All Things Amai: Hello Cold Days

JESUS CHRIST

WHERE AM I

WHAT YEAR IS IT

HAS IT REALLY BEEN SO LONG?

Jk. I've gone way longer without posting before.

It's getting so very cold out. But it's Alaska. I can only be surprised that it's not even colder.
Soon.
Soon.

So where to begin.

Let's go chronologically. Or as close to that as I can lol. There's a lot of shit.

We went on a deep sea fishing trip with our new besties! Friend's parents live out on the Kenai Peninsula so we went down to take advantage of their kindness and use of her dad's boat. The drive wasn't bad. They were of course nice enough again to take our asses down there and her folks were kind enough to let us use the guest room at their house.

I was paranoid AS FUCK. We were having pest issues of what I thought was an insurmountable nature and SO fucking afraid I was going to spread it to them and her folks and they would hate us forever. LUCKILY everything turned out fine.

We actually took her uncle's boat instead which was even better because it was bigger than her dad's.

It was a GORGEOUS day. Couldn't have asked for better. Husband was also pretty happy. It was our first time deep sea fishing!
I'll be honest, I had a good time but the boat trip started out a little rough.
The waves were super choppy so the boat was doing fucking flips on the waves. It was cool at first, but the nausea hit me very quickly. Poor Julia was scared shitless and I ended up in the closet-sized bathroom barfing in the sink while I sat on the toilet.

It was thankfully short lived. We moved from brink of death waters to more calmer, less life-threatening seas.

They have this thing called a halibut derby during a certain time of the year. Some halibut are caught, tagged, and released and there's prizes if you catch certain ones. Nobody won anything though.
Hubs was really the only one to catch anything lol.

But he was pretty proud.

There's a tented area outside of the marina where you can gut and fillet your catch.
Our poor wimpy little fish was a bit sad compared to this guy's giant halibut lol.
We grilled it a couple of weeks later thought and it was tasty as fuck.

I'd go deep sea fishing again.
But I'll make sure to pack some edibles lol. I'd say dramamine but fishing is more fun when you're conscious.

Guess I'll move on to what foods I've made.

Been a little too broke to really explore a lot of recipes lately. I was able to sneak in several though.

First up is taco stew!

This recipe was pretty good. Fairly easy. No complaints. Would definitely make again.
Sorry for shitty quality photos. Less daylight and crappy house lighting means shoddy pictures. Yay winter time! >.>

Next is veggie enchiladas.

This was...good. lol I mean different definitely. But the combination was a little strange. I don't think I'd really make it again though. Plus the filling was way more than what would fit in a 9x13 baking dish.

Then there's meatball soup.

THIS WAS GOOD AS FUUUUCCCKKKK.
Easy too. I might have just super loved it because I ate it super baked. But damn.
Delicious. :p
The alphabet pasta was a fun touch too.

Next we have a one pan chicken dish.

THIS WAS ALSO VERY GOOD. Oh my god I had the hardest time actually getting the chicken to make this dish. It took three separate trips to the grocery store to even find any chicken breast. I was like what the fuck is with this chicken breast shortage.
I EVEN WENT TO TWO DIFFERENT GROCERY STORES AND THEY BOTH HAD NO CHICKEN BREAST.
WTFFFFF.

Last meal are steak sandwiches!

Oh my glob these were amazeballs. I'll be straight up and say I've never had a bad Paula Deen recipe yet. She's the motherfucking queen. No wonder she's fat. She knows what's up.

We had what I thought was a flank steak sitting in the freezer for a while but it turned out to be a flat iron steak. I don't know if that makes much of a difference? But the end result was still great. I marinated that shit forever and just pan fried it because we're too sad to have a grill.

Would MOST DEFINITELY make again.

NOW ONTO DESSERT!

I LOVE TO BAKE OF COURSE!

Too bad I'm too broke to bake more often lol.

First up is a chocolate vanilla swirl cheesecake!

I fucked up a little bit and made the chocolate part way too chocolatey. But I guess that's not really a bad thing right?
Fuck no.
This shit was good.

And finally there's mini pumpkin whoopie pies.

