I love to make desserts. I have a serious sweet tooth. My husband prefers salty, so when I cook some fantastic dessert, there’s a TON. I have no self-control, especially when it comes to chocolate and I discovered this cookie in a mug recipe on Pinterest. It’s easy, it’s quick, and you probably already have the ingredients in your cupboard!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 splashes vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons chocolate chips
Instructions
Start by melting your butter in the microwave. Butter should just be melted, not boiling. Add sugars, vanilla and salt and stir together. Add the egg yolk and mix well. Add the flour and stir again. Add the chocolate chips and give a final stir.
Cook in the microwave for 40-60 seconds. Mine have all taken about 40 seconds, but make sure to check… like a regular cookie, it cooks a little bit once it’s done.
I told you I was behind on my blogging… the book I finished last night is called The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. I think I found this one by searching the top downloaded books on Amazon or something along those lines. It was one of those “I’ll guess I’ll give it a try” books and I’m so glad I did!
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.
Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.
M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.
My Thoughts
I loved this book. In fact, I actually laid in bed last night and cried as I read the last few pages. M. L. Stedman draws you into the love between Tom and Isabel, then promptly breaks your heart. I loved learning all about lighthouses and the lifestyle of a lighthouse keeper. I was shocked to read that this is her first novel – it is beautifully written and makes you want to read late into the night because you can’t put the book down. If you read only one book this summer, make it this one!
Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.
Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.
Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.
My Thoughts
I’m not normally a big legal thriller kind of girl, but this book really hooked me. First of all, William Landay did an amazing job of developing his characters. You truly feel the pain and confusion of Andy and Laurie as they struggle to understand the facts – and come to terms with the fact that their son might be a murderer. It also highlights the struggles between parent and child as they try to understand each other. There is a phenomenal twist at the end of this book… one that changes everything for Andy. This is definitely a must read book!
I have just realized that I’m a little bit behind on my blogging. Like a month. I’ve got all of these drafts started and just not published. As part of my birthday present this year, Mike gave me tickets to see Rock of Ages back in January and the Les Misérables in June.
I always love going back to the Community Center Theater in Sacramento because of my time singing with the Sacramento Choral Society. It was one of the first BIG stages I sang on and I’ll never forget walking out on stage during one of the first rehearsals and just seeing a wall of red (it’s fairly steep and the seats are upholstered with red fabric). I have so many great memories there and absolutely love seeing shows there.
I absolutely loved the musical (I’ve seen it before) – it’s one of the few musicals I’ve liked in movie form as well (so much so that I bought the movie). The cast was great – I don’t think there was a poorly casted singer in the whole ensemble (usually there’s at least one that irks me). The stage, costumes and lighting were great – it was just as wonderful as I remembered it.
I’m beginning to think I need to find a musical/opera buddy other than my husband… he’s been a trooper. I’ve been trying to build up to his first opera… we started with Cats, then Rock of Ages, now Les Mis. His review was that it was a little “dark”. Well… that’s sort of opera in a nutshell. If he didn’t like a slightly dark show in English, I really doubt he’ll like some rage aria in another language. At least he tried!
Today I did my first inspection of the hive… it was so amazing! The bees were not upset at all that I was checking them out – in fact, they just went about their business. I did use a little smoke to mellow them out, but I probably could have done without.
I did find that they had eaten all of the sugar-water, leaving a void in the top of the hive. They promptly filled that with honeycomb! Go little bees go! I’m not sure if I was supposed to, but I scraped that bit of comb out – I want them to focus on building on the frames (which are not all full).
Rogue Honeycomb
There’s definitely some honey production going on, but they will continue to need more sugar syrup to help build it up. I think I found Queen Latifah – I didn’t want to spend too much time in the hive today, but they had broke her out of her cage and I thought I saw her on one of the frames. I’ll look a little closer the next time I go in, but I figured if they were happily building comb and working, she was probably there.
I hope that twenty years from now I’m talking with my children and they say (with horror) “Wait, there was a time people were not given equal rights because they didn’t have the right colored skin, didn’t have male genitalia, oh, I mean they didn’t love the right people?”. Yes, I liken today’s decisions to both the civil rights movement and women’s suffrage.
Change is never easy. There are always going to be people who disagree. But as a country we cannot let our disagreements lead us to infringe upon the rights of fellow human beings. Will things suddenly be magically easy for the LGBT community? No, I don’t think so. It takes a long time to change generations of thought – the same way that we haven’t truly moved past the racism of the 1970s (um, hello, Paula Deen?). But this is a giant step forward and I am so happy and excited for my LGBT friends.
Those of you who are firmly against gay marriage, I have to ask why? How is your own marriage/relationship impacted? Remember that not so long ago, we had issues with interracial marriages – something that is considered commonplace in today’s society.
I heard this song on the way home from work today – not sure if they played it specifically because of what happened, but I was really moved by it.
Today we had a bee installation party. Well, sort of. Apparently various branches of my family wanted to come over to see if I would pull this off or end up like the boy in “My Girl”. And we had food after.
First things first, I geared up:
The Gear Is Half The Fun
After that, it was time to spray them down with sugar water (apparently that makes them feel like I do after a pint of Ben & Jerry’s). From there, I had to go through the process of finding the queen. Being a first time beekeeper, I was not entirely familiar with how these bees were packaged – I knew somewhere in the mass of three pounds of bees was a little cage with a queen. There were a couple different little lids to pry off and eventually I found the right one.
