Six Week Bran Muffins

Store Batter in the refrigerator for up to six weeks. You can bake a fresh supply every day, if you like. Origin of recipe is unknown.

Ingredients

4 Cups Bran Flakes

2 Cups All-Bran Cereal

3 Cups Boiling Water

1 Cup Butter or Margarine

1 1/2C Granulated Sugar

1 ½ C packed brown sugar

4 eggs

4 Cups buttermilk

¼ C Molasses (optional)

5 Cups all-purpose flour

2 Tbl baking soda

1 Tb baking powder

1 teas salt

2 C raisins

36 – 48 Muffins

40 Minutes/15 Min Prep

1. In a large bowl combine cereals and boiling water.
2. Let stand.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars together.
4. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Mix in buttermilk.
6. Add molasses (optional ingredient).
7. Stir in a separate bowl, combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt and raisins.
8. Mix thoroughly.
9. Add to batter and stir well to combine ingredients.
10. Store in refrigerator.
11. No need to bake all at one time; it will keep for six weeks.
12. As required, fill greased muffin tin ¾ full. You may prefer paper liners.
13. Oven temperature 400 degrees F
14. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes.
15. Remove from pan after 5 minutes cooling.
16. Variation: Brans may be switched to use 2 Cups Bran Flakes and 4 Cups All-bran.
17. Or you may use natural bran to replace one of either cereal.

Rose Petal Jelly Short Cook Method

1 3/4 C Rose Petal Juice
2 T Lemon Juice
3 1/2 C Sugar
3 oz Liquid pectin

To extract juice: Pack rose petals tightly into measuring cup to measure 1 1/2 C . Place in a large saucepan and crush with a masher or glass. Add 2 1/4 C water and bring quickly to a boil. Simmer the petals until they have a washed-out color. Strain the liquid. Measure 1 3/4 C of the rose petal juice. Add lemon juice and see it turn a beautiful pink.

Place juice, with lemon juice in a large saucepan. Add sugar. Mix well. Place over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Pour in liquid pectin. Bring to a full roiling boil and boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, skim off the foam with metal spoon and quickly pour into hot sterilized containers. Cover with 1/8 inch paraffin. Use within 6 months, or color will fade.

The New 2008 Alaska Milepost

"Legendary Alaska trip planner and Alaska travel guide to the highways, roads, ferries, lodgings, recreation, sightseeing attractions and services along the Alaska Highway to and within Alaska, including Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and the Yukon."

This book is a wonderful reference guide for any trip you may be making up to Alaska this year.

It's great for those folks venturing up in an RV or for those coming up via the ferry system or cruise ships. Even if you plan to fly in and rent an automobile or RV this book is a valuable source of information about Alaska.

Alyeska Ski Resort

Alyeska was a busy place yesterday. We took a Sunday drive to Girdwood. It was a beautiful sunny day.

All the waterfalls along the road are iced over and the local ice climbers are delighted. It seems a bit dangerous but they always seem to make it to the top without injury.

The tides for Turnaginan Arm are active year round, regardless of the temperature. When the tide goes out it leaves behind large chunks of jagged ice and it looks a bit like the surface of the moon.

We watched the skiers at the Alyeska Ski Resort for awhile and then went to The Bake Shop for their famous sweet roll and bottomless bowl of beef barley soup.

We are starting to get a bit anxious for spring to arrive and for the snow to melt. The days are getting longer which is encouraging.

There is maybe only a few weeks left of good skiing. Now is the prime time. Great snow....long days and it's not bitter cold.

Sometimes the Good Guys Win - Internet Fraud

The Powerbook Prank...Getting back at the scammers. Great Reading.

Other Uses for Bounce Dryer Sheets

All this time you've just been putting Bounce in the dryer!

1. It will chase ants away when you lay a sheet near them.
2. It also repels mice.
3. Spread sheets around foundation areas, or in trailers,or cars that are sitting and it keeps mice from entering your vehicle.
4. It takes the odor out of books and photo albums that don't get opened too often.
5. It repels mosquitoes. Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when outdoors during mosquito season.
6. Eliminate static electricity from your television (or computer) screen.
7. Since Bounce is designed to help eliminate static cling, wipe your television screen with a used sheet of Bounce to keep dust from resettling.
8. Dissolve soap scum from shower doors. Clean with a sheet of Bounce.
9. To freshen the air in your home - Place an individual sheet of Bounce in a drawer or hang in the closet.
10. Put Bounce sheet in vacuum cleaner.
11. Prevent thread from tangling. Run a threaded needle through a sheet of Bounce before beginning to sew.
12. Prevent musty suitcases. Place an individual sheet of Bounce inside empty luggage before storing.
13. To freshen the air in your car - Place a sheet of Bounce under the front seat.
14. Clean baked-on foods from a cooking pan. Put a sheet in a pan,fill with water, let sit overnight, and sponge clean. The anti-static agent apparently weakens the bond between the food and the pan.
15. Eliminate odors in wastebaskets. Place a sheet of Bounce at the bottom of the wastebasket.
16. Collect cat hair. Rubbing the area with a sheet of Bounce will magnetically attract all the loose hairs.
17. Eliminate static electricity from Venetian blinds. Wipe the blinds with a sheet of Bounce to prevent dust from resettling
18. Wipe up sawdust from drilling or sand papering. A used sheet of Bounce will collect sawdust like a tack cloth.
19. Eliminate odors in dirty laundry. Place an individual sheet of Bounce at the bottom of a laundry bag or hamper.
20. Deodorize shoes or sneakers. Place a sheet of Bounce in your shoes or sneakers overnight.
21. Golfers put a Bounce sheet in their back pocket to keep the bees away.