I'm going to say I don't know how the FUCK you end up with soft pillowy tops like in the goddamn recipe picture. Mine were just lumpy domes with crusty points. SIGH
There must be a secret.
Besides that though, these tasted amazing. The cake part itself isn't that sweet so the sugary middle complements it really well. Julia said these were here favorite things I've made for them so far.
I guess that's a plus lol.

Alright where to next.

Oh, after fishing times we went to check out the Alaska State Fair. New besties even already had tickets for us. They're just too damn generous. LOVE THEM. Not just because they drive us around and give us things.
I promise.

Literally our friendship.

SO ANYWAAAAAYYYYY

The fair was alright. I get motion sickness VERY EASILY so rides were a no no for me. Hopefully that wasn't the reason nobody else rode anything. We mainly walked around to look at all the things and pigged out.
There were so many foods I wanted to eat. But unfortunately my wallet and tummy are only so big.

I had a donut burger and a milkshake. I'm not one to usually do sweet and savory but jesus that shit was phenomenal in my mouth parts.
10/10 would be a super fatty again.

So Julia has NEVER been to an asian store and I had to change that.
I also found that hard to believe. Living in Anchorage for like four years and never stepping foot in one? There's so many. I'll make special trips to out of town places just to visit a nice asian market.
But that's probably because of my upbringing.

IT WAS FUN. lol We got lots of junk food. And I kept forgetting she didn't like seafood.
LITERALLY ALL THINGS GOOD IN THE ASIAN MARKET HAS SEAFOOOOOD.
HNNNNGGGGG
But it's all good.

I mostly got ice cream and some pocky flavors I've never had before. One was lemon and the other was orange. SO YUMMY. Trying new pocky flavors is a favorite past time.
Along with ice cream.

I show here this ice cream that Dustin made fun of last time and she's like flipping out because this guy is in a k-drama she's watching. So weird lol.
I grabbed the cookies and cream and she grabbed a matcha.

THIS WAS VERY WEIRD AND I DIDN'T ENJOY IT VERY MUCH.
The actual ice cream part was good. But all that icy syrupy bean shit around it was just not very pleasing. Koreans love bean-su. Which is a dessert that entails pouring sweet bean syrup on top of shaved ice or plain ice cream.
I just don't really understand the appeal. But really an imported ice cream which probably melted and then refroze probably isn't the best thing to base it on.

So I mentioned we were having pest issues earlier in this post and I implied it in the last one. I feel as though it's okay to get along with my normal routine. I think the issue is at least mostly resolved so I was able to finally get all my fabrics out again and sew a thing!

I made a skirt! I've been meaning to make this for SO LONG. I actually bought the intended fabric for this project earlier in the year.

I used this tutorial and my gosh it came out so well!

ISN'T THIS FABRIC CUTE AS FUUUUCK?
So appropriate for this time of year too.
But too bad we're in fucking ALASKA so it's already too cold to wear this shit.
Oh well.

I've recently gotten back into the awesome world of old school RPG's. There wasn't much else to do since I couldn't sew and baking opportunities were few.

I noticed the hubs had Chrono Cross downloaded onto the PS3 and OMGGGGG.
IT'S SO GOOD. I FORGOT HOW GOOD IT WAS.

It's going to feel so good to finish this game. The only rpg I've beaten is Final Fantasy 9. And I hardcore cheated using my game shark. Dude the game shark.
I wonder how many people remember those.
Probably just the loser pussies like me that thought rpgs were too hard.
lololol

So I got full time work again. At my current position lol. They just bumped me up to ft and gave me more hours and benefits. All that good shit you know. Still waiting to hear back from a potential new job but I'm not going to get my hopes up.
Either way, more money is still nice. I'm going to be neck deep in medical bills soon but I have a loan paid up soon so hopefully I can still keep my head above water.

Work isn't too bad though.

See? How can you not enjoy times like these?
I love animals.

Kitties especially though.
Kitties number one.

I started a few shows.
I'm re-watching the office for like the 5th time lol.

God I love this show.
It'll never get old.
NEVER.

I also started watching the Twilight Zone. And for something this old I find it to be a really awesome show.

There's also this show called Wilfred. Which has been on my queue since the dawn of time. I finally managed to give it a go.
I'm surprised at how good it really is. The premise is also pretty interesting. And I love Elijah Wood. That cute little tooth gap. *shivers*