Author Archives: Backpackbee

As of late…

Silence on the radio….I had been planning to share our photos of bumblebee, what we’ve been whipping up and passing around our table for dinner, things we’ve been doing over the past few weeks…that is until seeing and reading the stateside news media as of late.

I’m a creature of habit, each morning I sit thankfully in my comfortable, quiet, moderately safe kitchen and read/ watch yet another attack, lives taken, the disgusting political mudslinging, friendships being ripped apart over petty disagreeing opinions as it relates to the before statements, the insane weather destroying communities, etc., I’ve just been so reluctant and so hesitant to post anything really. Hesitant to post about the wonderful times we’re experiencing here and the incredible foods we are so blessed to indulge on, out of respect to those who are clearly not safe, going hungry, in harm’s way of attacks and mother nature. Yes, to me it felt like writing about our homemade meals, vino night with good friends and cute bumblebee photos is very trivial in light of these heinous acts and tragedies.

But, I’ve realized and have shared some really special conversations with someone recently that’s given me more perspective on these events and a worldly view as a whole. We’ve discussed that no matter where you are these terrible things will occur, will continue to occur and you can’t let it stop you from trying to make the world a better place not only for you and I, but our children too. You can’t stop finding the good in your days and you certainly can’t let it stop you from living.

Through these conversations I’ve given so much deep though into the importance of my family and the importance of our friendships and who we chose to spend our remaining ticking hours with while we are on earth. I’ve realized even more so the importance of gathering our little family and close friends around our table, how writing about and sharing our home cooked meals is not trivial in the least bit, but so hugely important during these unfortunate times, because we are turning to one another to foster togetherness in our homes and around our tables. We’re creating these positive moments and memories, escaping even if only for a short bit of time the sadness and reality of what’s going outside of our doors and across the ocean from us. We’re gifting one another great company, great food, great wine and friendship that comforts, nourishes, strengthens, bonds our minds, hearts and bellies. With that being said…. I’ll post on.

Backpackbees

Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizza is pretty amazing stuff. The very best part about homemade pizza is getting to be as creative as you’d like. Am I right? I love the endless amounts of combinations and flavors that everyone brings to the table. Me, I’m a HUGE veggieholic and could pile on the cheese, mushrooms, peppers, onions, olives, brocoli, etc. just give me all the vegetables! Mr. B loves stacking his pizza with meat, more meat and anchovies. Although, I must admit it took me awhile to get use to his salt-lick slices of pizza, but I eat it now ha-ha!

This is my go to crust recipe…it ALWAYS turns out tasty and has been a trusty keeper. If you try it for yourself, let us know what you think.

This past week on family/neighbor dinner night we made homemade pizza and topped one with cheese, homemade meatballs, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms.

The other pizza, per our guest request, was topped with cheese, jalapeños and pepperoni. We paired the two pizzas with a big Greek salad and a nice glass of red.

I adore and look forward to these evenings dinners in with our neighbors, what a treasure. The weather was beautiful and not too terribly hot, a nice little breeze floating through our windows. Bumblebee was hammin’ it up, per her usual, making all sorts of friends with anyone in her line of sight, mowing down on her fist… I just love my little family!

Backpackbees

First Father’s Day

I think by now you realize that our family love language is cooking and baking homemade meals to share and enjoy with one another, our friends and family. Im also certain, just as you suspected, Father’s day wasn’t any exception to that statement either. Yes, Bumblebee and I decided to show our love and admiration for Mr. B and his first Father’s day through his stomach. We whipped up some extra special homemade Belgium waffles, a side of fresh fruit and a good ol’ cuppa joe.

I have to say… nothing makes me smitten more with this man than seeing how much he loves our daughter! I love watching the two of them together. It’s the one of the sweetest thing ever, haha when she isn’t HANGRY, to see a new dad with his daughter. My love cannot possibly get any deeper than that.

Here is wishing a happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there! Our dad’s are an ocean away, so we could only call to tell them just how much we love and miss them over the phone. Boy do we miss them!

Backpackbees

French Press Friday: Sneaky

What if someone told me when I was 16 years old that in my life I would raise a blue-eyed baby girl and live abroad with my husband over 5 years away from everything we’ve ever known?

Never have I felt like I should stay rooted to a single place for the rest of my life. I love the world! I have far more than one favorite place to name and be.

I sit here swirling my coffee and ponder if our bumblebee will ever be attached to just one place, lay down roots, or will she identify herself just as her momma does… A “world citizen”? I suppose only time will tell.

My response to all of that….I’d say, LIFE, you surely are a sneaky little fox!

Backpackbees

Wedding Anniversary

Wowie! June is just the month of celebrations!! I love it!!

So what all are we celebrating this month? (Glad you asked)
Our 9 year wedding anniversary…. Seriously, 9 years?!
A birthday for Mr. B… Oh la la
A first Father’s Day for Mr. B…. Eek!! ((I cannot wait!!)

So yeah, I’ve got some catching up to do since I’ve already posted on the fun birthday celebration we had this past week. Apologies for the radio silence on the blog the past few weeks. We’ve just been living life over here.

(belatedly written via this blog) 9 YEARSSSS!!! Goodness….we sure have come so far in these past few years of marriage.

In the morning our dear neighbor dropped off a gift on our doorstep with the sweetest card. Mr. B arrived after work with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers in hand! I’m still swooning over that sunflower!

Later that evening we celebrated our special day with our bumblebee at home. We dined on a fabulous sous vide feast of surf and turf, couscous and broccoli. Mmmmm! It was quiet, quaint and so very special.

