I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

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Sweet Pea and Mint Soup

This Sweet Pea and Mint Soup is a soup that welcomes Spring with open arms. It’s vibrant green hue is on par with the rich, fresh flavors in this vegetable soup.

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Post originally from 4/16/10, Pictures updated 2/8/19

Spring has sprung!!!! I love the freshness of spring. I love the new beginnings of it all. It is hard not to feel happy in spring with everything waking up from a long winter. Maybe you don’t love it, if you have allergies, but I love everything in bloom. It just makes me happy. 

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All together now…. Awwww

I took Bunny out Saturday late afternoon. She loved it. I wish I had better photos of her but she was moving around and running on the lawn so all the shots were blurry. It was dusk so the shots I took with the flash were weird looking plus she gets some crazy zombie looking eyes with the flash. Blurry photos aside, I have a feeling she will be out a lot this summer.

Jack did not like the harness when they went out in the snow before so I let him be and just took her. I’ll have to try it another time with him. I was joking that when she was back in the cage he would smell where she was and would be a little ‘arguement’ about it. “Don’t lie to me! I know where you were. I can smell it on you. Grass! It’s all over you!”

Makes me happy

I love how one simple google search will allow you to stumble upon something cool. That has been happening to me lately so I have been going along to see where this will take me.

too cool for school messenger bag

4264_dea_sirrabbit_full.jpg

bunny necklace

Bunny Necklace

Morning After Mermaid Print

Morning After Print

such a cute hung over mermaid

I actually saw this at Urban Outfitters, but I have been looking into Holga more because I love the look of the cameras and what they do

Japanese masking tape

 

“Fishing” from the “Red Knit Cap Girl Series” paintings
Fishing

Warning: Highly Addictive “Muddy Buddies”

It’s always amusing when I bring cake or other goodies into work or school and I watch people attract to it like a swarm of bees. Buzzing around getting their sugar fix and asking how I made it. I was once carrying around some cake to class and someone stopped me and asked about it. Well I shared some slices with him and a friend and as he ran away with his ‘dinner’ he yelled back to me “Thanks Sugar Fairy!!” (new favorite nickname) Well, this happened again yesterday since we had our monthly staff meeting and I brought in Muddy Buddies.

Not familiar with Muddy Buddies? Maybe you’ve heard of Puppy Chow? Still no? Well, imagine a simple piece of Chex cereal becoming host to a chocolate, peanut butter, and butter mixture, and then covered in powered sugar. This simple had just taking a drastic turn into the realm of high addictive pop in your mouth foods.

Simple to make with just a few ingredients. Some melting, stirring and then shaking. Plus if you do it right (not like me) you won’t have many dishes involved in there. A bowl for melting, a big bowl for mixing, a spoon for mixing. Use a BIG ziploc bag and things are really easy then. If you are making a few batches, or like me using 3 boxes of Chex cereal, then be prepared with a few ziploc baggies. Trust me, it makes it a lot easier to use a few than try to resue them a few times. The recipe said to let the Chex cool down after the bounce in the bag but I felt that mine was not too hot and did not need to be laid out on a parchment paper coated cookie sheet.

Chex Muddy Buddies

9 cups of Chex rice or Corn cereal (or a combination)
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 /2 cups of powdered sugar

1) In a large bowl, measure cereal, set aside.

2) In a microwave safe bowl, put the chocolate, peanut butter, and butter together. Microwave on High for 1 minute. Stir mixture. Continue to microwave and stir in 30 second intervals until the mixture is smooth. Add the vanilla extract.

3) Evenly pour the mixture of the Chex cereal and mix together until cereal is evenly covered.

4) Transfer to a large (2 gal) resealable plastic bag. Add the powdered sugar, seal, and gently shake until covered.

5) Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.

A good day

yesterday was a good day

It was gorgeous out. We set a new record! It hit 90 degrees in Boston!!!! (granted it dropped like 40 degrees overnight for today’s high) The city was alive with people riding bikes, selling their artwork on the street, eating ice cream, and walking around- overall just being outside.

Sonsie’s ‘outdoor seating’ on Newbury Street (across from the BAC)

I had a meeting at school and I’m now a level 8- the level of performance, knowledge, and responsibilities at work required to graduate. wOOt!

