I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

Recipes

Thirsty Thursday: Slime Rickey

With just less than 2 weeks until Halloween Amanda and I decided to have 2 Thirsty Thursday posts with a spooktacular Halloween theme. We each will share one drink that is for great for trick-or-treaters of all ages (non-alcoholic) and one boo-zy one that you can enjoy at a party. This week I am sharing a fun drink that kids will just love and Amanda is sharing one that will put a smile across any grown ups’ face.

 

 

A Slime Rickey is perfect for kids as it is a lime rickey but there are some spooky eyes floating around in the glass! Just kidding! Those creepy eyes are just grapes and some maraschino cherries. Make and freeze the eyeballs in advance and you can whip up these drinks for the kids for a party or to refresh them after a long night of trick-or-treating. Perfect drink to sip on while sorting out all the candy!

Check out Amanda’s drink called a Bloody Tooth Cocktail! A reddevilish delight for parents after a long night of trick or treating! Sure to put a smile on your face!

Slime Rickey

Makes 4 drinks

Ingredients

  • 8 oz of lime juice (approximately 6 limes)
  • 4 oz of simple syrup
  • 16 oz of seltzer water
  • green grapes, round is preferred
  • maraschino cherries
  • crushed ice

Process

  1. To make the frozen eyeballs: chop maraschino cherries into tiny pieces. Score a ‘X’ at the end of the grape. Insert the piece of cherry into the grape. Arrange on the baking sheet and freeze.
  2. Combine 2 oz of fresh limes juice with 1oz of simple syrup in a glass. Add crushed ice and then seltzer. Put at least 5 frozen ‘eyeballs’ into each drink and enjoy!

Thirsty Thursday: The Cure

The Cure – Beer Cocktail is a refreshing cocktail that will combines a light beer, fresh citrus, and ginger liquor. The perfect drink for a summer bbq or a tailgate at a football game. Cheers!

post from 10/11/12, pictures updated 6/9/18

For this week’s Thirsty Thursday post, Amanda picked out the theme of beer cocktails. Cheers!

This is perfect for football season!

Or any season, if we’re really being honest here.

I love football season since it makes for the best excuse to lounge around watching football all day (or at least I sit there and work on a project), you make chips and dip lunch, and enjoy all that with a beer. Just now, we have decided to have a bit of fun with beers and jazz them up to make beer cocktails!

While browsing around for some fun beer cocktails I came across a great list on Epicurious. One really stuck out to me that I had to try. The Cure – Beer Cocktail was created by Washingon DC’s PS 7 bartender Gina Chersevani as a “cure” for the economic recession since she sells it for the discounted price of $5. That’s a great deal! Definitely calls for one during Happy Hour!

 

I am not a huge fan of Miller High Life, AKA The Champange of Beers. It’s just so light and boring to me.

But this beer cocktail changes it all. With the addition of lemon juice and Domaine de Canton the beer is brought to life. The fizz from the beer, lemon undertones, and kick from the ginger are the perfect combination.

The Cure – Beer Cocktail really will cure all!

Amanda made Cherry Beergaritas! Head over to her blog and check them out.

These beer cocktails are so perfect for football season or a summer time beer cocktail. Great all year long!

The Cure - Beer Cocktails

The Cure - Beer Cocktails

Yield: 2 drinks
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 7 minutes

The Cure - Beer Cocktail is a refreshing cocktail that will combines a light beer, fresh citrus, and ginger liquor. The perfect drink for a summer bbq or a tailgate at a football game. Cheers!

Ingredients

  • 3 cups ice cubes
  • 12 ounces Miller High Life, or other similar light beer
  • 2 ounces Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
  • 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 16 1-inch pieces peeled fresh ginger cut into thin matchsticks

Instructions

  1. Divide the ice between the 2 glasses. A 12-ounce cooler (or highball) glass works well. 
  2. In a measuring cup or small pitcher, combine the beer, ginger liqueur, and lemon juice. Stir until just combined.
  3. Divide the cocktail in the glasses. Garnish with the ginger sticks.

