Birthdays!

So, May 26, was my birthday.  The year that I was born, May 26, fell on Memorial Day.  My mom always tells me that I interrupted the golf game of the doctor who delivered me. 

Birthdays have always been a HUGE deal to me.  I love birthdays... and not just my birthday.  I think that birthdays should be celebrated with fantastic cake and ice cream and potato chips.  Birthdays are days that the birthday guy or girl should feel special.

I guess that is how I ended up with a bakery.  I love cake which is the ultimate symbol associated with birthdays.  Some people dream in color... I dream in cake.

The day after my birthday, I start thinking about what kind of cake I want for my birthday the next year.  I debate all year long.  I consider cheesecake or a great brownie with ice cream, but ultimately I settle on cake.  As you might have noticed, I love and adore cake.

For years, my birthday cake of choice has been my mom's and now my white velvet.  It is the best cake in the entire world to me.  It is light and fluffy and all things that cake should be. 

Last year however, I decided to experiment with something new, and The Tipsy Bee's lemon blueberry cake was born.  It was a decadent cake full of tartness and sweetness all rolled into one.  No wonder it is now a favorite at The Tipsy Bee.

This year, I thought that I would go traditional.  I am a huge fan of yellow cake with chocolate icing.  In fact, I eat a piece of chocolate every day.  So yellow cake with chocolate icing was going to be my cake.  It was a done deal... until it wasn't.  I briefly toyed with the idea of a buttermilk chocolate chunk cake that looked oh so dreamy.

Until I came upon a blog that had a wonderful neopolitan cake.  Strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate cake provided the ultimate birthday cake.  Chocolate poundcake topped with vanilla bean poundcake and fresh strawberry cake let me indulge every aspect of my sweet tooth.  The ultimate birthday cake was born.  By the time I added ice cream and potato chips, I was in birthday heaven.  So here is to birthdays and to glorious cake!  XOXO The Tipsy Bee

Three layers

...with a crumb coat

The finished product

...with candles

The cut cake

... with ice cream and chips!



Chicken Pot Pie and the Food Rules that I Live By!

The food rules that I live by... life is short, so enjoy good food daily.  Food is always one million times better when it is made from scratch.   Butter is meant to be added to food in healthy doses.  Soul or comfort food soothes the soul and should not be reserved for rainy days. 

One of my favorite soul food dishes is chicken pot pie.  And since one of my food premises is that soul food should be enjoyed and eaten in both good and not-so-good times, I decided to kick off my birthday weekend (a good time) with a made-from-scratch, melt-in-your-mouth, butter-laden chicken pot pie. 

It is amazing how cream, butter, milk, flour, vegetables, a few spices, and of course chicken come together to make this scrumptious creation.  It really is pretty simple... cook your chicken, reserve the broth, saute your vegetables, add sea salt and black pepper, make the sauce, mix vegetable and chicken and sauce together, add the crust, and voila, a Southern concoction, perfect for everything from Sunday dinner to much-needed comfort food for the day you find out that your ex-boyfriend (aka the jerk) just got engaged to your former best friend (that hussy), is born.

In review...

1.  Mix dough for crust... any pie crust will do.

2.  Cook Boneless Chicken Breasts

3.  Saute vegetables in 2 tablespoons of butter and salt to taste

4.  Make sauce by combining 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup of flour, 1 cup milk, 2 cups of cream, 1 cup of chicken broth, and salt and pepper to taste.  Sage and nutmeg may be added to suit taste.  Then add vegetable mixture and chicken to the sauce.

5.  Add crust to top of dish and bake at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

6.  Serve and enjoy!

XOXO The Tipsy Bee

Little Chester

Dogs truly are man's best friend.  When my day is fantastic, my fur babies are there for me.  If my day is horrible, they are still there for me.  I have three fur babies... Chester, J.E.B., and Holly Berry.  In this post, I thought that I would introduce Chester, my oldest.

Growing up, I always had lots of animals around... dogs, cats, cows, goats, and pigs.  However, until I adopted Chester, I didn't realize how much a part of my life a dog could be and how I would adjust my life around a dog.  It is kinda funny how life works out.

I decided to adopt a dog while living alone in college.  I researched and researched, trying to find the perfect dog.  I considered a purebred dog.  Since I lived in an apartment, I was leaning toward something like a dachshund.  Though I figured that I would talk to a dog breeder, my cousin suggested that I look into rescue organizations.  I contacted the Dachshund Rescue of North America and completed an application for a cute dog on their website.  The dog had already been adopted, so they suggested a couple of other dogs, one of which was Chester.

I did not like his name, but I thought that he was a cute little guy.  So I went through the interview process and the home visit... yes a home visit much as people go through when they adopt children.  Luckily, I passed with flying colors.  Chester was going to be my new companion.  And, as I told my mom, I would change his name, and no, he would not sleep on my bed or sit on my furniture.  Famous last words.

The day came for me to meet Chester's foster mom in Greensboro.  We agreed to meet at a McDonald's.  When I saw Chester, he was so pitiful.  He looked like he had never ever known what it meant to be loved.  I promised him then and there that I would do everything that I could to make his life the best that it could be from that day forward.  He had been rescued from a kill shelter in Chester, SC and had heartworms before he was a year old.  I also decided then and there that Chester was a Chester.  The name just fit.

When we arrived back in Raleigh, where I lived at the time, I immediately gave Chester a bath.  In the days ahead, he followed me everywhere I went.  He became my shadow.  I found out that he loved to ride in the car.  And he slept on my bed the very first night and has continued to sleep there ever since. 

I have spent less than two weeks away from Chester in the eight years since I adopted him.  When I lived in Kentucky, I made arrangements for Chester to spend his days hanging out at a vet clinic while I worked.  He has had birthday parties, regularly attended doggie day camp, travels regularly, and loves to run on the beach.  Chester was so popular when we lived in Raleigh that I was known simply as Chester's mom. 

 Chester is the first thing I see every morning and the last thing that I see at night.  He is my "little Chester baby" who weighs 32 pounds but thinks that he weighs 132 pounds.  He is the sweetest, most laid back dog.  Some people may think that it is a bit much all of the things that I do for him.  I mean after all, he is just a dog, as I am sometimes told.  But he makes my life better... richer.  He loves me unconditionally and without reservation, and I can't imagine my life without him. XOXO The Tipsy Bee

Soft-shelled Crabs and My love for them

There are so many things that I love about the South, and especially eastern NC.  People are friendly, the pace of the world is slow, everyone knows everyone, and the food is awesome.  I usually talk about sweets because if you know me or look at my website or facebook or Twitter, you may have noticed that I am slightly obsessed with sugar.  However, this time of year, I am thinking of something a bit different... drum roll please...soft-shelled crabs.  Soft-shelled crabs have merely molted.  But they are found primarily in April to early June off of the NC coast.

My mom, an awesome woman, and a fantastic cook, recently made this dinner of soft-shelled crabs.  I take it for granted sometimes that because I live so near the coast, fresh seafood is really easy to come by... a mere hop, skip, and a jump away.

I absolutely love seafood.  If God had put me on this earth any further inland, I would have suffered greatly.  If I go out to dinner, it goes without saying that I will order seafood.  In fact, I like seafood so much that I even eat it cold... for breakfast.  I know, my family thinks that I am a little bit odd, too!

The South gets this bad rap of wanting everything heavily battered and deep fried. I mean, after all, this is the place where we even fry candy bars. The best seafood to me though is lightly dipped in corn meal and fried just until the seafood is golden brown. So if you just happen to be in NC this time of year and have the chance to sample a seafood delicacy... eat, enjoy, and think of me! XOXO, The Tipsy Bee