Finally Some Snow

In Trout Lake, it is typical to have snow on the ground from November to March. But the last two winters have been disappointing with the snow disappearing in January. Well, this year, we had a little snow the week before Thanksgiving and then NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING. On Christmas Day, mother nature humored us and sent a few flakes for a couple of hours. And then more NOTHING. It hasn't even rained much. The winter moisture builds the reserve for our dry summers, so this isn't a good sign for the rest of the year.

Well, we finally have snow falling with more in the forecast. Here we are enjoying our first real snow this winter. Anders is sporting his new moose hat from Darrell (daycare Dad).

Happy Winter (finally!)

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders

School Photo at Three Years Old

It's school photo time again for Anders! Technically, he's still not in school, but "Uncle" Jeff was able to fit him in.

The difference between the photos from this year and last year is pretty dramatic. I know that we shouldn't be surprised by that; after all, he is 50% older now than he was a year ago. But there's really no denying it now: he's growing up.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

3 November 2011

Anders' "First" Halloween

Despite this being Anders' third Halloween, I would venture to say that this was his first true Halloween celebration. He picked the jack-o-lantern designs, chose his own costume, and trick-or-treated through The Gorge. He is no baby anymore!

Brachiosaurus Jack-o-Lantern
I think every little boy has a fascination with dinosaurs, and Anders is no exception. So straight out of the blue one day he stated that he wanted a Brachiosaurus jack-o-lantern. We weren't talking about pumpkins or dinosaurs at the time, so it really was out of nowhere. It makes me wonder what else he has going on in that head of his!

For some strange reason, it was difficult to find a ready made jack-o-lantern stencil to meet the request. But with a little creativity on Corinne's part, she created a great pattern! (And since she was already doing one dinosaur, why not two? She chose one of its late Jurassic contemporaries, the Stegasaurus, as a companion piece.)

Best Brachiosaurus and Stegosaurus jack-o-lanterns ever

We let Anders use a crayon to draw a face on a third pumpkin. It took some "interpretation" of his marks to cut out a face, but I like it.

Astronaut?
Corinne and I are usually pretty last minute about Halloween costumes, but this year we were the lucky recipients of an astronaut hand-me-down costume from Zak. Perfect! Problem solved, right? Wrong.

About two weeks before Halloween, Anders stated that he wanted to be a firefighter. All of our attempts to convince him otherwise failed miserably. We even brought out the astronaut costume to show him. A few hours later (again, when we weren't even talking about costumes) I asked him an open-ended "what do you think, Anders?" question. His answer was clear: "I think that astronaut costume should be a firefighter costume."

Yellow raincoat + hat + (black boots X white reflective duct tape) + ping pong ball shooter = fire fighter!

We picked Anders up from daycare early on Monday afternoon and made a few office trick-or-treat stops before heading back to downtown White Salmon for some small town trick-or-treating with the Fluits.

Spy and Firefighter

Public servant, on the job

Is that a fire whistle that I hear?

We even stopped in to the local volunteer firehouse. Unfortunately, Anders was too shy to take advantage of the opportunity to sit in a fire truck. Too bad for us, since we missed a great photo opportunity!

We did capture a sample of "Anders, the Singing Firefighter."

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

It didn't take very long for Anders to get the hang of it: "Trick-or-treat" -> "Thank you" -> "Happy Halloween!" while waving arm violently.

Zak, Daniel, and Anders awaiting candy.
You can practically see the anticipation on their faces!

After an hour or so trick-or-treating downtown, we turned the tables and had the kids man the door at the Fluits while the adults ate dinner.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Happy Halloween!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

1 November 2011

Fluffy Ears

Recently the three of us walked out to our garden to pick some flowers for a bouquet. Most of the flowers were still in full bloom, but Anders particularly liked how "fluffy" the zinnias were.

It didn't take too much encouragement to get him to pose for some "fluffy" photos with his flowers. (I use the term "pose" loosely.)