Queen Latifah
Yes, I named her Queen Latifah. She’s a classy broad, after all. I had planned on naming her Queen Elizabeth, but Mike’s suggestion was way better. She had a couple of buddies in there with her (I think they’re supposed to help feed her), but she was alive and kicking. I stuck the cage in between two of the slats and proceeded to dump a few of the other bees on top.
Introducing The Queen To Her Subjects
After that, it was time to give them some food. I did some research on this and the easiest way was using a 1:1 sugar syrup and a gallon Ziploc bag. You lay it out on top of the frames and then cut some slits into it to give the bees access to the syrup.
Feeding The Bees
After that began the scariest part for me… releasing the rest of the bees. Sugar-induced haze or not, those guys got a little agitated. The hum of that many bees (especially all over/around you) was a little nerve wracking. My brother-in-law Tim had warned me that they sense your mood, so I tried really hard to stay calm. After what felt like an hour I finally had all of them out of the box in front of the hive.
Releasing The Bees
This was seriously quite the process. I was a sweaty mess by the time I was done, but I had no stings. It was such a cool experience! I walked down after dinner and all of the bees that you see on the ground in the above picture were gone… I’m assuming into the hive since they had been moving in that direction. I could see some flying around, but hopefully they’re all getting settled in for the night. This was so much fun!
Now for the hard part… no peeking for a whole week! If you do, they can sometimes turn on the queen!
Shout out to my brave mama for standing in the orchard with me, sans bee clothing, to take pictures! Love you!
They’re here! They’re here! When I got home from work today, I discovered this lovely package on my doorstep:
Special Delivery
Yeah, I’m 99% sure that my UPS guy hates me. I checked the online tracking and these were loaded into his truck at 7am this morning… and delivered at 3:30pm this afternoon. I’m not gonna lie, the buzz of thousands of bees is a little unnerving… driving around all day with them in your car must have sucked. I haven’t been able to find the queen yet – she’s somewhere under there in her own special cage.
Accidental Artsy Bee Shot
It was a little too late in the day to install them in the hive, so instead I set to getting the hive completely ready. Tomorrow is the big day! Here’s what the hive looks like in it’s permanent location:
The Hive
I can’t wait for tomorrow! The best time of day to introduce bees to the hive is in the late afternoon – apparently they’re a little sleepier and less likely to “drift” (seek out another hive). More to come!
Well, I have a new hobby and I’ll give you one guess as to what it is:
Beekeeper Gear!
Yup, I’ve decided to become a beekeeper in my spare time. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law are currently raising bees and love it. I thought it’d be good for a variety of reasons including fresh local honey (hopefully it helps with my allergies!) and pollination of my orchard (that’s where the hive is going to go). The hive was delivered today… I’m totally geeking out over it.
The hive came mostly assembled (thank goodness, because for as simple as they look, I don’t know that I would have gotten it all together). Here’s what the final product looks like:
Assembled Hive
The inside is a little more complicated – this hive contains ten frames, an inner lid, and an outer lid.
Inside The Hive
The frames have an artificial honeycomb built-in to encourage the bees to build theirs around it (and to keep them from building between the frames, making it hard to pull them out and access the honey).
Empty Frame
Finally, there’s a very important piece of gear – the smoker. This basically makes the bees sleepy/lazy/less prone to sting when you want to either check the hive or harvest the honey.
Smoker
Even Shadow got all excited about it:
Shadow Loves New Stuff
I am seriously geeked out right now. I asked Mike if he thought it was as cool as I did… his reply was “It’s interesting…” At least he’s humoring me! The bees are scheduled to arrive tomorrow – between now and then I need to get the hive down to the orchard and up on cinder blocks (so it doesn’t get rot and isn’t as accessible to critters). Stay tuned for the next chapter of the Bee Chronicles!
I know it’s been a while, but I was on vacation and I’ve discovered that I’m getting better and better at this whole relaxing thing. Those of you who follow me on Facebook saw that I posted a few pictures and status updates, but not nearly as much as I have in the past.
That’s because I was busy catching fish:
Fish In The Wind
It was a little bit breezy out that day, can you tell? Mike and I spent the week down in Newport Beach with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew. It was really a fun time – we took the boat down. I finally got to go on it, after three years of dating and almost two years of marriage. No, my husband is not a jerk that won’t take me fishing, it’s just that whenever they do go, it’s typically during the week when I’m at work. Apparently the tuna don’t understand the five day work week. Anyway, we spent the entire week fishing, dolphin watching, sea lion (seal?) watching, and playing on the beach. I boogie boarded with the kids and taught them to paddle board. We even took the boat over to Catalina for the night and hung out on the island.
I did, however, get the dreaded sunburn. I know, I should know better – I got distracted once I put it on my face and ended up forgetting the rest of me. Two hours and a lot of boogie boarding later, I ended up with a gnarly sunburn just about everywhere besides my face. Coincidence? I think not.
The boys did manage to get some serious fishing (sans wives and kids) and caught/saw some interesting stuff. This is a mola. It scares me:
Mola
They also came upon a shark, sheep head fish, perch, sea bass, and god knows what else.
Finally, the real reason we headed down for the week… my stepdaughter graduated from college! Without getting all stepmother mushy, I’m really proud of her!
Down The Road I Go 