I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

Archives for April 2011

Eeeeeek Teeny Tiny Bunny

I have jsut started the tweets for House Rabbit Network (@rabbitnetwork). I’m really excited about volunteering with HRN this way since I could not longer manage the duties invovled with the hotline. This allows my schedule to be flexible, so I can schedule posts when i’m at my computer no matter if it’s 11pm or 6am… can’t really call people at that time!

Well long story short… I saw a tweet about this video come through from House Rabbit Society. I actually squeaked when I saw it. Price heard me and knew I was looking at/watching ‘something cute’. I watched it twice last night. It had about 11,000ish views before going to bed, as I post the link this morning it has over 96,000. People just love cute things!

Mystery Meet #10: Tres Gatos

I have no idea how I did not guess this location for Mystery Meet sooner. The 5 clues were dead on. I didn’t get it until I had talked to Meesh and Jackie of Just Add Cheese, organizers for MM#10 , and worked on the clues with 2 other people. I admit I can be dumb sometimes.

But low and behold we guessed correctly with Tres Gatos in Jamaica Plain.

Tres Gatos is a new Tapas restaurant in a book and record store. This is a 3 trick pony! The bar is set up under 4 old doors- I totally loved the look. Winding yourself past the bar and small seating area you arrive at the small kitchen, which is open to some high tables. Just past the kitchen is the store section. I didn’t wander around the store much since I was interested in meeting other bloggers and enjoying a glass of rosé.

So two weeks ago, Price and I got settled at another table with another couple, who had come up from Rhode Island. I think they win the prize for the people who traveled the furthest. Ilesha makes elaborate costume head dresses, but also sells handmade evil sock monkeys in her etsy store. I love going to these events to be able to have great good food, drinks, and meet new people.

-Tapas-

Salsa Negro, Piparras, and Manchego– This was a small bite that you definetly smelled before tasting. The cheese was pungent, but is a nice way.

Breakfast Radish, Moses Sleeper Cheese and Chervil– Keep is simple stupid. Really the chef kept this simple and is was amazing. The salty cheese helped bring out the subtle crisp flavors of the spring radish.

Pork Stuffed Cerignolas and Boquerones– I skipped this entirely because I don’t like olives

-Gambas A La Plancha-

Grilled Prawns with Spicy Garlic and Cilantro Coulis– 2 prawns were not enough! I could have eaten a bucket of these. The prawns were garlicky and grilled perfectly. The sauce was flavorful. I wish that we ere served more prawns and a slice a bread to sop up all that amazing sauce.

– Fideos-

Chorizo, Chicken Liver, P.E.I. Mussels and Piquillo Pepper-

While I spoke to the chef about a gluten free option for this plate, I decided to have it normally since he explained the quanity of pasta given. I figured that I would be fine with that amount, and I was, but it was nice that he said he would substitute a rice/risotto for me. I really enjoyed the flavors of this dish. I’m not a fan of chicken livers because of their texture but I had some anyway, further cementing my opinion of them. I loved the PEI mussels in the sauce. Unfortunately, I did not get any chorizo on my plate.

-Queso-

Torta De La Serne, Sheep’s Milk, Spain

Chevrin Goat’s Milk, Belgium

Machego Curado, Sheep’s Milk, Spain

As much as I enjoy cheese, I really wished that we has something sweet to end the meal, especially since we already had 2 bites of cheese with the Tapas plate. That being said I liked the cheese plate with the accompaniments, which were quince paste, fig, and honey. The Chevrin was my least favorite cheese since it had an after taste, and as our table mate said, was ‘borderline offensive’.

I certainly enjoyed the meal at Tres Gatos because I loved the whole experience. I think that the food was fantastic because it was well planned, balanced, and well executed. That being said, I was disappointed with the portions of meal for the price that we paid. Each of our meals were $40, including tax and tip. Price bought drinks in addition to this. Sure, argue that quality costs, but I have had plenty of really nice meals for that amount of money with much  larger portions. I am interested in going back to see how their regular menu prices and portions compare to the dinner we had, as well as comparing it to Tasca, another Tapas places I’ve been to in Boston.

