09/15/17 - Our First Day at Ultima Thule - Part 4

09/14/17 - Our First Day at Ultima Thule - Part 3

By now we were used to landing on small patches of ground, but this was our first landing well above sea level.

We wandered about for better views of the great waterfall rushing from the glacier at the end of the fjord. There were ice caves and melt pools and strange rock formations. Getting here without an airplane would have required hiking, sailing and then mountaineering. This wilderness is not only roadless, but trackless.

09/13/17 - Our First Day at Ultima Thule - Part 2

Here we ate lunch.

While we dined, the glacier entertained us as chunks of ice snapped and cracked and dropped into the sea leaving clouds of shattered ice in their wake. For a while, after a large piece of ice dropped, the sea where we were would stay calm, but after a while the sea would start to churn. The chunks of floating ice would rise and fall as the wave front moved past with an ominous rushing sound like an angry river.

It was a great lunch. Only with reluctance, we jimmied ourselves back into our little plane and headed on for the next part of our Alaska adventure.

09/12/17 - Our First Day at Ultima Thule - Part 1

We flew south over the spectacular scenery of the Wrangell Mountains to the Pacific coast where we landed on a small sand beach to stretch our legs and explore. We had been far inland 45 minutes ago, now we were on an isolated beach. There were rocks, sand, barnacles and seals. We were truly in the middle of nowhere, and it was beautiful.

09/11/17 - Coming Into The Country - Part 2

We changed planes here. Our next plane was waiting for us, and we took a half hour hop south with yet more spectacular scenery before arriving at Ultima Thule Lodge, a bastion of civilization and luxury in the roadless wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This was a lodge built on the banks of the Chitina using local wood and local stone. Everything else arrived by air.

We wandered the grounds a bit. The lodge wouldn't let us leave the close in region without an escort, so we had a guide take us down for a good look at the five mile wide river bed. We saw another rainbow. This would be our home and base for the next four days.

09/10/17 - Coming Into The Country - Part1

We took off, said goodbye to Anchorage, and were soon looking out the windows as the landscape rolled and folded dramatically. As the instruments on board showed, there was terrain ahead, lots of terrain. There was also ice, vast glaciers of ice, and rivers run wild between the mountains. We caught a bit of fall color and a rainbow, but we kept flying east.

09/09/17 - Our Journey North

That city we're flying towards is Anchorage, only a three and a half hour flight from Seattle. We stayed up late and managed to catch a sunset, then we explored the city a bit. On the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail we were rewarded with some sandhill cranes.

Then we checked out the botanical gardens, but cut our visit short. Some of the trails were closed due to recent bear activity.

Finally, we had dinner with our friend Clare who is now living in Anchorage. We met at the Marx Brothers Cafe which we cannot recommend highly enough. Alaska is an excellent place to order things like halibut cheeks and freshly caught scallops.

This was only the beginning. We have over a thousand pictures to go through, so we'll start winnowing and posting them over the next few days. Stay tuned to this blog.

05/28/16 - Russian Easter

Our friends arrived in two waves. Those in Port Angeles arrived around six, but everyone to the east was delayed for two hours. Highway 101 was closed for a crime scene investigation after a shoot out of Old West proportions that morning. (No one was killed, but many shots were fired.) That meant our second wave arrived around eight. We have really patient, hungry friends.

It wasn’t until nine that the strains of the 1812 overture began to play, and we retold the story of the Monster Napoleon and his invasion of Mother Russia. Our baked Alaska Moscow loomed at the edge of our kitchen counter. As the monster and his minions approached, we realized that only scorched earth would stop him. Flaming French brandy flowed as the cannons roared. Moscow and Mother Russia were saved. We suspect Napoleon will try again next year.

05/31/15 - Russian Easter

05/17/14 - Russian Easter

What does this mean? It means we served buckwheat pancakes with too much butter and salmon roe. We served enemies of the czar, corned beef reubens made with real Russian dressing. We served Trotsky's Bane, tequila, tabikko and wasabi, in oversized cucumber cups. We served Russian dumplings, deadly pelmeni, capable of destroying two years of dieting in one brief sitting. We served home made sausage from an emigre recipe. Russian Easter food is most definitely NOT dietary food.

Then came the Defense of Moscow, our set piece dessert with an oversized Baked Alaska standing in for the premier city of czars and commissars, though not both at the same time. While the 1812 Overture played in the background, we retold the tale, the tale of the Monster Napoleon and his assault on the heart of Russia. Scorched earth, that is, brownies, coffee ice cream and meringe, was all he found after we symbolically burned Moscow to the ground, ironically lighting the flames with French brandy.

05/25/13 - The Domes of St. Basil's

We perform this as a set piece. We serve a Baked Alaska made of brownies and coffee ice cream and topped with a meringue, though this year we had good luck using vanilla ice cream. Every year the domes signify the domes of the St. Basils in the heart of Moscow, and every year the flames of brandy adorn the city as part of its last ditch defense while the 1812 Overture plays in the background.

05/14/12 - Russian Easter

• our own home made pork, garlic & carroway seed sausage
• buckwheat blini pancakes saturated with butter and more butter
• Trotsky's Bane - tequila shooters w/tabikko
• pelmeni dumplings stuffed with pork, beef & dill
• Enemies of the Czar - Reuben sandwiches with corned beef, swiss cheese and Russian dressing

If you want to try any of these dishes in your own home, see our Russian Easter recipes page.

05/04/11 - Russian Easter 2011

• Enemies of the Czar - corned beef and swiss reuben paninis
• Trotsky's Bane - wasabi tequila shooters with tabikko, served in cucumbers, a specialty from Trotsky's later years, exiled to Mexico
• Our Token Nod to Good Health - asparagus and endive with walnut coriander sauce

Ironically enough, to celebrate the melting of the snows, we made snow, with our new ice shaving machine. It gave our Champagne Garden a whole new look, and it made the glasses a lot more stable.

