Mini Apple Pies – The Recipe

| The Bee Life

After hosting our brunch, I found these Mini Apple Pies were the perfect, hand-sized treat for party goers, no mess, easy and delicious! So I just had to share the recipe with all of you, either for a fun and easy weekend treat or an upcoming tray to bring to Thanksgiving!  Of course, I first found the idea for Mini Apple Pies on Pinterest – but quickly adapted the recipe based on my mom’s go-to apple pie recipe! I did try and attempt to make these with the homemade ‘push’ crust (see original recipe below), that did not workout, so I was forced to make a normal sized pie (which turned out amazing!) … after testing and trying, I think I found the perfect combination of crust, filling and topping.

Ingredients Overview

Directions: 

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  • Will make 24 Mini Apple Pies

Crust:

  • 2 boxes of Pillsbury Pie Crust (they come in 2-packs)
  • Take a wide coffee mug (I used a Starbucks mug – or a mason jar) to cut your circles for each pie crust, try to get 6-circles out of one crust
  • Grease cupcake pans
  • Place circles into cupcake openings

Filling:

  • Skin and chop apples (6-large apples) I used McIntyre
  • Top 1/2 cup sugar and 1-teaspoon cinnamon with a pinch of salt over chopped apples
  • Fill your cupcake tin with filling

Crumb Topping:

  • In a mixing bowl; use 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 3/4 cup of flour
  • 1/3 cup of butter
  • Mix until forms pea-sized crumbs
  • Sprinkle generously over each mini pie

Bake for 18-20 minutes – once cooled, use a fork around the edges and they should glide right out!

Enjoy!

Original Recipes: Genesee Valley Apple Crumb Pie (NY State) || Mini Apple Pies

football & brunch

| The Bee Life

Yesterday was the perfect day for football & brunch so we hosted a “Brown’s Brunch” for the game yesterday – although it was an eclectic group of football fans, we had some Steeler’s and Packer’s fans thrown into the mix, but it was all in good fun. The focal point of the day was the food, amazing weather, and of course the game – that we ended up winning! Yay!!

Main Course
The Bar
Brunch Snacks
Brunch Sweets

Also, since it turned out to be a gorgeous day, we were able to pull some strings and got an outdoor screen and projector so we could watch the game in the garage and enjoy the sunshine! We also borrowed a corn hole board for the occasion  – it was absolutely perfect.

The fan favorite seemed to be the Mini Apple Pies, I will share the recipe on a future post, I used a combination of two recipes, and they came out so adorably perfect! The breakfast souffle and chili seemed to be a hit too, we have so many left overs … except champagne…mimosas were popular; I definitely got my daily dose of Vitamin C yesterday!  With my meal plan. a lot of the prep was done on Saturday; so there was little prep or fuss on Sunday, it was great, because I was able to enjoy the company of our friends and neighbors!

It was definitely a successful Sunday Funday!

Decorating for Fall

| The Bee Life

In case you didn’t know, I love fall – I mean… who doesn’t?  But one thing I don’t like is the immense amount of Halloween specific decorations that are available or the standard cheesy scarecrow and thanksgiving cornucopia.  So I wanted to share ways to keep the decorations up from end of September until the Christmas tree’s are being chopped down!  Also this is the first time decorating our house, so I needed some extra inspiration!  Breaking this down, there are a few focus areas to really spend your time, be creative and make a statement.

Focus Areas: Front Entry Space, Mantle, Dining Room

You can really make an impact with your outdoor decor, simple sprucing and added pieces are easy accents to make a big difference. Mums and pumpkins are no secret, it’s having the right amount and pairings that really set you apart from your neighbor.

Bold and Inviting
Simple & Clean
Industrial Rustic

Moving inside; there are two places to focus on, your mantle and dining room table. The mantle is the focal point in your living space, making a statement with this, again, can be done using simple and inexpensive elements like pumpkins and candles.  For me, I think the simpler the better – that way you don’t have to go overboard. I love these examples below.

Homey
Neutrals
Pops of Color

Your dining room is the place where the family will connect, especially over one of the biggest dinners of the year, Thanksgiving.  Having a centerpiece that is no fuss and can be kept up for almost two-months, allows you to focus on the meal plan and less on the supporting elements.

Stunning & Elegant
Pops of Color

Since this is our first fall in our house, I’ve been having fun figuring out ways to decorate these areas of the house.  I know it’ll transform over the years, but I’ve been loving being able to buy fresh mums, pumpkins and gourds!  It’s been a work in progress, but I hope to share some of my key spots soon with you!

