain kraut  just beginning working in it. It's a big five gallon crock so the two big cabbages (about 12 pounds total) have only filled it up about a third.

Cocoa apple cake

One of my very favorite things to bake. A recipe most of the women in my family have made but none of them taste the same! I'm not sure about the others, but I use less fat, more chocolate and a little more spice than the recipe. I love family favorites that are all just a little different. Still connected but not one exactly allike!

Driveway project

Kyle got the driveway project mostly done. The new ditch is cut, the shed is moved, drive is all smooth and cable is burried. As far as I know the only thing left is wiring in the shed with a timer for wintertime plugging in trucks.

Getting ahead

Our schedule gets crazy during Liam's rifle season and with Abbie at a new school and a new schedule it doesn't look to get any better. Liam will practice 3-5, Abbie gets out of school at 4 or her bus will get near our house at 4:30. Kyle will leave for work at 6 on nights or arrive home at 7 on day shift. Liam can drive himself home hopefully some of the time so I might get home with Abbie, otherwise 5:30 to 6 is more likely. Not a lot of time to get dinner when people are starving. That is why I try to get as many short cuts in the freezer, crockpot, or quick recipes to prep ahead as possible. Today's project: potstickers! Frozen for dinner, snack, or to simmer in soup. Next up spaetzle, or maybe spaghetti sauce.

Give me a call

I see a lot of this in my future...we just bought Abbie a cell phone. Liam got one as a freshman, he was starting rifle team and so would be busy 6 days a week so it seemed to make sense to me. Abbie's is only in 7th grade but she does love her after school activities and with Liam's senior year if rifle starting this week I am going to be sucked into that. Now our days with a land line phone is truly numbered. A big factor for me in keeping it is having a mid size girl at home. I'm not going to share my cell with the hour per day Abbie NEEDS to talk to a friend! Now she can text and monopolize her own device so ACS: you're on notice...

Let there be light

Under cabinet light installed with a switch by Kyle. So nice! I love that guy.

Veal

I love veal, so when I can find it for a bargain, veal is dinner! I think not many people buy veal in Fairbanks so it's often in the bargain bin at Safeway. Today's find was a whole pack of veal cube steaks. With spicy tomato sauce and pasta they became an awesome dinner.

Two kids off to school!

Liam Arron, 17 years old, 12th grade at Lathrop High School.

One kid off!

Abigail Rose, 12 years old, first day of seventh grade at Tanana Junior High.

Noodle soup

A short pizza post.

Just a few notes about how we do pizza. You must make sure to put enough corn meal on the trays under the pizzas so they can be transfered to the oven. We use the backs of 1/2 sheet pans as they are cheap and sturdy. I wouldn't use less cornmeal than pictured and frequently more if the dough is sticky.
Also we found out lactose free cottage cheese makes a really good pizza topping for kyle! Those almond milk or super hard cheeses always lack some soft melty  cheese goodness.

Tebasaki

My Mom makes these tebasaki  Japanese chicken wings, they are deep fried with a savory  garlic soy glaze. I don't deep fry very often but the glaze is so good, we have eaten it on quite a few things. Our current favorite is oven fried chicken legs, last time I made a whole tray about 3 pounds. There was none leftover for lunches! Leftovers are pretty much the favorite thing for a packed lunch around here.
Tebasaki  sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup mirin   (can substitute more sake and a teaspoon of sugar)
1/4 cup sake
1 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoon balsamic or black vinegar
Bring to a boil all the ingredients except the vinegar, remove from the heat and add the vinegar. You can thicken the sauce with a little corn or potato starch. Slather it on yummy chicken, veggies, tofu, rice....finish by sprinkling with sesame seeds.

Unshiny rocks

Kyle is doing some dirt work so this morning we got two dump loads of gravel. Cutting in a new ditch behind  the  pizza oven and creating a pad for the shed and plow truck.

Get dinner

Sometimes you just need a quick dinner. Biscuits  and gravy can make it to the table in about  20 minutes.
One of the Sargents  taught me how to make gravy one morning I was cooking breakfast for Kyle's unit in the military. I have made it the same way ever since, but I don't usually start out with 15 pounds of sausage any more!

