adventures in baking

Ryan decided to make bagels this week. The first batch were plain bagels. They were fantastic! Excited by our first results, we decided to make agave, cinnamon, and crasin bagels next. These turned out great as well!

Yum!

lots to catch up on

Once again, it has been a while since my last post. The past few weeks have been very busy and so have resulted in less posts. What have I been busy doing? Well, besides extra work at work, I also traveled to Anchorage. This is where I had to take my licensure test. It was nice to have a three day break from regular work and while I studied, I also shopped for items to stock up on at home. While I have not had trouble cooking for myself in Wrangell, I have had trouble finding a variety of vegan items I can eat at restaurants. While in the Anchorage area, I enjoyed different varieties of vegan fare, including a tempeh wrap, salad with all the fixin's, soy patty, and vegan ice cream. One of the things I have also missed and had not been able to order has been the Gimme Lean "sausage". Luckily, the container of such a thing survived the plane ride home and I enjoyed eating sausage-flavored soy again!

Anyway, back to the main reason for going to Anchorage - the test! Although I had a brief moment of anxiety when I submitted the test, I need not have had it at all. I passed! Just like that, it was over. I still had 90 minutes left for the test, but I did not want to second-guess myself on the answers to the test and just went ahead and submitted it. Hooray!

In addition to passing my license test, I was able to get outdoors for a few more activities. A couple of weekends ago, the hiking club went to Salamander Ridge to hike to the top. Although I was very cranky towards the top, after a break, I was in a much better mood at the top and climbing/sliding back down.



This week, Ryan had the chance to go to Anan and invited me along. I had not been there yet. This is where the bear observatory is on the mainland. Although afraid of bears popping out at us on the trail, none appeared until we reached the observation deck. They were so roly-poly by this point that they only lumbered along and swatted at salmon. I was hoping I would get to go to Anan before the season closed and I did!



Also, when one lives in the Wrangell area, one always hears about "going up the river." Although at first I thought this was a euphemism for going to jail, it actually refers to boating up the Stikine River to cottages. Ryan and I were able to do that today as well, with Ryan covering the Fish Camp for the newspaper. It was a beautiful day and we came back sunburned and sleepy from the ride.



There are other trips I hope to do before winter begins: Ketchikan, hiking Middle Ridge, hiking North Wrangell Trail with Brooke (and coming down Rainbow Falls). I'm sure more activities will be added to my list over the next few weeks.