The Best Things Come in Small Bites/Bucket List Update

Bucket List Updates

It's such a pleasure to have the flexibility to get out more! Phil and I have had a couple really good beach hikes. I'm a neophyte all over again--I want to take all the rocks home! On our last hike, Phil and I each found a "keeper" rock. It was a blue sky day, but oh, so windy--and that wind comes straight off the glacier, so I was pretty chilly.

I love that rock because it looks like a little bird! It reminds me of these whistles you could get when I was a little kid in the '80s. The 'tail' of the bird was the whistle part you blew into, and you had to fill the bird up with water, so it would go tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet!  as the water burbled.

Phil was very pleased with his rock for more pragmatic reasons--it gleamed with sparkles that were probably not micaceous but rather pyrites--or even gold!

Other bucket list successes--I got the fridge cleaned yesterday! I was too ashamed of its 'before' state to take a picture, but here's the 'after'--

I'm glad I took Phil's advice and tackled only the fridge. Today, I'm working on the freezer below it, and then can move on to the chest freezers outside. So satisfying to have it clean, and have the huge hunk of ice buildup removed! This is a Sunfrost fridge, which is very energy efficient, but which I'm still learning how to use. It's a high humidity system, which is supposedly a good thing, but means that if you wrap things up as you would in a traditional fridge, they go moldy fast! I'm experimenting with leaving more room for air circulation, as it seems alarmingly mold-prone in there in general. Hopefully less so, now that it's clean!

The Best Things Come in Small Bites--Recipe Preview 

For most people, these date treats were a single bite. For me, at least four. 

I shared recently what seems to me a reasonable serving size for nut-date-type bars:

Again, several bites for each piece! 
I remember having a debate with a dear friend of mine about this years ago--she said she loved the feeling of having her mouth stuffed full with goodness--a whole handful of blueberries, a whole marzipan-stuffed date half. I said that to me, that was missing much of the goodness of each individual portion--when I have just a tiny little piece, my whole mouth can work on appreciating the flavor, can derive every last atom of the deliciousness.


I'm sticking to my guns! The best things come in small bites. How lovely to head out for a hike and have snacks that fit in your pocket!

I seldom snack when hiking anyway--Phil and I are opposites in this way--my problem is usually one of getting too thirsty. And water's much heavier to pack...


So, I've made three different "small bites" in the past few days. 
These are carob-apricot small bites (and again, each "bite" is at least four or five bites).

These are apricot-maca small bites...

And these are a version of Nicole of Chena Raw's "Fudgy Chocolate Chews" So happy to have a fellow Alaskan rawish blogger, so happy someone else is paying attention to the omega-3 issue!

I'll share recipes in my next post, but for now, I'll leave you with a cautionary tale. This is why it's good not to post a recipe until you've eaten a creation a few times! Those carob-apricot small bites pictured first of the three feature apricot kernels and almond extract for a delicious marzipan flavor. Just eight apricot kernels, and there are thirty pieces. Well, I ate one of these bites as a mid-afternoon snack two days in a row... And each time, I got very nauseous within an hour or two! There was a clear correlation. I knew that apricot kernels contain a cyanide-like compound, amygdalin, so I did some research. Nausea was listed as a potential side-effect of eating them, but it wasn't supposed to be a common reaction. 


It's very possible that my reaction was due to my currently odd/anomalous body chemistry and that no one else would get sick. But I'm so glad I didn't post the recipe right away! I'd feel so bad if someone else made it and got sick. If there's interest, I'll share the recipe in my next post anyway--but now it'll come with a strong caveat!


Love to all...

"Big Game Hunting" on our Beach--Exciting Find

Phil's recent appearance in the local newspaper was actually his second time in the papers this fall. Last time was in September, when the Redoubt Reporter interviewed him about the 37,000-year-old mammoth tusk piece he found about a decade ago up in Deep Creek, 40 miles north of here.

With the length of day and the weather so salient right now, I sometimes feel like I'm brought closer to other times, as if we're riding a spiral. Every Solstice, we get to revisit the previous Solstice on the previous round of the spiral. If we celebrate or think about traditional festivals, we're also invited to look deep into our collective past. One of the reasons I love collecting rocks so much is for this reminder of the depth of time beneath our feet. And this post is about a very special find from the past.

I've alluded before to the fact that Phil's always "shopping" when hiking out in the wilderness, and he has found some incredible treasures on his travels, which he shares as unique gifts for people he cares about. Well, on our Monday beach hike with our friend Sue, we made a very special find. I'll explain why I say "we" in a moment.

It was the first time in several days that we were hiking without constant, intense wind in our faces in one direction, accompanied by stinging sleet. Although it was cold, the absence of wind made it feel luxurious and pleasant. We were hiking a little slower than our usual pace, stopping frequently and admiring all the new erosion. That's an admiration tinged with apprehension, mind you!

I was tending to hike slightly ahead: I run cold, so our slower pace was putting me at risk for chilling. But I was "scouting." I would point or call out anything that looked interesting. As I passed one pinch-point where a whole chunk of bluff had spewed down to the beach, leaving an apron of new gravel gabling toward the shore, I noticed a very interesting-looking piece of something. I pointed at it, and walked on. Phil, just behind me, picked it up, took a close look, and said, "This is part of a mammoth's tooth!"

 It's about the size of my palm. Weathered and layered--petrified, you could almost say.

 Its top and bottom surfaces are so smooth.

This is majorly exciting: there's been a recent upswing in interest in fossils from Pleistocene fauna (hence the interview about Phil's mammoth tusk). Geologists used to think that there were no mammoths in this area in the Pleistocene. Phil's mammoth tusk, because of where it was found (an inland location, so it couldn't have been washed ashore from elsewhere) had a big part in proving that there were mammoths here back then. Now, people are out on the beaches looking for more "evidence!" The local Geologist found another tusk fragment on the beach this fall, and Phil goes several times a week just to look. Well, he looks for other things too, like cedar logs, but he likes to say he's going "big game hunting."

This is his mammoth tusk--from a different mammoth than the owner of the tooth, but probably similar vintage.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to imagine how this world would have looked when those creatures were alive. How different from now. And yet, part of them coexists with us in this world. It makes my lifetime seem very small...

Happy Solstice, Happy Chanukah, and watch the days begin to get longer!