Fluffy Ears...

...Fluffy Eyes...

...Fluffy Nose!

A modern take on Three Wise Monkeys, perhaps?

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

The End of Summer Tomatoes

Thanks to a long summer, our garden was still producing prolifically into October. When it looked like the first frost was coming, we harvested whatever was left: tomatoes, tomatillos, boxes of squash, and piles of herbs. We spent most of a weekend cooking and canning: Zucchini Dill Pickles, Chile Verde Sauce, and a wonderful Tomato and Sage Sauce. All made from garden ingredients! (Thanks to Debbie for some of her garden plum tomatoes.)

The blender technique to this particular recipe was a bit unusual for a tomato sauce. But with so many different varieties and colors, the process was beautiful.

Onions, garlic, sage, and chili pepper

Ready for jars

One last bit of summer tucked away, just enough to remember it by.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

2 October 2011

Anders is 3!

It's hard to believe, but Anders turned three years old today! Apparently three is when cheesy smiles and "mugging" for the camera begin.

Happy Birthday!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Snow! Finally! (and motion-activated cameras)

Despite predictions to the contrary, it's been a pretty light winter in terms of snow accumulation. Here's a "time lapse" video of some driveway clearing work that we did after one of the late winter snowfalls.

Watch this video on YouTube or
in the original blog post

The video was created by stitching together a series of still photos taken with a motion-activated trail camera that we recently bought. The trail camera is designed to be mounted to a tree or other fixed object and automatically takes one or more photos or video when it detects motion. To start, we mounted it in the driveway as a trial run before we move it to another more interesting place on our property. The camera just happened to be mounted there when I had to clear the driveway. You'll undoubtedly see more interesting shots taken with it at a later time.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

Date: March 1, 2011

Dinner Party: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan

One of the downsides of living outside of a city - and one of the things that we miss about Boston - is the lack of ethnic diversity. While there is great Mexican food in this area, you have to go to Portland for most other types. (For example: there aren't any Middle Eastern, Indian or South Asian restaurants anywhere in The Gorge. Period.)

That has never deterred us, though; we'll just do it ourselves, at home. But rather than go it alone in the wilderness, we have cultivated a cadre of similar-minded foodies and participate in ethnic food parties. Previous ethnic-themed dinners have covered Thai, Spanish, and German. For this one, we were inspired by our favorite restaurant: The Helmand, an Afghani restaurant in Cambridge, MA. (If you are ever in the Boston area, we highly recommend it.)

For our dinner party, we expanded the scope to include a few of the surrounding countries: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. We made two of our cookbooks available as inspiration: Afghan Food and Cookery and Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations. We invited a few dozen friends, made a few recipes ourselves, and just let the dishes roll in.

• Chalau Sof / Afghan style baked rice (Afghanistan)
  
• Koufta Chalau / Meatballs (Afghanistan)
  
• Nani Afghani / Flatbread (Afghanistan)
  
• Borrani banjan / Eggplant (Afghanistan)
  
• Sfiha / Arab pizza (Syria/Lebanon)
  
• Helawat al Jazr / Sweet Cardamon Carrots (Iran)
  
• Chelo Kebab Barg / Roasted goat (Iran)
  
• Lawang e Samaruq / Mushrooms in Yogurt (Afghanistan)
  
• Channa / Chickpea curry (Indian)
  
• Hummus / Hummus (everywhere)
  
• Chicken Jalfarezi / Chicken curry (Pakistan)
  
• Achaar Chicken / Tangy curry chicken (Pakistan)
  
• Naan Berenji / Persian Rice Cookies (Iran)

Interestingly, only a few of the dishes used meat, which made the vegetarians in the group very happy. There were probably a few more dishes as well that didn't get included in this list. (Most of the recipes that aren't linked are from one of the two cookbooks above.) Here was the resulting spread, in all its splendor:

We encouraged people to bring beverages as well, with the stipulation that "all drinks must comply with the local customs in these countries" (aka "think twice before bringing beer or wine"). The resulting beverage list included two kinds of chai; Ouzo that was homemade by a friend of one of the participants (technically it isn't from one of the countries indicated, but how do you turn away a homemade liquor?); and Johnny Walker with water. That last one is apparently what all the Indian men drink in the backrooms. Yes, technically outside of the indicated countries, but it's a great visual, isn't it?

