Category Archives: Things Worth Sharing

Turning One

EEK! I can’t believe our little baby bee has turned one!

We threw a ridiculously big ‘ol Mickey and Minnie clubhouse celebration. And wouldn’t you know it, a clubhouse celebration isn’t complete without some good grub too! YEY!!

The Birthday menu included the following:
Hammy hamburgers & saucy sausages (grilled hamburgers and sweet sausages with grilled onions and green peppers all slow cooked in tomato sauce)
Clarabell cows condiments
Donald’s dippers (baby carrots with ranch dip)
Goofys grapes (red & green grapes)

Oh toodles noodles (homemade macaroni salad)
Pluto’s punch (juice for the mini clubhouse guest)
Chip & Dales chips & dip (hummus and pita chips)
We’ve got beers say cheers! (homemade brews)
Vanilla Cake with a strawberry filling and ice-cream

Mouskatools

While of course, she may not remember it……we absolutely will and we made sure to document it too.

Bumblebee was surrounded by our/her friends that love on her and support her and help her to grow into her feisty little self.

Thinking back over this entire year seems so long, but yet so short. Where does a year go? This very day, one year ago, the day we first met this amazing blessing for the very first time. Then the realization hit that we don’t do parenthood alone… Bumblebee is a lucky little lady to have these amazing role models in her life. Thank you all!

Backpackbees

Birthday Celebration

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For baby R’s 1st birthday party, Momma and Papa bear threw an epic birthday bash!

Check out all of the fabulous little Pinterest and Etsy details! So many details! Everywhere you looked! Eek! Even fun colorful camping themed food! Too cute!

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There were tons of babies just bobbling all around running or scooting from room to room. We all had so much fun celebrating this little baby bear and her special day!

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Thank you for inviting us! Wishing you a very happy birthday sweet baby R!!

Backpackbees

Friends giving 2016

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This year as I sat down amongst eleven dear friends at our Friendsgiving table and I couldn’t help but think about the saying, “If you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher fence.” It’s so simplistic, yet holds such truth and so much beauty, especially during this holiday season.

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When we all sat down together to dig into our delicious spread, we all went around the table and shared what we were thankful for. It was one of the best memories that will stay with us when we think back on this very dinner. Listening to each person express how truly thankful they were for friends like us, like those around the table, made anything else going on just melt away.

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The American Thanksgiving of course is not celebrated here in Korea, but that doesn’t stop us from pillaging our local vegetable market for local goods to make it happen. Over the years we’ve learned the hard way that a big ol’ bird simply doesn’t fit in our tiny “easy bake oven”, so we improvised and purchase an already made Turkey (a deep-fried one at that!) plus we sous-vide extra turkey breast and baked a ham in our crockpot. To make all the sides work, we borrowed another small oven, giving us a total of three ovens to work with. Talk about handling the heat in the kitchen… whew! SO.MUCH.FOOD. In the end everything worked out perfectly! We were pleased with all of the meats being moist and flavorful, and it was by far quicker to purchase and sous vide! (Check out that carrot cake too! A friend of our’s had it made with little bumblebee on it! Swoon!!)

Speaking of turkey…. THIS little turkey had a teeny bit of her first Thanksgiving turkey too!

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As always….we are very thankful for all of you too… for those that have stuck by us, reading, commenting, viewing our photos and virtually traveled all around the world with us. Thank you friends! Happy Thanksgiving from Korea!!

Backpackbees

Korean Cooking Lesson

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Over the weekend I was invited to partake in a Korean cooking lesson where we made marinated Samgyeopsal 양념 삼겹살, Glass Noodles 잡 채 and Kimchi, all from scratch! We were taught by a true professional, teacher Min’s mother! (You guys, this woman was so patient and sweet with all of us and didn’t speak a lick of English).

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It was such a wonderful morning unplugging with some new friends and just getting to ignore all of the outside political BS that continues to plague everywhere we look and listen.

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The lesson included note pages with a list of ingredients (in Korean and English language) for each of the dishes we prepared, hands on time, lots of questions and chatting time, as well as sitting down and enjoying the delicious dishes we prepared. Oh and I almost forgot… the leftovers! We each took home three HUGE containers of food to share with our families! SCORE! Mr. B was pretty pleased to reap the benefits from the cooking lesson.

Here are just a few more favorite snapshots from the class. Hope you enjoy!

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If you are interested in taking a cooking lesson, or learning to speak the Korean language please check out and contact Dongducheon (DDC) Workshops.

Facebook Link: HERE
Phone: 010-3351-1403
Teachers: Dawn Adams and Min Kim

Backpackbees

Every Day

I watch her all day and I have the same thoughts over and over… PLEASE God let me always remember this moment, this little grin, this teeny face, this sweet snuggle, this precious giggle, this monster coo… I know I have to savor each of these moments endlessly, we’ve already hit the 6 months mark and she’s growing so very quickly into a little lady, these photos only prove my point more so.

