Monthly Archives: December 2014

2014: A Very Festive Christmas Dinner

TAKE 1…

TAKE 2…

TAKE 3…

TAKE 4… OKAY, OKAY… On with the post.

Celebrations and togetherness’ like this Christmas evening are dearly treasured moments in our lives.

Wowie, the incredible aromas that are swirling around our place from the kitchen, the love and laughter shared between friends that have become part of our extended family (Santa beards, elf get-up, festive glasses, Cards Against Humanity and all), the overall warmth felt in our place tonight just makes the whole night so memorable. I mean I serious wish that you had a scratch and sniff computer screen for each of these photos, better yet a sampling screen! Don’t worry, may in the new year I’ll honey-do-list Mr. B with carrying out the invention and production.

Our two dear friends came over tonight and prepared us an outstanding Christmas dinner. Thanks guys! Succulent root-beer glazed spiral ham, stuffed tomatoes and mushrooms, bacon wrapped homemade stuffing, steamed lemon pepper asparagus, roasted potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and British sticky toffee pudding danced happily in our bellies. Mmmm Hmmm….Truly such a special gesture.

Already 2014 is coming to an end. Life really is on fast forward mode, each year we’ve got people coming and going in our lives, so it is always really nice to take some time and let people know how amazing they are and how much they truly mean to us. With that being said…

Dear Family, Friends and Neighbors (near and far), Though you might not be at our dinner table tonight sharing this Christmas meal with us, you are certainly not forgotten and are here in spirit. Wishing You All a very merry Christmas! Cheers!

Backpackbees

2014: Christmas Morning

EEK! Christmas morning! What excitement for all!!

Our living room is the epitome of cozy on this Christmas morning mostly thanks to Mr. B. This man sweet talked me into purchasing another tree for our life on this side of the world (let’s be real folks, I didn’t need much sweet talking).

I think I recall the convo went something like this…

Mr. B: “I really think we should get a tree and put it up this year for Christmas.”
Mrs. B: “Check. Done. Boom. In the cart checking out now as we speak.”

Really the tree is our favorite yet and workweek mornings with the Charlie Brown Christmas, Nutcracker, and Elf are constantly replaying from our docking station have been awesomely energizing and uplifting too (well okay for one of us that is).

Christmas morning 2014 was magical, memorable and meant for the books. Thank you all for the cards and gifts. It was almost as if you were here with us… almost…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Backpackbees

2014: A Special Christmas Eve Surprise

Holidays, especially Christmas, are incredibly important and cherished to me. Even more so now that I am an adult. I often get so wrapped up in trying to make so many perfect moments, that I forget to REALLY enjoy all of the special moments that surround the holidays. Does that make sense?

Recently, my grandparents told me about an elderly woman that puts up 26 themed Christmas trees each year in her home. 26! Some of the trees have over 4,000 ornaments! Seriously, I think that this woman can relate to trying to create year after year those special moments.

Thankfully, Mr. B recognizes my struggles, knows that holidays are very important to me and knows that I look forward to family traditions year after year. This man gently guides me back onto my jolly holiday train tracks when he feels or notices me starting to derail off into an ugly tinsel mess (you know the kind…it’s the silvery stands that you find months after your tree has come down). He provides me with ever so thoughtful and delightful distractions like the one he surprised me with tonight.

At about 6PM tonight I walked through the doors and was immediately greeted by a chef whipping up something that smelled AMAZING in my kitchen (Check out our Instagram account! It was Mr. B!). Yes, he was preparing a beautiful Christmas eve dinner for the two of us to share.

We started with shrimp cocktails (family tradition), and a homemade French onion soup. Then for the main we enjoyed medium cooked steaks that were served with a green pepper sauce, accompanied by a side of salted boiled potatoes and broccoli. Yep. Adult Christmas IS just as good as it was being a kid.

Dinner was only the beginning… this man, the man that I married, then so thoughtfully wrapped up every single unopened package that was mailed from our family and friends for Christmas so that I’d feel that they were with us more so on Christmas morning. YES, 100% truth! These neatly wrapped packages were nestled under our tree with color codes that he explained identified the person it was from. Still words cannot express just how special he made this Christmas eve for me.

Still wordless… Thank you Mr. B. Thank you!

I hope your holidays are just as incredibly special.