Tres Gatos
470 Centre Street 
Jamacia Plain, MA 02130
Tapas Bar: 617-477-4851
Book & Record Store: 617-477-9209

Birthday Sweets LO- Sketchbook 3 Day 2 Sketch

CKC Manchester 2011 is coming up this Friday. I’m really, really excited about taking the day off and going!! I went last year and had a great time. Three of us went had a great time taking classes and shopping. One of the things I picked up shopping were these vintage looking stickers from Melody Ross. I fell in love with them, althought i had NO idea what i would scrap with them. Well, once this paper arrived at my door step from my Studio Calico kit, I knew I would be using these stickers soon. I loved the paper the minute I saw it, even though it is not something I typically gravitate to.

 

Such ‘girlie’ looking pages are not something I create often. But I pulled out all stops for this one using a floral paper, pink glittery thickers, butterflies, pale colors, a papery ribbon. Boy oh boy, who knew I had so much of this ‘girlie’ stuff!

Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.

Happy Easter!

So I had a whole blog post written up about Easter, what it means to me, it’s origins, how I was happy I was not bribed to go to church, how I spent the day, rabbits, how i think someone is a jerk for posting about ‘celebrating’ Easter by eating rabbit, and much more. I got to the end, proof read it, and then deleted the whole damn thing. I was just not in the mood to get preachy about religion, why giving rabbits as gifts is a bad idea, and eating rabbit. I’m too tired to go there.

Instead I will leave you with this:

Hope you had a great Easter!

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Easter Brownies- Mini Cadbury Creme Egg Brownies

These brownies make for a fantastic Easter treat. The brownie is individually sized so it makes for a great to go treat. The kind of goodie that is easily wrapped and slipped into an Easter basket. Or if you are ‘too old’ for a basket, you can just enjoy them because you are an adult and should have nice things.

 

I really truly love Cadbury Creme Eggs. I love that they are around for such a short period of time. It makes them even more desirable. I stick to the classic creme eggs, just can’t get me to touch their caramel egg. I don’t get the point. It’s like a caramel milky way… oh don’t you mean a caramel filled chocolate bar that is no way similar to a milky way?!? I think that classics should stay classics. So that is why I indulge myself with the creme eggs for this short period of time.

 

The brownies are best eaten right away because it will allow you to bite into the ooey gooey creme egg. The brownie is rich and dense, so the egg will not sink to the bottom. The egg remains intact and is perfect to cut in half. It just looks so sweet.

 

Typically, you test the readiness of a baked good by inserting a tooth pick and if it’s clean upon removal the cake it done. However, you can’t insert a tooth pick into the center of this treat because it would provide an inaccurate picture of it’s doneness because you would be testing the melty egg, and not the brownie. The brownies are so small that gently touching the top will be a good enough indicator.

 

Mini Cadbury Creme Egg Brownies

*makes 6 brownies*

Ingredients

  • 4oz bittersweet chocolate
  • 6oz butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup self-rising flour
  • 6 mini Cadbury creme eggs

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 6 muffin cups.
  2. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler, or over very low heat. Cool.
  3. In a medium size bowl, combine the sugar and egg
  4. Slowly add the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture.
  5. Add in the flour and gently combine.
  6. Divide the batter evenly into the 6 liners. Put 1 egg inside each brownie, slightly less than half should remain exposed.
  7. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Top should appear done while egg is soft looking.

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Hello Buffalo LO- 10.3 Studio Calico Sunday Sketch

Sketch1

I’ll admit that I was a bit intimidated with this Studio Calico Sunday Sketch. This is not the kinda of thing I gravitate to. umm hello? Flags? I thought it was all a bit kitschy but I dove on it and instead of nixing the flags I worked with it. I put the title on the flags so they seemed a bit more significant than just embellishment flags. I think that they work on the page but I wish they would made them a bit smaller. Live and learn

 

One of my new favorite things when it comes to scrapbooking is getting Price involved. Whenever my Studio Calico kits arrive I go through the papers, I just love paper. After I have made my pass through them I hold each one up and flip from A side to B side and ask which he likes more. Typically, we like the same. I just find that interesting and pretty cute.

