Author Archives: Backpackbee

Saying Buh-Bye not Goodbye

“Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold.” LOL! That song reminds me of when I was a little girl and in Brownies, the younger aged little ladies of the Girl Scouts. Yup, I was a cookie working sales professional with my sash and all.

I don’t know why, but these photos jogged some suppressed memory of my childhood. Hence the song. These were taken at dinner tonight. While the dinner was certainly delicious and the company was excellent, my heart and head were on overload. Our dear friends, the P family, currently in the military are leaving Korea very shortly. They will move onto their next duty station and this was one of our last buh-byes.

I know that no one said it would be easy. Actually, sometimes it’s quite hard. Yes, I admit it…living abroad can be hard! It’s not like when you were a brownie, or in grade school. You are an adult, meeting people, getting to know them, let them into your life, trust them…It takes time.
All the while, you pack up, you move, you unpack, you live, you make friends, they pack up, they move, and so on. So, when you meet other foreigners or couples, in the back of your mind you know it’s not a permanent state, but you try not to let it get to you. You try to think positively and be grateful that your paths crossed in both of your lifetimes. However, you are human. Being human means that you have those days or moments where it does get to you.

People are going to move in and out of your life. Often times it is very quickly, depending on when the timeframe you meet them was. It’s such a bittersweet feeling. The one thing that I find myself clinging onto for comfort is, knowing that we have friends that are spread out across the entire world. When we find ourselves in their parts, or them in ours, we know we will always have local tour guides to navigate the area with.

P family, Best wishes! May this new beginning bring your family success in everything that you do! Until we meet again! We miss you dearly already!

Strawberry Pie

It’s early Wednesday morning, our home is very silent, very still, very peaceful. Only the stir of Bean cat can be heard. On a day like today with the tension so high in North Korea, silence and peace are truly a blessing.

Today is really like most mornings here. I wake up earlier than Mr. B so I have that morning 30 minutes to an hour of me time all to myself. I start-up my little K-Cup coffeemaker, fix my breakfast and sit at the bar in our kitchen. Sometimes I check work e-mails, I know its sick but I like to know what I am walking into for the day, sometimes I catch up on my reading, other times I pull up my fellow bloggers, or even muddle through my personal e-mail. I am telling you, that box is almost a lost cause at this point.

This mornings me time includes, enjoying a slice of my grandmothers strawberry pie topped with coconut whipped cream. I like to live on the edge every once and awhile. Shake up my fruit and oatmeal routine. Eat my favorite course first thing in the morning, dessert!

I might have mentioned this in the past, but I was told my late great-grandmother liked to enjoy her dessert before her actual dinner. She said that she wanted to enjoy it and make sure that she had room to for her favorites first. Not only was she a dearly sweet woman, but she was completely onto something! Truth be told, I feel 100% the same way! There is no written rule that says we have to have our salad served first at dinner, right? So, why not have a nice slice of pie at breakfast? Plus its fruit pie, making it even more 100% perfectly acceptable in my book.

So if you are like me this morning and you are planning out the meals for the following week. Go ahead and add this little recipe to the list! Make sure you live a little on the edge too, throw caution to the wind and have a slice for breakfast.

Oh and feel free to dabble a little coconut whipped cream on top too! MmMMmmm…Cheers to a savory me time wherever you are!

Strawberry Pie

For: 1-9″ Pie

Ingredients:

1 9″ Pie shell
1 Cup water
1 Cup Sugar
2 Rounded Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Small package of Strawberry jello
5 Cups Strawberries

Bake pie crust in oven until brown. *You can use a pre-made or frozen pie shell.. or my grandmothers to add a little junk in your trunk. (We are talking crisco and all!)

Cook until the following come to a boil:
1 Cup water
1 Cup sugar
2 Rounded Tbsp cornstarch

After ingredients come to a boil: Put 2 Tbsp strawberry jello in a cup and add 2 Tbsp HOT water to dissolve the jello. Then pour into boiled mixture above. Now let everything cool completely.

