Cranberry Salsa

It's Christmas! 3 more days!

All I do is eat, sit, watch movies, read, bake, go to the gym, and drink hot cocoa. Literally, that's it. Repeat every day. But, it's okay. I have justification:

There have been blizzards. Tropical blizzards. It dumps snow, then the temperature rises to 40 degrees with 90 mph winds and everything melts and eventually turns to sheer ice. I'm not going out in that. So instead, I made salsa. But because it's Christmas and not cinco de mayo, it's festive christmas salsa.

This is all you need plus two jalapeños and sugar!

Cranberry Salsa

1 orange, unpeeled, quartered, and seeded

2 cups fresh or thawed cranberries

2/3 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 green bell pepper

1-2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I use a little more)

1/3 cup pecans, toasted and chopped 

Process orange quarters in a food processor until coarsely chopped.

Add cranberries, sugar, and salt. Pulse until cranberries are coarsely chopped.

Transfer mixture to a bowl and add chopped green pepper, jalapeños, cilantro, and pecans.

(To toast, I just popped the pecans in my microwave for about 2:30)

(Next time, I will wear gloves. Even after multiple handwashings my fingers still burn!)

Once everything is combined, cover and chill for at least an hour. Enjoy with chips or crackers!

Happy Holidays! 

I'm sure you will enjoy this recipe more than Bart the basset hound enjoys bath time...

Alaskan Summer Part II

August is here, so summer is basically over. Mega sad face. While the rest of the U.S. is baking, I'm already drinking hot tea as a necessity.
Stupid Alaska.

This summer I started racing.
I ran in two 5k's and one 10k.
I think I'm in love.

Run For Good 5k
Time: 24:52

Run for Relief 5k

Time: 25:20

Chucky ran too!

Anchorage 10k Classic

Time: 55:16

My dad is my race day companion. He ran this race 30 years ago, and his high school buddy (and olympian) still holds the race record.

There was also grilling:

(Note my sweater in July)

We went fishing, except not really. It's called dip-netting (aka cheating). You hold a giant net in the water and there are so many fish that they just kinda swim into it. It's a slaughter.

I don't even like salmon.

There were dinner dates:

 And I found this awesome baby picture of me. Born hipsta!

 I took golf lessons. Driving the cart is like being at disneyland.

 And I tried on awful motorcycle jackets...

Yeah, Chuck and I did a lot together this summer, but I think the best is yet to come...

It's a one-way ticket.

Simple Perfection

Yeah, it has been more than a month since our last post. In our defense, we've been really busy. There was finishing school, attending my older brother's college graduation, moving back to Alaska for the summer, and finding and starting a new job.
There has also been a multitude of biking, camping, cooking, eating, and of course, snuggling. Being back with my best friend has pretty much been perfection. Chuck and I are so close, and I savor the fact that I finally get to see him everyday.

This summer has been filled with perfect oats:

 Perfect midnight sun camping:

Why does everything taste better when you're camping?

Alaskans get excited when they find perfect marshmallow fire sticks!

 Perfect post-camping breakfast:

I can't believe I was able to function without seeing this boy for months at a time. That face!

 Oh yeah, by the way, the man bought a motorcycle. It's pretty sexy:

 Now we can have midnight Dairy Queen runs! Alaskans lived without blizzards until about two years ago. It's still novel, so we still overpay for blended ice cream. Then again, we kind of overpay for everything.

Banana split is the perfect flavor, and the least calorically dense...

 A not-so-perfect-day for kite-flying. Either that or we just suck at it.

We shall post again! Soon I promise!

Better Late Than Never!

This is a month past due, but it took me a while to obtain the pictures and videos from my other family members. On May 1st of 2011, I graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a degree in Japanese Language, and a degree in International Studies with an emphasis on Northeast Asia. 

Herro?

So yeah, I started going to UAA in September 2006, and maybe it took me 5 years to graduate, but I have two degrees now! Actually, when I first started attending UAA, I was not a fan. I started as a computer science major, and that means having sick math skills. Whoever said Asian people are good at math, is a big fat liar, a phony, if you will. I am terrible at arithmetic.....and so is Katy! <3

I like this one because you can see Katy and my mom in the back. Can you find them?

I dropped out of school a semester after I started attending, and took a year and a half break from being serious. I say that because I still attended classes, but it was one or two a term, and I failed them all. There are mixed feelings when I look back at my time off from school. 

One side says, "I can't believe you stopped going to school! You could have graduated almost 2 years ago if you weren't lazy and worked harder!" 

Another side says, "Dude, you had lots of fun back in the day, why regret it? You went through a dark phase, learned life lessons, established multiple connections with people, ended up with so many friends (which I still hang out with and talk to), and had fun the whole time. Man, even if you graduated early, there is a chance that you would have never met Katy."

Those reasons have me thinking that my life choices, so far, were correct, even predestined! Katy is my best friend, and right now, I am not sure where I would be or what I would be doing without her in my life.

I can has diploma?

There is no need to go into detail about graduation. Three hours long, two and a half hours were spent honoring the staff, and thirty minutes were spent spouting off 900 student's names and degrees. However, it was a beautiful day outside and we had a great dinner at Orso, the sister restaurant of where I work currently. After dinner, we proceeded to my sister's house and relaxed and talk about life and random things we love. This time I spent with my family and Katy means so much to mean, and was definitely my favorite part of the day. 

I know my eyes are closed, my mom took the picture, (fail) but I can't help it, since Katy is so pretty!

 

Momma and me

Me and the ladies

I'll be getting my diplomas later this month, so I will post those soon. Also, it has been so beautiful in Anchorage the last few weeks, even on the windy and cloudy coast down south. Which reminds me, I will also be posting some Alaskan adventures spent at Anchor Point over Memorial day weekend!

Keep Katy in your minds, she will be home in ten days...YAY! That means she is in the midst of finals, she is professional at stuff like this, so she will be fine, but she will be busy.

A Grad Grills

I'm in Alaska this weekend for Chuck's college graduation! The big day is tomorrow and since there's a dinner party planned for Orso's (a swanky restaurant downtown) we decided to stay home tonight and grill some chicken! So delicious.

This is our ghetto way of starting a fire:

This is me almost lighting myself on fire (check the awesome face I'm making):

The lemon pepper and teriyaki chicken breasts:

The final dinner plate consisted of half an everything bagel with a little cheddar cheese and some shredded chicken, brown rice, and a spinach salad. Great easy homemade dinner!

Chuck and I have literally spent the entire day doing nothing...together. I'm only here for two days so we are cramming as much "we" time in as we can. This boy definitely loves meat:

Tomorrow is the big day! I can't believe this little Thai nugget is going to be a college graduate!