yelverton alaska is an amazing state filled with natural beauty everywhere you look from the forests and wilderness to the majestic glaciers along the coast we're going to take it all in today but first we want to get started with a look at the size of the makes me feel kind of tiny beautifully shot you know sound is one of the big foods in alaska when you go there of course they'll be salmon banks and lots of ways to enjoy this beautiful fish we want to do a recipe today that's just a little different but very much it cook until the leak is pretty wilted you know it's just just kind of in there and cooked up and then it's all set and then what i'm going to do is i'm going to take i know about two tablespoons of but i'm going to add three tablespoons of flour and then i'm going to let that clip together i'm going to let it cook together for four or five minutes because the idea is that i don't want to rush this i have it on maybe a medium medium high heat and i want the flour to really break out and just mix with the butter and the leak and really form a wonderful base for all the other ingredients that are going to be coming next so i have that there that's set when it's done what i do is i add it into the blender and i already have three cups of chicken broth in here so we're just going to be adding this  with it to get there pretty soon as you can imagine now the salmon that we use again when i talk about smoked salmon i know you can go in the supermarket and find all kinds of salmon fin sliced salmon that's smoked but what i'm talking about is wood smoked salmon and this is the kind of thing that you'll find just at the supermarket you know when a package like this and if you're lucky you can buy a larger size but certainly it comes in this which is about a six ounce of four i'm sorry four ounce packet so what i do is i take it home i take off the skin on the bottom and then i put it in the freezer just for a couple of minutes because it's a lot easier to chop it that way and it's not all kind of running all over the place so here i have six ounces of smoked salmon so i'm going to add that  and again it's just got this aroma of wood and the rich ness of the salmon so the whole thing together with the leaks it's just it's starting to smell really really good in here and one of the other things i do and this is kind of one of my  signature marks to this dish is that i know the salmon has a lot of fat in it that's the good fish oil it's good for us we want to be eating it but we don't want that overpower the dish so i take apple cider vinegar and i like apple cider vinegar because again it's from apple trees would based the salmon a smoked in wood and so this kind of assembly osis there what this vinegar does is it cuts that fat fat fat kind of sensation you have and it the acid really provides a spark to the dish so it makes it really special and then what i do this i put in smoked paprika i love smoked paprika it's different from regular pepper to which is mild again it's got a smoky quality and that's going to work perfectly with with the salmon so i put it in if you have to spoon but i also want to deeper paprika flavor and i know i don't want to overwhelm the dish with too much smoked paprika so i put maybe another have teaspoon of just mild regular pepper again there so now we're really started to get some action moving here then we got a little pepper and then of course deal and salmon go together you know like salt pepper except even better so what i do is i just take some fresh dill and fresh still really makes a difference and i'm just going to just cut it right in here  think i'll take a little bit more to be about up to a tablespoon or so i love these little shears for putting your herbs into your dish because they cut everything so nicely makes it easy it's a lot less messy so i have that good to go now our next step is that we're going to take milk and i'm going to put about two cups of milk in a pan and what we're going to do is like that heat up and as that one stop i also add about four ounces of cream cheese  the cream cheese i'm putting in is blocking cheese it's not the whipped cream cheese can this is this the texture of it the volume of it i just think it's a lot better so i put four ounces of that that's all chopped up and again i put this in the freezer for talking with before i chopped it just to you know again make it easier to chop and doesn't get good beer messy so this isn't going to warm up for four or five minutes until the cream cheese is all melted the miss is going to go in here and so basically i'm just going to let that go until it's all smooth inside now this is what the finished product looks like and again just for a little finish i'm going to put some deal on it because it makes it look so pretty and we've got delivery where here the salmon is right there the smoked salmon is perfect it's beautiful i really get the flavor of that and that's what i was looking to do in this dish is to really have that smoked salmon be the star everything else is in hansing at the leak the vinegar the deal it's really all come together and it's wonderful so snowy day alaska kind of day this is perfect or just really whenever you feel like it because it's light it's fresh and it really taste delicious so that's smoked salmon bits you know cruising in alaska is becoming more and more popular i have clients and i travel agency who are more and more wanting to have that experience and there are large cruise ships you can take up to four thousand or more passengers and that's a really different experience you kind of are in a big boat with lots of things to do and you're still going to take in all the beauty of alaska i think silversea cruises a lot because they're smaller boats it's a more intimate experience and it's really more of a luxury feel you know and you feel closer to the environment so obviously cruises takes it even smaller though with silversea expeditions these are much smaller boats that can get into places with the larger ships can't so for people this is really a chance to get up close and personal in the alaska environment  me extraordinary berries are another food that you'll find in alaska there are very prevalent out there and they have all kinds of berries black berries blueberries raspberries and lots of things like lingonberries and tart little berries that are very unique in the states so it seems like a good idea to put together a very beautiful fruit salad alaskan fruit salad with a honey aren't dressing so start out i'm going to take the black berries again the the official state fruit those in the middle because i'm going to get the most of them and i think they're because they're sweet or they tend to just you know sweeten up the black berries and the raspberries that are coming after them so i put a lot of blueberries in there and i think they make it really nice really special take some orange juice which is right here and i'm going to mix that in a bowl that the fruit is washed and then i dry it on paper towels until it's really dry and i let it sit out at room temperature because i just think the flavors are better that way and it's just a nicer way to kind of go with it so it's got a honey and orange juice i'm just go oranges and i'm going to squeeze some of course but then we do it's going to take some you just put them on tough and it had such a beautiful color so of powdered sugar a little snowfall sugar like that kind of like alaskan snowfall right and there you have it so that's very simple to do and you've got a beautiful fruit salad on your hands and just take a little taste of that when it gets some of the berry some orange some of the sugar and that all just came together in a really amazing way that's so delicious you have the tartness of the berries the orange juice is really a nice flavor with a very smooth flavor and then the powdered sugar on top just because a nice little finish but again i love that honey in there so delicious we have two great recipes for you today so we talked about cruising in alaska and again how big that is as a destination kind of a trip but it's really important not to overlook what is inside that state because there is so much incredible natural wonder there from the wildlife to the forests to the whole experience of being in alaska to that sense of being one person in this vast last frontier so we want to show you what it would look like to actually stay in one of the many lodges there because they're really rustic and comfortable and fun can i forwards glacier lodge is situated just near seward and you go in there you really you kind of get to relax and unwind have your kind of your feet up but then there's all kinds of beautiful right by what i love to go and spend some time there as well as be on the water i think i will sometime soon i want to tell you about coffee because coffee is one of the brews that is really important in alaska people take great pride in their coffee and they have really really delicious coffee in there there's brewed in wonderful ways so how are you today i just thought this is really funny it's called deadman's reach wavin brew coffee so you can imagine we're getting such something that's really tarkhan are all magic and it's going to have a lot of caffeine in it and it does but when you brew this up what i really love about it is that it just has this wonderful aroma and i smell the coffee but i smell a smoothness again there's a roasting here that happens that i think just just really makes wonderful things occur in this coffee so i was a little nervous to try it you know i thought oh my gosh what's going to happen here but when i did i was really surprised because oh hello caffeine my old friend it's here is a nice strong cup of coffee which i love but it's not the kind of hit you between the eyes like in a special wood there's a mellowness in the roasting and a beautiful flavor in a small office in this coffee so another thing to look forward to when you visit alaska that's what we have for you today it's been so much fun so glad you've been here with us in a till i see you next time stay hungry for travel