What am I doing with goats on a leash?

You may be wondering that.  Well.
One of my students told me in her tutoring session today that she was going to take the goats (at my principals house) for a walk after school and I told her that I would like to come along and help.  I was super excited about this,  I had never met the goats.  The boy is Boots, the one directly in front of me is Gracie and the other one is Pan.

So my student, Elayna, and I go out walking the goats (you met Elayna in the last post).  Just a nice short walk around.  Well, on the way back I had an...um...interesting experience.  I cannot explain why it happened then of all moments, but Boots kept trying to mount Pan.  I just could not believe this was happening while I was with one of my students and I had no idea how to handle this situation.  Put this on the list of: Things They Don't Tell You When You Are Getting An Education Degree.

Then we make it back home and we feed the goats and change their water and feed the chickens and change their water and collect the eggs and put them in the house.  Overall, a mostly uneventful animal care experience.

So after I help take care of the animals, I take Elayna back home and I head back to the school where I run in to my principal.  He asks me if I want to go on a snow-mobile ride and I say heck yeah I do!  So about a half-hour later he picks me up and we head out.  We drive over in to what's called the Twin Lakes region of Kokhanok and, of course, it's beautiful and peaceful.  My principal takes me for a walk around he talks to me about the wildlife and we look for animal tracks.

The only animal we found was a spruce hen.  It had really excellent camouflage.  See if you can find it in this picture:

Then we drive home and he has me over for dinner.  He pulls this salmon fillet out of the giant freezer.

Then we season it up and bake it.  The top one is the one my principal made, it had cayenne pepper, coconut oil, garlic salt (and something else?).  His was more of a salmon experiment.  I opted for the more traditional approach and I did the bottom one.  I put lemon pepper seasoning, some olive oil, and a little bit of salt.  We baked them for 15 minutes.  The longer you bake salmon the mushier it gets and I like my salmon to be quite firm.  Both cuts of salmon turned out delicious.

It was paired with: quinoa with jalapenos and sundried tomatoes and spaghetti squash which I put butter and salt on.

It was just such an excellent meal.

Towing and a Run of Bad Luck

This weekend was a great one.  My kids picked me up on Saturday to go towing.  Now, for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, fear not.  I had no idea either until I got out here.

Here's a little video in which I will explain towing, while towing.

Then after we went towing, we ate cookies in the snow.

Then after that we took the sled and we drove up this huge hill that leads to the dump.  Then we rode the sled down the hill and we crashed into some bushes because we couldn't stop.

Then after all this excitement I invited the kids back to my place and I made them all lunch.  We had mac and cheese.

Meet our crew!  

Top row: Sim, Sherilynn, and Taty (they're all brothers and sisters)

On the bottom row, that's Elayna.

So, during our towing session Elayna tells me the women are getting together that night for dance practice in order to prepare a dance for carnival.  I ask if I can go, and they say yes.  So I show up at the community center that night, expecting dance rehearsal.  And there's no dance rehearsal that night, but there is bingo!  So I decide that I did walk down there, I should just stay for bingo.

Meet the new face of bingo!

I played bingo for four hours and I won absolutely nothing.  No money at all.  You could say that it was just not my night.  I'm justifying this whole experience by saying that I got to meet all kinds of people that I had never seen before.  A ton of people come out to bingo and I got to meet lots of new people, including elders.  Also, I spent less than $20 at bingo, so I think I did alright (even though I didn't win at all, not even a door prize.)

I might go again next week.  I'm determined to win at least once before I leave.

Tabasco Pizza and Alaska Apparel

I decided to make pizza the other day as I have these pre-made crusts that I got from Costco.
I wanted to try something new and I wanted to put hot sauce on my pizza, but I didn't have any hot sauce. So I venture over to my principal's house because that's where I go whenever I need anything.  Sure enough, they had some they could give me, and I start my walk back home.

When I get home I realize that the block of mozzarella cheese I bought from the store (YES! THEY HAD IT AT THE STORE!) is still frozen.

Now I will not be making pizza tonight it seems.

So I decide instead that I'll make 'hot' popcorn.  (popcorn with hot sauce on it, it's so good.)  Actually, one of my high schoolers told me about it, and I eat it on a fairly regular basis when I go over to visit my principal.

