I developed the recipe for Winter Coconut Truffles as an anti-pumpkin spice offering.  You can make a real from-scratch production of it by roasting your own winter squash and candying your own ginger (recommend!), but there’s no shame in canned pumpkin and bulk bin candied ginger.  These truffles can be made coconutastic – and vegan to boot! – by subbing in a nice fatty coconut cream for the dairy cream.  I love the combination of hearty, homey, super-seasonal winter squash with the zing of ginger and tropical tranquility of coconut.  

Additionally, truffles hand-rolled in chocolate and then tossed in fun stuff like shredded coconut are way more fun and forgiving when Chef Kid is in the kitchen!

Winter Squash Coconut Truffles

makes 30-40 truffles

This recipe involves using tempered chocolate to coat the ganache.  Tempering can be an intimidating task for the home cook new to chocolate work, but fear not!  You can do this!  A good definition and set of directions/explanations for tempering chocolate can be found here.  

Ganache (for INSIDE the truffles)

1 ¼ Cup (6.5 ounces) finely chopped dark chocolate, 60-70% cacao

½ Cup heavy whipping cream

1/3 Cup winter squash puree (pumpkin, butternut, buttercup, acorn…)

1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. maple syrup

1 Tbsp. unrefined coconut oil or coconut butter

1/3 – ½ Cup chopped candied ginger

¼ tsp. powdered ginger

Pinch salt

For coating

Approx. 2# dark chocolate

3 Cups unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted in a pan and cooled completely

The day before, making the ganache:

Dump chocolate in a small-to-medium bowl, set aside.  

Caramelize your squash of choice: place puree into a wide skillet or pot.  Over medium heat, push and fold the puree around until the color deepens and puree seems slightly drier/stiffer, 10-15 minutes.  

Combine remaining ingredients in a small saucepan.  Set over medium heat and stir frequently until mixture bubbles and stirring does not disrupt bubbling.  Pour hot mixture over chocolate and briefly stir to moisten chocolate.  Let rest 3-4 minutes, allowing the hot cream mixture to melt the chocolate.  Once nicely melted and slightly cooled, fold gently with a rubber spatula until mixture is smooth and homogenous.  If mixture looks greasy, whisk briefly to bring together.  Scrape down sides of bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the ganache.  Cover the bowl with another piece of plastic wrap.  Set aside 8 hours or overnight.

Portioning the ganache:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Portion ganache as you would cookie dough using two spoons or a small cookie scoop.  Grape/olive size or slightly larger is perfect.  Cover sheet tray with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour. (If you have not toasted the coconut, you can do this while you wait.)

Coating the ganache balls:

Place toasted coconut in a large, wide bowl, and grab a couple spoons, too.  Bring portioned ganache back to room temperature while you begin tempering your coating chocolate. Once coating chocolate is tempered, set aside.  Working with clean, dry hands (or latex gloves) to quickly roll the portioned ganache into round-ish balls.  The heat of your hands will melt the ganache if you dawdle!  

With the portions all rolled into ball-ish shapes, work one-by-one to apply a coat of tempered chocolate to each ball: with clean, dry hands make a small puddle of chocolate in the palm of your non-dominant hand and use the other hand to roll the ball around and around until totally smothered in chocolate.  Immediately toss into toasted coconut and quickly bury to coat completely.  Remove from coconut, proceed with remaining balls.(We also experimented with cocoa powder.)

Truffles can be stored at cool room temperature for 3 days, or in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a week.  Bring back to room temperature before enjoying!

Left-over chocolate!  Dip some stuff in it!  Figs, candied ginger, nuts, orange slices…  The chocolate can also be recycled for future baking projects: spread in a thin layer on parchment paper.  Once dry and firm, chop it up and store in a zip-top bag.

Lindsay Clark spent a very formative life-changing 5 years chocolatiering in Alaska at Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge before moving to Pittsburgh and starting her business Coddle & Cosset in 2014.

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Get your own copy of his book here.

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The biggest party of the year is in downtown Anchorage on New Years Eve. Approximately 7,000 – 10,000 people gather around Town Square on December 31st to ring in the New Year and enjoy the festivities (kicking off at 5:00 PM). Opportunities for all ages entertainment include live music from I Love Robots and Big Fat Buddha, beats by DJ GRE, light shows, two beer gardens hosted by Humpy’s Bar and the Avenue Bar featuring celebratory libations for the 21 and over crowd, classic carnival games and hot cocoa for the kiddos, food trucks, and FIREWORKS! It’s a fantastically fun (and FREE!) way to spend your New Year’s Eve.