Backpackbees

Special visit

The past few days have been a busy blur of copious amounts of good food and buzzing all around Korea like we were tourist again. This time the only difference was, we had bumblebee and Kelsey along for the ride!

Yes, Kelsey, this young woman has more depth, kindness, loyalty, boldness, grace, honesty and wisdom than I ever knew could exist in a person! Oh! And she’s family to boot!! Cousin Kelsey, you my dear are nothing short of amazing and we are SO happy you chose to come visit us again before starting your new exciting adventure on the East coast! We cannot wait to watch you go on to do big things!

Backpackbees

Belated Birthday Post

I read in an article recently that every woman’s love language is cheese, carbs and chocolate. While I only partially agree with that statement, I am absolutely 100% convinced this is why the invention of Spanx skyrocketed!

We celebrated my birthday the other week and boy did we indulge in what they claim is every woman’s love language! There was A LOT of cheese, carbs and yes even, gasp, chocolate!

I woke up Monday morning, after an entire weekend of celebration, was eating breakfast and realized after all the celebrating we did, we didn’t light any candles and I didn’t make my birthday wish. I texted Mr. B and he replied, “QUICK! It’s still your birthday in the states light a candle and make your wish!”.

It’s true! Can you believe I almost forgot to blow out candles and make a wish on my birthday?

I stood in our kitchen hummed happy birthday tune to myself and made my wish JUST in time. Whew! Talk about a close call… Ha-ha! Not to mention, it gave me an excuse to eat a bite of the banana cake I baked for my birthday. Cake at breakfast is always a win in my book!

To me it wasn’t just about making a birthday wish on my birthday, it was about taking that moment to appreciate my life, all the blessings, the wonderfulness and everything that made this past year so special.

The days leading up to my birthday, I couldn’t help but reflect back on the past year of changes in my/our lives. Changes for better, changes for worse. From family to friends, loss, fears and sadness to happiness, excitement and new beginnings. Remembering that life is very sacred, this world we live in is so fragile and the kindness that used to bloom from everywhere is becoming more and more scarce the older I get.

Mr. B and bumblebee spoiled me with so much love, wonderful gifts, quality time together and delicious treats (traditional birthday breakfast complete with morning mimosa, sushi bento box lunch, home cooked duck breast, my favorite carrot cake from My happy place)! Dear friends made it even more special by throwing a little themed party of around the world. So. Much. Fun!

How do you celebrate birthdays?  Do you have birthday traditions, or do you strive for something unique each year?

Backpackbees

Little Fantasy

I’m going to let you in on a wee little fantasy of mine, well… If you know me really well… maybe it’s not such a little secret. Sooo one of my BIGGEST dreams is to own my own little café. Obviously this little fantasy is on hold until the day comes that we finally choose a town to plant our roots in.

Right now I have a silly little hobby while my dream is on hold, it consists of visiting café and coffee shops in the local area, as well as when we travel, collecting ideas that helping me create my café vision board. It’s so much fun!

If you close your eyes for a moment I’ll give you a brief tour around my café. Here we go…..As you approach the café from the street you will first see the all glass bi-fold doors that let natural light into the café. Once you step inside will see that the café has a very clean look and feel to it. Bright white walls, black modern track lighting above for the ability to illuminate where needed if we move tables, a few green plants in terra-cotta pots, a large black menu board with white removable lettering for menu changes, a simple counter with refrigerated glass display for the baked goodies, an epoxy finished floor….you get the idea…(I’ve had just a little time to think about these things ha ha ha) Nothing outlandish, just simple, keeping it very simple. Okay, open your eyes. You can keep reading onward now.

I also envision this little bumblebee buzzing around and helping us with our customers.

Outside of serving a good cup of coffee in the café, I would serve a rotation of seasonal handmade breads, pound cakes, muffins, pies, and cakes, again super simple but delicious!

I know that fantasies are just that, a fantasy… and this fantasy will probably never really take off, buttttt sometimes it’s super fun to imagine and pretend that it just might. So right now I’m practice baking and testing baked goodies in our own kitchen listening to jazz, sharing the outcomes with you all and these little moments don’t make it seem as far-fetched, or altogether downright silly.

I present to you the summer sinful frosted zucchini brownie recipe. Enjoy and try to refrain from eating the entire sheet pan in one sitting.

Summer Sinful Frosted Zucchini Brownies

Ingredients:

Brownie Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Safflower Oil
1/2 Cup Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips 60%
2 Tbls Unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey or Ghirardelli)
1 Cup Granulated sugar
1 Egg
1 Egg yolk
1 Tsp Vanilla extract
1 Cup grated zucchini, squeeze out the moisture!
1/4 Tsp Baking soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Cup all purpose flour

Frosting Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Salted butter (4 Tablespoons if using stick)
2 Tbls Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 Cup Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips 60%
2 Tbls Lactose free milk, regular cow milk would work as well
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 1/2 Cups Powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

With lightly sprayed parchment paper, line a quarter sheet baking pan.