In the case of this layout, I had a few different papers in mind but I was unsure of which one. So I laid out a couple different options and reviewed them with Price and he helped out. Besides that it’s nice that he is ever so slightly involved in my hobby, it’s nice that he helped out on a layout that was focused on a day that he planned for us.

Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.

6 Years LO- Studio Calico 1/2 Sunday Sketch

Emily_sketch

Sometimes I can slack off at blogging, as in the case of this layout which has been sitting in my draft box for weeks. So I’m cracking the whip on myself and posting.

I decided to use this Sunday Sketch because it was issued on our anniversary. So, I thought it would be fitting to use the 1/2 sketch for a photo taken on 1/2. I originally planned this layout to use quote bubbles saying the title, but when it really came down to it I didn’t feel like cutting out bubbles. Lazy much? So I used to stickers to layer the title on. I think it works just as well.

 

I loved using the Studio Calico hexagon stamp. Obviously I love it since it reminds me of honeycomb (hello, honey bee!), but i loved how well it went with the paper I wanted to use. I hate to be so matchy matchy but I could not resist.

Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.

How To: Cheeseburger Cake

Use these Things:

1 8-inch brownie layer (burger)

1 8- inch yellow cake layer (base bun)

1 8-inch top yellow cake layer with sliced almonds laid on top prior to baking (top bun w/ sesame seeds)

1 16-oz tub of white frosting (do not use extra whipped) or use homemade

8-oz of white fondant

yellow, green, and red icing colors (do not use normal food coloring)

2 icing bags/sandwich bags for piping

Follow these Steps:

prepare cakes

divide frosting in 3 (40%/40%/30%)

put the 30% portion of frosting on base layer

stack brownies layer on top

divide fondant in 2 portions (60%/40%)

kneed fondant sections until playable, add yellow icing color to 60%, add green to rest

add more icing color, as needed

kneed fondant until color is incorporated

cut an 8″ square of the yellow fondant (slice of cheese)

cut long strips out of the green fondant (lettuce)

lay cheese on top of brownie

color 2 remaining sections of frosting with icing colors for ketchup/russian & mustard

Pipe ketchup on top of cheese

Layer the lettuce strips on top of ketchup

Pipe mustard on top of the lettuce

Top with the other layer of cake

enjoy with friends

dig in to your burger!

Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.

Sausage Meatball Subs

I’m all about the best of both worlds thing when it comes to food. I love the combination of things and how that enhances the meal from donut muffins, Oreo chocolate chip cookies, to this. The combination of a meatball and sausage sub satusfies my love of meatball subs, while getting spice and flavor from sausage.

When I was younger, I never was a huge fan of Italian sausage (get your mind out of the gutter!). I didn’t think that Sweet Italian sausage had much flavor, and while I liked the spice from Hot Italian Sausage I could not get past all that damn fennel seed. I have slowly come around to it. Mainly because I typically have it grilled or cooked in beer, loaded up with peppers and onions with spicy mustard.

While you can use Sweet or Hot Italian Sausage, I really suggest using the Hot variety because it will be able to stand up against the plain ground beef.  If you happen to like sweet sausage you might want to make it 1 pound to be even with the ground beef. The only thing I suggest adding to the meat mixture is a grated onion, to add some flavor and moisture. Anything else, besides salt and pepper, would compete with the seasoned sausage.

Sausage Meatball Subs

makes 4 subs

1 pound of ground beef (80/20)
3/4 pound of Italian Sausage (I suggest Hot)
1 small white onion, grated
4 small sub rolls or 2 large loaves, halved
8 slices of provolone cheese
generous drizzle of olive oil
2 cups of marinara sauce

____________________

Preheat oven to 400, drizzle bread with olive oil and toast bread until light brown, add cheese for last remaining few minutes to melt.

While the bread is toasting,  remove Sausage from casing to prep it for being incorporated into the ground beef.

In a large bowl, combine a grated onion, beef, and sausage.

Roll 20 meatballs out.

Cook meatballs in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Evenly roll and brown on all sides while cooking.

Once meatballs are all evenly browned and almost done, add in 2 cups of marinara sauce. This will heat up the marinara and finish off the meatballs while they simmer in the sauce.

Assemble the sub with 5 meatballs each and enjoy!

