Give Us This Day Our Daily Breakfast

My Daily Breakfast

This is my breakfast.  I eat yogurt topped with a combination of fruit, honey and often times granola, most days of the week.  Not that I think it necessary for you to be enlightened to my breakfast choices, but fruit is an ongoing theme this summer and today it seemed effortless to photograph and then eat it!

Today we are busy around The Orange Bee, in an effort to beat this exhausting heat, we are preparing to head out-of-town, to the cool mountain air of Colorado and later the artist colony of Santa Fé, New Mexico. This will be our last big trip of the summer and the last for an indefinite time with Miss T.  She’ll be heading off to university next month and my man Dan and I will be empty nesters.  My emotions mixed, my feelings muddled, life has many roads with twists, turns and switchbacks, what will this road bring?

You can make this for your breakfast – it’s so simple.

Plain Greek yogurt
Any combination of fruit
Pure Honey – to drizzle or pour on top
Granola (Sometimes)

Place yogurt in a bowl, top with fruit, honey and granola.
Enjoy!

P.S. –  thank heavens for our pet sitter who will continue to brave the heat to feed Fancy, romp with the dogs, and scratch behind the ears of all 3 cats!  The bees?  They are so smart, no need to worry about them, but I will be anxious to see if there is enough honey for a second harvest when we return.

A Sweet Sticky Suggestion

Pure honey drizzled on Israel Melon…sweet and juicy

I began this month thinking that I would post recipes using fresh local fruits and vegetables from my area.  It seems as though I’m stuck on the fruits.  I’m drawn to the sweet, juiciness of summer melons, peaches, and berries.  The scent of a ripe strawberry, peach or melon entices me to load ’em up and bring ’em home.  

Road Food

I know it’s summer…my man Dan has been spending leisure time at his computer.  Are you prepared for some mouth-watering photos?  He brought me some new road food photos to share with you today.  Check out the BVI page under Road Food and under Texas Dallas, Austin and Stanton have new drool worthy photos.

Enjoy!

P.S. click on my “Road Food” page in the black bar, at the top of this post.

Do You Know What Angels Eat?

Ice cold watermelon slices or salad – your choice.

“The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not to be mentioned with commoner things. It is chief of this world’s luxuries, king by the grace of God over all the fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat. It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took; we know it because she repented.”
Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Boy, the dog days of summer are upon us.  

I Won The Giveaway & Naked Berry Pies

My newest favorite cookbook. Notice the bookmark sticking out? That’s because I’ve already spotted another recipe to try this weekend.

I was pleasantly surprised, well it was more like totally excited when Ryan, over at Ryan Bakes http://www.ryanbakes.com/ held a giveaway for one of her favorite cookbooks and I won!  The title, Desserts From The Famous Loveless Cafe.  You’ll find the The Loveless Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee and opened its doors in 1951.  

Honey Harvest 2012

Honey Harvest 2012
A story in pictures. 

The honey harvest begins in the apiary.

Opening each hive and removing frames full of capped honey – always being careful not to harm any bees.

Bees are protective of their honey and must be gently coaxed away from the frames.

My very accommodating bees – hanging outside the hive.

Honey filled, uncapped frames are placed in a big stainless steel extractor. As the honey is spun out in begins to flow from the spout into a filter to remove any wax or debris.

As more and more honey is spun out of the frames the flow increases – it’s a beautiful thing to see.

First taste of 2012 honey – one of many.

After the honey filters through two strainers it’s final filtration is through this fine mesh cloth. Just look at that honey!

The honey sits for 24 hours to allow any air bubbles to rise. It is then bottled. Pure and perfect.

After the harvest was over I bottled 22 gallons of pure, local, raw honey. I love this hobby of mine!

This should give you an idea of how much honey my bees gave me this year. They did a wonderful job. Incentive to continue caring for them.

Honey Harvest requires a good deal of work, and in Texas it is HOT.  My man Dan and I enjoyed executing the entire adventure.  Who wouldn’t delight in the outcome?  All that glorious, fresh, pure honey the bees work so hard to make.  I have complete respect for the honey bee, especially my honey bees.

Remember this; it takes 10,000 worker bees to make a pound of honey, 48 bees to make 2 teaspoons of honey, 1 bee makes about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime, a hive of bees fly over 55,000 miles to bring one pound of honey to the hive and visit over 2 million flowers for that same pound of honey.  Amazing little insects and the only insect that makes food humans consume.  I look forward to next years harvest.

A side note:  after we bottled 22 gallons of my honey we turned around and spent the next few days doing honey harvest for Mr. F.   Open heart surgery, followed by a head injury and still in recovery mode can set a guy back a little.  We couldn’t bear to see him “miss” the honey harvest so we did it for him.  His bounty this year – 28 gallons!  All totaled Dan and I harvested and bottled 50 gallons of honey in the course of 5 days and a few extra hours.

Now I plan on sitting back and enjoying the fruits of our labors.  I’ve got some yummy recipes coming up too so come back soon.

Enjoy!

No Matter How You Dice It

I promised you recipes featuring fresh fruits and veggies of summer.  Here is a recipe you can play with, add to, change, etc. and I’m convinced it will be delicious, no matter how you dice it.  I had a few peaches hanging around and fresh garden tomatoes staring from the window sill, begging to be eaten.  Mixing the two colors made the most enchanting presentation.  Don’t you love the colorful jumble of ripe red tomato, dark green jalapeño, green onion and sunset colored peaches?

Salty Strawberry Sweetness Surprise

This summer I plan on posting recipes using local summer fruits and vegetables.  Back in the late spring I started my first raised bed garden.  With the idea of keeping it simple I planted tomatoes, several varieties, peppers, strawberries, herbs and an eggplant.  The tomatoes have done wonderfully, the eggplant nothing yet, the peppers have produced a few and same with the strawberries.  The herbs are doing well and I enjoy using them often. I yearn to incorporate these juicy, tender, fragrant fruits and veggies into every meal.  With my garden producing and the farmers markets and close-by peach orchard in full swing this should be an easy theme to stick with.

A Peach Of A BBQ

Having been home less than a week from our fabulous island vacation I’m beginning to settle in to my home routine…it is just the beginning of summer and not having to go to work is a bonus.  I’m pretending I’m on a stay-cation now and making the most of the simpleness of summer on the Ridge.  Simple summer comprises staying up a little late, sleeping in just a bit, not rushing through a cup of coffee, and not wearing any makeup.

Back From The BVI’s

Sailing the islands – Norman Island, The Caves and The Indians

Welcome! I have returned from my trip to the beautiful BVI’s. I wish I could say I missed you, blogging, laundry, litter box patrol, mowing the lawn and fighting the traffic jam at Wal-Mart but I can NOT truthfully say that. We had a marvelous journey and I can honestly announce that we relaxed and soaked up every second of every day. I’m posting a few photos below to entice you to get up and see the world.

On our first day home we welcomed out-of-town guests which prompted me to try out a few new recipes. Having our oldest daughter LuLu and her guy come for the weekend eased the pain of returning from vacation. We spent time visiting our local farmers market and peach orchard, caught up with conversation on the back porch and grilled every meal while watching our gorgeous Texas sunsets. Ahhh…there’s no place like home.

I’ll share some of the recipes from this weekend with you later in the week, so go ahead and view our island photos, make plans for your own vacation, we all need one, and I’ll see you soon.

Enjoy!

Long Beach – Tortolla BVI

Long Beach

Cane Garden Bay – Tortolla

Devil’s Bay Beach – Virgin Gorda

Cane Garden Bay Beach at sunset

Sunset overlooking Jost van Dyke