Thanksgiving care package

 

 

We have all had friends or family (or even ourselves) that have been in the hospital during holidays. I find myself asking "what can I do to help?".  I am obviously not going to do anything to actually help as I have no medical background, but I want to do something, something to show them that they are in my thoughts and prayers. I decided this Thanksgiving to send a care package to my family that has been relocated for some time while my husband's cousin recovers.

I mentioned in my previous post that my husband had been traveling back and forth to Spokane to see his cousin that is in the CICU there. Back in July, Joe went in for a heart surgery to repair his valves. He is in his early 30's and his father had just breezed through a very similar heart surgery and recovery, so we all thought Joe would be in and out of surgery with time to start recovering before his first niece was born at the beginning of August. Things with the surgery didn't go as planned, the doctor here in Alaska didn't expect his heart to have so much damage. To make a very, very long story shorter, he was flown via emergency life-flight to Spokane along with his mom. Since being in Spokane, he has had multiple steps forward followed by terrifying steps backwards. He had a mechanical valve put in his heart because his heart wasn't working, they planned to put him on the heart transplant list as soon as his other organs started coming back on board. We all can only imagine how life altering this could be but we didn't care, our Joe is alive.

Then a miracle happened...his own heart started working again! Even the doctors don't understand how or why but Joe's heart began beating on its own. After a few more scary surgeries, I am happy to report that Joe is on the recovery route again. His own doctor, his biggest cheerleader, says the laws of physics do not apply with in Joe's room in the CICU. More than once during this whole time period we have been able to say, "it's a miracle" or "the power of prayer is amazing!". We continue to pray for his organs to come back on board 100%, and he has a long road ahead of him but we all believe he is headed in the right direction! If you are a praying person, continued prayer for Joe's healing process would be greatly appreciated!!

Anyway, on to the care package. I knew that the family that is with Joe over the holiday would be missing their traditional Hebert Thanksgiving food (oh my goodness, I could go on and on about this family's cooking!). Since I can't pack up Granny's rice dressing or turkey to send to them, I went back to what I know. Desserts. Our family is a fan of fudge, chocolate pies, chocolate cakes...basically most things chocolate. Fudge seemed like the logical choice to send to Washington. So I made the fudge.

 

I gathered other items to add to the box.

 

 

The baby clothes are for Joe's niece who is just 3 1/2 months old. How could I resist these little turkey clothes? There is a little turkey on the bum of the pants...adorable!

 

 

 

I got these free printables from Pizzazzerie to add to the box. I love the coloring of the printables but also the verse. Our family has so much to be thankful for any normal year, but this year even more!

 

 

Using a large flat rate shipping box, I started packing. The fudge is the heaviest and largest, there is some pumpkin bread and chocolate covered pretzels in bags (with raffia to match the printables of course).

 

 

I layered in a box of black tea, more chocolates, the baby clothes (wrapped in tissue), and a card for the family and one for Joe.

 

 

I put the large printable on last so it will be the first thing they see when they open the box.

 

 

This is just a small, inexpensive way of sending some love (in chocolate form) from afar. We love and miss our family dearly! Next Thanksgiving we will be back together again!

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

-Amanda

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Well, it's fall. Any normal year, this is my favorite time of the year. In Alaska, we have a limited amount of time to enjoy the fall colors before winter gets here and I try to make the best of it. Alaskan scenery is gorgeous all the time, but I love when the leaves turn yellow up again the light blue sky. This time makes for some of the prettiest here in AK.

However...this year hasn't been cooperating. I believe I told you about the record snow fall last winter (beating out the record from the 1950's!)? Well, the record breaking winter was followed by one of the rainiest summers I have ever experienced, followed by a series of hurricane-force wind storms this fall. Winds were over 100 mph in the higher elevations. Thousands of people lost power which resulted in us losing our hot water heater for days. (Lucky for me my mom lives a few miles away and they had hot water!) I am blessed that the worst part of the damage for us was the lack of sleep and showers, others are still fixing the damages caused by the random Wednesday storm.

 These pictures are in our parent's backyard. Because the ground was so wet (record rainfall) when the wind started blowing at 80+mph the trees just tipped right over, pulling the root systems right out of the ground. The first picture is our dad, he is 6'3", so that shows you how tall those roots stood up.

