I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

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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

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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
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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

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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.

26 in 26 Mini Book- Progress #1

My 25 in 25 list fell flat on it’s face last year. I debated doing a 26 in 26 list this year because of how rough it had started. Thankfully I decided that it would be fun and I would enjoy the challenge in getting all those things done, as well as documenting those accomplishments/milestones.

I decided that a mini book would be best for this process. When I did my 25 in 25 I documented my items all on a 2page LO in my yearly scrapbook. It is great to look at that page to see my goals, but I didn’t have anything to go along with checking them off and documenting meeting my goals. So my mini book idea was born.

The concept behind the book was to have my list of 26 items so I could track my progress, as well as a place to put the photos documenting the things I accomplished. But how oh how would I do this in the book? A list in the very beginning and then the rest of the pages would get filled in? No, that did not seem right. It made the list seem disconnected from the items, as well as repeative since I would clearly need to rewrite my thing with the photo.

So my book was developed to have each item to have a L page and a R page. The goal would be listed at the top of the L page. This would leave the remaining portion of that page for my journaling and the whole R page for photos. I understand that there will be times I will want to change things up if I have more journaling/photos but it’s working for now.

I’m hoping that I really make a better go at accomplishing this list of 26 items than last years 25 things. I will periodically post about my progress of the list, as well as how my book is coming together.

Happy Birthday Jason LO- Studio Calico 10/17 Sunday Sketch

Sketch

Okay, so don’t judge so much… This Studio Calico Sunday Sketch is from October. Aye Aye aye! Well, here it is anyway. 🙂 I did a lot of flipping and flopping when it came to this sketch because I wanted different photos to hold more importance than others, also I wanted the page to feel balanced. I really enjoyed getting to work with photos from our friend Jason’s recent birthday. I have been trying to keep up with my layouts, just maybe not the sketches 😛

I have to admit that since I have been ‘forced’ to use Tickers (alphabet sticker sets) since subscribing to Studio Calico kits, that I have been enjoying them. Alphabet stickers are still not my favorite things because I always run out of the letters I need and I end up with so many damn J, K, Q, X Y, Z, etc left behind. For a long time I only used my Cricut for my tiles so I could get the exact letter, size, paper/ color that I wanted. I now have been embracing the different brands of alphabet stickers, while still going back to my Cricut for some titles.

Supplies (off the top of my head): Cosmo Cricket Pattered paper, American Crafts Thickers, Stampin’ Up Solid Paper, Studio Calico Solid Paper, October Afternoon Shape Stickers

In the know, according to Brian Poe

Last Tuesday I took a cooking class at Boston Center for Adult Education called “The Dishes You Need to Know with Chef Brian Poe”. I wanted to take this class because Brian was teaching it but also because it focused on learning  how to approached several dishes with just a few ingredients. This taught us how to be creative with a few things and see how they can be used in multiple ways.

oranges made an appearance in salsa, as well as sangria

one of the main components in the dishes being prepared was duck. We put basil, hydrated chipotle pepper, lime juice and a slice of orange on it. This was my first time working with duck, in fact I had not patten it much before this.

Brian working on a red wine sauce.

Hello sangria! (glass #1)

Vinaigrette | duck

Under cress

Plating the first course

First Course- duck with israeli cous cous that was tossed with some vinaigrette served under cress

making tacos | the class

Taco course- duck taco with undergress, salsa, and queso fresco. I charred the tortillas over a gas burner.

Sangria glass #2 and #3… I ended up having 4 that night. Gotta love Tuesdays!

Main course- Duck served with a cous cous risotto, salsa, and red wine sauce

Dessert course- dessert nachos… a play on nachos that was made with totillas that were fried in duck fat (previously done at The Rattlesnake) and coated in cinnamon and sugar. Tortila chips were served with a “rice” pudding that was made with cous cous and topped with salsa.

Fondue Feast LO- Studio Calico 1/16 Sunday Sketch

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I was a bit put off with this sketch because it used such small images. It made sense for the inspirational layout that generated this sketch. But how would I use photos with it. They would be so small and, umm, what the hell is the point then? no? I got over the fear because I realized that this layout would end up being more about the story (journaling) and less about the pictures. So I picked my photos and got to work!

While I made a mini book of our trip to Montreal I decided to do whole page layouts for a few things. I like to document vacations in layouts, as well as mini books, so I pick a few key things to focus a layout on. In this case, I wanted to document our factastic lunch/dinner on 1.1.11. We headed into Crepe Suzette and had some fondue, a dessert crepe, and some VERY strong after dinner coffee drinks. Nothing entirely special about lunch, but I wanted to document it. I wanted to look back and remember how the bloody mary I had was horrible, that it was raining, and we got really buzzed on spikes coffee’s. I just want to remember how we started the new year.