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Cuisine: American / Category: Drinks

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Apple Pie Squares

When I was recently doing a bit of random blog browsing on Rachel’s blog I saw this recipe for Apple Pie Squares and I knew I would have to make them this year. After I went apple picking I knew that making these was only a matter of time, finding time. Well after a crazy 2 weeks that included a surprise trip to Chicago (more on that later!) I finally had some time to stay home and bake. I’m not saying they take long, I just felt the impulse to basically unpack everything in the kitchen before hand and put it in a new cabinet/drawer/bin before doing anything cooking related.

 

 

Before making them I discussed with Rachel that I don’t have a food processor large enough to process all the base ingredients together so I would have to adapt the recipe a bit and I’d see how it works out. Well, folks if you have a food processor then follow Rachel’s instructions, you don’t have one then follow mine. These came out really well so I imagine that you can make it work out for you as well. If you can’t break down oats in something like a mini prep which I borrowed from my friend) then you just carry on. Maybe I’d add an extra egg white to help it come together easier. The important thing is that you make these apple pie squares!

 

 

Truthfully I was a bit nervous about enjoying these because I don’t like apple crisps, or any crisps for that matter, since they have an oat crumble on top. Well, it turns out I like the taste and just hate the texture.  Blending the oats kept the great oaty taste but completely changed the texture. Perfect!! In regards to adapting the recipe I basically stuck with it but I used much more apples, basically because I felt like it, so I had to increase the bake time. Also, I didn’t have plain yogurt at home so I used vanilla which gave this a nice a la mode taste to it.These were a hit at work and I bet they will be a hit when you make them too.

Apple Pie Squares

Makes 16 squares

Ingredients

For the base and topping:

  • 1 1/2 C flour
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 C oats
  • 1/2 C butter, cubed
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

For the filling:

  • 6 oz of vanilla yogurt
  • 1/2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 4 C diced, peeled apple

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 8×8 pan by lining with foil or parchment.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the peeled, diced apples together with the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Once evenly coated, add the yogurt and mix to coat all pieces. Set aside.
  3. In a food processor,  blend the oats until a fine meal is created.  Add the oats to a large bowl containing flour, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly to combine. Add the butter incorporate with your hands/forks/pastry blender until the dough is crumbly. Remove 1 cup of the mix, set aside. Add 1 egg white, blend until mixture is just combined.
  4. Evenly press moist mixture into the baking pan. Bake crust for 10 minutes.
  5. Spoon filling over the pare-baked crust spreading out as evenly as possible. Sprinkle reserved topping mixture over apples. Press down to flatten just slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.
  6. Cool in the pan then transfer to the fridge to chill for at least one hour. Remove from pan carefully and slice into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Individual Apple Pie Tarts

One of my favorite things to do is rip out all the recipes in magazine that I think I would enjoy making. There is a big difference tween the ‘ooo this looks good’ recipe to the ‘I need to make this one day/right now’ recipe. Then I trim my recipes pages up and file them stack them all up so I can go through them and pick out things to make. Well, I recently came across a recipe of Individual Plum Tarts from my Rachael Ray magazine.

 

 

I made Individual Apple Pie Tarts by swapping out the plums for apples and adding some typical spices used in apple pies. These are easy with a capital E! The puff pastry does most of the work for you and you just need to dice up some apples and quickly mix with the sugar and spices. The important thing is to have a non stick sheet or one that is coated with non stick cooking spray so the puff pastry doesn’t stick. The rest is a breeze! And you’ll end up with really yummy little apple pie tarts!

Individual Apple Pie Tarts

Makes 6

Ingredients

  • 1 sheet of puffed pastry, 1/2 pound
  • 3 cups of finely diced baking apples (approximately 3 apples)
  • 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • pinch of ground nutmeg
  • butter

Process

  1. Let puff pastry thaw according to package’s instructions.
  2. While the puff pastry is thawing, peel, core and finely dice the apples. In the bowl, combine the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
  3. Unfold the puff pastry and cut along the 2 seams to get 3 strips, then cut those in half to get 6 rectangles.
  4. Lay the rectangles out on a greased non-stick baking sheet, add 1/2 cup of the apple mixture to each rectangle keeping a 1/2″ border around the edges clean of apples. Add 2 tiny pieces of butter to the mound of apples.
  5. In a 375 degree oven, bake until golden, about 25-30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Ice cream or caramel sauce are great additions when serving.

