Cooking in Bush Alaska

Our friend Angie, also a transplant to Brevig Mission, started a blog recently about cooking in Bush Alaska, hence the name Cooking in Bush Alaska. I was pretty excited when she asked me to contribute to her project. 

What makes this cooking blog different from the millions of cooking blogs out there is our remote location. The byline is "creatively avoiding food boredom in a land far away from full-service grocery stores and fresh ingredients."


So often when I'm cooking or baking I don't quite have the right ingredients, so I have to make do with whatever I have in the kitchen. Though not recommended, a common substitution technique for me is to find something that's at least the same color as what I'm supposed to be using. Sometimes successful, sometimes disastrous. That's the kind of stuff that will give this cooking blog some heart and soul.

Cooking in Bush Alaska could be useful for those of us living in the bush but also for anyone living in a rural location who doesn't have the convenience of a grocery store nearby.

We talk a bit about making the best without every ingredient in a recipe, appropriate or sometimes crazy substitutions, using locally harvested food and the various ways we get our groceries.

Take a look when you get a chance. I've already tried two of the recipes Angie has posted and loved them! She's pretty talented in the kitchen and with her camera. The photo and food pictured above are her handy work. See what I mean? Pretty talented huh?


Stop by, I think you'll enjoy it and happy cooking!

~AnnMarie

Produce

One of the more disappointing things about modern food is the loss of tasty produce. The fresh fruits and vegetables found in supermarkets are engineered or selected based on appearance and size, not taste. Have you ever bought the biggest, bluest, yummiest looking blueberries only to find they taste like sawdust? I have and I am continually let down. It's unfortunate that we have come to base purchases off of looks instead of taste and nutritional value. My hope is that this trend will turn around in America.


What can be done? One great option now is to buy produce locally at places like your nearest farmer's market. We stopped by one the other day and purchased this amazing tasting watermelon. It also happened to be yellow, I had never heard of such a thing, so we bought it. Check out the lovely yellow, the bright green rind and *gasp* it has seeds. Let me tell you, I resent seedless watermelons. First, I have never had one that tasted any good. Secondly, half the fun of a watermelon is spitting out the seeds and telling kids that if they swallow them, a watermelon plant will grow in their stomach. So, I encourage you to boycott that pale green, pale pink, seedless junk they pass as a watermelon in the grocery store and buy (or grow) something that's actually good to eat.

--AnnMarie

Eat Up

So, the holidays have come and gone. We have all survived another year of cookie baking, gift giving and travel to and from the relatives homes. One of the things I look forward to during these times is all the delicious food and those wonderful dishes only made on special occasions. At the Rudstrom household, a year or two ago, we started doing something wild and crazy, we decided to cook our favorite holiday dishes . . . all year long. *gasp* C.O.'s Mom makes these awesome sausages wrapped in bacon and smothered in brown sugar things that are always a hit. We now make them on a regular basis. One of my all time favorite desserts is pumpkin pie. Each Halloween, we buy a pumpkin, cook up the pumpkin meat and freeze it in packages just right for making a pie. We have them rationed out to about one pie per month. My Mom makes homemade chocolate covered cherries that the relations are always waiting for come Christmas Eve. They are on my list of goodies to make someday soon. Why is it that we only make these yummy things one time a year? It's crazy I tell you! Life is too short for such nonsense. It's time to start making your favorite dishes and desserts all year long. And if you're are tired of them come the following holiday season, get adventurous and, what the heck, find a new favorite recipe. --AnnMarie