appetizers, Cooking, recipes, salad, seafood, side dishes, snacks

Smoky tuna dip – a healthy snack

February 6, 2016 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

In Alaska we are pretty seafood-centric. Although we have more than 47,000 miles of shoreline my husband doesn’t like seafood so I rarely cook with it.

I have access to Alaska halibut and salmon, but sometimes I just want a good old-fashioned can of tuna. Recently I was in Mexico and a friend served up a dip made with smoked mackerel. I don’t have any smoked fish lying around my freezer so I tried my own tuna dip. With a tiny amount of liquid smoke and just a few other ingredients I came up with a smoky, delicious tuna salad that’s perfect for a mid-afternoon snack — and it’s healthy too!

I love tuna packed in oil, but that can run pretty expensive at our local fancy grocery store. The big grocery store carries the next best thing for about $2.50 a can.

You can use any can of tuna you’d like.

Smoky tuna dip

Ingredients:

1 can of tuna
1 teaspoon of chile in adobo sauce
1.5 teaspoons lime juice
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon plain, Greek yogurt
1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke
2 teaspoons capers
salt and pepper to taste

Drain the tuna and place in a small mixing bowl. Combine all the other ingredients. Serve with corn chips or crackers.

baby, Crafts, DIY, Knit & Crochet, Knitting, Patterns, Tutorials

Little lady scarf — a free knitting pattern

February 6, 2016 alaskaknitnat 10 Comments

Last week a friend asked me if I could make a toddler scarf for her little niece, Amelia. The idea of a toddler wearing a scarf is funny to me. I can’t imagine it staying on a wriggling little 2-year-old. But that got me thinking: why not make a scarf that will stay put?

I searched Pinterest and came across the most adorable scarf pattern that uses a bow as a button. This was definitely the right idea. Create a buttonhole near the end of the scarf and secure a knit bow in the buttonhole. That should keep the scarf in place on a hippitty-hoppity hyper toddler.

I love the look of seed stitch, a.k.a. moss stitch. It keeps the knit piece from curling on the edges and it looks attractive on both sides of the fabric. And it’s a little fancier than garter stitch.

This is a simple weekend project that’s bound to keep your little lady cozy and warm.

Little lady scarf with bow

Materials:

1 skein Lion Brand Woolspun in Fisherman
1 skein Lion Brand Woolspun in Charcoal
Size 10 US needles
darning needle

Seed stitch:

Row 1: k1, p1 across all stitches

Row 2: p1, k1 across all stitches

Essentially, you knit where there’s a purl and purl where there’s a knit on the previous row.

Note: I slip the first stitch of each row, knitwise, and purl the last stitch of every row regardless of where I am in the seed stitch pattern. This creates a neat edge. It is not required and therefore I haven’t included it in the row-by-row instructions below.

Instructions:

Cast on 20 stitches.

Seed stitch for 18 rows.

For the buttonhole:

Row 1: Slip 1 stitch, seed stitch for 9 stitches. With the left needle, pull one stitch over the other stitch, *knit one, pull the second stitch over the knit one; repeat from the * twice more. You have now cast off 4 stitches. Continue with the seed stitch for the rest of the row. You should have 8 stitches on either side of the cast-off stitches.

Row 2: Slip 1 stitch, seed stitch to button hole, cast on 4 stitches, continue the seed stitch for the rest of the row. – 20 stitches.

Continue the seed stitch pattern until the whole piece measures 25 inches. Cast off and weave in ends.

Bow: Cast on 10 stitches and knit in garter stitch for 10 rows. Cast off and weave in ends. Wrap grey yarn around the middle of the strip several times and tie the ends in the back of the bow.

Using the fisherman color yarn and darning needle, sew the bow to the end of the scarf opposite the button hole, the same height as the button hole (about 4 inches from the edge).

I don’t have a little lady, so my little gent got to be the model. Kind of looks like a bow tie, right?

The top can be folded down a bit like a collar to make it a little narrower and warmer.