Happy anniversary Beebs! To many more healthy and happy years spent with the two of you. Cheers!

Backpackbees

Birthday Celebration

Mr. B puts a limit on the amount of fuss and pizazz that I get to make over his special day, his birthday. He’s not one for parties, no dragging out the celebration, no telling the waitress while out at dinner (trust me…past experience he never lets me live down). His birthday request, celebrate one day, at home, a good home cooked meal, a favorite adult beverage (or a few) and his once a year praline ice-cream cake.

To me I feel that your birthday needs to be fussed about and you HAVE to drag it for at the minimum of a week, because come onnnnnn, it’s YOUR special day! Celebrate!!

So per his request last week we celebrated at home one evening with a good friend, delicious grilled rib eye steaks, foie gras, buttery scallops, hand cut French fries, a tomato cucumber salad with vinaigrette andddd of course his praline ice-cream cake. Mmmm-Mmmm!

Happy Birthday Mr. B. to the best dad and husband bumblebee and I could ever ask for.

Backpackbees

French Press Friday: Always

Random thoughts over french press this morning…

Random thoughts over french press this morning…

It’s remarkable how fast children grow so quickly into independence.

I find myself gazing into her eyes and feeling strangely that this little being has such an adult look in her eyes. It’s just at this moment she can’t verbally express her thoughts to us with our language yet, but certainly does in her own babble and coos. And then in moments of her fighting sleep, or having tummy troubles, or needing a diaper change, then I am jolted right back to seeing my baby, my baby bumblebee. That is when I see the childlike vulnerable, need and dependency in her eyes.

“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.” – Robert Munsch

Backpackbees

Memorial Day 2016

Unfortunately our freedom today comes at the cost of all our brave fallen men and women lives. Memorial Day is a day dedicated to honoring those past heroes, and is also a day that is often confused with Veterans Day, where we honor our present heroes.

Today had me really thinking about how we are all very guilty of bumbling through life, acting as if all of our tomorrow’s are guaranteed….We Place our eggs in life’s irrelevant baskets, place our happiness in others emotional state/hands thus affecting our day-to-day. We place such a high value on life’s petty things such as, getting social media “likes”, or money. But why? So since days like Memorial Day are really good in your face reminders telling and showing us that our tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, please make sure to take some extra time and truly reflect on this day and send an extra thank you upstairs to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and given us the opportunities of today and possibilities of our tomorrow’s.

Memorial Day has always been pegged as the “unofficial summer start”. Calendars show that the true summer season doesn’t actually arrive until later, however our warm Korean weather has been serenading us with a sweet summer song, plus kiddos are just as the cusp of breaking out of school and anywho like we all don’t need an excuse to get out and grill good food, and wear our patriotic pride colors!

Just because we’re in Korea doesn’t mean that we aren’t festive too! We try to uphold picnic and holiday traditions, just on a smaller scale. For our mini Memorial Day picnic feast, I prepared Mr. B’s Aunt Gail deliciously famous macaroni salad, the Mr. grilled a variety of big ol’ sausages and we slathered them with Coleman’s mustard, we munched on my grandmas homemade pickle recipe, and enjoyed the non-traditional side of Armenian eggplant clavier (we’re just a teeny bit obsessed). Dessert was honey pound cake topped with fresh vanilla whipped cream and local strawberries (But guess what? Our bellies were so full, we had to save them for tomorrow.)

Poor bumblebee….just a tall order of milk for now, lol!

^Cannot resist those baby belly buttons and leg rolls!

‘Merica! Love from the Bees!

Backpackbees

Frenchpress Friday: Same Person

Random thoughts over french press this morning…

You know what? I’m still the very same person, just with a bigger heart.
A heart I never even imagined could continue to swell in size for such a little being.
It’s crazy, as a parent I now am starting to understand and can reflect on some of my parents actions towards me and done for me more clearly.

Will Olivia only come to have the same realizations for our actions as her parents only after she decides to have children of her own?

I suppose only time will tell.

Backpackbees

Blueberry Coffee Cake

A friend recently mentioned in passing that my photos used to be mostly foods we cooked or baked and hasn’t been lately, but with good reason, and she missed reading about it. (Admittedly bumblebees photos filled my entire iPhone and I need to clear space now). This post is for you Leibe!

It does seem like ages the last time I REALLY got to sink my hands and teeth into something I baked out of our kitchen. Yes, yes I’ve baked oatmeal cookies almost weekly now…but I mean really baked something with the kitchenAid and all! So I found myself jonesing one Sunday morning and took advantage of the “free-time” and whipped up the most scrumptious Dahlia Bakery’s sour cream coffee cake (so kindly introduced to me by our dearly missed friends).

Imagine a nice thick blueberry sour cream coffee cake topped with just an irresistible cinnamony crunchy streusel topping. OKAY! Now STOP imagining and go bake it!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel
Serves 12
Recipe from The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook

Ingredients:

Streusel:
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter

Cake:
2½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 cups berries (blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries)

Directions:
Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9×13 pan and set aside.

Make the streusel: combine the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Dice the cold butter, add it to the mixture, and blend with your fingers until crumbly. Set aside.
Make the cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda into a bowl, and set aside. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each and scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix in the sour cream, vanilla, and salt. Add the dry ingredients a third at a time, mixing until just blended. Fold in the berries.

Scrape the batter into the pan and spread it evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle the streusel over the top.

Bake 45-50 minutes, until a tester comes out mostly clean. Cool in the pan in a wire rack.

Backpackbees