We love these parties. They give people an opportunity/excuse to expand their cooking experiences, but more importantly, we all get to help eat the results.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Pancake Revival

Who doesn't have fond childhood memories of having pancakes? Anders, that's who. We have never made him pancakes. When we were first married, we tried several pancake recipes but were not impressed with any of the results. For us, waffles and french toast beat out pancakes any day. So pancakes were never on our breakfast menu.

But now that Anders is around, we have started to feel guilty. Have we been depriving him of a quintessential American adolescent experience? If it weren't for daycare, Anders wouldn't even know what a pancake was. So we came up with a plan. We were sure that some of our parent friends must make pancakes for their kids, and they can't all be as dull as ours, right? Time for another themed food party: Pancake Revival!

We invited some of our friends-with-young-children to brunch and asked them to bring a pancake recipe, either one of their favorites or a new one to try. We would cook up a batch of each different recipe and let everyone enjoy the variety, including the kids.

We had pancakes of all sorts: buckwheat, whole wheat; pumpkin, strawberry, blueberry, spiced; thick, thin. And lots of them. We had griddles going simultaneously for at least an hour. All of the kids, including Anders, got their fill of pancakes that day.

It certainly wasn't a contest, so I won't declare a "winner". But we did come away with a recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes that all three of us liked. It turned out to be a recipe from the cookbook of the Wildflower Cafe, a longtime favorite restaurant in the Gorge that closed several years ago.

Since this event was really all about the kids, here are some of the participants:

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Favorite Recipes of 2010

It's that time of year - time for the 2010 installment in the Favorite New Recipes series. In last year's installment, we had nothing to report. As a result, we vowed to do better in 2010, doing more menu planning and just generally enjoying our mealtimes again. We are happy to report that we were largely successful and have many new recipes to relate.

#1: Spaghetti Squash with Jalapeno Cream
Source: Sunset
This recipe was an easy choice for the top of our year-end list. We were inspired to find new squash recipes after buying spaghetti squash from our organic farmer neighbor, but once we found this recipe we got stuck on it and haven't tried too much else. Milk is infused with jalapeno then mashed with roasted squash and topped with pepper jack cheese. How could that possibly be anything but delicious?

#2: Greek Lamb with Spinach and Artichokes
Source: Better Homes and Gardens
Slow-cooked lamb and beans, with artichokes and spinach tossed in at the end, all topped with feta cheese. To paraphrase Jerry Maguire: "You had me at Greek Lamb." We usually make a double batch, and it barely fits in our 4.5qt slow-cooker.

#3: Skillet Gnocchi with Chard and White Beans
Source: Eating Well, January/February 2009
We discovered this one in our quest to introduce more healthy, weeknight-friendly bean dishes into our (and Anders's) diet. Pick up some chard, and everything else is a pantry staple.

#4: Fried Chickpeas with Chorizo
Source: The Minimalist (Mark Bittman)
To celebrate his birthday, our friend Rat held ethnic-themed dinner parties where everyone was instructed to bring a dish from a particular country's cuisine. We attended Spanish night, and this was our contribution. (More beans - are you sensing a theme?)

#5: Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Source: Cook's Illustrated, December 2009
There's a delicious coffee cake recipe in Corinne's family that is legendary; it makes an appearance at virtually all family events. This isn't it. So the fact that this one makes the list says something about what we thought of it. It takes a little extra effort, so this isn't an everyday item.

