Honey Can Cook
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I made these sweet little guys to throw on top of a salad but I’m here to tell you they make a delicious snack too. Pecans are one of my favorites and I love them toasted and served with salads. You can top just about any salad with a few toasted nuts for some added health benefits. (more…)
One of the first jobs Mr. F gave me while I was a beekeeper in training was to smoke the bees. He taught me how to give a puff at the entrance and then wait a minute before lifting the roof on the hive and giving another puff or two, creating an aura of smoke in both the top and bottom of the hive.
Smoke calms the bees and prevents them from turning aggressive during an inspection. In nature bees make their homes in hollow trees, so a fire would be a devastating event. Smelling the smoke alerts the bees that this is a possibility. (more…)
This recipe is one of my all time favorites but honey is not on the original list of ingredients. I’ve worked to get the right proportions as I needed honey to be included, not only because I knew it would work and taste fantastic, but I wanted to share the recipe with you. While it is a delicious bread without honey, adding honey creates an even more moist and luscious bread. It delivers a crisp citrus tang along with a gooey sweetness from the honey. The killer is the lemon glaze that is poured over the hot bread. It soaks into the bread making an extremely moist crumb and crisps up around the edges adding that crunch I love so much . It’s sweet bread perfection!
Enjoy!
Lemon & Honey Bread With Lemon Glaze
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup mild honey
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
Grated rind of two lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
Instructions:
Cream butter, sugar and eggs together. Beat in honey. Add milk and stir in dry ingredients and lemon rind. Stir until well blended. Bake in a loaf pan at 350* for 45 minutes.
Mix juice of 1 lemon with 1/2 cup sugar and spoon over loaf while hot.
Cool a bit before slicing.
The earliest form of organized beekeeping took place in ancient Egypt. With the flooding of the Nile delta plain, an area of rich silt was created and proved ideal for agricultural development. Crops and wild flowers such as chamomile, clover, cornflowers, flax, wild celery and roses flourished beside the river, an ideal area for bees.
The initial evidence of organized bee keeping comes from a detailed stone bas-relief found in 1900 at Abu Gurab in Lower Egypt in the Temple of the Sun, which dates to around 2400BC. (more…)
I am still enjoying flans and custards as a rich yet light dessert. I’m on a roll with this custard-flan thing! What I love about today’s recipe is the lemon flavor. (more…)
Local, sustainable, seasonal. Buzz words in the food industry. For quite some time hotel and restaurant chefs have been growing their own herbs and veggies and now the newest rage – Honey Bee Hives! Yes, yes, yes, I love this! I’ve known about these rooftop hives for quite some time and in fact am working with a North Carolina establishment (more…)
I have always been a fan of “flan“. It’s the creaminess that makes me love it so much. Just thinking of the creamy custard rolling around on my tongue and savoring the caramel flavor make my mouth water. Often times while eating out I order it for dessert. I have always been afraid to try making flan at home. I’m not sure why I felt intimidated. But I’m over that now! Turns out making flan at home is extremely easy. This one delivers on the creaminess big time with strong caramel flavor and a hint of orange. It is a winner!
There are so many varieties of honey to choose from each time I make it I can create a new flavor profile. (more…)
“Unique among all God’s creatures, only the honeybee improves the environment and preys not on any other species.”
~ Royden Brown
Did you know that the sweet honey bee is the only insect that produces food consumed by man? Now that spring weather has finally arrived in most of the U.S. fruit orchards are beginning to burst with blooms and it is imperative they are visited by honey bees for pollination to occur. (more…)
Spring has sprung in North Carolina and along with it temps dropping to freezing last night and predicted for tonight as well. Isn’t this just the way it works? Mother nature doing what she does. None the less we are enjoying spending time outdoors and grilling most of our meals.
My local grocery had some wild caught Alaskan salmon on sale and I couldn’t pass it up. As you might remember salmon is our favorite fish. What is your favorite fish to throw on the grill?
This is a recipe from the past but one of my all time favorites as it is super easy and delicious. The combo of sweet honey and peppery jalapeños make an excellent glaze for the fish. I like to toss a few fresh jalapeños on the grill to serve along with the meaty fish filets.
Enjoy!
Honey-Jalapeno Glazed Salmon
Ingredients:
4 salmon fillets
3 tbsp. honey
2 tsp. finely chopped, seeded jalapeño
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 jalapeños (to grill on the side)
Brush grill rack with a little oil. Lay salmon on grill racks, over medium high heat, skin side down. As salmon begins to cook spread a little glaze on each fillet. Continue brushing fish with glaze until salmon is opaque and cooked through. ( I do not flip my fish when grilling) . Toss a few seeded and split jalapeños on the side, grill until charred and serve with the fish.
As you can see in this photo bees like honey too! If you look closely you will see their little brown proboscis engaged in retrieving honey from the section of this comb that was popped open.
With scarcely any exceptions honey will crystallize sooner or later. Many of you are tempted to throw out your honey when this occurs. The once liquid sweetness has turned into a solid mass, seemingly unable to be used. Here is the good news – honey does not go bad. It is in fact the only food for human consumption that does not spoil.
There are a couple of determining factors in crystalized honey. One is the temperature at which we store our honey. Never refrigerate a jar of honey or you are guaranteed to hasten the crystallization process. Storing honey at room temperature is acceptable and a warm area will reduce the speed at which your honey turns to a solid form. However, if storing it in a very warm zone may cause honey to darken over time. You should know that the honey is not compromised if it darkens.
Another contributing factor to crystallization is the ratio of glucose to fructose in any particular honey. Honey that contains more glucose than fructose will tend to crystallize faster. Some plants produce nectar rich in glucose while others produce more fructose. This is all dependent on where bees are foraging. My bees have produced some honey which didn’t crystallize at all before I used it up, yet other years my honey has proven to crystallize rather quickly.
If you find yourself with a jar of pure honey that crystallizes here is the remedy. Place your jar of honey in a deep bowl or pot, boil a kettle of water and pour the water into the container holding the honey jar. (I always cover it with a clean kitchen towel to help retain the heat) After the jar begins to warm, take it out, open it up and stir. Replace the lid and the jar of honey into the hot water bath, repeating the process until your mass of sugar has turned back into a liquid sweetness.