In the meantime start cleaning your 5 cups of fresh strawberries. Cut the strawberries into pieces.

Once the stove top mixture has cooled completely, place the strawberries into the mixture and coat well. Then pour all into the bakes pie shell. Keep it in the fridge until ready to enjoy.

Coconut Whipped Cream

Ingredients
1 (14 oz) can of Coconut Milk (I used GOYA)
1 Tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch of pure sugar cane

Directions:
Place the can of coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight.

Following day, open can and spoon out the thick, semi-hardened white part off the top, leave the watery remains behind in the can.

In a large mixing bowl put your coconut, vanilla extract, and sugar together. Whip ingredients on high until medium/firm peaks form

The whipped cream will last a few days, may need re-whipped for nice peaks.

Grandma L’s Pie Crust
*Makes 5 single pie crust (freezes well too!)

Crumb the following ingredients together with your hands:

5 Cups of flour
1 3/4 Cup of crisco
Sprinkle of salt

Then add in 1 cup cold water.

Again mix ingredients together with hands to make balls; flour surface, roll our thin. Flour as needed. Roll out round then afterwards fold in half and lift into your pie plate. Then take a paring knife and cut off the extra around the edges. Then pinch the crust.

Bake at 400 Degrees for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure it gets a nice golden brown color, but not burnt.

Nibbler

Are you a nibbler? Okay, let me further explain. I am talking nibbler in the sense of, when you are cooking in the kitchen you are nibbling along the way. It might be that perfectly ripe tomato, that just out of the oven bread loaf, or even a teeny swoop of that freshly whipped cream you made. So, with that said, do you consider yourself a nibbler?

Truth, I’m a nibbler. Yes, I admit I am guilty of nibbling along the way of my meal preparation. I always wondered if it was a hereditary thing. You know if your mother, or your grandmother, or your great-grandmother did it, you too picked up on the habit and were doomed to become a nibbler. Thinking back it makes sense to me now. There were times when I was a child where I remember my mother or grandmother cooking and preparing a nice meal only to eat a teeny if any bit. Why? Because she had to be a nibbler! HA HA! I’m not totally sure that is the case, but its my conclusion and I am sticking to it.

The weeks have been lengthy and I have found myself running against the clock. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to catch up from when I was away in Cambodia. I have been struggling to find that even balance with housework, me time, being a good spouse and loving wife, to being a good employee and team member, to being a great best-friend and equally great sister and daughter as well. Whoever said being a million miles away from family made it easier had to be joking. It’s not easy! Oh and throw in a little drama from our neighbors to the North on top of it all. Oy vay. Suggestions on being able to find balance again are greatly welcomed. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and wisdom.

Do I have you scratching your head wondering what the correlation and connection between being a nibbler, playing catch up, and being superwoman is? The connection is that I am finally able to sit down and post a blog post and communicate to the masses that we are A-Okay over here. Really! Well, in this moment that is. I mean, would I be using my downtime to focus so much emphasis on focus on cooking healthy meals for the hubs and I? Not to mention baking my grandmothers strawberry pie complete with her homemade pie crust too! We are talking PIE here…serious stuff (recipe to come soon).

Oooohhh…Speaking of healthier dinner options, I’ve got a treat for you! How does sweet potato black bean burgers sound? (recipe below)

Sweet Potato Black Bean Veggie Burgers

Recipe slightly adapted from Healthy. Happy. Life. 100% Vegan lunchboxbrunch.com
makes 9-10 medium patties

Ingredients:

2 Cans black beans, drained
3 Medium/large sweet potato, already baked, peeled, and mashed
2 Tbsp Tahini
2 Tsp honey
2 Tsp lemon pepper seasoning
1 Tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 Cup wheat flour
A few dashes of black pepper
*I don’t typically season with salt, but you can certainly add if you need to.
2-3 Cups of Panko crumbs
1-2 Tbsp Safflower oil for frying pan

