• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Robert Forto

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Rants & Reviews
  • Team Ineka
  • Dog Training
  • Seminars
  • Contact

YouTube

Banana bread on a wood stove

December 26, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

It was Christmas Eve and we ran out of propane at Forto’s Fort in Alaska. It has been -20 degrees or worse for more than a month and we frankly forgot to wade through deep snow to check the level on the propane tank. We let it run out. Our fault.

A delivery was made on Christmas Eve and the propane guy said he had to come inside to re-light the pilot lights. Protocol, he said. Our 15 year old daughter, Nicole was home and she let him in. He left in minutes and we thought we were good to go.

Later that night we soon found out that stove wasn’t working AND also found out that there is no pilot light on the stove, but it has an electric ignitor and a gas regulator valve. The dumb-a** from the propane company broke that off!

At least it broke off closed. What does that mean? No stove for the foreseeable future, but what’s worse? No stove for Christmas dinner! No Christmas cookies, Grandma’s fudge or baked potatoes and nasty yams!

I decided among all else; we are having Banana Bread, come hell or high water.

After some searching online I found a recipe on YouTube for Dutch Oven Banana Bread over a campfire.

I had a roaring fire in the wood stove. It was minus twenty degrees outside. Why not go all Grizzly Adams style and cook on that puppy.

Michele and Nicole whipped up the batter and I threw three lumps of coal in the fire to heat them up nice and red.

Within minutes the bread was on the stove in Michele’s brand new Dutch Oven.

 

 

How did we do it?

We poured the batter in a bread pan

Next we made a ring out of aluminum foil and placed that on the bottom of the Dutch Oven, placing the bread pan on top of that. You do this so that the bottom of your bread does not burn from being directly in contact with the hot wood stove top.

We then placed the lid on the dutch oven and made another ring using foil on the lid so that our coals would not slide off.

I fetched the three coals from the fire and placed them on top of the Dutch Oven. This is a crucial step. If you do not have coals on top of the Dutch Oven your bread will not cook evenly and may not rise.

I  covered the coals with a layer of foil to hold in the heat.

We sat back and waited 45 minutes before checking it.

At 45 minutes our bread was still a bit raw in the middle so we let it cook another 15 minutes.

At exactly one hour our bread was done!

We removed the bread pan from the dutch oven and placed the bread on a rack to cool.

Our bread did burn just a little bit on the bottom and we fixed it by shaving off a small slice.

Otherwise our Banana Bread turned out EXCELLENT and our little bit of improvisation turning into a Christmas memory that we will soon not forget!

___________________________

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post, Recipe Rants Tagged With: alaska, Banana Bread, Bread pan, Christmas, forto, Oven, Wood-burning stove, YouTube

Are you Awake? Live and Inspired by Godsmack has arrived

May 20, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Put down the iPhones. Quit updating Facebook and taking pictures and sit back and enjoy the music. Because there is nothing better in the world than a kick ass live rock-n-roll show!

I am paraphrasing just a bit here but you get the jest. This was what Sully Erna said from the hard rock band Godsmack to a near sold out show at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, Alaska last September.

He is right. There is nothing like it. Godsmack rocks! 

When my wife and I attended this no frills show at the Sully we were blown away. They played for almost two hours and it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. No pyro. No light show. Just a balls-to-the-wall rock-n-roll band playing an intimate show to a few thousand people in the Great White North. It was a great time because rock concerts are hard to come by in the Last Frontier.

I bought the tickets before my wife even had a plane ticket to move up here. I said you need to get up here by September 5th because we have a concert to get to.

I will never forget the more than 15 minute rendition of the instrumental The Oracle, Sully on the drums with Batalla de los Tambores, and the guitar and bass riffs of Awake that shook you to the core. If you have been to a Godsmack show you know it is the real deal. This isn’t some video on YouTube or you sitting at home watching it on the big screen in your underwear with a remote control.

Just the past week, Godsmack released their first ever live set–Live and Inspired. Including covers of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way, Pink Floyd’s Time, The Beatles Come Together and Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters.