 

 

 

THEN, this past Saturday, September 29th, that's right SEPTEMBER....I woke up to it snowing outside! I don't mean a little bit of frost on the ground that makes it appear to look like it snowed, I mean it was full on shaken snow-globe style snowing!

 

Determined that it is still technically fall (contrary to what the Alaska weather thinks), I made some yummy pumpkin snickerdoodles that I pinned from Six Sister Stuff. The snow eventually subsided, the sun came back out and there are minimal traces of snow left....for now.

Here is the recipe to make your house smell of wonderful fall:

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle
adapted from Six Sister Stuff blog

Ingredients:

For cookie dough
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree
1 large egg
3 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

To roll the dough in:
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Dash of nutmeg

-Cream together butter, shortening, and sugars.
-Add egg and pumpkin puree, mix until blended.
-Add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt & cinnamon, mix until combined.
-Chill dough. (30 minutes in fridge or 10 minutes in freezer).
-Meanwhile, combine sugar, cinnamon and spices of your choice in a bowl.
-Scoop dough using cookie scoop of your choice, roll the dough in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and place on cookie sheet.
-Bake for 7-9 minutes.
Cool and enjoy!!

What do you bake to make your home smell like fall?

-Amanda

Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp

This may be too late for any of you that do not live in Alaska, as your rhubarb has probably already ripened and been eaten. It is June and mine rhubarb is barely ripe enough to use. I cut a few stalks of the bigger peices today to make my grandma (and my dad) a strawberry rhubarb crisp.

Inspired by Martha Stewart's Rhubarb Raspberry Crisp, I created a Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp.

In the first bowl, I have 4 cups of fruit (mostly rhubarb, but if you want it sweeter put more strawberries), 2/3 cup sugar, and the zest and juice of one orange. In the second bowl (on the right), I have 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 stick of butter and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

I mixed the fruit together making sure the sugar/orange juice mixer covers the fruit evenly. I mixed the flour/brown sugar bowl with my hands until the butter was evenly dispersed. Then I added the 1/2 cup rolled oats.

I poured the fruit mixture into the bottom of my 1 1/2 quart baking dish and covered the top with the flour mixer. It went into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

This is what it looks like!

I am not cutting into this one because I am bringing it over to my parent's when it cools enough to transport. I hope it is as good as it smells! Mmmmm..... I'm thinking they should have it with some vanilla bean ice cream though. :)

Signs that summer is coming in Alaska!

It is officially. May is here and there is still snow on the ground... I guess it was to be expected after the record setting snowfall this year. (We got over 11 feet of snow this winter, beating the old record from the winter of 1954/55!)

Anyway, while cleaning off my porch I was wondering to myself what it would be like to really have "April showers bring May flowers" like the common Spring time saying.

I stopped and took a look around at all the brown leaves covering the ground and the bare naked trees starting to bud and found some fun stuff starting to pop up around here. Because our winters are so long, we get really excited about the slightest signs of summer coming. Other than the excitement of a few blades of green grass. I have my blue poppies coming back!

See those green things poking through...that is a sure sign for us in Alaska that summer is coming! I saw ferns coming up through more brown leaves by my front door.

And my favorite sight of the day is the rhubarb coming up through the snow!

While the rest of the world is enjoying warmer weather and spring flowers, I just thought I would give you a glimpse of what we in Alaska look forward to as "signs of summer". :)

Amanda's Cleaning Checklist

I am headed back to college starting this summer! Every semester when {D} goes back for his classes, I tell myself "you've got to go back and finish". Then I negotiate with myself and say "next semester". I seem to have conversations with myself like this a lot. I literally feel like one of those cartoons with a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. I have mental battles every morning when the alarm goes off to get on the treadmill too.

Anyway, going back to school is a goal of mine that I need to start on so I can be done by the time we have children.

I'm really nervous about going back to school.

I will probably want to quit come Christmas time. BUT to help prevent this quitter mentality, I am trying to plan for all the excuses I can think of now. My first excuse I could think of is: I won't be able to keep up with the housework and laundry.

What better way to keep track of something or keep up on something than a checklist!