When I got off the T I saw the most incredible sunset. In the minute it took to cross the street and get my camera it already changed so much, but it still was such a pretty, vibrant color combination.

don’t judge the picture cuz it’s crap- the sunset was unbelievable!

Price got a rate increase for the drafting work he just started. So cool since it’s like seeing the light in the end of the tunnel in terms of getting money, paying off CC debit, and splitting bills again.

 the best of the worst shots I took of us

So we sorta celebrated my final approval to graduate and his increase with a simple sushi dinner at Privus. We took a walk at night and headed down the road for something quick and cheap for dinner and ended up at Privus. Such good sushi! Price got their Crispy Dragon Roll and I got their Treasure Island Roll.

do you see the dragon?

 once we got home we had a call with my mom discussing the graduation party. We picked a caterer and menu and then I went online and we picked out invites that I have to edit and order tonight.

loving how everything is wrapping up and how spring is gearing up!

 

 

Tired Feet: our long day in NYC

Price and I went into NYC on Saturday to see the Tim Buron exhibit at MOMA, among other things, but sometimes plans are ment to be broken. When we arrived we learned that the event was a timed admittance and sold out while we were in the crazy line to get in the museum. Well we regrouped and walked over to the International Auto Show. We saw the commercial for it the night before and Price’s eyes lit up with glee with the thought of going so it was nice that we did get to do it. I Liked it but I like the boat show more. I really liked the Nissan Cube and we liked the Jeep Liberty and Patriot. Of course we loved some crazy expensive cars but these were practical ones that we liked.

After leaving the auto show we went back east to 5th ave check out some stores by Herald Sq. We grabbed a cab at this point to head down to the East Village because we wanted to check out his restaurant down there. Sadly, in the cab ride down we checked into it and found out the place closed last year. Damn it! (If you are closed put it on your website or shut it down entirely!) But that did not stop us from enjoying the area and some good food.

My trusty Yelp app on my iphone had me pulling up places that I had previously bookmarked to visit. Of course places varied from hot dog stands to ramen and dessert bars. We chose a few places to check out, very good choices in deed. We went over to Pomme Frit on 2nd to try Poutine. I fell in love with Poutine. Makes for a stronger argument to get up to Montreal this summer/fall.

 After spending time in the East Village getting food and checking out at street fair by Cooper Union we headed over to the NYU campus and then headed down West Broadway to Ground Zero. It was sad to still see a big pit in the center of all these buildings, sad after so many years. We walked all around the site and checked out the new buildings (7 WTC) and checked out the construction cranes. After looping around the site we headed North and then East to get over to the Brooklyn Bridge.

We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge just to check it out. On the way over to Brooklyn we saw newlywed’s getting their photos taken (In fact we saw them in Grand Central later that night too!) The views of the Statue of Liberty, South Street Seaport, and the Empire State Building were great.

Once we got over to Brooklyn we flipped a coin and decided to head back to Manhattan for dinner instead of eating over in Brooklyn. So back over the bridge to head into Chinatown.

The return trip over the bridge was really getting to us. It was about 7pm then and we had been in the city since 10.30 or so and had been on our feet for 95% of that time so we were getting tired. So the goal was to get over the bridge and find a place for dinner.

We walked through Chinatown and ended up in Little Italy for dinner. There were guys out there calling us in for dinners so we have plently of choices ahead of us. We picked a place that was close (tired feet), a good menu, and was fairly cheap. We kept dinner light by sharing an appetizer and entree- and a very large glass of wine!

Lastly, we ended up going to Rice to Riches in Nolita (North of Little Italy). I just saw it on The Best Thing I Ever Ate on Foodtv. While it was not the best rice pudding I ever ate it (my dad’s is the best) was still a great place to try. The store was designed beautifully and had really funny sayings applied in bright graphics.

We headed to Grand Central after dessert for the 9.37 train. The train ride back is not long but we were so tired that we fell asleep and missed our stop. We woke up once we heard Greenwich being announced. No idea how both of sleep through them announcing “Po-rt Ches-TA!” Luckily my mom could pick us up… so embarrassing! In the end we figured the passing out was justified since we were basically on our feet from 10.30- 8pm and walked over 12 miles (I figured it out using gmaps) Although our legs were jello and our feet were tired we had such a great day- great weather, great cars, great food, great photos, and now, great memories!