I bought the CD while up in Tok, Alaska watching over my friends pack of Iditarod sled dogs. There is not much to do up here. No Mickey D’s. No WiFi and five-dollar double shot espressos with whip. What a better place to enjoy some good ole’ American-made rock-n-roll. None of this groomed boy band crap singing about Boyfriends.

I sat back in an old rickety lawn chair in the bight sunshine, closed my eyes and let the music take over. It did just that.

Track listings:

  1. Straight Outta Line
  2. Realign
  3. Awake
  4. Moon Baby
  5. Changes
  6. The Enemy
  7. Keep Away
  8. Speak
  9. Voodoo
  10. Batalla de los Tambores
  11. Whatever
  12. Serenity
  13. I Stand Alone
  14. Rocky Mountain Way
  15. Come Together
  16. Time
  17. Nothing Else Matters

If you want a rare treat to add to your ever increasing music library that is so large that you have to keep it in some place called the “cloud”, Godsmack’s Live and Inspired is worth the 12 bucks and the next time a live show rolls through your town, cash in that change at the local Coinstar and go enjoy yourself. You will be glad you did.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post, What Rocks Tagged With: Awake, Godsmack, iphone, Live and Inspired cd, live music, Metallica, Michele Forto, Oracle, robert forto, Sullivan Arena, Sully Erna, YouTube

In 1987 a dream was born (Part 6)…

March 25, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

The Iditarod celebrated its 40th anniversary this past March with Willow (AK) musher, Dallas Seavey winning the race.

While checking out YouTube I came across a series of videos that captured my attention. They were Iditarod videos, old school style! When they were made, this years winner was just born days after.

Robert Forto and Team Ineka are training for the Iditarod and his first attempt will be in 2014.

 

Way back in 1987, when this video was taken, Robert purchased his first Siberian Husky, Axl, and a dream was born…

Related articles
  • Iditarod 40: The infamous Happy River Steps (robertforto.com)
Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post, Dogs, Iditarod, Mushing, Team Ineka, Uncategorized Tagged With: dog, Iditarod, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, MUSH, Nome Alaska, robert forto, Siberian Husky, YouTube

In 1987 a dream was born (Part 2)…

March 21, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

The Iditarod celebrated its 40th anniversary this past March with Willow (AK) musher, Dallas Seavey winning the race.

While checking out YouTube I came across a series of videos that captured my attention. They were Iditarod videos, old school style! When they were made, this years winner was just born days after.

Robert Forto and Team Ineka are training for the Iditarod and his first attempt will be in 2014.

 

Way back in 1987, when this video was taken, Robert purchased his first Siberian Husky, Axl, and a dream was born…

Related articles
  • The Gypsy Musher: A Fan’s Perspective (dogworksradio.com)
Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post, Dogs, Mushing, Team Ineka Tagged With: dog, Iditarod, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, MUSH, Nome Alaska, pets, robert forto, Siberian Husky, YouTube

30 Days About Me. Day 23: YouTube

August 24, 2011 by robertforto 2 Comments

I am participating in a blog challenge this month. It is 30 Days About Me from the blog of a Daily Dose of Toni.

Today is YouTube Videos that are either I am in or that we like.

I watch YouTube a lot on my iPhone when I am waiting in line at the DMV or for some pimply kid to call out my name for a super-sized double whooper with a an extra-large frosty. No folks, I don’t eat like that but I do wait in line for “fast” food.

I watch a lot of short clips of Family Guy and Charlie and Unicorn. My daughter Nicole turned me on to Charlie.

The first video is my sponsorship clip for my Iditarod run.

 

 

The second video I just found today, actually. It is Elvira’s Scary Christmas. I love Elvira and I watch her show every week. I have told people that it was the reason for moving to Alaska! If you are a rabid reader of this blog you know by now that I am a huge monster movie fan and Elvira’s Movie Macabre fits right in.

 

 

The last video is of a movie that I was an associate producer on. Yep, that’s right folks, my name is in the credits! It is Attack of the Moon Zombies by my friend Christopher R. Mihm and it stars another good friend, Sod Korpi.

 

 

What to do you watch on YouTube?

 

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: 30 Days About Me, Daily Post, Horror Tagged With: alaska, foursquare, iphone, YouTube

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS Feed
  • LinkedIn

Listen to Dog Works Radio

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in