Down To Earth: Friends, Family, Food and Fun

One of our favorite activities to do as a family is eat great food. Cooking it is fun too, but eating it is the best! Here is a compilation of just some of the great eating experiences we had in 2015 - the ones that were actually documented with photos that is!

1. Tayberry Pie

A Tayberry is a cross between a Blackberry and a Raspberry. It's pretty much the only bramble that will grow here in Sitka.

The white flowers and dark red berries are so beautiful.

Everybody that comes to the garden thinks they are raspberries and they can't resist snitching a few red ones before I can stop them...man they are sour!!! Tayberries need to be almost black before they are ripe.

2. Candied Jalapenos

When Levi and I had a layover in Fort Lauderdale this fall we drove down to Miami to check out the "Latin House Grill" restaurant that we had read about online. The food was fantastic so it was definitely worth the drive! They serve a burger that is to die for, and the secret ingredient turns out to be candied Jalapenos. We looked the recipe up online when we got home, and it seemed pretty easy to make, so about a month ago we took all of the ingredients over to our good friend, Elaine Steinbach's house to give it a try.

Elaine, the "hostess with the mostess".

These Candied Jalapenos turned out amazing.They are so good on meat, and fish, and ....well, just about anything. Yum!!

3. ANYTHING made by Graceful Pasteries.

Grace set up a bakery in the Ludvig's building this Fall while Ludvig's was closed for the season. Oh my.......are her pastries ever good!!

bacon scone

proscuitto and provolone croissant

bacon and potato tart

blueberry lemon scone

pear galette

Everything is perfectly delicious! I can't wait until she opens next season again!

4. Orange cookie layer cake.

This cake is so easy to make, and it looks fantastic, and it tastes delicious. The crisp, orange wafer cookies are layered with a coolwhip/cream cheese/orange flavored frosting and let to set overnight.

The next day the cookies are soft, so the cake can be easily be cut into wedges for serving. Once you cut the cake open it looks like you've layered impossibly thin layers of cake with frosting. We topped this one with chocolate ganache and plain Mandarin orange segments and orange segments that had been dipped in melted chocolate. Yum.

5. Personal sized apple pie in mason jars.

Made from the apple pie filling I canned in 2014 from the apples in our garden. Too good.

6. Santa Claus cookies at Aunt Ardys' house.

This Christmas we were lucky enough to wrangle an invite to decorate Santa Claus cookies with Aunt Ardys.

Another hostess with the mostess!

The cookies are supposed to look like this when they're done....

Some of ours looked like they should, and some of the them did not...

But fun was had by all....

And the cookies were as delicious as they were beautiful.

7. 5 course meal at Dove Island Lodge.

I've been hearing that the food served out at the Dove Island Lodge here in Sitka is extraordinarily good. I've been curious about it- but you can only get there by boat, and it's quite expensive. This fall the Swim team had a fundraiser out there and were selling tickets for dinner, so I decided that it was time to check it out. This place is fancy.....but it's Sitka fancy, if you know what I mean.

The meal was fantastic! Each course was better than the last.

I only embarrassed myself once, by thinking the bone marrow was on a piece of toast. It wasn't....it was on the bone. It tried to take a bite...twice. Someone had to tell me it was bone, not bread.