(Optional)Burger toppings: avocado, Dijon mustard, onion

Directions:

1. Take your already baked sweet potatoes. Peel off the skin, set aside in large mixing bowl.
2. Add drained black beans to sweet potatoes. Mash the beans and potato together. You may need to use your hands and mixer to get the beans and potato to the right consistency.
3. Toss and mash in the lemon pepper seasoning, cayenne pepper, black pepper, flour, Tahini, and honey. Your mixture will be quite soft and tacky. No worries, you will be able to form the burger patty.
4. Heat up the 1-2 Tbsp safflower oil in a pan over high heat.
5. Form the burger patties from mixture and coat in Panko crumbs. Cook until burger is browned on both sides.
6. Transfer cooked patties to paper towel. Cool for a few minutes.

*As noted on the original recipe, the patties may crumble a bit while you are eating. However they are still absolutely delicious and that factor will make up for it in itself. Enjoy!

Hoppy Easter Everybunny!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Isn’t this little veggie and dip tray that I made fun?

Over the last few years our dinner table and holiday traditions have changed a lot. We have moved from our small hometown, to a new state, then to move again across the ocean to South Korea. A big part of celebrating Easter for we Bees has been gathered around that ever-changing dinner table with our family and friends and enjoying a delightful Easter brunch or dinner. This year was no exception, we joined our dear friends and celebrated together as one, however I wouldn’t call this your typical Easter dinner. We celebrated Armenian style!

Dinner included:

Cheese Borek
Hummus
Eggplant Caviar
Easter Pilaf with dried fruit
Lentil Bean salad
Fish Plaki
Beef Kabob
Mini Baklava
Khavitz halva
Lenten Peanut Butter balls

Is your mouth-watering yet? Everything turned out so scrumptious and was absolutely divine!

Our gracious host served in the Peace Corps when they were first married. Armenia holds a special place in both of their hearts and they wanted to share that experience with us. What a treat getting to talk about the Armenian traditions, have an Armenian egg fight, learn to make Armenian coffee, listen to them share their Peace Corps stories, and of course enjoy our little babes too! What an amazing comfortable feeling it is to have such close friends that have become extended family to us. I’ll count that as one of my many Easter blessings this year.

(Dye your Easter eggs Armenian style using onion peels!)

2013_03_31 Easter

2013_03_31 EasterMar 30, 2013Photos: 43

5 Days

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5 Days… I can’t believe that’s all it took to build a home for a family in Cambodia!

The words home sweet home have a nice ring to it, don’t they? I can announce that I am officially home safe and sound from my trip with Habitat for Humanity in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

There are so many things that I associate with the word home. My heart, my loving husband, my Bean cat, safety, my serenity, my comfort. I cannot imagine my life without having my home and all the feelings associated with it.

I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to give the gift of home to another family, all thanks to the support and donations from people like you! Your contributions and support allowed my team and I to build a 4 x 6 brick home for a well deserving mother, her children, and her grandchildren. Makes you really count your blessings, right?

On this build, myself and twelve other volunteers lived and worked in a small village located west on the outskirts of Phnom Penh city. We partnered and worked alongside of local artisans and the future homeowners. We mixed, shoved, and carried mortar, moved and laid piles and piles of brick, bucketed and poured concrete floors, dirt, sand, and we hammered on an aluminum roof.

Not once did I ever feel unsafe or outside of my comfort zone. Okay, maybe once when I had to use the squatty Potty and let the door cracked because their was no power to be able to see anything. HA HA! That is a whole other story in itself, I’ll spare you this time. The village that we built-in was so friendly and always waved and smiled at as. Everyone popped by the site to tame their curiosity and practice using their best English vocabulary to say “hello”! We had two wonderful translators on site, and one supervisor that we nicknamed BN. Sorry, somethings have to remain left unspoken and in Cambodia. Use your imagination…wink,wink.