Care to share some of your family holiday traditions?

Backpackbees

Celebration Calls For Afternoon Tea

This morning, Christmas eve, I attended a graduation and certificate ceremony for my dear friend at Le Cordon Bleu (French for “The Blue Ribbon”) culinary school located in Seoul. What an honor to be invited and partake in such a monumental moment in someone’s life. Not to mention a dream of my own…swoon…

As you may know already, there are some rather distinct differences when it comes to comparisons between S.Korea and the US. I now can also safely say that a graduation ceremony is another difference in my life experience book as well. The ceremony while very nice, had some distractions occurring.

…Eh, heck why not, I’ll share some of the humor with you all…while I carefully tried to concentrate and make out some of the words being said in both French and Korean, I was sitting beside a Korean man who was obviously very proud of his family member, so much so that right after his family member walked off the stage he decided he immediately needed to put together a video montage with songs right on the spot (I’m talking no ear buds, full on sound for all to hear around him). Then after said Korean man was happy with his masterpiece, I thought I was in the clear, silly me….two elderly Korean woman to my left decided to sit down and have a very loud conversation and pay no mind to the ceremony, or anyone sitting around them. I really don’t believe that they looked up at the stage once. I pondered if they even knew anyone there and perhaps maybe had come for the free food afterwards? Hey, no judgement ladies… no judgement. For future events try to keep it down a bit please? Thanks.

Anyways, the ceremony was beautiful in book, even with said distractions. I was beaming from ear to ear with a huge permi-smile for my friend and her incredible accomplishment! I think I told her about 50 times that afternoon how proud I was of her and how much of an inspiration she was to me. She really is, more than I think she will ever know!

Onward to the celebration afterwards. Let’s talk food shall we?

No, wait.. even better shall we look at amazing photos of the food that the Le Cordon Bleu Chefs prepared for the graduation ceremony? Yes, I think we shall…

After the ceremony and the light tasting event, we headed onto our own celebration at Shilla Hotel, also located in Seoul, for afternoon tea.

There is no need to make reservations and the afternoon tea is held in the Library Bar and Lounge of the hotel. The Afternoon Tea Set starts at 46,000 KRW and there is an option to upgrade and add a glass of champagne for the set price of 68,000 KRW.

First we were seated and asked to select our tea choices. Because our group was rather large, we ordered various teas. The tea selection is plentiful and I immediately fell in love with TWG’s White House tea. I know, I know…Perfect pick for the American! But really, the tea was a delightful white tea. It was described as, “delicately fruity with overtones of ripe, red berries and a scattering of rare and fragrant rose petals.”

I was blown away by the tea set that came out! It was impressive and perfectly plated for presentation. A wonderful section of various pastries, hot scones, sweets and beautifully sliced tea sandwiches. The afternoon Tea set also includes a selection from the cake cart. Our group chose a gorgeous slice of chocolate cake (and that says a lot coming from a non-chocolate lover)!

I cannot wait to go take a few friends back and share the experience.

I Highly recommend the afternoon tea and by the way, don’t forget pinkies up!

Backpackbees

Directions:

Le Cordon Bleu
Website: Here

The Shilla Seoul Hotel – The Library Bar and Lounge
249 Dongho-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Making Latkes

Latkes, potato pancakes, or potato cakes as we know them in central Pennsylvania, are a traditional meal for Hanukkah. I thought this would be a perfect post for this time of the season, besides… tonight I had a craving for some good old potato cakes. I’d like to publicly acknowledge and blame my fellow Instagramers for that craving…Thanks guys for all of your recent delicious photos! So we whipped up a non-traditional form of a potato cake using sweet potatoes from a recipe out of my Forest Feast Cookbook.

As we made the cakes, of course we had some inappropriate banter and jokes between us, but we also really reminisced about the first time I ever tried potato pancakes. Yes, it was actually when I first started dating Mr. B. I was sitting in his parents kitchen and we were discussing potato cakes and I believe I happened to mention that I’d never tried one before. Gasp!? I know..talk about sheltered. Well Mr.B’s mother decided right then and there that I had to try one. She immediately started whipping out potatoes, crisco, onions, etc. and made them on the spot! What a woman my mother in-law!

You won’t find any crisco in the version we made tonight, but I do believe that these potato cakes we made would make my mother in-law proud. The entire time I scarfed down my two potato cakes I couldn’t help but think of her with each bite. ‘Tis the season and all that nostalgic stuff, right?