These are my can’t miss moments:

1. More than 1,200 pounds of fireworks detonating directly overhead!  Fireworks are launched in front of the Whale Wall on E Street, which means that if you’re partying in Town Square or any of the surrounding buildings you’ll have a front row seat for a spectacular show (I’ve been told it’s going to be bigger, brighter, and better than ever before!). The fireworks start at 8:00 PM.
2. A menagerie… with a MINI HORSE!

Lambs, pigs, and ducks – oh my! The goats and a calf are pretty darn cute too. Swing by 5th Ave between E & F Street until 7pm for a dose of sweet baby animal love.

3. Spotting a fictional English spy

Rumor has it that a James Bond look-a-like of the Daniel Craig variety will be pre-partying at Town Square before he heads over to the License to Thrill party at the Sheraton (think he’ll make a Spectre of himself?). Faux celebrity spotting is always fun and seriously, can you tell the difference? Might as well snag a selfie with 007 (if you can find him, that is!)

4. FIRE! 

Not just fireworks: fire dancing, fire throwing, and fire juggling. Nothing lights up the night like a bit of flame being thrown about! Bask in the glow while you marvel at the artistry – with a dash of daredevilry – on display.

I hope you enjoy the party! Cheers to a happy New Year, and see you all in 2016!

For more information about the New Year’s Eve Celebration, visit www.AnchorageDowntown.Org. And if you’re still looking for the perfect way to spend New Year’s Eve, Alaska Dispatch pulled together a roundup of events happening around town. Cheers!

Gretchen Fauske blogs at GretchenLovesAnchorage and volunteers for the Anchorage Downtown Partnership. She spent her childhood NYEs competing with her brother to see who could stand barefoot in the snow the longest while holding a sparkler.

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https://youtu.be/J9LOtMuHR9M

Click on the map to see the neighborhood through their eyes.

Bonus video from the Life Ain’t Fairview Trio:

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Sidthisak Kaybounthome sits behind the wheel of his cab, idling in a parking lot across the street from the terminal at Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport.

He blasts the heat. Outside, the temperature hovers around 25 degrees below zero — not unusual for winters in Barrow, the northernmost town in the country. But Kaybounthome hasn’t seen many winters this far north.

Not too long ago he was a monk at Wat Lao, Mountain View’s Buddhist temple.

He told me his story as we drove along the Arctic Ocean coast, past frozen buildings and bleached whale bones blanketed in drifting snow.

Monkhood was a calling he followed for most of his life, ever since he became a novice at age 11, he said. When he moved to Anchorage in 2000, he helped build Wat Lao into the complex it is today. His work consumed his life. When you are a monk, you give all your time to others, he said. There’s not much time for family. And that’s why he quit.

His elderly mother still lives in Laos, thousands of miles away, and he wanted to earn more to support her, he said. In 2013, he left Wat Lao and took a job at Prudhoe Bay. The oilfields weren’t for him, so he packed his bags and moved further north to Barrow to drive a cab. There’s more business there than in Anchorage, he said.

It’s not like Mountain View and it’s nothing like Laos, but he’s learning to call it home.

“I can live anywhere,” he said.

This microprofile originally appeared on Mountain View Post.

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Anchorage is home to over 600 refugees. This past weekend a small classroom was filled to celebrate Thanksgiving with refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iran, and the DRC. We ate together and watched the snow fall outside. Kids ran around playing; it was super loud and full of chaos, much like any family holiday dinner. Homemade injera, rice suqaar and half a dozen types of samosas filled our bellies. Moments like these are when I love Anchorage most. Here are some photos:

Shannon Kuhn is Korean-Alaskan, co-founder of the Anchorage Food Mosaic and food columnist for the Alaska Dispatch News.

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Go west on Commercial Drive, past the car wash and the smoke shop, and you’ll see an unpaved lot that stands out from the rest.

There’s a picnic table out front, a little white house in the back and a few old campers parked around the yard. One sign advertises a 24/7 window repair business; another promises “Yup’ik gold & silver.” A giant coffee cup rests on a massive spinning saucer by the driveway. A partially rebuilt ’68 Dodge Charger sits next to a stack of tires nearby.

The lot – and everything on it – is Jack Vinson’s best hope.