The children quickly warmed up to our group and eventually learned our work schedule. My heart eagerly looked forward to every morning knowing that when our work vans were pulling in, those kids would be running alongside or up to us to greet us with the biggest grins and sparkles in their little eyes. You could feel how genially excited they were that we were giving them individualized attention. These children had next to nothing, some not even fully clothes, yet they were the happiest and strongest children I have ever met. Another thing that I was absolutely taken back by was, the children would try their hardest to work alongside of us. Mimicking our brink or bucket lines that we formed to get items quickly from point A to B, helping us collect trash, trying to be helpful and bring a tool they would find somewhere. I learned so much from that village in such a short time frame that will stick within me for the rest of my life.

On the last day of the build, we held and attended a ceremony that presented the family with the keys to their new home. After every member of the build took a snip of the red ribbon, the homeowner took the last snip with the scissors and cut completely through to finalize the ribbon cutting ceremony event. We were all invited to remove our shoes and come into the home. Once we were inside we were asked to say something to the family on our experiences during the build. It was incredibly emotional. What a journey it had been for all of us. We all came from such diverse backgrounds, we all were in search of something different when it came to reasons we were volunteering for the build. However, one thing that bonded us and linked us together in that very moment was the prayers, well wishes, and our hearts all filled with thankfulness and fulfillment for the family.

The words thank you will never ever truly be enough to express what I feel…but for now they will have to do. So, thank you all!!!

Ah! I still cannot believe WE BUILT A HOME IN 5 DAYS!! I hope that I never come down from the high this trip provided my soul. I don’t know about the rest of my team, but I’m ready for my next build!

Please feel free to check out the remaining photos from my trip. You will find photos of the Royal Palace, Independence Monument, National Museum of Cambodia, Wat Phnom temple, Toul Tum Poung Market, our river cruise down the Mekong river, various foods that I loved (too bad they didn’t share the same love back for me), The killing fields, Genocide museum, and the Cambodian traditional weaving house.

2013_03_26 Cambodia / Habitat For Humanity Build

2013_03_26 Cambodia / Habitat For Humanity BuildMar 15, 2013Photos: 284

Reality Check

Socks, check.
Bug spray, check.
Bandanas, check.
Sunblock, check.
Bean cat, Wait…Bean cat?! Little miss cannot resist an open bag.

It’s now a reality!

Only a few short hours away from gathering my packed bags and heading off to Cambodia.

My heart and mind are open and ready to be fulfilled with this amazing experience and opportunity with Habitat for Humanity.

I can’t express my thanks, my love, and sheer gratitude enough to my husband, all my dear friends, family, and co workers who are supporting me with praise, prayers, words of encouragement, and have donated to the cause! Without you all I’d never be able to accomplish half of what I have!

Thank you, Thank you!

Good, Bad, Everything in Between

Many apologies, lately I feel like I’ve been rather inconstant with keeping up on our blog. I know it’s only been a week or so since the last update, but it feels like months have went by that I’ve left you all hanging. Life has certainly been fast paced here for the bees. Travel, wonky work hours, and life, just plain life. Now I’m left trying to catch up on my e-mails, blogger friends, pen pal, books, and the heaping pile of laundry that’s bursting at the seams every time I open our walk in. The only real comforting fact to subside my OCD is that i know my grandma’s advise would be, it’s not going anywhere, you will get to it when you can get to it. She’s sweet! I won’t even get started on the fact I haven’t put any thought into packing for my trip to Cambodia yet. Eek! Yes, that’s this Friday…more on that later.

Lets start with the good! I like to jump off on a positive not anyways.

Over the weekend we decided to get more adventurous and try out another new restaurant. Sweet victory! We loved it! Excellent duck and outstanding sides. Of course I included photos for you, even threw in a bonus video too. Sorry for the iPhone quality guys. Can I just point out how ingenious is that table with the built-in rotisserie! Oh Korea, you make being foodies so easy!