Thirsty Thursdays: Apple Pie Cocktail

After Amanda and I had fun with our S’mores Week in August we decided to make a that we should do more posts together related to a theme. We thought about different themes we could do but the main thing that kept coming up was that we wanted it to be longer than a week. So things evolved to become sharing weekly drink recipes that can be boozy or non-alcoholic and that can match the season or holiday. The possiblites are endless! So we are kicking our Thirsty Thursdays posts today with fun recipes that we both wanted to share. I picked this apple pie cocktail and Amanda picked Honeycrisp Apple Sangria.

Last year when my mom and I went to Utah to attend a crafting event we came back one night to the hotel and were discussing how we wanted to get a drink. We asked a group of guys, who were drinking in the lounge watching sports, were they got their beers. They were so nice that they just gave us a few. Well, we run up to our room with our prizes in hand and that is when I noticed that they were not twist tops. By this time I had actually put my pajamas on so I went back to downstairs to them in my pajamas (clearly, I have no shame) for them to open the bottles. They gave me a cup of Apple Pie Moonshine for us to try and I was hooked. Seriously the midwest is so nice. It was sweet, light, and packed a punch.

 

This is a great cocktail to make to celebrate fall. The original recipe calls for Everclear as it is a grain alcohol like moonshine but I was having trouble finding that in Massachusetts. So I switched to vodka and increased the amount. One of the biggest things is that I really suggest using cinnamon sticks. If you use ground cinnamon then you need to then remove it as it does not dissolve and it would be pretty intense to drink. This is great both hot and cold so you can enjoy some just from the stove while the rest of the batch cools.

Check out Amanda’s Honeycrisp Apple Sangria.

Apple Pie Cocktail

Serves 24 (8oz cups)

Ingredients

  • 1/2 gallon of apple cider (8 cups)
  • 1/2 gallon of unsweetened apple juice (8 cups)
  • 1 1/2 cups of light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 vanilla bean, optional
  • 2 cups vodka
  • 3 cups Whipped Cream flavored Vodka

Process

  1. In a large pot, combine the cider, apple juice, sugars, cinnamon, and vanilla together. Cook together to dissolve the sugars and to warm.
  2. Remove from heat and the cinnamon sticks and vanilla.
  3. Add the vodkas.
  4. Enjoy hot or cold.

Oreo Peanut Butter Lovers Ice Cream

So I’ve recently been snatching up all different kinds of flavored Oreos. Sandwich cookies are my favorite cookies. Don’t even think about getting me Snackwell’s Creme Sandwich Cookies… watch out for your fingers. Anyway, I love to play around with using Oreos in recipes so when I got my hands on some Peanut Butter Oreos I knew just what to do…

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Chocolate Chip Rice Krispies Cookies

I’m skipping this week’s edition of Monday Munchies because I wanted to participate in sharing a great recipe instead.

I love being part of Secret Recipe Club. It is so much fun to ge a new secret assignment every month. Plus it’s a lot of fun on reveal day having your partner find our out ou had their recipe and what you made while you are searching around to find out who made a recipe on your blog. All of that is great but it is time’s like this that I realize that community is just as important.

Sadly, an email went out sharing the news with out group that one of our members had passed away. Dan, aka the Herring, and Meredith, aka the Haggis shared the blog The Haggis and The Herring. Dan, a man in the prime of his life, unexpectedly passed away recently. Meredith shared a very touching post about Dan, their kids, and their love together. It is unbelievable to me that Meredith is expecting a baby at this point. I could not imagine that pain and sadness. I wish her and her boys nothing but happiness and they rebuild their lives.

 

In a tiny way of honoring a great cook, a great man is my post of his Chocolate Chip Cookies with Rice Krispies. As soon as I saw these I knew I would have to try them. These cookies are a lot of fun. They are great chocolate chip cookies with a fun surprise inside. The contrasting texture is a lot of fun and makes the cookie more interesting than a typical chocolate chip cookie.

Chocolate Chip Rice Krispies Cookies

Makes

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups Rice Krispies cereal
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Process

  1. Combine together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl/stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  3. Add egg and vanilla. Beat well.
  4. In small batches, add the flour mixture, mixing until combined.
  5. Stir in the rice krispies and chocolate chips.
  6. Portion out heaping tablespoons sized cookies into your hands, roll into balls and then gently press onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper/coated with cooking spray.
  7. Bake at 350-degrees for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.
  8. Remove immediately from baking sheets and cool on wire racks. Store in airtight container up to 3 days.