Breaks my heart



As I have started before, I have 2 rabbits and I am a volunteer with House Rabbit Network. I adopted our first rabbit, Bunny,  through a shelter and then when I felt it was right to get another I adopted Jack through HRN. I love them to peices, although they eat my books and Jack ate the buttons off the TV remote. Techniqually, all of tht stuff is boiled odwn to being my fault for leaving it without nibbling range for them. No matter what they do we love them to pieces.

In addition to the emails I get as a volunteer, I follow HRN on their facebook page for updates. Most of the status updates are fun with links to the blog and announcements about rabbits that have been with the org for a while are finally adopted. Sadly today’s update had to do with a case of 64 rabbits being seized from a trailer in Marboro NY. {video in the link} A woman had all of these rabbits in a trailer in unsanitary conditions and without food or water. At this point she is being charged with 64 counts of failure to provide proper sustenance under state agriculture and markets law.

I’m sad that anyone would let things get so out of control.
I’m sad that she did not take care of her rabbits.
I’m sad that so many have sores on them and many have lost patches of hair.
I’m so sad that they have been malnourished.
I’m sad that so many rabbits are in need of a good home now.

I’m really hoping that I can help out in some way since some rabbits will be heading to HRN. At this point, nothing is too small… driving to pick up the rabbits in NY, donating some hay, pellets, cleaning cages, etc. As much as this horrible thing has happened I know that I can do something to right this wrong.

House Rabbit Network
781-431-1211
__________
Ulster County SPCA
845-331-5377

Are We Done Yet? LO- Sketchbook 3 Day 1

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-Day 1-

I knew I would be signing up once I saw that Kelly Purkey was doing Sketchbook 3, another online class based upon sketches. This is my 4th online class taught my Kelly. I’ve been hooked to her blog and her classes since I took her first one.

Anyway, I was giddy to wake up on Monday (a first!) to welcome the first sketch that was waiting for me in my inbox. I had this photo reserved for a different sketch but it was not really clicking for me so it was just sitting there. But when I saw the sketch I knew this photo would work well for it. The sketch had 2 spots for photos and it was orientated a different way. Instead of worrying about using one picture, I just moved forward with the 1, but added the rectangular accent to balance the page.

I’m really looking forward to the rest of the class. 1 down, 11 to go.

Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been stumbling upon posts about cookies inside cookies throughout my Google reader lately. ummm cookies inside cookies? Yep, imagine a cookie inside another cookie- either mixed in or fully enveloped. Simple, delicious, addicting.

Some of the best sounding, looking, and addicting sounding ones have come from the blog Lovin’ From the Oven. She first had a cookie inside a cookie recipe posted last April but then posted another recently in February. After seeing the second recipe, which included an entire oreo inside a chocolate chip cookie, I decided that I would have to go back to the older recipe because the likely hood of me eating 3 cookies would just spell trouble. Having 3 of the Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies would be like having 6 cookies and that would be heart stopping. So I opted for the slightly more figure faltering recipe that just had pieces of Oreo’s incorporated into it.

I’ve made these cookies 4 times now. They are really quick to whip up. You barely even need to break apart the Oreo cookies before adding them into the dough mixer as you stand mixer will do the work for you. The more you mix the smaller the pieces of Oreo that remain, this will result in a more uniform texture cookie that tastes a lot like cookies and cream. If you just mix the cookies until they are combined, which I prefer, they have much more texture and have more pockets of Oreo flavor.

Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 4 doz 2″ cookies

2 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
25 Oreo Cookies broken into large pieces
2 cups chocolate chips

____________________

Preheat oven to 350.

Sift together the flour, baking soda,  and salt. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and the sugars. Once that mixture is light and fluffy add the eggs, one at a time. When eggs are jsut combined, add in the vanilla. Gently mix until just incorportated.

Add in the sifted dry ingredients slowly until just incorporated. Add the chocolate chips and Oreo pieces. The Oreo’s will break up as the cookie dough is mixed together.

On a non stick baking sheet, spoon out 1 1/2- 1 3/4″ dollops. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown and just set. Remove from oven, let the sheet sit for 1-2 minutes before removing cookie to cool on a cooling rack.