Happy Decorating!

Seven Clam Bake’s

| The Bee Life

This past weekend marked my Aunts’ 15-annual clam bake – and it’s been a tradition for me for the last 7-years; I wouldn’t miss it for the world! So in honor of the 15th year, I decided to compile as many pictures as I could find of the last 7 clam bakes.  It’s funny looking back at how everyone has changed, how new friends and family have come over the years and how some things just never change, i.e. the booze, great food, laughs and good times. It seriously is one of my favorite day’s of the year, and something I always look forward too! This year there was 80-people who attended and we had probably the worst weather I can remember, rain all day, and just cold! Luckily the rain did break for some time in the evening.  But it was another year full of laughs and good times.

Enjoy this look back…

2009 – My First Clam Bake

2010 – Last year was fun, let’s do it again!

2011 – B’s First Clam Bake!

2012 – M&K’s first Clam Bake!

2013 – The Year We Got Moz! (at the Clam Bake)

2014 – Perfect weather, family + friends!!

2015 – 15th Anniversary!

There have been a lot of good times at these clam bakes, as this small sampling of all the pictures shows! I can’t wait to see what next year unfolds!

Until then,

Front Door Makeover

| The Bee Life

If you may remember, I was having quite the dilemma figuring out which color to paint our front door.  After much deliberation and making sure B liked the choices too, we decided on… <drum roll please> … on Sherwin Williams, Commodore!

The Color
Before
Before
Door knocker – Painted/Before
There is hope!
Progress!

We went from blah to blue! And it looks awesome.  I think the part that makes this blue pop even more, is the life I restored back into our original door knocker.  It too had been painted the same ugly tan color as the door… the original brass knocker… painted! I couldn’t believe it! Nicole Curtis would be proud of all the elbow grease and extra effort I put in to restoring this.  My initial thought was to just spray paint it gold – but I just had to try and get all the (2-layers) paint off and restore it to it’s original, gorgeous glory.

IMG_7785

IMG_7783

IMG_7788

How did I get all of that paint off? Boiling water soaks and SOS/Brillo pads, a lot of them! It was tough getting around all the detail in the top, but I kept on and it totally paid off.  Next steps is to swap out that storm door with a full glass storm door – as much as I would love to ditch it completely, I like having the front open for a breeze in the summer and guarding the cool wind and snow in the winter.

This was such an instant upgrade and I’m so pleased with the way it came out, better than I thought!

Attic Update

| The Bee Life


Well we first started our attic work in the end of July – we are now nearly approaching October and we still have a lot of work that needs to be done, but finally after a delay we have progress happening again!

We had a minor hiccup finding someone who could finish our electric work, but hopefully that will be complete tonight. Then the fun begins: insulation and dry-walling! Both will be a first for B and I – and it honestly all sounds a little daunting! Especially lugging everything up to the 3rd floor, but winter is fast approaching so we will need to keep moving quickly and make sure we do everything right.  We’ve received a number of opinions by professions so I know we’re on the right path.

A few things that we hadn’t accounted for was needing to hire someone for our electric (our neighbor was helping us out, but schedules just got busy), so that was an added expense. We are also waiting to receive a quote on refinishing our floors, however they’re pine and painted – apparently two not so great things, sooo I am sure the estimate will be far beyond what we expect, so we need to figure out plan B and plan C. Do we just put in new floors? Or do we just paint our current ones again? I’m not sure yet what we will decide yet. Another to-do is finishing our chandelier, I got one for a steal from Lowe’s for $15, it was an old display fixture that had some broken strings – I’m going to switch those out, just need to buy my supplies!

The list of to-do’s isn’t getting any shorter, in fact it keeps growing! But I am excited to be making progress and ready to get some things complete!

Do you have any tips for dry-walling?

Mums. Plaid. Boots. Pumpkins.

| The Bee Life

Ever since Wednesday, the beginning of Autumn, it’s now acceptable to decorate for fall! Here are some of the essentials for fall. And it comes down to the basics, Mums, Plaid, Boots and Pumpkins.

Beyond adding mums to your front foliage for a last bit of color on your porch- pull the colors of mums into your home to brighten the darker nights.  Sherwin-Williams’, ColorSnap app allows you to pull colors from any photo and find the same color, it’s amazing.  Use these as inspiration in DIY projects or painting your pumpkins!

Thanks to Target, Plaid is covering every other commercial accompanied by catchy songs we loved from our past. If you haven’t checked out Target’s Plaid section, please do – you’ll fall in love with at least one or five things. Promise. But instead of going overkill in everything plaid, here are some other ways to incorporate plaid in this fall without giving your house or wardrobe a complete makeover.