Spiced Black Bean, Grilled Avocado, and Goat Cheese Tacos- SRC

For my Secret Recipe Club post this month I had Melissa’s blog. She shares great sounding and looking recipes on her blog called Fried Ice and Donut Holes. While her blog is not a vegetarian blog she does have a great number of veggie friendly posts that look mouth watering. I have several recipes bookmarked for some healthy comfort food eating this fall and winter.

When it came time to pick a make a recipe I had a very hard time because I had a whole list of great things like, Barbecue Chicken Pizza, Baked Pumpkin Donuts, and Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie. In the end I picked the Spiced Black Bean, Grilled Avocado, and Goat Cheese Tacos. I simply picked these tacos to make because I was having a crappy, super busy week. I had these bookmarked since I loved how they could be a great recipe to use when I didn’t feel like cooking. Well, that is exactly what happened. I had just about everything at home so I just ran out for an avocado and some wine (since I really needed that as well) and was quickly on my way to dinner once I got back home.

 

 

I made a few changes to the original recipe but I think you have to do what works best for you and you taste preferences/ingredients on hand/sanity. For example, I could not find coriander seeds at our grocery store so omitted them and decided to amp up the other flavors I did have. I switche using olive oil out for corn oil as corn has a more subtle flavor as a higher smoking point, which I figured would be best for the grilled avocados. I added some cilantro since I love it and always have it around (for us and the rabbits). I mashed my black beans as I like that texture and I figured that it would more easily stay in the taco to eat (while balancing a glass of wine on my lap and watching Parenthood). I really enjoyed these and since I typically have the ingredients around on hand I know I can always have a great dinner at the ready with some easy adaption.

Spiced Black Bean, Grilled Avocado, and Goat Cheese Tacos

makes 4 tacos

Ingredients

  • 1 (15 oz) can of black beans, preferably low sodium
  • 1 tablespoon corn oil
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • generous pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 1 avocado
  • 1 teaspoon corn oil
  • juice and zest from 1 lime
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 oz from a goat cheese log
  • fresh cilantro
  • 4 Flour Tortillas or 8 Corn Tortillas

Process

  1. Rinse the black beans, reserve 1/2 cup of the liquids.
  2. In a small skillet, warm the corn oil over medium heat. Add the cumin and pepper flakes. Once the spices have ‘toasted’ and are fragrant, add the black beans and liquids. Cook for 5-10 minutes on medium-low heat to reduce the liquids. Prior to preparing the tacos, mash up the black beans with a potato masher.
  3. Cut the avocado in half, gently score to create slices, and brush with some oil. Put on a grill or grill pan on high heat just to char the outside of the avocado.
  4. In a small bowl, combine the juice and zest of 1 lime, the honey, and salt and pepper.
  5. To assemble the tacos, place 1/4 each of the beans, avocado, and goat cheese into 1 flour tortilla or 2 layered corn tortillas. To finish add fresh chopped cilantro and a drizzle the lime-honey mixture over the filling and serve

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Secret Recipe Club

Check out my previous Secret Recipe Club Posts:

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

Jan: 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.

Birthday Cake Oreo Truffles- SRC

When I got my assignment for my Secret Recipe Club post this month I did a little dance and clap!! I got from Laura from A Heathly Jalapeno. We are both from Connecticut, root for NY based football teams (me- Giants, Laura- Jets), and have great guys in our life. She recently got engaged & had her bridal shower so I wish her luck on her wedding and lots of happiness in her marriage. Laura blogs about healthy living and healthy recipes. She does like to indulge as well so I did find some great sweets recipes to make. I have been on a crazy baking/sweets kick lately so while I loved some savory dishes (Asparagus and Bacon Eggs Benedict– duh!!) I decided to make the Oreo Truffles that Laura posted.

 

 

I have been on an Oreo kick lately. I have 3 varieties at home right now. (Thankfully, I have been good about using them in recipes and not eating them otherwise) Since Oreo is celebrating their 100 year birthday they created a birthday cake Oreo. I die. So decided to make these truffles with the Birthday Cake Oreos. They sell in smaller packages (of course) so I had to use 1 1/2 packages to get to the correct amount of Oreos needed (15.5 oz). The rest of this was super easy and a lot of fun, which insprired the S’mores Truffles I made recently as well.