And for completeness... here is the family coffee cake recipe which originally hails from Molfred Amole, a lady in Great Falls, MT. When Corinne's Mom Donna was in high school, she cleaned house and babysat for Molfred and her family.

#6: Raspberry Spoon Bread
Source: Eating Well, July/August 2009
We actually did discover a favorite recipe in 2009, but it wasn't until raspberries were back in season that we remembered. This one is a simple, cornmeal based dessert and a great way to use raspberries which are so plentiful in the summer months.

#7: Chorizo Bread Pudding
Source: The Spanish Table
This is the one recipe on this list that we didn't actually make ourselves. (I guess you could consider that a violation of the rules.) Our friend Mandy brought this dish to the aforementioned Spanish dinner party. It would be great as part of a weekend brunch.

And speaking of puddings... inspired by the McDuff children's stories, Corinne went on an exploration of puddings, including vanilla rice pudding, tapioca pudding, and a coconut milk pudding. Anders and I certainly appreciated the results!

Here's to more new recipes and continued meal enjoyment in 2011!

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

Max's 2010 Critter Count

It looks like our reality show, Max: Extreme Hunter, is on hiatus.

Last year, Max was a super hunter. He caught more animals in a single year than the total of all previous years combined. But after his thyroid condition was discovered and successfully treated, his activities trailed off at the end of last year.

This year's results pale in comparison.

	2008	2009	2010
Mice	9	5	1
Birds	4	1	1
Gophers	2	25	0
Squirrels	0	3	3
Lizards	0	6	1

The most disappointing line is the gophers. None! And we have certainly seen no decrease in gopher activity; there's plenty out there to hunt, that's for sure.

We did have some excitement during one of the squirrel incidents. Whenever Max catches an animal, he consistently brings it inside and drops it on the dining room floor. Until this year, all of the animals that he has brought inside have been dead (except for the lizards - somehow ALL of the lizards have survived). But on this one particular day, when Max dropped a squirrel onto the floor something didn't quite seem normal. Its eyes were open and the fur was pretty matted down in sections, and just as Corinne was asking if it was dead, it blinked. At this point, Corinne hastily left the room while I came up with various schemes to get this squirrel back outside. It scurried under the furniture, climbed the log walls and generally did not acquiesce to my requests. Anyone who has listened to the classic This American Life episode knows how horribly this scenario could have ended, but thankfully I managed to wrangle him down the hallway and back outside. Crisis averted.

One of the symptoms of hyperthyroidism is an increased metabolism, so was the "extreme" hunting year just an anomaly spurred by his condition? We're hoping that Max will regain some of that hunting prowess in the coming years. He did spend less time outside this year (by his own choosing), and the vet has described him as "middle-aged", so perhaps his most extreme hunting days are behind him. But we just know that he's got more killing in him.

- Mike, Corinne, Anders, and Max

Nordic Lessons

Two years ago we bought cross country skis, but haven't really used them yet. Corinne went once with Kris and Amy shortly after we bought our gear, but she didn't really know what she was doing. She survived unscathed but didn't leave with any more skills than she started. And I hadn't gone at all and had no idea what I was doing. So when we saw an announcement for a "beginner cross country ski clinic" organized by the Columbia Gorge Chapter of the Oregon Nordic Club (ONC), we figured that it would be a good place to start.

This particular clinic was being held while my parents were in town visiting, so they could watch Anders while we learned. To make things even more convenient for us, it turns out that the clinic was going to be held on Mt Adams (rather than Mt Hood)! A twenty minute drive north of our house and we were at the SnowKing Sno-Park on Mt Adams meeting the rest of the crew.

But the conditions on this particular day were less than ideal. Plenty of snow was still on the ground, but a recent rainy warm spell followed by cold weather again made for some very icy conditions. (In fact, while we were getting our gear together one of the members in our party fell while traversing the parking lot.) After a short survey of the conditions further down the trail, the leaders made a call to move down to a trail at the Trout Lake School. The terrain was relatively flat and the trail had been groomed that morning, so it wasn't particularly icy. (Thanks, Robert!)