Plaid - Essentials
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05

Boots! As much as I love a good knee-high boot, I am really loving the bootie look for this fall – classic, easy to put on, and versatile with jeans, tights, and dresses!  Here are some of the boots I have my eye on this fall.  Of course, having a great pair of rain boots for those dark nights is key too.

Boots_Fall Essentials
01 | 02 | 03 | 04

Pumpkins! Of course, you can’t forget about pumpkins! One of the most important things when picking out your pumpkins is getting a variety of sizes, small pumpkins can be great around the house as accents or focal points in your centerpieces.  Larger pumpkins are great to serve as the supporting cast to your mums.  Creating wooden pumpkins for an easy DIY helps with cost year over year, and can allow for updates and custom pieces in your home, inside or out.

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/decorating-ideas/g240/natural-halloween-decorations/#ixzz2fSPGhttc&i
http://dandelionsdragonflies.blogspot.com/2011/10/front-porch.html
http://www.occasionallycrafty.com/2010/10/one-last-fall-craft-2×4-pumpkins.html

It’s hard not to love fall, it’s one, if not my favorite season for many reasons, but especially the ones above!

Wednesday Reminders – Comfort

| The Bee Life

Being comfortable comes with a lot of positives and negatives.  Do you agree?

On the positive side, it takes us as human beings (some, not all) a while to get comfortable with a new school, new job, new friend or significant other, etc. It can take years! And finally once we are comfortable, what a relief and ease of potential stress or tension. With comfort your sense of being open and honest, and even trusting can grow and become stronger, which allows relationships and opportunities to grow and heightens your ability to learn. The only thing to fear is change in that comfort.

On the negative side, it’s some of those same positives that can get us into trouble.
In the workplace: The ability to be open and honest can sometimes get blurred on the edge of professional and personal, leading to an uncomfortable situation. We also might be more likely to over look a negative situation because finding a new job and going to the “first day” again is nerve racking and stressful, a pep talk to suck it up often does the trick. In a relationship: Even in a relationship being too honest with no filter can lead to hurt feelings, without intention – the same could go with not speaking up about certain things, sweeping things under the rug because it’s easier.  Or being too comfortable to the part where our self-image is overlooked also hurts too.  Falling into a pattern of not working out or motivating each other simply because your partner doesn’t, this will only cause tension in the long run.

I had a great opportunity last week to listen to the CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer speak about her experiences and career, and a comment she made struck a cord – I think because I know it to be true. She mentioned that a lot of the opportunities she had came at risk, whether it was joining Google when it was a start-up or leaving Google after 13-years to start a new venture… when we as humans are comfortable, we don’t always like taking a risk or we can’t afford too. But we can.  She also said that the ability to learn, opened her up to the idea of change and that change can be good. This really got me thinking about how change and being uncomfortable might be the best thing for us sometimes, even though it is something we often resist.

How will you push your boundaries of comfort today?

3-Saturday’s

| The Bee Life

This past weekend B and I went crazy and took Thursday and Friday off to enjoy a long weekend, as I am sure I’ve mentioned before our weekend getaways have been the extent of any vacation we’ve had this year.  So it was amazing waking up Thursday morning and not having to go into work and to realize it was the start of 3-consecutive Saturday’s!! I even did a happy dance when I got out of bed!

Thursday morning was perfect. We just relaxed, caught-up on laundry, blogging and even a few work emails.  We have been hooked on American Horror Story, so we binge watched a few episodes too.  Then we packed up and headed to the cabin in the woods… we were there by 3! Our main goal was to visit Southern Tier Brewery (again), made famous by Pumking (the reason we went). Ohh it’s so delicious especially when you can enjoy it straight from the draft where it was created.  B and I enjoyed some Pumking and a few other tastings along with their yummy pretzel sticks and loaded chips.

IMG_7464
We even got to say good-bye to Maya, my aunt’s black lab who passed away suddenly last month, they left her remains at the cabin and the pond where she loved to play, her happy place.  It was nice to have a moment with her.

The next day we headed another 2-hours east to my parents for the rest of our long weekend.  Birthday celebrations and even a wedding were thrown into the mix!  It was a nice somewhat relaxing and low-key weekend. We got back early-ish on Sunday and enjoyed some company with B’s brother and also hosted our neighbors for some pizza and beer and chats!  It was a nice long, much needed break!

How did you relax this weekend?