Onto the bad…no sugar coating…the place below was the pits. Period.

So whats everything in between? Planning to leave for my Habitat for Humanity trip in Cambodia this FRIDAY!

I wasn’t kidding, fast track life lately! I feel like it was just yesterday kicking off my build fundraising for my team. Here we are almost $2,000 later and boarding a plane soon. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m ready, if I’m excited, if I’m worried. Yes, yes, and yes!

I find myself soul-searching a lot, looking for ways to give a piece of myself, my heart, to something meaningful in this world. What an opportunity with Habitat! I get to build a home for a deserving family, give them a forever place. In so many ways I know this will fill my heart temporary. I’m ready to give my all! My sweat, my energy, my manpower. Oivay, sweat…did you see those temperatures above? I’m thinking there will be plenty of sweat to give.

I’m excited to learn about the Cambodia culture and way of life, work hand and hand with the people, be a tourist, and disconnect completely from all the technology that bogs me down. Yes, worry, had to mention that of too. What can I say? I’m a worry wort. With any trip outside of the norm there is always the element of worry, right? Mr. B made me make two deals. One, come back alive, and two I cannot bring any children back with me. Does this man know me or what? Shushhh don’t tell him I admitted that openly.

Cherio! I’m off to finish up and finalize all the in between things before leaving on my trip, but I’ll be back soon with lots of exciting things to share!

Sashimi House 횟집

Hoejip (횟집), means “sashimi house” in Korean. This weekend I was invited out to dinner to enjoy fresh raw fish, or sashimi as we mostly call it in America. In Korea, the fish is sliced a bit thicker than that of the Japanese style, and the fish is known as hoe. Like almost all meals in Korea, the sashimi is served with complementary side dishes.

It was a lot of fun to see and compare the differences in ones dining experience when it comes to enjoying sashimi. We have eaten at a few restaurants in Korea that serve sushi rolls and sashimi, but nothing where it was the full-blown Korean Hoejip.

The restaurant was located very close to the Ganeung subway station. Very small, only housing roughly five tables. Two of the tables were tables with chairs, the rest were dining on a raised platform where the floor was heated for your bum. Thought the space may be small, the restaurant is very plain and very clean. I was told that this particular restaurant was well-known for its freshness and quality of fish. Also, if you didn’t have a reservation for dining chances are that you may not be able to get in most nights.

Koreans often serve raw fish in a different manner. They usually take a very large fish (mostly whitefish) straight from a tank that is displayed out front of the restaurant. A lot of times they let you pick the fish that you would like to eat. They will then prepare it and slice it into translucent slivers, and carefully arrange it on a very big platter of shredded cabbage, which is then placed in the center of the table for everyone to share family style.

Another difference in eating sashimi in South Korea was the way it should be enjoyed. Yes, even a simple dish of sashimi has it’s own traditional way. You take the raw fish wrapped in ggaenip (similar to shiso leaf) and a slice of jalapeño, raw garlic, wasabi, and some rice, roll it up and shove it in your mouth. Of course one does this as gracefully as she can…haha! Yeahhhh…still feels like I’m breaking all the rules every time I do this, and goes against everything I was taught growing up.

Tonight I got to experience a true Korean treat, hoedeopbap. Hoedeopbap is a raw fish mixed with veggies and rice. It’s like bibimbop but without the rice! What’s not to love? It was delicious!

At the end of the meal, the last course served was a spicy soup called meuntang (매운탕). The soup was all of the bony parts that could not be served with the raw fish, (are you ready for this?) to include the fish head. Eek! Keeping my promise to myself, knowing that I’m only going to live once, I ate it too. It was spicy and pretty tasty!