Living by countdowns

I can’t just live in the  moment. I constantly look forward to the things to come. It’s not to say that I don’t enjoy what I’m doing at that moment. It’s just ingrained in me. I look forward to holidays, birthdays, seasons, vacations, etc. Sure while on vacation I love every second of it and think of nothing else, but once I am back I’m thinking ” Okay, where to next? What’s the next project?”

Vintage Westclox Pocket Ben Pocket Watch - Manufactured in Canada August 1948

This week has been long in the fact that it rained again there were more water issues. I’m tired of sump pumps and dehumidifiers. We moved the computer in the office to have a better set up and in lost internet connection for no real reason than to annoy me. Annoying engineers. Stepping over hoses in the bathroom. Angry rabbits who are determined to go in their normal place but can’t because of the hole in the floor. The list can go on but the point is that looking forward to the weekend has gotten me through the week.

4/2- Leave for Greenwich- LESS THAN 5 HOURS!

4/3-4- Day in the City- 1 day

4/13- Glee is back!- 11 days

4/16-4/18- Weekend in Skaneateles- 13 days

4/27- Semi Precious Weapons concert- 24 days

5/1- CKC Manchester- 32 days

5/23- LOST Series final- 50 days

5/29- BAC graduation and party!- 59 days

  

I can’t wait to reach these ‘milestones’ and cross them off my list to amp up for the next thing

PS- I would love this pocket watch.

 

A Happy Distraction

I’m back into scrapbooking. It really seems like it has been forever. Granted all of my stuff has been out in the living room and office but with the flood drama and our stuff being stacked up on other things I have been in the mind-set to be creative. Instead we just veg on the sofa and watch Mad Men and Weeds DVD’s and various shows on TV, like LOST! Oh can’t get enough of LOST. Anyway, while watching last night Pricer had to deal with pausing it so I could run back and forth from the living room table to the Cricut in the office to cut out letters. Of course , I was not sure what color to use so I did it twice in different colors so it took twice as long. So scrapbooking is becoming a happy distraction from the rest of the crap I’ll dealing with.

 The layout above is one that I completed before all the chaos but was too forgetful to bring it in to scan it. I made this to highlight our 5th anniversary (1/2). I took an online class from Kelly Purkey called Beginnings, which really influenced this layout. I typically like things straight horizontally and vertically but I loved her layout so I had to steal it for this.

I focused on color for this layout. Picking the paper from the bold colors on the shirts and then coordinating the blocking paper from that.  I think this layout is missing something. Not sure if it needs something in the center or I just don’t like it now it is done so I can’t let it be. I may revisit it later on. It would not be the first time I redo a page. Or it may grow on me.

Ready for Spring-Edamame Salad

Spring is confused in Boston. For one thing it is just about constantly raining. I’m ready for the rain to stop so I can get out in the yard and fix everything that the rain screwed up and prepare things for planting. But instead we have a sunny day in the 70’s, then it drops to the 50’s and is cloudy, then rains for 3 more day and just when you think you can’t take it anymore is snows, but before you drink yourself stupid it’s back in the 70’s 2 days later. That’s New England for you.

Well hoping to get things going in the right direction I made an edamame salad with dinner recently. Price and I live off salads like this in the summer. We mainly eat Horiatiki Salata throughout the summer but this might need to be added into the rotation. We used a 10oz package from Trader Joes, which was very convenient. I’d imagine that the frozen kind would work too, but I would let it thaw naturally or let cool before adding everything else.

The dressing is done to taste. Adjust the quantities to taste. For example I love lemon and lime juice, which might be too much for someone else. The point is to have a starting point to create something that you will enjoy.

Edamame Salad

serves 4 as a side

Ingredients

  • 10 oz of shelled edamame
  • 8 oz of grape tomatoes, halved
  • half of an orange pepper, diced
  • 1 small red ion, diced
  • 2 oz of feta

Dressing:

  • 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
  • 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
  • 2-4 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1/4 extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Process

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped ingredients with the shelled edamame. Crumble the feta block into the vegetables.
  2. In a bowl, make the dressing by wisking the mustard and garlic with the vinegar and juice. Once the solids are completely incorporated add the oil.
  3. Gently mix together the salad with the dressing, and salt & pepper to taste.