I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

Archives for November 2012

Thirsty Thursday: Ginger Grapefruit Martini

So the the ‘3’ in the numerical pad in our computer keyboard doesn’t work anymore. Why? Well, I might have been drinking and messing around on the Internets while I spilled the whole glass on the keyboard. I might have been a little tipsy. I hope I was not blogging…

Well, I what was I drinking?? I was drinking Domaine de Canton and some seltzer. I just love that DdC. I can get by with some of my homemade ginger simple syrup, vodka, and seltzer but it’s just not the same. Domaine de Canton is a smooth ginger flavored cognac in a beautiful bottle. The bottle matters. I swear!

 

 

This Ginger Grapefruit Martini uses Domaine De Canton, vodka, and fresh squeezed grapefruit. Grapefruit, as well other citrus, is in season in the winter so this is a perfection seasonal drink to enjoy before dinner, at a party, or while wrapping presents. I can’t guarantee how well your wrapping will turn out after a drink or two but that’s half the fun! Blame Santa’s elves.

Since this week’s Thirtsy Thursday is brought you by the flavor ‘Ginger’ (that feels very Seasame Street to me), Amanda made this Gingerbread Hot Chocolate. Less devilish than my drink but equally perfect for the season. Don’t you just love a nice hot chocolate after you come in from a cold afternoon outside or to wind down the day? This is so perfect for those occasions.

Ginger Grapefruit Martini

Ingredients

  • 4 oz fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
  • 2 oz Domaine de Canton
  • 1 oz vodka
  • sugar
  • segment of grapefruit or lime, for garnish

Process

  1. Rim the martini glass with sugar.
  2. Combine the grapefruit juice, Domaine de Canton, and vodka together. Pour into the martini glass.
  3. Garnish with the grapefruit segment or lime wedge.

‘Zoo’- LO… lions, tigers, and something else, oh my!

Ah, as the temperature dips the craftiness increases. It’s nice to kill a whole night r even day by scrapbooking without feeling guilty about missing a great day outside. Clearly, I’m not the only one who feels this way as the ever fabulous Cathy Zielske tweeted this awesome meme. It’s a rif on Game of Thrones and scrapbooking…

I just love this. It totally made my day when I saw this. And yes, it reminded me to order more adhesive.

So getting back in gear with scrapbooking has been a lot of fun. I’ve really been trying to use products I have not used before or in a long time or products in ways I have not used before. It helps me stretch my imagine and use my stash.

My stash of paper and alphas has been getting a tad extreme so be prepared to see layouts using a lot of them as I try to use them creatively. In this case I used 5 pieces of paper to layer on a solid cardstock. The grey and white pieces that look hand drawn were actually patterned rectangles on a piece of patterned paper that I individually cut out, so I guess that brings the papers up to 6 kinds. I finished up a pack of stickers I had as we well as used new brads ad other 3d embellishments. My favorite thing I that I used are the 4 different kinds of Mini Market Alphas that I used to label each photo. I seriously love this alphas from October Afternoon.

left side page…

right side page…

Black Cherry Yogurt Brownies

Black Cherry Yogurt Brownies are fudgy brownies that use black cherry Greek yogurt in the batter. The Greek yogurt gives it a nice subtle tang with a hint of cherry.

Fudgy black cherry yogurt brownies

Do you know that you can in fact perform magic acts? Yep, once you make a batch of brownies you’ll have the magical ability to make everyone come running, and make those brownies disappear. These Black Cherry Yogurt Brownies are going to disappear in a flash. *Poof!* And they are gone!

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Chocolate Bourbon Truffles- SRC

I’m so ready for Christmas and all the craziness that comes with it. Actually, I’m not at all but I’m trying. At least I will bake and cook myself into the holiday spirit. I have so many recipes bookmarked it’s a bit crazy. But I’m looking forward to tackling that list.

Something you should add to your holiday baking list are these Chocolate Bourbon Balls.  As soon as I saw these on Shari’s blog, The Saucy Gourmet, I knew that these would be perfect to make for this month’s addition for Secret Recipe Club. We are taking next month off from posting so I wanted to share something perfect for the holidays.

 

These are so simple to make and a great treat for the holiday season. In all they took me an hour to make and that included 30 minutes of me watching Parenthood while they cooled for 30 minutes. Not bad at all. Shari suggests that you make them a few days in advance of serving them to allow the flavors to meld together and for the bourbon to mellow out. I follow no such instructions and didn’t wait so they had a real kick to them but were still soooo good. But it’s really great that you can make these in advance of a party or a cookie swap when you are super crazy swamped with a million other holiday things they will be ready and waiting for you.