Oriental Cabbage Salad - Great Potluck Dish

ORIENTAL CABBAGE SALAD

1 bag of slaw
1 bunch green onions
1 c. thinly sliced celery ( a couple of stalks)
1 c. sunflower seeds
1/2 c. slivered almonds
1 pkg. oriental noodles chicken flavor (Top Ramen, etc.)
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
Black pepper, as desired

Chop cabbage as for slaw, add chopped onions, celery, sunflower seeds, almonds and noodles. Noodles are to be broken up uncooked in the salad.

Put oil, vinegar, and sugar in blender. Add chicken flavor season packet and black pepper (optional, as much as you like). Blend well. Pour over salad, toss together. Chill. Best when made 2 to 3 hours ahead of serving

Silver Salmon Fishing

We went salmon fishing this weekend in Seward Alaska. Seward is renowned for its saltwater silver salmon fishing. Some parts of the season you can even catch them from shore. We are lucky enough to have some friends with a boat. They call her "No Bad Days". We went out about 20 miles into Resurrection Bay. Almost to where the bay stops and the ocean starts. It was overcast and about 50 degrees. The water was calm. I hadn't been out on a boat in about 10 years so I was a little nervous about sea sickness but luckily didn't have any problems at all.
You can see the fierce concentration on my face as I was reeling my fish in.



SUCCESS!!!

The salmon I caught was in the 10lb range so it was pretty respectable.

F Street Bar - Downtown Anchorage

Just off the corner of F street and 4th Avenue is a little bar and grill where the locals hang out. It's a great place to catch up with friends and on the weekends is often standing room only.

We love to go on a weeknight when the crowd is lighter thus the bar less smoky. They have the best and I do mean the Best....salmon caesar I have ever tasted. The salmon is seasoned and grilled to perfection. The caesar dressing is layered in garlic so if your sensitive to garlic this may not be the dish for you.

Halibut Chowder

This is such a wonderful chowder although it is definitely not heart healthy. I got this recipe from a dear friend of mine MJ. She's a fabulous cook. She moved to California from Anchorage several years ago. I don't see her as often as I would like. This recipe is so easy even a lazy cook like I can make it.

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Halibut Chowder

3 cans cream of potato soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
4 cups of milk
1 1/2 - 2 Bricks (8oz) of cream cheese
3 potatoes chopped fine - microwave until done
3 large carrots sliced into coins - microwave until done
1 can corn
4-5 Cups of Halibut
8-9 green onions - chopped
3 cloves of garlic pressed
1/2 Cup Margarine or butter
-----------------------------------------
Saute in the halibut, onions and garlic in the margarine.
Warm the milk in a pot to steaming but not boiling (or your soup will curdle)
Add the cheese and mix in completely
Add all the soups and simmer 10 minutes
Add all the vegetables
Add all the sauted items plus a bit of black pepper and dill weed to taste.
Mix and simmer 10 minutes

Makes 5 Quarts

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Lake Hood

We live on Lake Hood. It's the busiest float plane base in the world. People ask if the airplanes bother me. They can be noisy at times but I grew up a mile west of O'Hare airport. I like airplane noise. It's not as bothersome as where we used to live. Our last house had a neighbor who let her dog out in the early morning. The dog would proceed to bark, and bark, and bark..... It would wake you up and was very annoying as you never knew when it would end. With the airplanes they may wake you up momentarily but it soon passes and you can go back to sleep.

We have so much daylight in the summers that the planes start taking off about 5-6am on the weekends.

The baby ducks are following their mothers about. It is very relaxing to just sit outside and watch the planes and ducks. We even have a pair of otters that occasionally swim by for a visit.

It's about a 4 mile bike ride/walk around the lake. I will ride my bike unless it's windy then I will walk part way and back.

How to Begin?

I've been living in Alaska since 1990. It will be 29 years on Labor Day...amazing that so much time has gone by. The kids were 1 1/2, 5 and 6 1/2 when we drove up via the Alaskan Highway. They are grown now. Amazing!