Cuban Food

A few months ago, we tried the new Cuban restaurant in town. (The food was pretty good, but it was really slow.) When I saw plantains for 45 cents each at Walsmart, I thought it would be fun to have cuban food at home. Ours is more tex-mexi-cubano but everyone still thought it was good. I made mashed plantains with mojo (lime juice, salt, pepper, and garlic), chicken thighs marinated in lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and chipotle chili, re-fried beans, tortillas, fried peppers and onions, and veggies. YUM!! The mojo in the plantains is supposed to have O.J. in it also but I had none, I think it needed it. They were really limey, but that went well with the spicy chicken. They were also very thick. After more research online I think they should have some olive oil mixed in. I will be trying them again, with some changes. (I should note, the kiddos didn't like the plantains...Liam ate a little with his chicken, but Abbie had a tiny taste. At least they will always try things, better luck next time with a new recipe.) I will definitely be making the chicken again. My family loves chicken and I am always looking for new ways to cook it.

Peep, peep

The Robin eggs have hatched on the wheel of the plow truck. The mama Robin has been fairly tolerant of our peeking at her nest. She flies away as we approach, but doesn't try to peck our eyes out for taking a quick look. The baby is not so cute but very fascinating! The only down side is, I don't want to move the nest, so we can't drive the truck! Good thing we have family willing to haul trash for us. (Anybody know how long we will have to wait?)

Pasta night

Lily and I decided we weren't done with celebrating our birthdays so, we had fresh pasta night! Mom made two kinds of sauce and pasta, I made some too along with bread and trifle. We also cut up the leftover lamb and re-grilled it for people who needed more protein. Everything was really good (was there ever any doubt?) Kyle also made me a new drying rack for pasta. (It needs to dry a little before boiling.) It works really well and looks cool, but the best part is, it comes all apart for storage!

Birthday Pizza

Besides a fabulous coconut cake, we had pizza for my birthday! Some good pictures taken by Liam:


I try to remember to thaw out some sort of meat to roast in the oven after pizza. This time was a lamb roast. It smelled sooooooooo good, but due to lack of thermometer, it was a little underdone. We still ate the done-er bits from the outside and cut the rest up for steaks on pasta night.

Birthday cake

Had to post one picture from my birthday baking. I got my coconut cake! We had a big pizza party too, thank you so much to all my family and friends who came and made this a very happy birthday to me!!

Elliott, the rest of the story

Running from the mosquitoes!

Old cabin hiding it the woods at Livengood

Junction with the Dalton, traffic was so light, we sat here for about 10 minutes and didn't see anybody.

Pretty sun on a hill taken by Liam on our way home.

After leaving Tatalina, we drove up to the Tolovana River for lunch then on to the abandoned town of Livengood. Not much to see there. I think we should have driven further up the hill from the highway, but the road was rough and unknown. After making our bumpy way back to the Elliott, we drove up to the turn off for the Dalton Highway. Beyond that the road is unpaved, so I think we will leave that trip for another day. We decided to head back toward town and camp at the Tolovana. The camping spot is right off the road, unmaintained, but fairly clean. We were able to pull up not too far from the river and spent a long time fishing (see Liam's post) Kyle did a little panning, but had no luck. This being our last night we wandered back to town, stopping at the lower Chatanika for dinner.

Up the Elliott

For this trip we drove up the Elliott Highway. It was surprisingly quiet, for a haul road. We took a look at the lower Chatanika campground (11 mi) but the were full of people, so we kept going up the road to the Tatalina River (45 mi). There is a small spot beside the river with two camping places. We stayed at the dryer one closer to the highway. We went for a little walk, fished, Kyle prospected and we saw a beaver. Overall, not our favorite spot. The campsites are not maintained and very trashy. The fishing and prospecting were both a bust. So we decided to head off down the road...