 

 

Prior to making these I recruited one of the general contractors I work with into explaining bourbon to me. Bourbon is American made whiskey that is barrel-aged, which is why it is pricier than something like vodka. We discussed what bourbon to use in this recipe as well. Since this doesn’t have many ingredients it would be best to use a good quality bourbon so you don’t pucker up as you eat the bourbon balls. Basically, he suggested to skip using Jack Daniels (unless you get a nice specialty bottle). I was still confused so I called him from the liquor store… after work. Oh those general contractors are such good sports, which is why I gave them all of these bourbon balls!

Chocolate Bourbon Truffles

Makes 30 1” round truffles

Ingredients

  • 6  oz (1 cup) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 1/3 cup bourbon, such as Maker’s Mark
  • 55 Nilla wafers cookies
  • 4 oz (1 cup) walnut pieces
  • Sugar of rolling

Process

  1. Using a food processor (or a knife and some patiences), crush the Nilla Waffers and walnuts together until fine.
  2. In a medium sized, heavy-bottom pot, melt the chocolate on low heat. Once melted, remove from heat and add the sugar, corn syrup, and bourbon and mix until chocolate mixture is smooth again. Thoroughly mix in the Nilla Waffers and walnut mixture to create a dough.
  3. In the pot, divide the dough in half by scoring the top, then divide those 2 sections in 5 equal sections. Let the dough cool for 30 minutes.
  4. Once the dough has cooled, remove from the pot and roll the 10 sections into even sized logs and then cut each into 3 pieces. Roll the balls and then coat with sugar.

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Secret Recipe Club

Check out my previous Secret Recipe Club Posts:

October: Bacon, Mushroom, Onion, and Cheese Stuffed Bread

September: Spiced Black Bean, Grilled Avocado, and Goat Cheese Tacos

August: Birthday Cake Oreo Truffles

July: Tropical Pork Pineapple Kebabs

June: Cheesy Garlic Knots

May: Berry Brownie Torte

April: Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

March: Sauteed Green Beans with Lemon and Almonds

February: Fried Pickles

January: No SRC postings

December: Shrimp Sriracha Stir Fry

November: Vegetable Enchiladas

October: Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Check out the rest of the reveal day posts!


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

11.20-25: Thanksgiving Long Weekend Recap

{Tuesday Night} finished punch listing early| get bourbon | drive home | Price cleans the rabbits cage /& I talk to Rosa re: going away | laundry | eggs with guac & toast for dinner | clean out the fridge| grocery store for SRC prep| shower | finish packing | Price went to bed at 11| photo editing | bed at 11.45

{Wednesday} alarm at 3am | dress and feed the rabbits | call cab | at airport at 4.15am | mcdonalds | 6am flight | Phoenix | get bags | starbucks | Tom picks us up | Walmart for pie & see Tom’s school | house |nap |Jack in the Box & Walgreens | star gazing | hot tub | bed

{Thursday- HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!} Wake up early | lounge around | watch the news | call family | breakfast | Today Show | Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade |Price and Tom carve the turkey| lunch | football | pie | phone calls| more football and mystery shows|pickles and wine | hot tub | bed

{Friday} wake up for Black Friday online sales | shower and get ready | drive around and head to the zoo | nap in the car | World Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium |another nap in the car | lunch at Monti’s |back to Tom’s | feet in the pool and catch up on twitter | lounge around | caulk the tub | blog drafts | In & Out for dinner | Walgreen’s | lounge around watching the end of the dog show and reading Food Network Magazine | go to bed

{Saturday} stupid dog woke us up | coffee | blog drafts | get Powerball tickets |McDonald’s for more coffee | drive around the neighborhood | back to Tom’s | Men Who Built America marathon | shower & get ready | lunch at Filibertos | drive  around the neighborhood  | sit by the pool | more Men Who Built America marathon | writing blog drafts | leftovers | hot tub | showers | bed

{Sunday} Price and Tom got coffees & breakfast | eat breakfast outside | packing up | leave for the airport at 10.30 | have drinks and lunch | 1.30 flight | home at 8.45 | bunny love | relaxing and then bed

price misses jet blue

fire pit_01 fire pit_02

dummy heads shot in the head dummy

jack in the box curly fries

price made breakfast

thanksgiving thanksgiving turkey

in and out burger_01in and out burger_02

playing powerball filiberto's_AZ

heidi braids

chopped salad burger

us- flight home

Printcopia Canvas Prints Review & a Giveaway

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Printcopia is an online photo printing service that creates large format prints, canvas, acrylic, and framed prints. They are your one stop shop for your photo service needs.

I used their services to get an 11×17 canvas print. I’ve used online print services in the past but I really enjoyed getting around their site and the services they offered. One of the coolest things is that they offer is the ability to link to your instagram profile or your facebook profile to upload pictures. I use instagram so much that this is a great way to easily connect my photos to the site.