In medium saucepan on stove, over medium to low heat, melt safflower oil, chocolate chips, and cocoa together.

Remove mixture from heat and stir in the sugar, eggs, vanilla and zucchini.

Next stir in the remaining dry ingredients and then pour into prepared quarter pan.

Spread mixture out evenly and pop into oven about 20-25 minutes, or until tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle of brownies.

(**Important that the frosting is hot to pour easily over brownies.) Prepare the frosting ingredients in a pot on stove for the frosting so you can make immediately make once brownies are done, but don’t start until brownies come out of oven.

As soon as the brownies are done baking and come out if the oven, head to your pre-prepperd pot and melt the butter, cocoa powder, chocolate chips and milk together and simmer gently, keep stirring so it doesn’t burn.

Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and powdered sugar. Pour the hot frosting over brownies. Spread frosting evenly.

Try to resist….. Let brownies cool at least 5 minutes before cutting into pieces and devouring! (Keep in the refrigerator or your pretend cooled Café glass display ;).

Backpackbees

Easy peasy “Swedish meatballs”

Hi! Looks like I’m back at it again, eating, SHOCKER, and obsessing over something we cooked up…again…. Hahah! Hopefully you are staying intrigued and bellies are rumbling with each of our meal post.

We’re still battling the humidity and losing I might add. The AC has shamelessly been on blast most evenings. cha-ching and sad face. So with weekly meal planning I’ve been searching the Internet and brainstorming for quick throw together weeknight dinners.

Enter the not so traditional easy peasy “Swedish meatballs”. Swedish meatballs take me back to childhood and also the odd memory of school cafeteria food?! For some people the idea of tweaking traditional Swedish meatballs might be little off-putting, but hey like I’ve said before, lol, we’re living on the edge over here and we just went for it! (We’re CRAZY like that) Even the Mr. went wild over this dish, so it’s officially stamped MAN approved! Woot-woot!

Happy eating!


Easy peasy “Swedish Meatballs”

Adapted from this recipe

Ingredients:

2 Tbls Keri Gold butter
2 Tbls all-purpose flour
2 Cups beef broth
1/3 Cup sour cream
10 Frozen turkey meatballs (beef or pork would work as well) – thawed in fridge to heat faster in sauce
nutmeg to taste
salt & pepper to taste

(optional) egg noodles, mashed potatoes, your favorite rice

Directions:

In a large skillet melt the butter over medium heat.

While stirring, sprinkle in flour, continue stirring

Cook for 1 minute on low to medium heat and slowly stir in beef broth, (slowly) the goal here is to prevent lumps.

Continue cooking until the sauce starts to thicken, continue to stir .

Reduce the heat to low to add the sour cream in, as well as nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.

Lastly add in the meatballs, stir to coat and cover with a lid to cook all together. At this point if using egg noodles (already cooked al dente) you can toss those in too. Cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the meatballs are heated through.

Backpackbees

Cloudy with a chance of coconut cream pie

While the rain pitter pattered all weekend off and on, I decided it was the perfect time to whip up something fun. The humidity and the heat index are rather high these past few days making it almost unbearable to even step outside. If you know me, you know that I start bouncing off the walls being cooped up inside. Mr. B jokes and says I need walks…. All jokes aside…. I do! I love getting outside and breathing in new air, taking in the greenery, etc.

But ‘Eh don’t worry things are going to be A-okay. Why you ask? Because despite what’s going on outdoors, or even your life metaphorical storm, there is always be dessert!! Yes…. to semi maintain my sanity ENTER this gigantic coconut cream pie! Eek best part is it didn’t even require turning on a hot oven! (Shushhhhh never-mind the fact that I bought a pre-made pie crust …sorry grandma… mother nature made me do it).

Mr. B happily gobbled away at his slice and declared his love for it, and even though I wasn’t big on coconut most of my life, things have certainly changed and I admit….I loved this coconut cream pie too!

I don’t really know why, but sometimes I shy away from the thought of baking something I’ve never tried before, but then other times I jump straight in with the determination that I’m making this (whatever baked goodie) TONIGHT. I’m typically really satisfied with the end result after I do bake so I’m not sure why I ever have those sort of silly moments. Do you ever feel that way with cooking or baking?

^Toasty coconut flakes

I’ll admit this pie was incredibly simple, it was the first coconut cream pie I’ve attempted. Gasp.. I know… But remember coconut and I weren’t always so peachy keen. So glad these taste buds of mine have evolved as I continue to taste my way around the world.

Recipe found HERE. Enjoy!

Backpackbees