Tag Archives: November

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

Happy Friendsgiving!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. 

If you’ve been following along with this blog for a while, you know that our annual tradition is to have Friendsgiving, rather than a family-filled Thanksgiving, due to our logistical separations. We kept our theme to our meal to a smaller scale this year and also kept it centered around everyone’s traditional Thanksgiving fare. Eek we just get so excited for in the weeks that lead up to our dinner.

We live for the menu planning, the prep and yes, even those million little last second details that keep us buzzing around here and there. Year after year when all of our guest have left for the night, we head off to bed, we both look at one another and smile talking about how everything was so worth it in the end.

(Missing two and it was a test shot)

(Now just missing one)

This year we hosted 8 at our table…well 9 if you are counting 😉 little Miss B. We extended our dining room table by one leaf, it worked out perfectly.

The spread consisted of: Mr. B specialty Mashed potatoes; my side of the family family’s broccoli casserole and baked corn, My in laws homemade dressing (because it’s outside of the bird) my grandmothers stick to your ribs macaroni and cheese, my great grandmothers raw cranberry sauce, my homemade applesauce made with local Korea apples, sage leek and onion balls made by Mandy, the deep fried Cajun turkey, a ham prepared by George, crescents, a spinach pie baked by Jovone, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, vanilla and sparkly golden hazelnut macaroons, and an almond raspberry cake. Using the word delicious for this feast is just an understatement!

A close up of my plate. Ha-ha! As usual, my peepers were much bigger than my stomach. Of course I did manage to leave room for dessert.

Friendsgiving with our lovely friends was a beautiful, sweet, cranberry-kissed, happy affair! Thank you for making it another excellent memory friends!!

Backpackbees

It’s Not To Early for A Bit Of Christmas

….Is it??

Typically we wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up our tree, well except the past two years. Last year Mr. B got excited and insisted we purchase another tree because he had crossed the 5 year mark in Korea and I think he realized that the one we had sitting in storage wasn’t going to be making an appearance anytime soon in Korea. He also declared that he wanted to put it up before we had hosted our Friendsgiving. It was really sweet.

This year i’ve noticed many of our friends posting photos of their cozy homes all decked out with their Christmas swag. At first I thought ALREADY?! Then this past week it got me and sucked me right in. I’m guilty, i’ve had Charlie Brown’s Christmas music on and have changed out our pumpkins for red berries and greens.

After I decorated the first tree, I decided something needed to be filling the air with its Christmasy flair. I’m not talking about a candle, it needed to be homemade and baked for the right feel to go along with the good vibes.

As you know, I adore our cookbook collection and of course consulted my gal-pal Isa and whipped up an orange chocolate chip bundt cake. The cake uses orange zest and really added that hint of citrus spiciness you think of around the fall/winter holidays. Just enough to tickle the nostrils and stimulate your taste buds! Plus Mr. B is a huge fan of chocolate. Win-win!

You can find the link to her recipe here. I highly recommend you pick up her book, even if you check it out for a bit from your local library. I tweaked the recipe due to the availability of items in our kitchen. I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk, homemade vanilla extract, tangerines in the place of orange for the zest, used Ghirardelli Chocolate 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Chips in the place of semi-sweet, and I cut back on the sugar. I also didn’t end up adding in the ground flaxseed. Digging into the cake that evening was a treat! Next time I’m going to make sure I have oranges on hand just to taste the difference.

We are not skipping or discounting any part of Thanksgiving this year, but as i’ve seen and recently have felt, it’s never to early to get excited about something as important as Christmas! What are your feelings, or are you waiting until after Thanksgiving to get in the Christmas spirit?

Backpackbees

Click, Ship & treat yourself!