We learned a ton from the ONC members before even putting on our skis. We then all spent about an hour and a half doing a loop on the trail with periodic instruction. We both came away with much improved skills (and some sore muscles.) The following day, we spent another 45 minutes or so skiing around our own property. There are no groomed trails, of course, so the conditions were pretty different than the previous day. But I think we had both learned enough of the basics on the previous day that we felt comfortable and had fun.

Here's to more winter snow!

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

Happy New Year!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

First School Picture

Anders hasn't started school yet (he's only two), but he does have his first school photo!

The photo was taken by "Uncle Jeff," Debbie's brother, who has the school picture contract at the White Salmon schools. There's something about a school photo that is so unmistakable!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Deer Are Dirty Thieves

A few years ago, Tara & Jason gave Corinne a T-shirt with a graphic of a deer captioned: "Deer are Dirty Thieves." We've had our problems with deer in the past, but this story takes it to a new level.

We recently bought two #20 boxes of organic Jonagold apples from a local orchardist, with plans to make applesauce and any number of other wonderful apple items. Since we didn't have space in either the kitchen or garage fridges for such a bounty, I decided that we should store them on the front stoop of the house until we could process them. The weather was cool but not yet freezing, so in the absence of a root cellar I figured that this would be the best option.

You can probably already see where this is going, but bear with me for a minute.

One night I needed to get something from the garage, so I slipped on my clogs and walked down the sidewalk. It was pretty dark outside, but for some reason I decided that I didn't need to turn on the outside light. As I got about halfway down the sidewalk, I heard an incredibly loud noise on the gravel driveway right next to me. The sound startled me so much that I jumped out of my shoes - literally. My bare big toe came down on the concrete sidewalk, scraping off a good sized chunk of skin.

Once I calmed down and regained my wits, I realized that the sound was caused by several deer that had been standing in the driveway in front of the garage. They had probably watched me walk towards them the whole time and bolted away when they decided that I had gotten too close.

When I got back inside the house I surveyed the damage and relayed the story to Corinne. She laughed all the way up the stairs to get a bandage for my toe. Less than 20 minutes later I glanced out the front window to see two deer standing next to the stoop eating apples RIGHT OUT OF THE BOXES. I quickly ran outside to chase them away, but much damage had already been done. They had probably eaten or taken bites out of around 20% of the apples. And we're pretty sure that this was not their first meal out of these boxes, which is probably why the deer were in the driveway in the first place.

We did manage to salvage the rest of the apples; ironically, the deer had eaten enough that we were able to fit the remainder in the fridge.

Peering through the window, wondering what treat we'll be providing next...

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

Pumpkin Patch

Another year, another trip to the pumpkin patch for Halloween. At two, Anders was able to better appreciate what was happening than during his first pumpkin patch visit. He spent most of his time running through the fields as fast as he could. (Amazingly enough, he only fell a few times.)

Occasionally he would stop and point to a pumpkin that he wanted to take home. But it wouldn't take long for him to change his mind and take off running again.

He did slow down long enough to walk through the corn "maze."

I'm sure that with each new year, he'll enjoy the holidays a little more. And so will we!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

23 October 2010

Creative Jack-O-Lanterns

Our friends Simon and Lindsey hosted a pumpkin carving dinner party a few weeks before Halloween. It was a creative group, so the results were fairly impressive.

Since many of the folks at the party were from our office, we actually had a bit of a contest at work to see who could guess who carved which pumpkins. I don't think anyone got ours right: Corinne carved the owl, and I did the Lisa Frank-inspired unicorn with a rainbow.

We proudly displayed our artistry on the front porch.

Unfortunately, the repeated freeze/thaw cycle of the weather did them in pretty quickly. They didn't make it to Halloween.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

15 October 2010