Pasta dinner

One of our go-to dinners, Pasta with bacon and peas. We do make our own bacon, but I think you could use most any quality smoked meat and be fine. A sorta recipe:

Fry your bacon and chop it up, you should have about a double handful.

Boil one pound of pasta, I like fettuccine but spaghetti is good too, add one package of frozen peas at about the last 5 minutes. Drain, reserving about 1 cup of pasta water.

Add the bacon to your now empty pot on low, maybe with some butter or olive oil if it is very lean. Add pasta and peas and grate over about 1/2 cup hard cheese, grind on pepper. pour in the cup of pasta water and stir in about 4 beaten eggs. 

Stir like mad, adding milk or pasta water of it gets too thick, until the eggs are set. 

If you have pre-cooked bacon in the freezer, this dish can be on the table in about 20 minutes, one pot dinner, popular with everyone I cook for :)

Some Halloween Fun

Loot! They didn't eat toooo much!

Abbie and her two friends at the Pioneers Home. They also came with us to trick-or-treat and spend the night.

All dressed up at Lily & Kory's. Liam was dressed as The Dread Pirate Roberts but had school/rifle till 7:30 then a birthday/halloween party at a friends house with his GF.

Mummy pizza for dinner! Its become a tradition :)

Halloween Pumpkin Carving 2016

Bacon

Brine ready for pork. Apple cider, brown sugar, salt, pepper and water. The pork bellies hang out in here for about 10 days.

After brining, the meat has to dry to form a pellicule so the smoke will 'stick'. Dried about 4-5 hours with a fan this time. then smoked for about 6. We haven't tasted it yet, but it doesn't generally fail me.

Go Nooks!

This photo makes me awfully proud. For all you non Facebook folks, a re-post of the Alaska Rifle full team promo picture that was posted today. Liam with his team from University of Alaska Fairbanks, ranked 6th in the nation right now. They will compete in the season opener this weekend against Air Force (7) and Texas Christian University (3).

Kim-chi

I tried my hand at some Kim-chi, its very garlicky and strong this time! Time to make some more bi bim bob...

Terrible

I am so slack about posting here! I have just spent a very enjoyable 30 mins scrolling through old posts, 2009! How did my kids get so big?! My poor dog is so gray now! I'm still sad we don't have the RV anymore...such fun adventures.
Well, our life is very different now. Liam is in college and his schedule for the rifle team keeps him very busy, most days he leaves the house by 9:30 and doesn't return till 8. Abbie is in Junior High so her bus comes at 8:45 and doesn't bring her back till 4:40, she still does girl scouts and actually just returned from a weekend camping trip! Kyle still works strange days/hours and I have an accidental job being in charge of the TVSA range building 2-3 times a week and administering the state gaming licence for them.
We still manage to cook crazy things and definitely eat well around here :) we made sauerkraut, seasoned sauerkraut and kimchi this fall that needs canning. I have also ordered pork belly for more bacon. There are concerts and rifle matches coming up to be involved in too...such doings!!

A pic of Abbie and I on the beach in Seward. We had an awesome summer road trip with Zara this summer and definitely plan to go back some day.

Tasty things to eat

I don't have much love for Walmart, but the do carry some really great produce. Interesting new things I haven't seen before and great prices on staples that will always get eaten.
The guava was tasty but had hard seeds I didn't care for but the apples were great and even cheaper than Sam's club!

A very Liam bowl

Rice, salmon, and broccoli. Soy and spice, garlic and ginger, gotta keep him fed!

Playing

I love there can still be play time, a little Frisbee <3

Black forest cake

A black forest cake to celebrate Stan's birthday.

Ham

One of my favorite  things to do with leftover easter ham. Ham and cheese grits, fired fresh egg, coffee. Wonderful breakfast!

Aoli

Today's quick project: beer mustard aoli with a touch of Sriracha for tonight's salmon sammiches

Invaded!

Liam's friends came over for a LAN party (local area network, a way to play computer games all together) Perfect fun belated birthday bash!

Welsh rarebit

Inspired by "The Mind of a Chef" on PBS. Good reviews from everyone but Abbie who said it was burnt and smelled weird.

Birthday girl

Abbie had a good 13th birthday, she told me she had the best time ever at a birthday party! We took five friends to Chen Hot Springs for a swim, then they all spent the night. A lot of singing, junk food, giggling and rowdy girl time. After all the girls got picked up, Abbie had time for a nap before the family came over for an Italian feast. Fetuccini, cheese ravioli, Alfredo sauce, pesto sauce, seared scallops and chicken, procuitto  wrapped asparagus, Caesar salad, focaccia, bagette  bread, pickle and cheese tray and a raspberry crosta  for dessert. I'm glad birthdays only come once a year!!
In the pic Abbie is playing with one of her new birthday goodies, a Polaroid zip printer. It prints tiny pictures from any device via Bluetooth 

Eggs in purgatory

I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately, we seem to have even skipped Liam's birthday fun! We had slow roasted Asian style duck with steam  buns and a berry truffle for dessert! Yum!
It has been crazy busy and unsettled around here lately. So I've decided not to try to catch up on all the events.
So starting from today:
I tried a new recipe, eggs in purgatory. Soft poached eggs in spicy tomato sauce you eat with bread. Liam, Kyle and I really liked it, Abbie not so much. I'm going to make it again though, along with salad it make a wonderful and quick supper!

Treasures

Found in Abbie's room, a newborn baby dress. I have a hard time imagining it wasn't just for a baby doll?!!

Senior ball

Liam and his date, MaLinda Malenfant, went together to senior ball last week. I can't believe they are seniors already! Time flies I guess...fancy kids!