Testing something new :D

Etsy TheArcticNomad

Adventures in Baking, and other Frivolities

Since my last post I purchased some books, The first being this wonderful book on baking breads by Bernard Clayton:


The book is HUGE and certainly has every type of bread i've ever heard of plus hundreds more. I was super excited to start using it so the first thing I made was pita bread.
The dough was very simple and I ended up with these beautiful and delicious flat breads! We filled them with grilled chicken, cucumber and red onion salad, lettuce, and fat free home made tzatziki sauce(a great sauce made from plain yogurt, lemon, cucumbers, and dill.). YUM!Next tried some bread from the book, it turned out AWESOME!

Other than that, I took a huge leap and created an etsy store on etsy.com.

PLEASE check it out here:

www.TheArcticNomad.etsy.com

I would LOVE any feedback as this is my first venture into the whole online store trend. SO, PLEASE tell me what you think!
Also, no pressure for you, my friends, to buy stuff. But, I'd appreciate it if you shared with all your people! I'd adore the extra traffic to my site.

TaTa for now!

Happy Birthday to Jake!

So it was Jake's birthday on the 25th... He's 26! So old! hehe.

I made him a cake and we decorated the house in Halloween Decorations to celebrate. We went to a local butchers shop and he picked out some big steaks that I cooked up for his Birthday dinner.
We didnt have any birthday candles so I made him blow out some tea lights :D It was silly but fun!


The cake was super yummy! It was double chocolate cake with a german chocolate filling. mmmmmm!

Here are some of our Halloween decorations:
Trick or Treat!

Newest News

So, I'm back from a WONDERFUL time in Utah. So great to see my family and a few friends. We spent a weekend at Bear Lake, stayed in a big cabin and played around on the beach... They said it was too cold to swim, but it didnt seem so cold to me!

My Grandma and Edward came to stay at the cabin (that is a barn in the picture, not the cabin!) with us and we all went for a drive to spend the day at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The drive was really nice with all the fall colors and gorgeous farmland. We drove a little outside Jackson to get a view of the Grand Tetons and this old barn:
When we got back to Pleasant Grove from our trip to Bear Lake I got to stay with the Johnson family and it was so much fun to see them all! We did lots of fun stuff, I got to take engagement pictures for Sierra and Mitch who were recently engaged. This one is my favorite from the bunch:
Later we all carved pumpkins.... I like the spooky blurry picture!

Now I'm back.. MAN I sure missed Jake!

Around the House...

Well, I got the garage here cleaned out, and found a few treasures! One of my favorite things that we found are these awesome vintage 70's dishes. Check em out!
Lately I've been baking bread just about every other day. I have not seemed to get it down just right. Every loaf is either too crumby, too flat, or just not very pretty at all! Luckily they all taste great, but I haven't gotten one perfect just yet. I'm thinking that It's because the yeast I bought is a little defunct. As soon as i get a pretty AND delicious loaf, I'll post a picture!

Also I've been making jewelry and trying new styles. I learned how to make wire wrapped bracelets and I invented some clasps so I dont have to buy any. Here's a couple of them, What do you think? I'm contemplating starting up an online store at etsy.com.


Hmmm fun stuff, I cant quite get the photos on here as large as i'd like, but you get the Idea.

Well that's about all... except...

I leave for UTAH tonight!

So excited to see everyone :D

Kenai... We're here!

Alright so, since its been so long since my last post, lets catch up on the last month! I'll try to keep it entertaining as it appears my blog has begun to seem quite stale. :P

This past month
WE...
No, Jake was not trying on old maternity clothes... But we did throw a fun baby shower for my friend Carrie in Denali! It was good to be able to do something for her before she left for Texas, AND she got lots of Alaska themed baby clothes that will make Absolutely no sense down there in Texas... but whatever, it was a great time.

NEXT:
We went to Chena Hot Springs with, Carrie, Julie, Teddy, Morgan and Robin(Morgan's Mommy!). It was great to hang out with everyone, soak in the hot springs, and give them a tour of the whole place!I wore the pretty new dress that my Mom(thanks!) sent me, it was such a warm and beautiful fall day!
We got a tour of the Ice Museum and Dog Kennel(Thanks for being awesome, Chena friends, I miss you!).... Wrong way!

THEN:
It was time to leave Denali, our employment contract is over! Jake headed down to Kenai first to get a vehicle and then came back to pick me up. We packed up our stuff(didnt take long), said good-bye to Denali, and all the incredible people we met, and started driving.

Denali even showed up to see us off!

Well hello there, Mr Mountain!

AND AT LAST,Here we are! And, for the past few weeks since we got here, I've been cleaning, cooking, baking and crafting up a storm! I'll post photos and stories of those goings-on later.

Trip to a glacier.... on an HELICOPTER!

That's right!!! I got to go out on a helicopter tour to the north fork of the Yanert Glacier. It was practically free because I still kinda work for the front desk. Jake wanted to go too, but when we called them they only had room for either one large person or two very small people.... So, only one of us could go. Jake was sweet enough to let me take the seat!! (I think it also had a little to do with the fact that it was very early morning tour too!) I still felt bad leaving him behind.
This is the other helicopter flying through the high mountain passes to get to the HUGE glacier.

The Yanert Glacier is just one of many in the Alaska mountain range and Denali National Park area. Each of the larger glaciers here span 20-30 miles! It was really amazing to look straight down from the air and see all the lines and crevices in the ice, it resembled really wrinkly skin, like an elephant. Its very hard to describe just how awe inspiring and beautiful they are!
I really enjoyed the flight-seeing in a helicopter compared to a small plane, there was much less turbulence and bigger windows so we could see better and take some great photos!! I was able to get some awesome shots of the fall colors on the tundra and also of the beautiful ice blue glacier ponds. I'll be posting those photos on the facebook page soon!

I'm pushing Jake to get out on a tour ASAP because, this is one of the coolest things I have ever done!!