And I'm thinking, how badly could I mess this up?

Apparently, I'm also incapable of making microwave popcorn.

Luckily, I had another bag and so I tried again, this time with much more success.

[AN APPEAL TO MY READERSHIP.  I AM NOW OUT OF MICROWAVE POPCORN.  SEND TO:

SARAH DENNIS

GENERAL DELIVERY

KOKHANOK SCHOOL

KOKHANOK, AK 99606]

With my microwave popcorn all cooked and tabascoed up, it's time to start

THE GREAT ALASKAN SUIT-UP

here are all the things you need to put on if you're going, well, anywhere.

Start with under armour pants and socks.

Add wool socks.

Then add Kokhanok sweatpants over top.

On top, start with thermal shirt

Add Kokhanok Warlords Hoodie

Then you have to put on boots.  A process which, in and of itself, takes about 5 minutes.

Then coat and scarf.

Gloves

And hat

I had gotten all suited up and went in search of tabasco sauce, and I ran in to some of my students.  They were actually on their way to come find me, because they had a gift for me.  A gift of dried, cured fish!

It is really delicious and I only eat a little bit every day because I want to have it for as long as possible.

Speaking of my students, tomorrow one of them is having a birthday, and I'm invited to the party!  I got my invitation this morning.

It's at the home of one of the most respected elders in the village and I'm super excited.  

Meet Misty!

I was sitting next to her at the junior high basketball game the other night, and she wanted to wear my scarf, so I gave it to her.  She said "Look, I'm Ms. Sarah!"

I'll be attending her birthday party tomorrow at 5, and I couldn't be more excited.

Well, tomorrow's a busy day and I have to get to bed.

Goodnight all!

A Call for Recipes

Today was full of cooking and so I was reminded of how positively inept I am in the kitchen.

Before I started cooking I preheated the oven because my over takes about 20 minutes to heat.

While I'm waiting for that, I decided to have a granola bar, because I was starving.  And I needed to eat before I could cook anything.

Then I decided I could no longer ignore the stack of dishes in the sink, and my oven was still preheating anyway.

Then after doing the dishes I was still hungry so I finished the Dorito's.  Because why shouldn't you keep eating snacks while you're making dinner?

So then it's time for the actual cooking!

Here's a mini-cooking show that I filmed.  I call it:

Making Breadcrumbs

The final result ended up looking like this:

Then I picked out the big pieces

Added some seasoning

And also some pepper

So I put my chicken in the egg mixture and then in the bread crumbs and then put it in a pan to fry.  It was frying in the pan really nicely and then I cut it in half and it was still pink in the middle.  So then I got really nervous and I put it in the oven to finish cooking.  I started to get really nervous though, when it started leaking mysterious chicken goo?  See that white bit that is in the middle of the photo? I have no idea what that is. But after about 30 minutes in the oven it was no longer pink in the middle so I considered it safe to eat.

While the chicken was waiting in the oven, I decided to make more coffee creamer.

This time I got to use sweetened condensed milk (cuz my mom sent me some).  Sweetened condensed milk is essentially milk sludge, but it tastes delicious and I can't wait to use it in my coffee creamer tomorrow.

So I was still left with one chicken breast and I couldn't decide what to do.  I didn't really want to do another fried chicken, and I was really attached to the idea of stir fry.  Well, I don't really know how to make stir fry chicken, but luckily my mom sent me this little packet 

So I cut up the chicken, stir fried it, put in some left over frozen vegetables that I had cooked about a week ago

And I added some rice that I made a few days ago and viola!

And after a meal as delicious as that one, I had to take a little baby nap.

Here's the part, my loyal followers, that I need help with.  I need more ideas about how to eat the food that I have.  Here is what I am equipped with:

• Ground Beef
• Chicken Breasts
• About 2 dozen bagels
• Butter
• Eggs (or egg substitute)
• Rice
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Pasta
• Mac and Cheese
• Ramen Noodles
• Oil
• Flour
• Sugar
• Seasoning
• Instant Mashed Potatoes
• Frozen Veggies
• Frozen Fruit
• Frozen Pizza Crust
• Sliced Processed American Cheese
• Applesauce
• Chicken Gravy 
• About 5 loaves of bread
• Cereal
• Soup

And anything not on this list, I might be able to beg/borrow/buy from somewhere or someone, so you are not totally confined to everything in this list.  

