I completely missed my date of return. In my final post of 2013 I indicated I’d be back up and running by November. I didn’t mean to lie but I should have known better. If you have been following my blog for anytime and read the last post you know my husband was working out of town for several months while I held down the Texas fort, held down a job and made preparations for one spectacular wedding!
I made mention of some changes when 2014 rolled around. Now I can divulge the changes that have taken place with “The Orange Bee”. It will explain why I wasn’t able to be back up and running in November.
First, we are proud of the addition of our terrific son in law, who I’ll refer to as Ty. Our daughter LuLu tied the knot with Ty on a dreary October day in the Texas hill country. No matter the grey of the day nor the quick rain shower that came just as dinner was to be served the event was perfect and beautiful. Held in an old Amish barn adorned with glowing candles and just under 200 of our closest friends and families LuLu and Ty said, “I do”. Then we had a party! I can’t resist sharing a few photos of LuLu & Ty’s big day.
Now that I have bored you with family photos let me move on to what happened next. My man Dan and I moved to North Carolina! Yep, we have moved to Greensboro, N.C. All of the time spent apart for Dan and me turned into a permanent job for him as senior photog for a major department store. His working for this new studio is a blessing to say the least.
The decision for us to move – lock, stock and barrel from Texas to North Carolina didn’t come easy. The one hard part for me is that I chose to leave my bees in Texas. I felt the move, especially at this time of year would be stressful for them and I could end up loosing them. I have found another beekeeper who will move the hives to his pastures in the spring. I miss my bees. I worked hard to recover each hive I have and to keep them healthy and happy for over 3 years. It is not easy to give them up. One good thing is I have already met a couple of local bee keepers and plan on taking my hobby up again, here in North Carolina. I can’t say for sure when I will start my first hive but you will be the first to know! I might even be lucky enough to keep one or two in my back yard.
Needless to say my delay in blogging can be attributed to having to pack up our home of 22 years, solo, and prepare to move the week of Thanksgiving. It was huge for me but I accomplished it and when the movers showed up I was ready.
Greensboro is a beautiful city and North Carolina is a fabulous state. We are already enjoying the diversity so close by. Mountains, rivers, lakes, wildlife, city life, and beaches, all a stones throw away. The city of Greensboro is bursting with local arts, night life, Revolutionary War history, parks, hiking trails and an abundance of fantastic grocery stores.
I am still adjusting to all the newness but am feeling so grounded today as I sit and begin writing for “The Orange Bee” once again. This year I am devoting my blog recipes to “Honey”. I will be testing and using honey in dozens of recipes and sharing my results with you. I am also excited to begin writing reviews about restaurants, food stores, and farmers markets not only locally, but around the state. This seems like a natural progression for me as we will be exploring new establishments regularly.
Please stop by again soon to follow along on my “Greensboro Adventure”. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite honey recipes which I will be baking later today. Don’t be fooled, in the future my honey recipes will not always be dessert related!
Enjoy!
Honey, Orange & Ginger Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. orange extract
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. orange zest
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Preheat oven to 350*. Beat sugar and butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Add honey, orange extract and egg, beating until blended. In a medium bowl stir together dry ingredients. Gradually add dry ingredients to sugar mixture beating until blended. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. Shape dough into 1″ balls, roll in sugar. Place 2″ apart on ungreased baking sheets and slightly flatten each with the bottom of a glass. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely on wire racks. Makes about 4 dozen.
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