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At first I was going to use a photo that Price instagrammed when we were in Chicago for his birthday but I wanted to maintain the square instagram format so I picked a photo that he took of the sun rising. For a delayed October date we went to the beach to see the sunrise on Day Light Savings day. Some Starbucks drinks, a pastry to split, and the sunrise. Now that we have this print hanging up on our first floor I will always remember our sunrise beach date.

AAAANNNND the GIVEAWAY Details!!!

Mandatory entry: Tell me what photo you would get made into a canvas print if you won? Your kids? Family portrait? A vacation?

Extra Entry: Tweet or hare on Facebook about the giveaway. Come back & leave another comment telling me what you did

Giveaway ends Thursday 29th at 11.59pm

Besides the giveaway, don’t miss out on their Black Friday Sale!!! Right now they are offering 50% canvas prints until Sunday the 25th at midnight. Don’t hesitate, it’s a great deal and this will make for a great gift.

I received an 11×17 canvas print from Printcopia in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.

 

(Almost) No Baste Bacon Covered Turkey

I love 4 things about Thanksgiving: the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the National Dog Show after it, booze, and my mom’s turkey. I don’t actually eat much turkey because I’m poor at planning and self control and get too eager with the appetizers and all of the sides. By the time dessert comes I’m just thinking of P-jams and how those pies need to get away from me!!

Okay, back to the turkey… So while I don’t eat a lot of turkey on Thanksgiving I could not imagine not making a turkey when home for the holiday and eating it the days following Thanksgiving. And since I’ve learned from my parents, the way I make turkey is that it is covered in bacon. Yep, bacon.

 

Covering the turkey gives it a great taste from the bacon, plus your house smells extra awesome. Also, since the bacon is continually rendering on top of the turkey you basically don’t need to baste it. This allows you to put your turkey in & just about forget about it while you watch the parade or freak out at every cute dog in the dog show. You turn the temp down once and later on check on the wings to give them a tine foil cover so they don’t burn, which is when I typically give it a thorough basting and then back in the oven it goes.

 

 

Now truth be told, if you love crunchy skin this might not be the turkey for you. This is all about sealing in the juices with the bacon so the skin doesn’t really get any exposure in the oven. If you want to give this a try and want a crispy skin then I suggest you might remove the bacon and then put the turkey back in with a broiler in low.

(Almost) No Baste Bacon Covered Turkey

Ingredients

  • 1 whole turkey
  • 1 pound of bacon
  • 3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-2″ long pieces
  • 3 onions, cut into wedges
  • 4 stalks of celery, peeled and cut into 1-2″ pieces
  • 6 cloves of garlic
  • 2 lemons, cut into 8 pieces
  • 1 orange, cut into 8 pieces
  • bunch of parsley
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • salt and pepper

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Remove the giblets from the cavity of the turkey. Rinse then dry the turkey completely. Place turkey onto rack in large roasting pan.
  3. Combine the carrots, onions, celery, garlic, lemons, orange, and parsley. Put the mixture into the cavity of the bird and the remaining mixture goes into the bottom of the pan with the chicken stock.
  4. Cut the butter into small pieces and place between the breast and the skin.
  5. Place the strips of bacon over the breast of the turkey and wrap the legs with bacon.
  6. Put turkey in oven. After 45 minutes turn the temperature down to 350. After 2 hours, put foil on the wing tips. Continue cooking until the thigh meat reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees.  When testing, be sure that your thermometer is not touching the bone. Rule of thumb is that it will take approximately 15-20 minutes per pound.
  7. When turkey is done, let stand 20-30 minutes prior to carving. to allow the juices to redistribute throughout the bird.

Extra Cheesy Brussels Sprout Gratin

Dinner will never be the same when you make this Extra Cheesy Brussels Sprout Gratin. You’ll love all this cheesy goodness!

Post from 11/20/12, Pictures Updated 11/15/18

Post Contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure HERE

I was recently going through old cooking magazines to organize them into a usefully system. Since a pile of cut up recipes from magazines tossed in a box isn’t much of a system…. no?

Well, my system is still getting tweaked but at least I can more easily find some fun things to try. In that process, I dug up recipes from December ’11 from Martha Stewart Living and one of the things that jumped out of me was the Smokey Brussels Sprout Gratin. Cheese! Brussels Sprouts! More Cheese! Winner!!!!

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Monday Munchies: Saus- Boston, MA

As part of my Monday Munchies series, I will feature a different eatery for a review on the first and third Monday of every month. Hope you enjoy!

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Crunchy fries. Inventive dipping sauces. Great beers. Sweet waffles.

Saus specializes in Belgian inspired street food. They serve up frites and waffles that are common place in Belgium, especially in street carts.

I love their space as it’s open and casual. There menus are written on chalkboards and there is a communal table in the front. They decorated the space with comics from The Adventures of Tintin, which was created by Georges Remi, a Belgian artist. (BTW-If you haven’t seen the Spielberg directed The Adventures of Tintin movie, you really should. Awesome!)