Three summers ago, his 12-year-old son was struck by a car while riding his bike along Patterson Street. Vinson still keeps a laminated copy of the Anchorage Daily News report about the crash: It barely made 100 words, but it changed their lives forever.

The collision paralyzed Vinson’s son from the chest down. He spent his 13th birthday in a coma. The medical bills topped $1 million, and there wasn’t nearly enough insurance money.

Vinson, living with his own disability, began scrambling for ways to make money, he says. He rents the lot on Commercial Drive in the hopes of opening a business.

He tried a 24-hour coffee cart, a drive-in theater and a secondhand store. Nothing ever took off, so Vinson sells odds and ends and keeps looking for an idea that sticks. Maybe there’s room for a food truck on the lot, he says. Maybe he can sell one of the campers to bring in a little more cash.

“Everything here is to make money for my son,” he said. “All this is just to keep us going. Everything is for sale.”

This micro-story originally appeared on Mountain View Post.

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I asked him what he thinks about when he’s making a picture, this is what he had to say:

“I’ve been a citizen of The People’s Republik of Fairview for eleven years. I started calling it that in 2006 when I went to Ireland and ripped it off from “The People’s Republic of Cork” . My two great loves are bicycling and snapshots. It’s probably annoying to ride with me because I’m usually either sprinting or stopping to take pictures.

Why couches? I’ve always had a place in my heart for obsolete technology. Record players, VCRS, laser discs, beta max, my NES. This love has come to include people’s discarded items that I see when I bike or walk around my neighborhood or journeys elsewhere. The couches really have a lot of personality. They were basically someone’s silent roommate for who knows how long. When you see them out on the curb it’s a little like seeing a peek into that person’s life.”

Here’s a selfie, taken at The Polar Bar. Find more of his work here.

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The little house at the end of North Bliss Street is full of memories, said Tulukqaaqsiuq Hank, who found my blog, Mountain View Post, on Facebook and sent me a note with some old pictures attached. I sent him a message and asked if he’d be willing to tell me more. We ended up talking on the phone for a few hours over the course of a several days. He lives in Point Hope now.

Growing up on N. Bliss, still in grade school, Hank played basketball in the driveway with the hoop his dad built, back before his dad went to prison. Sometimes, when the cupboards in the house were empty and his mother was nowhere to be found, he pocketed packets of ramen noodles and candy bars from Red Apple to feed his young brothers.

He rode his bike all over the neighborhood, smoked stolen cigarettes at Lions Park and learned to take care of himself. One day, when a stray dog chased his cousin, he fought it off with a metal rod. When things got tense with a boy at school, he broke into a neighbor’s house and stole a handgun for protection.

Hank spent the next 17 years moving in and out of the justice system on charges ranging from assault to burglary. He fought addiction. He felt angry. He was locked up when his brother died: Tigautchaiq Douglas was 22 when he fell from the fifth floor of the Castle Apartments. Then, a few years later, Hank learned about the death of his girlfriend while brushing his teeth and watching the evening news at Goose Creek Correctional Center: Elaine Cleveland was 34 when she was discovered, frozen, in a van in downtown Anchorage. It broke Hank’s heart.

Behind bars, he said, he became part of the Native Brotherhood: Police call it a prison gang, Hank calls it a positive movement. It helped him understand some things.

”I kind of understand why I am who I am today,” he said. “It had to take a lot of tragedy for me to change my life.”

The last time he was in Mountain View was last fall, right after he got out of prison, right before he went back to Point Hope to be with family. His childhood girlfriend, Panika Williams, had called him and asked for help finding her mom, Irma Williams, who came up missing, and Hank walked all over the neighborhood looking for her. The house on N. Bliss is still there, remodeled and recently sold. Tuluk couldn’t believe how much it changed — how much the whole neighborhood changed — since he grew up there.

He had no luck looking for Williams that day. It wasn’t until October that a man walking his dogs found her body buried in Davis Park. She was 54 years old. (Michael Memeo, her former boyfriend, was charged with first and second-degree murder and evidence tampering. He’s currently scheduled to go to trial in October.)

In Point Hope, Hank says he found a measure of calm on the Arctic Ocean ice, thinking about his future and making peace with his past.

“Mountain View taught me to survive,” he said.

Here is the picture that was attached to his email:

Kirsten Swann is a writer and blogger who lives in Mountain View. A version of this post originally appeared on Mountain View Post.

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