I created a checklist with daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly and quarterly tasks. I searched the web for other ideas and made it work into my own. I am going to print this off and laminate it. This way I can use a dry-erase marker to check the items off as I do them.

Daily:
Tidy Bedroom
Make Bed
Tidy Bathroom/vanity
Load/Unload dishwasher
Take out the trash
Laundry

Weekly:
Fold Laundry/put away
Wash Sheets
Sweep/mop floors
Vacuum House
Clean our refrigerator
De-clutter kitchen table (we collect mail here)
Clean/disinfect bathrooms
Empty trash (Sunday night we put the trash by the curb)

Bi-weekly:
Deep clean kitchen - clear everything off the counters and scrub
Dust house/furniture
Clean windows/mirrors - and anything else requiring glass cleaner
Organize - I normally have a project of some sort going

Monthly:
Wipe down walls - especially the kitchen and the bathrooms
Wipe/sanitize switch plates and door knobs
Purge magazines and other papers - homework and newspapers collect on my coffee tables
Wash throw rugs - I only have them in my bathrooms and kitchen

Quarterly:
Clean oven - it's self cleaning so really I just have to wipe it out
Scrub inside of refrigerator
Deep clean kitchen cabinets
Dust/clean moldings around house.

What do you think? Am I missing any obvious chores? I hope this will help me stay on top of things around the house as I venture back to school. What do you do to stay organized when your plate is really full outside your home?

-Amanda

Happy break up season from Alaska...

Warning: this post was written under a severe case of spring fever and contains massive amounts of sarcasm.

[spring fever: n. A feeling of restlessness, excitement, or laziness brought on by the coming of spring.]

Well, it's nearing the end of March. It's officially Spring! The home improvement stores are showing their yard work commercials and flower selections. People's tulips are starting to bloom, spring flowers are starting to show their buds. The sun is out, the days are getting longer. Temperatures are getting warmer....

Oh, wait! That would be everywhere else, but here in Alaska! Yesterday, on my way to work it was -2 degrees! That's right! You read that correctly, NEGATIVE two degrees! We have already had a winter of near record snowfalls (as I write this I think we have had 129" of snow in Anchorage this year) and record cold snaps (going weeks at a time with -20 degree temperatures). Am I the only one that is more than ready for some warm weather?

On the positive side, the temperatures are getting up to about 30ish during the day and there is enough warmth on the sun for these awesome (slightly dangerous) ice daggers to start forming on the sides of people roofs. BUT this is a sure sign the snow is starting to melt!

So, while you lower 48ers (yeah, that's what we call you) are prepping your yards for the summer, planning out your gardens and wearing those cute summer sandals already, try not to envy what we Alaskans call "break up season". I know it will be hard to do so, but please try.

:)

-Amanda

About me: Amanda style

Hi! Amanda here… If you read the ‘about us’ tab then you know I am the third of the four of us Brooks Girls.  I am the one still residing in Alaska, (unfortunately for my parents, I am also the one with no children).

I am married to my best friend, David, he couldn’t be more perfect for me. He is my biggest supporter in everything I attempt. He is my sense of logic when I am dreaming.  He literally calms me just by being here. I love him so much!

I am a trained Pastry Chef, but I work a day job in the energy industry in Alaska.  I still bake, just not for a living. I hope to share some tips and tricks to help you make bakery quality sweets for your own house. I find baking to be calming, especially decorating cakes or cookies.

I am on a mission to be a strong individual both physically and mentally.  I want to be fit and comfortable in my own skin. The older I get the more I realize being thin is very different than being fit. I have started working out regularly, weight training and running. I have been at it for almost three months and I feel so much better already!

I love to craft, decorate my house, organize, rearrange, I am sure I am much better at all of this stuff in my head, but oh well. I find pleasure creating pretty spaces and making our house a home. We are remodeling our second house. The first was a total overhaul. This one is mostly cosmetic updates, you'll see more on that later. :)

One more interesting tidbit about me, when I married David, I married into a big Cajun family. They are a close knit family that gets together often and enjoys some amazing Cajun meals. I really enjoy cooking, so I had to learn to cook some of Granny's meals. I will share my successes and failures as I expand my cooking knowledge.

I look forward to rambling about all of the above stuff and more with my sisters! 

-Amanda