Spring Weekend

A sure sign of spring in Southeast Alaska  is SKUNKCABBAGE!

We found some young tender shoots emerging from the cool waters by the Mendenhall River. We walk on the horse trail along the river as we found it mostly free from ice and slush. The paved trail was still pretty slick.

This is looking back from the mouth Montana Creek where it flows into the Mendenhall river. The water was really low!

And the remains from a winter of pine cone eating! The squirrel (or squirrels) were well fed!

And looking at the Mendenhall Glacier from Fish Creek on Douglas Island. Along the inlet of Fish creek we saw a bunch of mallard and some widgeons. Also saw a few sparrow lurking in the grasses. The migration is well on its way!

March recipe of the month

Tim's culinary Christmas present continued for March with a multiple part recipe. Here are the ingredients that he received in the mail -- that is rye flour in the bag...any guesses?

By the way....we haven't heard from Melody and Jason although we managed to survive to report on the recipe.

Meatballs (Frikadeller) Smørrebrød and Danish Red Cabbage (Rødkål) for Smørrebrød. So we made the Frikendeller and Roadkill cabbage for dinner one night and then had leftovers in sandwiches for lunch. YUM!

The Cabbage dish was supposed to simmer for 1.5 hours and then refrigerate overnight so we made that the might before we made the meatballs. The red cabbage was sauteed in butter with some red wine vinegar, orange juice, and current jelly added after it was slightly softened. The recipe called for apples but we decided to leave them out. After simmering and sitting over night, the dish smelled wonderful. It was like a sweet sauerkraut except you didn't have to wait for 3 months for the fermenting to take place.

This recipe for meatballs called for ground turkey and pork, onions, rye flour, eggs, parsley, salt & pepper. It also called for 2 cups of soda water which we thought was maybe a translation error and we used 1/4 cup. It also called for some nutmeg which we left out. We should has substituted some garlic for the nutmeg. We were also supposed to fry the meatballs in butter, but opted for baking the meatballs on a pan in the oven. We make a dozen meatballs the size of an apricot and had enough left over to put in a breadpan and bake like a meatloaf.

And the final product served with a baked potato.

We forgot to have the crispy fried onions! For lunch we sliced up the meatballs, reheated the cabbage, added the fried onions on a whole wheat hoagie roll. Equally delicious!

So after eating all those meatballs, we're off for a walk as it is a really nice spring day in Juneau!

Auk Rec Area - One of my favorites

The Auk Recreation area has always been one of my favorite places to visit for taking a walk or just being out in the elements. There is always something interesting to see there and you usually don't need special equipment (snowshoes or microcleats) to get to the beach. This was this taken this past weekend.

On one of our first walks here after moving to Juneau, there were people with scuba gear entering the water. Apparently there are a couple of submerged vessels that you can explore and is considered a great place for beginner divers.

having some fun with panorama's

The beach is rocky. It isn't very easy to walk on. But if you don't want to walk on the beach then there is a pathway through the forest which is well packed.

Last summer the forest service chopped down some very big trees and left the rounds.

I like to go here for salmon berries in late July-August, although I think a lot of other people also like to pick here so you have to have pretty good timing.

Also last fall you can see interesting lifeforms taking nourishment from the surroundings.

Squirrel Stash

or

You can walk out to Point Louisa and look out over the beginnings of Lynn Canal. On a really clear day you can see over to Admiralty Island. This weekend we had some cloud cover.

Thanks for bearing with my obsession with panoramas!