We didn’t change a thing in the recipe. We paired the potato cakes with a nice piece of mahi mahi. It hit this homegirls spot and there were no complaints from the Mr. Victory in my book!

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Latkes

Grate 2 sweet potatoes (I don’t bother peeling).

Combine with:

4 beaten eggs
1 clove minced garlic
1 Tablespoon bread crumbs
Salt & Pepper

Fry:

3 Tablespoon heaps (forming patties) in a generous amount of olive oil until golden brown. About 3 min each side on med/high. Remove & drain on paper towels.

Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt & a sprinkle of chopped scallions.

From The Forest Feast by Erin Gleeson

Backpackbees

Tied up with string

Packages and post are all officially in the mail and with a little holiday luck, these things may actually all arrive before Christmas Day! Oh hey, and we got some snow too!

This evening I made clementine wreaths to hang on my neighbors doors. You know, spread a little extra holiday cheer… This time of year I’m always feeling extra giddy about all the little packages and cards that are beautifully tied up with string, sprinkled with glitter, and thoughtfully picked for the receiver.

To make a DIY clementine wreath you will need the following items…

Ingredients:
7 or 8 nice looking (smaller) clementines
a roll of clear cellophane wrap, cut 10 – 12 inch wide length-wise.
Tape, any type will do you
Twine
ribbon
cinnamon sticks if you are fancy…. (not included in mine this time)

Directions:

1. Lay down a piece of clear cellophane on a smooth surface.
2. Line up your seven or eight small clementines onto the 10-12 inch side of the cellophane, about two to three inches from the edge.
3. Space out your clementines, about a pinky finger-width apart, leaving a bit of the cellophane at the beginning and end of the clementine row.
4. Now Tightly roll up the row of clementines.
5. Where you left the ends longer, crises-cross them over one another once and tie it with ribbon. It should now resemble a circular wreath at this point.
6. Cut seven or 8 pieces of twine or ribbon, each about 10-12 inches long, and start to tie one between each of the clementines (I used a candy cane striped red and white twine for mine).
7. Adjust as needed and you are finished!

Wasn’t that simple?!

Now go deck some halls and spread that holiday cheer!

Backpackbees

Adventures in homemade pasta making

Isn’t pasta just plain fun?! Seriously it really is!

Ohhhh and when it’s freshly made you can just taste the love that was put into it. It’s just comfort in a bowl on a cold winters night, a bowl I could just cuddle up inside and not poke my head out of until the first sign of Spring.

Ahhhh pastaaa.

What really intrigues me about pasta is the fact it’s made so simply. All it takes is flour, water and eggs. Honestly every Pennsylvanians staple kitchen item when the weatherman forecast an inkling of snow. When these three simple things are mixed and kneaded together, they are transformed into a magical elastic ball of dough that can be pinched off, cut, or rolled out into a billion flavors, colors, and shapes. Now if that isn’t just simplicity at its finest.

After lusting for a year or so, for Christmas we purchased a together gift, the pasta roller attachments, that we couldn’t bare to place under the tree. We are worse than little kids on Christmas Eve, we haven’t grown up. When the package arrived, the tape barely ripped off the box and we were already googling what we could whip up first.

To get our bearings and because this was our first pasta making experience, we just went with the Kitchenaid recipe for regular pasta noodles. We will get all sorts of crazy now that we’ve got that test run out of our system.

Cheers and stay tuned. Many apologies in advance for the harsh kitchen lighting.

BASIC EGG NOODLE PASTA DOUGH

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
2 tablespoons water (we needed a tad more than this original recipe)
2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Instructions:

Break eggs into a glass measuring cup. Add water. Carefully check to see that the total liquid amount is 3⁄4 cup. If less than 3⁄4 cup, add additional water 1 teaspoon at a time until that amount is reached.

Place flour in bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater. Turn to Speed 2 and gradually add eggs and water. Mix for 30 seconds. Stop mixer and exchange dough hook for flat beater. Turn to Speed 2 and knead for 2 minutes. Remove mixture from bowl and hand knead for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rest for 15 minutes before extruding through Pasta Maker.

Makes about 1 pound dough

Source: KitchenAid Pasta Maker manual

Backpackbees