Friday, March 13, 2009

Introductions: Erin & Samara

Welcome to the blog. I feel like I was just writing lyrics to a new Pink Floyd album. "Welcome to the BLOG...What have we eaten? It's ok, you know what we've eaten."

The short story is Erin and I (Samara) moved to Dillingham, Alaska. Not together, we actually didn't know each other until she moved up here. And as it turns out, we are foodies. We talk about food. We dream about food. We want to knit food but we are not that talented yet! And now we blog about food.

The Long Story: (Samara) I moved to Dillingham (with my husband Aaron--I know it gets confusing but stay with me) in August 2008 from Lexington, KY. When I left Kentucky it was 90 degrees and I was wearing flip-flops. When my plane touched down in Dillingham it was 40 degrees and the only shoes I brought we me were flip-flops. The only coat I brought was a light hoodie. This was not smart on my part. Besides the weather, the next biggest shock was the prices of food. Milk is almost $8.00 a gallon. We didn't have a thing to eat when we first moved up here and almost all our money was spent turning on things like electric and paying rent. The food budget we made in Kentucky was spent the first day on oreos and ramen noodles. It was sad. We spent $90 on a 12 pack of pepsi, oreos, electrical tape and ramen noodles. Again it was sad. But then we got paid and things got better and then Erin moved up here and things got even better. We got to celebrate New Years Eve and we made cheddar fondue. It was awesome. But I am getting ahead of myself...

The Long Story: (Erin) It's difficult to find a job during a recession, so you do things like randomly apply for a job in Bush, Alaska. My husband, Anthony, had a life goal to live in Alaska, so he found me a job here and I went for it. Last November we moved from Kansas to Alaska. It was 70 degrees when we left and there was snow on the ground when we arrived here. Things were not easy at first. We were poor and food here is incredibly expensive. We were eating a lot of potatoes. But, like Samara, we got paid and things got better. Then we met cool people and things got much better. Now I spend most of my time working, baking, and walking my dog. And now writing a cooking and baking blog.

So there you have it, the story about how we got to the Alaskan bush. I should probably tell you why we consider ourselves foodies. First, I like to cook and Erin likes to bake. Second, we talk about food all the time. Third, one of our favorite weekend activities include going to one of the 2 grocery stores and walking around the 12 isles. In fact, we did that just today. We had a specific mission: take pictures of the high price of food in the bush.

Yes, that is a 1/2 gallon of milk for $4.89. The gallon of milk is $7.98. And it's all Ultra-Pasteurized. The boxed unrefrigerated milk is big here. It's kinda weird. I try not to think about what they have to do to make it so it doesn't need to be refrigerated.

Oh good! Ground clove is on sale for $13.54. I should stock up!

Oh good! Poppy seeds and Sesame seeds are on sale. If I bought 5 bottles of poppy seeds, I could make poppyseed filling. Because I can't just buy poppyseed filling. No, that doesn't exist here.


I used to buy this pasta sauce for $.99 in Kentucky. It does go on sale 3 for $10.


There is a sale on bacon too! It's $5.99 for a pound of bacon. It's not even thick sliced. I'll wait until the 2 pounds of think sliced goes on sale for 15.99.


Cake mix is $3.89. Back home it can be on sale for $.79. I miss Meijers. Erin misses HyVee.

That is the small baking soda that you see for $2.25.

This gets me so mad. It's 9.75 for cranberry juice and it's not even the diet or lite or even the 100% juice!

This is the best! That is 10.99 for a single 12 pack of coke.

Well, that's about it. There are some things that happen here in the bush that don't really happen in other places. For example: Beaver Round Up. Well, that is something for another blog.

1 comment:

  1. Hello, Erin! Nice to "meet" you!

    Samara, I believed you when you told me about food prices there, but somehow seeing the shelf tags makes it much more real. Yikes!

    ReplyDelete