Girl adventures

Abbie and I went to a Girl Scouts camp this summer. I don't have any other pictures from it as it was actual camping, and I'm terrible about taking photos any more! We drove down, just us girls to Anchorage a few days early for some hang out and shopping time. Abbie is a good car trip companion, She sleeps half the time I think! Though it would be nice if she could drive some of the time.
We didn't do anything special in Anch. Lots of hanging out at the hotel pool and hot tub, Abbie's favorite! I will absolutely recommend the Hampton Inn. They are newly remodeled and it is always a great stay there. We ate at Aunt Annie's Pretzels I think 4 times! My girl loves her bread...and this new place Fat Ptarmigan Yummy wood fired pizza and wine, also ice cream around the corner. Also a little shopping, nothing amazing except finally finding mud boots big enough for my girl.
Next we met most of Abbie's troop in Palmer at the fairgrounds for 4 days of Girl fun! It is a huge event put on by the Anchorage council, they said about 720 girls between the ages of 8-18 were registered at the camp. The fairgrounds is really big, they had a fun walk/run one afternoon and the main loop we walked all the time was almost a mile! It was great to have the flush toilets, buildings and landscaping from a major fairgrounds and the organizers really knew how to manage that many people. As most of us were in tents, it was greatly appreciated.
The girls had 3 activities to go to a day, everything from intro to dog mushing, coin collecting, and HAM radio operating. Each night the whole camp would meet in the main event hall to hear a speaker. The favorite of all the girls was Ally Zirkle, a, Alaskan lady dog musher, she managed to hold all their attention for almost two hours! It was a little chilly as the wind blows pretty much non stop in Palmer, but we were dressed for it. We did get rained on and our tents flooded our last night but luckily the organizers let us use an empty building to sleep in.
We drove back to Fairbanks with AR's troop leader and some more girls. There was much less construction but we didn't make it any faster of a trip, we stopped for several hours in Denali Park to eat dinner and wander around. It was a great trip and so nice for me to travel with Abbie this time for an activity.

Junior Olympics 2015

I was thinking I should post some pictures from Liam's JO  competition here. We actually went in April, but I haven't had a chance to post about  it.
Junior Olympics  for air rifle is a national  event split into several groups. Men and women compete separately in 10 meter air rifle and .22 events. Liam qualified (in December) for the 60 shot standing air rifle event. Men from 12 to 20 shoot a qualifier, ours was at UAF, from a field of about 1500 the top 200 or so are invited to shoot head to head at the Olympic training  center (OTC) in Colorado Springs.

This is the Olympic Training center range building. A really nice facility, two floors of electronic lanes, I think 35 per floor.

Before competition, you have to sign paperwork, pay fees, and get all of your gear inspected. They use machines to test the thickness and flexibility of jacket and pants. They measure seams and boots, gun sights and adjustable pieces. A lot of rules to follow in this sport. This was taking place in the main gymnasium in the OTC, a separate building from the shooting range. The facility is still open to the public when there are competitions, we saw several tour groups. I wondered if they got a good explanation of all these doings?

This is from day one of competition. The monitor shows the live score for each lane, Liam's target is on the bottom row, second from the left. He is shooting on the lane second from the right.

The men get one practice slot and two competition rounds (60 shots each) The top 10 shoot head to head against each other in front of all the spectators. Liam qualified with a 555 (integer score, out of a possible 600) somewhere in the bottom third. Junior Olympics is scored using the decimal places from each shot as well. They are scored by a computer, for example a perfect bull is scored at a 10.9. Day one he shot a 589.7 for a place of 77, integer score of 567. Day two Liam really paid attention to keeping his routine and focusing on each shot. His score was a 606.3 (integer 581) finishing him in 52nd! 

These are all the interior AK men, two from Delta and six from Fairbanks/North Pole. Pretty good showing for a small program! We all had a good time, some scores better than others and it is a packed few days of range time, meetings, spectating etc. Liam is already looking forward to returning next year :)

Grown up girl

Abbie's finally had enough courage to get her ears pierced! All healed up with new ear rings

Adventures in cooking

I found this small appliance at a yard sale for a whole three dollars. Before you think it's an abelskiver pan, I'll tell you-it is a Takoyaki  cooker! Takoyaki are Japanese snacks. They are dough cooked usually with octopus (Tako in Japanese) but can be made stuffed with most anything. They are crisp on the outside soft and eggy  inside with scallions, seasoned with dashi  (fish and seaweed broth) ours were stuffed with shrimp and krab. You are supposed to eat them with sauce and toppings like bonito  flake and kewpie  mayo. They are not Abbie's favorite but the rest of us liked them well enough to almost eat the whole batch! So fun to try something new on the cheap!

Liam birthday treats

It took years, but I finally found the right glazed old fashioned doughnuts! Liam's favorite and the perfect treats to share at rifle today.

Winter wonderland

Tiny

This is all I found in the chicken's nest today.  Cute? Yes. Enough for breakfast? No.
You better get with the program, Bobs, or your days are numbered.

How to make Liam happy

First make a giant batch of spatezle  so you have some for freezing. Then fry some pork cutlets and make some gravy, then fry some apples with brown sugar. Happy boy :)