You can send me your recipes however you like, but please include directions about how to cook the items, because I have no idea how to cook even the most basic things (i.e. chicken).

Much love from Alaska!

$10 Cupcakes and Bear Spray

Today was spent doing my cooking for the week (pretty much).  I might to cook a little bit towards the end of the week.  Now, to anyone who's been worried that I don't have enough food, you can relax.  I actually feel like I'm drowning in food.

I even went to the store to spend another $20 gift from my grandpa.  So I bought cake mix, frosting and graham crackers.  Anyone want to guess a total on this one?

Well, since one of my responsibilities is math tutor I will give you a word problem about it.

Sarah's grandpa gave her $20.  After ringing up all her purchases, Sarah hands the cashier her $20 and receives $2.50 as her change.  If the cake mix and frosting cost $10, how much is a box of graham crackers in Kokhanok and what was Sarah's total spent?

So I bring my cake mix home with me and a couple of days later I decide to go through the process of making them.  I don't have any eggs, but my principal does have chickens.  So I head over there in search of eggs.

I also don't have a mixing bowl to mix all this up in so I have to mix it in the only pot that I have in my apartment.

Here's what $10 cupcakes look like:

I have been eating about 2 a day because I don't want them to get stale.  I am certainly not going to waste $10 cupcakes.

See also:

Remember that bag of doritos I bought last time around?  Well they are starting to get stale, so I've been having nachos every night until I polish off those suckers because I am also not about to let an $8 bag of chips go to waste.

Enough about the food, more about the scenery and the walking around out here.  

Yesterday, it was really beautiful out and I had enough time before sunset that I could go out walking around Kokhanok.  So there's this trail behind my house that I have been wanting to explore.  I start walking along and it's really lovely.  

Well I'm walking, and I see these animal prints in the snow.  So, cue me freaking out.  I cannot tell what sort of animal made these and I can only think the worst.  Bear.  Wolf.  Moose.  (Hairyman?) I haven't seen an animal since I've been out here, but I didn't like knowing that one had passed by recently.

Then I came upon these less scary-seeming tracks.

But then I get to this clearing in the path and it's beautiful.

But I'm pretty sure that what I'm standing on is a lake/swamp/body of water.  So I'm feeling nervous again, because I'm mostly sure that the lake is frozen but I really didn't want to take any chances here.  I can't afford to fall through the ice.

So I turn around and start back towards my house but it's just so beautiful out and the sun is setting and it's casting all these beautiful colors in the sky.   I just wasn't ready to be done with my walk yet.

So I start walking in the direction of my principals house, and I have to walk by the only gas pump in Kokhanok.

And I walk down by the lake.  I also start to walk across the lake in order to get the best shot of the beautiful sunset.

With all my adventuring worn out, and the sun nearly set, I make my way back to the school.  As I pass the school I run in to my principal.  And I ask him about the animal tracks that I found.  The big bad animal that I was so afraid of?  Rabbit.  Those are rabbit tracks.  The other tracks?  He said probably mink or ermine.  Have you ever seen an ermine?

Here's a picture of these cute little guys, I only wish I had seen one!

After I asked him about that, I asked him whether or not it was safe for me to go walking around by myself.  He said yes (but what if he'd said no, really too late at that point).  He did say, however, that I should carry bear spray.  So now I have my very own can of highly concentrated, bear un-friendly pepper spray.

Here's kind of what I'm thinking about the bear spray.

But he says that it's actually effective and if I want something else I can always come by and grab his dog, Russel, and we can go out on walks together.

Let me just read you the first warning under the bear spray:

DO NOT SEEK OUT ENCOUNTERS WITH BEARS.

Um...wait...what?  Why on earth would I be seeking out encounters with bears?  And why would I do that armed with only pepper spray?  Seriously.  But you know somebody did and now they have to put the warning on every can.

It's only a shame that I did have my bear spray with me for this.

(Just kidding, this was at Alyeska Resort)

With that,

Alaska woman, signing off!