While poutine is really a Quebec based dish the team at Saus incorporated it into their menu at their frites make for the perfect base to build this dish on. Their french fries hold up to their thick gravy and staying crisp as you munch on fries and the cheese curd that tops it all off.

When they first opened their poutine was my least favorite menu item as their gravy was too thin. They have worked hard on perfecting their recipes, including their gravy, and now I really enjoy it. It now reminds me of the poutine that I had in Montreal.

If you like your fries plain then order from the pomme frites menu. They offer 3 portion sizes (small, regular, and big) ranging from $4.25 to $7.00. The fries are cut in-house and are twice fried and prior to them filling up your fry basket they are tossed with a flaked salt.

Saus specializes in their homemade dipping sauces. You can enjoy basic ketchup and mayo or you can get some of their creatively named and flavored sauces. Doesn’t ‘Saturday Night Chive’ with it’s fresh chives and sour cream sound great? Or how about ‘Vampire Slayer’ with roasted garlic, roasted garlic oil, and homemade mayo?  If you like spicy you should try the ‘Green Monster’ with its jalapenos and habaneros peppers and fresh cilantro with garlic.

My go menu item is their Frikandel sandwich. A frikandel was created in the 50’s and is a handmade sausage that is similar to a hot dog, but since it does not have a casing on it is similar to a burger in that regard. The real kicker is that it is deep-fried so I treat myself to this occasionally. My favorite way to enjoy the sandwich is ‘Spicy’. The other kinds- Special, Burger Style, and Double Cheddar- are all great by my favorite is Spicy as the Frikandel is topped with house-pickled jalapenos and a spicy sauce.

They make Liege style Waffles, which are sweet, dense waffles that have pieces of pearl sugar in the batter that caramelizes on the edges in the cooking process. They serve the waffles with different sauces. I think that the can’t pass up sauces are Salted Caramel and Lemon Cream, which is their homemade lemon curd and cream sauce. Total yum.

Located near Faneuil Hall and Government Center, this is the perfect place to stop in and grab lunch. Or if you are out enjoying the local bars stop by for some late night eats.

Saus

33 Union Street

Boston, MA 02108

617.248.8835

Two if by Sea- Boston’s Waterfront

This past Tuesday night, I went on a boat tour around Boston’s Fort Point Channel & Boston Harbor. I volunteer with a group called ACE Mentor Program so I take pictures of the students in action on field trips and in the class room developing projects in the skill set of Architecture, Construction, and Engineering. We went out for an hour-long boat ride so the students could learn about the architecture designs and the structural and MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) requirements for buildings and bridges around Fort Point & South Boston’s waterfront district.

It was raining but I snuck outside a few times to get some pictures of the Harbor as the sun was setting.

We took the tour on the Charles 1 from the Charles River Boat Company. They were so super generous donating their time and vessel for the group of students. How cool! They offer Charles River cruises, architectural tours, and sunset cruises on the Charles River, Boston Harbor, and Fort Point Area. As I may be bias, (I am) I think the BSA guided architectural trour sounds pretty awesome. Their tour season has closed now but I suggest checking them out in 2013, I know I will!

Thirsty Thursday: Thanksgiving Wine Glass Decorations

I’m totally flipping things around for this week’s edition of Thirsty Thursday. Sorry no drink this time… wait! don’t stop reading! This is drink related and it is perfect for Thanksgiving! Trust me…

So the thing about any family gathering or party is that people often mix up their drink with another. It’s always about ‘wait, have you seen my drink?’ or ‘are you drinking my drink?’ when there are a bunch people all drinking white/red wine. Sure wine charms are cute but wait… ‘do I have the blue charm or the green one?’ See what happens when you are drinking?!?

 

So I created a template for you to use for this Thanksgiving to easily identify your glass while reflecting on what you are thankful for now.

Download the file here. Thanksgiving Wine Glass Decorations

(Amanda doesn’t have a Thirsty Thursday post for you this week but she does have a really great giveaway on her blog!)

bun 2x – Layout

Something magical happened on Monday night!

I actually began the process of unearthing my desk and getting to work on some scrapbooking layouts and Project Life. Price wanted to watch the episode of The Walking Dead that he DVR’d and since that scares the bejesus out of me I went upstairs. I had to even put on some peppy FrankMusik so I could drown out the sounds of zombie screams. (Frankmusik’s debut album “Complete Me” always picks me up. It’s been in the car’s CD play since summer of 2009. no joke. Don’t touch it!) So in between instagramming photos of the rabbits, I went through goodies that were piling up on my desk to be used. It was overwhelming but really nice.

Can’t wait to really dive back in and get crafty. Stay tuned!!