Crafts, Knit & Crochet, Knitting, Patterns

Feather-light triangle scarf

January 18, 2016 alaskaknitnat 1 Comment

After knitting about 30 Alaska flag hats, I was yearning to knit myself something this winter that I would use every day. I love cowls, but often my hair gets all frumpy and frizzy when I try and put one on over my head. I really wanted a scarf that wouldn’t require a lot of thinking.

After many searches I came across this simple pattern from Leah Michelle Designs. The elongated triangle turns out less like a shawl and more like a bandana scarf. Just my style.

I fell in love with Mano de Ururguay’s Clara yarn the other day at the yarn shop. It’s soft, feathery and fluffy. Just my style.

This pattern is so simple. It increases by one stitch every four rows. No need to count stitches or rows. You just weigh the yarn before starting and increase until you’ve used half the weight, then start decreasing.

I also learned a simple technique that I’ll be applying to all scarf patterns in the future. You slip the first stitch knitwise and purl the last stitch on every row. This creates the perfect edge. I love it!

alaska

An ode to Anchorage snow

January 14, 2016 alaskaknitnat 6 Comments

Anchorage winters have changed. When I was younger I remember making snow forts, sledding and snowmen. On Halloween I’d have to wear a snow suit over my costume (or choose a warm costume such as a bear or a flapper girl moose). I remember yearning for the city plowers to pile a mountain of snow at the top of our driveway (we were at the cusp of a different subdivision so the city plows would stop at our house and leave all the extra snow in our driveway, much to my dad’s distress).

It's beginning to look a lot like winter | An ode to Anchorage snow by Natasha Price of Alaskaknitnat.com — Christmas photo outtake, circa 1995

The past few years have been much different. There’s no more snow. The famous Iditarod sled dog race start was relocated to snowier Fairbanks last year. It’s just lame – the cold with no snow. My mother-in-law bought our son an amazing wagon with interchangeable sled runners. We eagerly installed them two years ago and never used it.

I’m not the only one bemoaning the changes. Anchorage’s mayor said that street lighting in inadequate these days because we used to rely on the snow’s reflection to see better during the dark winter months. Ski races have been postponed and cancelled.

It’s a real bummer when you have a small child who wants so badly to participate in winter activities.

But yesterday, finally, we got a few inches of the fluffy white stuff. Our son couldn’t have been more thrilled. I mean, LOOK at the joy in his little face:

So here’s to a real, bona fide Anchorage winter. Let’s get some more snow now!

alaska, cocktails, Italian, recipes, Tutorials

Sausage 101 — a photo & video tutorial

January 9, 2016 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

The kitchen is the heart of our family. My dad would spend the weekends making vats of marinara sauce and in the late summer my mom would be canning blueberry jam. Back when apples were cheap we’d make gallons of applesauce with the food mill and mix in low-bush cranberries for color. Most of my childhood memories are centered around cooking.

One staple in our family is sausage. I remember waking up early on Saturday morning to the loud humming of my dad’s homemade motorized sausage grinder. I was thrilled to stuff hog intestines with meat — I was the best sausage stuffer in the family thanks to my deft, friendship bracelet-making hands.

Sausage-making 101 | a photo tutorial from alaskaknitnat.com. Learn how to make your own Italian sausage with this step-by-step guide. — Me, age 9, stuffing sausage with some old family friends.

My dad owns one of the most popular sausage-making sites on the Internet, sausagemania.com (yes, that is really the name). People from all over the world come to his site for his detailed recipes and tutorials.

When we decided to make 100 pounds of Italian and breakfast sausage this morning at 7:30 I thought it would be the perfect time to make my own tutorial for my little DIY audience.

Continue reading Sausage 101 — a photo & video tutorial →

Flowers, Uncategorized, weddings

Alaska Weddings: a winter reception

December 21, 2015 alaskaknitnat 2 Comments

In Alaska, winter solstice is kind of a big deal. It’s the shortest day of the year. In Anchorage we had a little under five and a half hours. It becomes part of the daily winter grind. The sun doesn’t rise until well after you arrive at work and it’s already set when you drive home for the day.

After December 21 we will gradually gain more daylight. It’s a celebratory time for Alaskans.