 

I don’t think my coworkers would have known they were Birthday Cake Oreo Truffles had I not told them since that flavor was pretty subtle once it was combined with the cream cheese and covered in choclate. I am thinking about making these again with the Strawberry Milkshake Oreos.

*The birthday cake oreos are a limited edition. Get them ASAP!*

Birthday Cake Oreo Truffles

Makes 48 truffles

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2  packages (15.5 oz) of Birthday Cake Oreos
  • 8oz of cream cheese
  • 3 cups white chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips
  • sprinkles

Process

  1. Crush the Oreo Cookies in a food processor.
  2. Combine the cream cheese and crushed Oreos together.
  3. Divide the dough into 4 sections. And then roll a total of 48 1″ balls. Place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
  4. While the balls are freezing, melt the chocolate.
  5. Drop each ball into the chocolate and completely coat. Remove excess chocolate as you remove the truffle. Place on wax paper and immediately put a pinch of sprinkles on top. Put back into freezer to firm up the chocolate.
  6. Store in the refrigerator up to a week.

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Secret Recipe Club

Check out my previous Secret Recipe Club Posts:

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

Jan: No SRC postings

December: Shrimp Sriracha Stir Fry

November: Vegetable Enchiladas

October: Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Check out the rest of the reveal day posts!



____________________

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

S’mores Cinnamon Rolls

S'mores Cinnamon Rolls

It is Day 4 of S’mores Week! Are you sick of Amanda and I yet? Hope not! Just one more day of great s’mores recipes. hint hint… I have a cocktail for you tomorrow!

Anyway, I originally planned on making mini cheesecakes today but then at the very last minute decided to change my mind resulting in some late night and early morning baking. how early? well this dumb-dumb got up at 4.30a.m. I am crazy. obvi.


 

 

 

I’m so glad that I put in the extra effort to make these because they are incredible. I honestly would not eat them for breakfast but I think they are perfect for a fun, different kind of dessert. It would totally shock someone if you served this for dessert. A big rich cinnamon roll jam packed full of s’mores goodness. The marshmallows get toasty, the chocolate chips get melty, and the graham adds a fun different crunch to it all. Addicting!

 

  

You need to go over and check out Amanda’s S’mores Ice Cream recipe. The post is hilarious and totally relate-able. Plus, the recipe is drool worthy. That ice cream is trouble with a capital T!

S’mores Cinnamon Rolls

makes 12 rolls

Ingredients

Dough

  • 1 cup warm milk (skim works)
  • 1 packet dry active yeast
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter melted
  • 4 cups bread flour, 1/2 cup reserved
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Filling

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup of brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 4 cinnamon graham crackers, broken into small pieces
  • 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

Glaze

  • 4 ounces marshmallow Fluff
  • 1/4 cup milk

Process

  1. To prepare the dough, sift together the flours and salt, set aside. Heat the milk per yeast instructions. Once the milk has reached the right temperature (between 100-110F) add the yeast and let proof per instructions. In a large bowl or using a stand mixer, beat 2 eggs. Mix in the sugar and melted butter into the eggs. Gently pour the milk into the bowl. In half cup intervals mix in the bread flour until 3 1/2 cups has been incorporated. With the remaining 1/2 cup, dust a clean smooth surface and coat your hands. Kneed the dough into a ball incorporating the remaining flour. Place into a greased bowl, cover, and let double in size (several hours).
  2. While your dough is rising prepare the  filing by combining the cinnamon  and sugars together in a bowl and the marshmallows, chocolate chips, and graham cracker pieces. in another bowl.
  3. Preheat oven to 350 and grease baking pans.
  4. Roll out dough into a 16 by 21 inch rectangle. Spread the melted butter evenly over dough. First add the sugar mixture to the cover the dough, then add the s’mores mixture. Roll up dough jelly roll style and, cut in half, then cut each section into 6 pieces.  Arrange evenly in pan
  5. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until golden brown.
  6. While rolls are baking combine the fluff and milk. Spread frosting over warm rolls before serving.

S’mores Week

Day 1

S’mores Chex Mix and S’mores Ice Cream Sandwiches

Day 2

S’mores Truffles and Microwave S’more Turtles

Day 3

S’mores Campfire Banana Splits and S’mores Cheesecake Bars