Traditionally you should enjoy soju or some type of Korean alcohol with your meal too. You will look around towards the end of your meal and see all of the red faces, hear the bottles of soju clinking, hear the loud laughter and stories in Korean. In that moment you will know they are completely unwound from the everyday stressors in their life, and are now able to enjoy the deliciously fun moments of their dinner with their friends and family.

Cheers!

Foodie Pen Pal February

It’s that time of the month again, the day that I get to share with you all my February Foodie Pen Pal experience. I was linked up with Sonya and her family in Oklahoma. I threw together a fun box knowing that this box was not only going to be received by just one person, but an entire family. From a few messages back and forth, I know that Sonya and her family were from a small town with limited cultural experience. She stated that she had some teenage daughters that were certainly eager to check out whatever I was sending their way.

I knew I wanted to include some Korean staples like fun candies, typical Korean snacks, rice seasonings, a Korean/expat magazine, a handwritten postcard from Seoul, and some beauty samples. Basically I wanted to box up the Korean culture and rock their small town that day.

I shipped the box out by the cutoff date of the 15th (I cannot believe I forgot to snap a picture to include for the blog, oops sorry!). A few days later I received the sweetest thoughtful message back, Sonya and her family had received their February foodie box.

“We got our box yesterday and had so much fun opening it up and sampling the goodies! The girls got a real kick out the “Beatles” until we realized they are just like Skittles…we were almost afraid that they were candy coated beatles…:) We’re not sure what everything is really called or what everything really is, but we’ve decided that the little round sweets taste like little cake donuts and the “Sweet Remembrancers” tasted like animal crackers. 🙂 I’m making plans on making up some rice this weekend to try the rice seasonings (wish I had some of the korean white rice now!) One of my 15 year olds is a Ramen noodle queen and the “black” noodle package looks to be a korean ramen noodle, so she’s psyched to give that a try! Oh and we LOVED the chocolate almond sticks as well! Thank you so much…the whole box was perfect! And sooo fun. I’m going to give the face mask a try and the only thing I could not figure out was the rose bottles….I’m not sure what each was…:)

The girls really enjoyed going through the box and getting to see the Korean writing and looking at the magazine. Living in a small town in Oklahoma (population 2200) with one stoplight…it’s not very often they see anything from outside of the state, let alone outside of this country or hemisphere…:) ” – Sonya

Mr. B and I both agreed, this experience had to be one of the BEST since starting our Foodie Pen Pal experience. We loved that this time our box went to a family that would be experiencing something well out of their norm.

So, I know you are waiting for me to unveil what we received from our February foodie pen pal. We were linked with Barb from Delaware. Exchanged a few messages back and forth talking about family, how we ended up in Korea, etc. Barb must have taken the time to read up on our blog post because her box was perfectly put together for these two Bees!

Two pink snowballs, a breakfast granola box, a box of chai honey vanilla tea, truffle chocolates,

chocolate peanut butter fiber one bars, two pure drink mixes, and two pumpkin K-cups.

In Barb’s handwritten note she said that this box was to give us energy. Oh, Barb, we certainly need it these days!

Barb also wrote that she really wanted to include something pumpkiny for me because she knew how much I enjoyed that flavor. Hence the K-cups. Well, I hate to cut you all short, but I must bid you all adieu. Off to purchase a Keurig to drink these wonderfully thoughtful K-cups!

Anatomy of the Perfect Date Night

New adventure + very close to home + cute chef + excellent food + sweetest ajumma waitress= The perfect date night

For date night Mr. B and I decided to try someplace new. While its nice to always go to our favorite little place, its nice to continue adventuring out of our comfort zones too.

We had it narrowed down to two places we had never been to before. Conveniently these two places are near our place. After taking down the recyclable’s, we decided to take a walk and enjoy the cool air, along the way Mr. B tells me to pick a number, “one or two”. I picked the number two.

Great choice!

And that’s how this place ended up on our top favorites list.

Cajun duck. Come to mama and papa B!