Recently a friend of mine got married and decided to have her reception around solstice time. When I was hired to make some centerpieces for her I was thrilled to create more wintery pieces.

Purple and lavender carnations, white chrysanthemums, eucalyptus and spruce sprigs were all I needed to bring some winter cheer to her reception.

The couple loves Italy so it was fitting that many of the bud vases were little limoncello glasses.

Continue reading Alaska Weddings: a winter reception →

Crafts, Paper

The Best Gift Box Hack

December 21, 2015 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

I worked in retail for six years and by this time during the holiday season our gift wrapping supplies were usually low. Only birthday paper and giant boxes left. When I had a customer wanting a small item wrapped, I came up with this simple hack to make a small box out of the lid of a bigger box.

Here’s your key to being a wrapping genius.

Uncategorized

The truth about Garland, Alaska

December 15, 2015 alaskaknitnat 112 Comments

Welcome, Hallmark Channel fans! If you’re looking for answers about Garland, Alaska feel free to read my post about it below. I do hope you’ll find it informative and I encourage you to poke around my site for fun recipes, crafts, tutorials and more.

I don’t pay much attention to what people search for to find my blog, but for the past year something has consistently caught my eye.

At least twice a week someone finds my site by searching “Garland Alaska.”

In fact, it was the most searched term on my site in 2016. More than 10,000 people found my site in 2016 because of Garland, Alaska.

Sometimes people look up “Is there a Garland, Alaska?”

I was mystified, so I finally did some Facebook crowd sourcing.

About three minutes later I had my answer. Turns out there was a Hallmark Channel made-for-TV-movie in 2014 called “Christmas Under Wraps,” which takes place in a fictional remote town of Garland, Alaska and stars Candace Cameron Bure (most famous for her role of D.J. Tanner on “Full House”).

Fictional, folks, fictional. There is no town in Alaska with that many brick buildings or with leaves on the deciduous trees in the middle of winter. But if there’s one thing the film got right (and I finally did watch it), it’s that shipping things to Alaska is often a huge hassle!

And for the record, Santa lives in North Pole, Alaska. You can send him your wish list here.

Here’s a photo I took last time I visited North Pole:

Happy holidays!

The truth about Garland, Alaska | Alaskaknitnat.com — Due to copyright infringement, I am unable to display a photo of the cover of this Hallmark movie, so here is a far cuter public domain photo.

alaska, Flowers, weddings

Alaska Weddings: Amy + Joe

December 6, 2015 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Last-minute weddings are sometimes the best. When my high school friend Amy called me last week to ask if I’d make her bridal bouquet for her wedding this week, I couldn’t say no.

Amy asked for plum and white colors. Alaska Wholesale Flower Market had the most precious Moody Blues roses and deep purple mini carnations. Amy was sold.

I love presenting the corsages and bouts in a pretty way. My first step is to use grocery store doughnut boxes. They have the clear window on the top so you can peek inside and they are big enough to hold several boutonnieres at once. I happened to have some purple tissue paper that was perfect for this occasion.

I had a few leftovers so I made myself a little flower crown. I was able to stop by the reception in the evening and ran into all my old friends. It was a fun reunion. And, of course, I had Ivan model my crown.

Alaska Winter Wedding | flower crown made with white spray roses, statice, mini myrtle, waxflower, Sitka spruce, eucalyptus and purple mini carnations. Designed by Natasha Price of Alaskaknitnat.com — Blue Steel

alaska, Flowers, weddings

Alaska Weddings: Alyeska promo photo shoot

December 4, 2015 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Anchorage may be the biggest city in Alaska, but nearly every day I think of it as a small town. Kevin Bacon has nothing on Anchorage — we’re all about two degrees separated.

I recently reconnected with high school mate Peter Luchsinger of Pal Photography. When I told him I was a florist on the side he asked if I would contribute two bridal bouquets to a promotional photo shoot at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood.

Without a bride providing me style guidance I was giddy with the prospect of having complete creative control. This proved to be a challenge as I had so many ideas — I have to hand it to brides. I forgot how tough it is to make a design decision!

I ended up with a soft palette of cream, pink, white, peach, sage green and deep burgundy.