So, once again, we told the tale of the Defense of Moscow, with Moscow played by a gigantic bake Alaska. Once again, we asked in desperation: "How could we defend mother Russia from the monster, Napoleon?" and once again we answered, "With scorched earth and flames of French brandy!" The burning was spectacular with the decorated brownie domes collapsing in flames and the satay sticks that held them in place igniting. We could almost imagine Napoleon desperating seeking a way out of the burning city as the walls collapsed around him. (That was in some version of War and Peace or another.)

So, until next year, Happy Russian Easter, and say Welcome to Spring.

03/09/11 - Farmers' Market Update

• Leela, of Lazy J, will now be working with Westwind Farms. She's sharing stall space with them for now and still has her baby potatoes, but this season she'll be farming with them, and we're looking forward to her new goodies.
• Christy, of Johnston Farms, is on sabbatical for a few months, so we won't be seeing her for a while. She's hoping to be back some time in June, so if all goes well, she'll be back with the summer harvest.
• Allan,of Dungeness Seaworks, was off to Sitka. He'll be fishing up in Alaska. That's where the fish are. He isn't sure when he'll be back at the market. Given the vagaries of fish and weather, the best we can do is wish him good luck.
• Preston, of Wild West Seafood, says he is expecting black cod very soon, and halibut season is opening, so he's hoping to have halibut after that.

04/13/10 - Russian Easter

At least we hold true to tradition with our food. We have our blini, buckwheat pancakes, drowned in butter, our enemies of the Czar, grilled reuben sandwiches with Russian dressing, Trotsky's Bane, cucumber shots of salmon roe and tequila, and our usual set piece, the Defense of Moscow, in which we defend Moscow, represented by an oversized Baked Alaska decorated with brownie onion domes, from the Monster Napoleon by the traditional scorched earth method thanks to a good helping of flaming cognac.

04/09/10 - Fort Worden

10/23/09 - The Seattle Museum of Flight

First, we stopped by the Fisherman's Terminal in Seattle and grabbed some lunch. We hadn't expected much. After all, this is supposed to be a tourist trap, so we were pleasantly surprised. The fish was fresh, as we had expected, but it and the side dishes were also well prepared. If nothing else, they used real butter, and that can make a lot of difference.

Then, we made our way the museum. It was much bigger than our friends had remembered with a veritable plethora of airplanes. We spent some time in the space exhibit. The full scale prototype module from the space station was larger than we had expected. Maybe there really is a space station orbiting up there, even if it doesn't have a cocktail lounge a la 2001.

A lot of our favorite planes were there including the Gossamer Albatross, the first man powered ultralight to cross the English Channel, the SR-71, always a crowd pleaser, an old Alaska Air DC-3, and, of course, the war planes from the first and second world wars. We didn't take too many pictures. If nothing else, the place was so chock full of aircraft it was hard to find a place to stand for a good shot.

We even crossed the road for a peek inside an old Concorde. Wow, it was cramped inside. Give us a full length, fold down bed seat, and we'll be happy even if it takes an extra hour or two to get there. We didn't get to see the old Boeing red barn and a whole lot of other things. All told, we were impressed, and we plan to come back.

09/01/08 - The Nenana Ice Classic

If you look at the chart, you can see which day of the year the ice melts. They time it to the nearest minute, and you can see a broad cluster of dates, but a general decline as the river melts earlier in the year than it used to. The equation near the upper left of the chart shows a trend with a slope of -0.0721 which means that the river melts about one hour and 44 minutes earlier each year. The river thaws, on the average six and a half days earlier than it did in 1917.

Needless to say, there is a lot of noise in the melting date. On the other hand, the smart money has been betting on earlier dates than in the past.

05/13/07 - Russian Easter - Moscow Burns

It was another wild Russian Easter at Chez Kaleberg. This time we didn't even get the date right, but we did manage to defend Moscow from the Monster Napoleon. That's our authentic version of Baked Alaska made out of brownies, coffee ice cream, and meringue. What you can't see due to limits on our camera is the flaming brandy. That's right. As in 1812, it took scorched earth, in this case scorched by ironically flaming French brandy, to repel the invader.

Once the Frenchies were kicked out, Moscow was ours for the eating.

11/14/05 - Fresh Alaskan King Crab Legs

This is one of those dishes that one reads about, but that one never sees served in restaurants. Most Alaska king crab is frozen when it is caught, or as soon as the ship arrives in port. The only people who get fresh king crab legs are people who catch them for themselves.

One of the advantages of living in Washington State is that Alaska is sort of the next state to the north, if you don't count British Columbia and the like. This means that the folks at Bella Italia were able to snarf a some fresh Alaskan king crab legs from their friends to the north. We were trying to figure out what to do for dinner when we got the call. Dave Senters was cooking, the crab was in, and we were ready.

The dish pictured above is a plate of fresh Alaskan king crab meat with fried bread crumbs, fried garlic, baby potatoes, and fresh scallions in brown butter sauce with balsamic vinegar on angel hair pasta. We were quite impressed. The crab meat was richer in flavor than our own local Dungeness crab meat, and had a meaty, almost chunky texture. It was as sweet as local crab, but the chunks were larger. If you've ever had Alaskan kind crab legs at an upmarket brunch, you probably remember them as a bit bland and watery, perhaps even a bit stringy. There was none of this here. This crab had legs, and it stood up to a powerfully flavored pasta dish quite nicely.

We aren't sure if your local restaurant provides this kind of service, but if you do get a call saying that the fresh Alaskan king crab legs are in, don't wait. Even at 3AM it is worth scrambling down for a taste of this king of the crabmeats.