Walrus Loaf

Our good friends Graham and Liz once lived in Nome, Alaska. We flew there to see them for New Year's 2004, figuring, when would we ever have another chance or reason to see Nome? I was pregnant at the time and just beginning to show (if you knew where to look) so we bundled me up like the kid brother on "A Christmas Story" and toured me gingerly around town. There's not much to see so for the rest of our visit we mostly watched "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on DVD. Thus was our addiction born. We have so much to thank Graham and Liz for!

Another thing to thank them for is Walrus Loaf. Liz sent me the occasional interesting tidbit from Nome inluding a sandwich baggie of musk ox fur, which is harvested by the locals from the areas that the musk oxen hang out while shedding. It is fine and silky and sells for a bazillion dollars an ounce to fancy pants yarn folk. And, she sent me a sheaf of recipes entitled "Walrus in the Cooking Pot," put out by the Cooperative Extension Service of the Unversity of Alaska. From this booklet I made "Walrus Meat Loaf" for a church function and my, was it tasty. Of course, walrus meat is scarce and spendy outside of remote villages most of the time, so I substituted the more pedestrian ground beef.

Well, now J has developed the occasional taste for walrus loaf so this afternoon while I napped on the couch (still suffering some nameless malaise) she mixed up a batch and it is just finishing up as I type this. Yum!