Happy Birthday, Honeydew!

Lots to catch up on around here.  It’s happening, it will happen.  Charming pictures of Maggie Rose learning to ski, and of Howard discovering the finer arts of purees to share, funny honey stories to relay, upcoming pollination to discuss.

But today, we’re celebrating the start of a new decade for Honeydew.

We’re so glad you were born, honey.

One beeswax candle for #1 Beekeeper to wish upon.

Need a new chocolate-cake-with-chocolate-ganache recipe?  I picked this one because it said “only 666 calories per slice!,” which appealed both to my chocolate-tooth and to my sense of humor.  Incredibly easy and absolutely delicious, y’all.  Do use the parchment paper liner, though.  And I hope your cake decorating skills are more advanced than mine.  This cake could have been a showcase, but with Maggie Rose’s help, I pretty much turned it into a train wreck.

Baby Howard was snoozing during Daddy’s birthday celebration, but I’m sure Sister will have him well prepped for next year, as she regularly sings Happy Birthday to all the different colored cups she plays with in the tub.  The pair of them are definitely the best gift Daddy ever got.  Unfortunately for him, the return policy is up on me!

Happy birthday to the man who brought all the sweetness to my life.  I love you.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

on chocolate fudge icing … and turning thirty-onederful

July is here.

I will wake up each of the 31 days in this month, in the full daylight that is 5:30am this time of year, breathe in the sweet clover, alfalfa and aspen breezing through the screens, and announce to Honeydew, “Time to get up!  It’s my favorite month of the year!”

And though he generally groans and rolls his eyes at me and starts talking about hockey and singing O Canada, I think it’s secretly his favorite month, too.  Why else would we promise each other never to leave Glacier County in July?  Medical emergencies excepted.

I guess.

Only if they’re Maggie’s.

Anyway, we’ve been running around working like dogs, entertaining family and friends, and generally not blogging.  But here’s what we did at the end of June, to celebrate my 31st birthday.

My at-the-time five week old baby girl was the best gift I could even think about getting.

She’s six weeks old now, and still my favorite gift.  I imagine this feeling will continue for quite some time.

But Maggie Rose wasn’t the only gift I got that you can’t order on Amazon.com.  Before she left on a well-deserved vacation, my Mama baked me a birthday cake and hid it in the freezer, with instructions to Brother Dear and Honeydew to serve it on my birthday, along with a bottle of my favorite Veuve Clicquot.

There aren’t words that do justice to the deliciousness of the very simple fudge icing on this cake.  One taste, and I’m in my Grandma Betty’s kitchen, watching her assemble a 14 layer chocolate cake.  We’re all still young, and Howard is there, clamoring to lick the bowl.  But I’m pretty sure that it’s not just my memories that make this icing transcendent … here’s the recipe so you can find out for yourself.

From the Black Family Cookbook, Cathy Black’s recipe for My Favorite Icing of All Time:

3 c sugar

1/2 c cocoa

3 tbls white Karo syrup

1 c milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 stick butter

Mix sugar and coca well in a heavy boiler.  Add Karo syrup and milk gradually; stir mixture until smooth.  Cook over medium heat, stirring until it comes to a boil.  Add butter and stir.  Set aside 10 minutes.  Add vanilla and beat until thick enough to spread by hand.  Do not rake sides of boiler after it starts to boil or it will be grainy.  Spread between cake layers and around the sides of the cake.

2011.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

Happy Birthday to Layla Jane!

No one loves her birthday more than Layla.  And I don’t know of too many women loved more than she, either.

Layla wears lots of hats, has many faces, knows all the right words.

And she’s rather photogenic, too:

Happy, happy birthday to Layla Jane!

2010. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.

 

Who You’d Be Today

Mom is our guest blogger today.

Like most Americans, for me last week’s September 11 anniversary brought back a flood of memories.  I was working out at the Y when I heard the news, and my family was scattered: my husband, Charlie, was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with his mother; daughter Courtney was in her senior year at UGA, in Athens; and son Sanford was a freshman at Washington & Lee, in Lexington, Virgina.  We were all frightened and outraged by the terrorists’ actions.

But our youngest son, Howard, was particularly upset by 9/11.  A high school junior, he spent that awful day watching TV news coverage with his classmates.  He was shocked that our nation’s security could be so easily breached and concerned that the terrorists would strike again.

Normally, Howard’s world revolved around basketball, soccer, Scouts and school.  He was 6’3”, a green-eyed, dishwater blonde who loved sports and having fun.  On Sept. 11, 2001, he was a week short of his 17^th birthday and starting to visit colleges.  He hadn’t really given his future much thought, but after seeing our nation’s response to the fall of the towers, he began mulling a career in law enforcement.

A good student, in the spring of his senior year Howard was offered scholarships to two small liberal arts colleges in Virginia   Just when his Dad and I thought he was ready to decide between the two, Howard asked if he might make one final college visit to the University of Mississippi.  Ole Miss, as it is affectionately called, is located in Oxford, a 12 hour drive from our home, and has a political science/criminal justice major that Howard thought could be a stepping stone to law school and eventually his ultimate goal, the FBI.  The visit went well and the beautiful southern co-eds Howard met on campus probably influenced his decision as much as the sought-after course of study.

During his freshman year at Ole Miss, Howard aced history and political science and made the Dean’s List both semesters.  He played intramural sports, lifted weights and loved to hike. He was a happy 19 year old who appeared to be well on his way to a bright future. But then, one week into his sophomore year, Howard’s fraternity house burned down, taking his life and that of two other young men.  Howard was three weeks shy of 20 when he died.

Now when I hear Kenny Chesney’s song “Who You’d Be Today,” I can‘t help but be wistful for what might have been.

Sunny days seem to hurt the most

I wear the pain like a heavy coat

I feel you everywhere I go

I see your smile, I see your face

I hear you laughing in the rain

Still can’t believe you’re gone

It ain’t fair you died too young

Like a story that had just begun

The death tore the pages all away

God knows how I miss you

All the hell that I’ve been through

Just knowing no one could take your place

Sometimes I wonder who you’d be today

Would you see the world?

Would you chase your dreams?

Settle down with a family?

I wonder, what would you name your babies?

Some days the sky’s so blue

I feel like I can talk to you

And I know it might sound crazy …

As your Mom, I can’t stop thinking about who you’d be today.  Happy 26th birthday, Howard.

2010.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

it’s a mystery

For my thirtieth birthday, my parents gave me a mysterious small box.  I love small boxes.  My engagement ring came in one.  Bequet Caramels from Bozeman come in a small box, as do truffles from Posh Chocolat in Missoula.  Real vanilla extract comes in a small box.  Small boxes are good things.

Inside the box was this necklace:

It is comprised of beautiful, irregular amber beads:

And it belonged to my great-grandmother.  My parents discovered the beads, loose in an old envelope, along with a needle and thread that great-grandmother had apparently tried to restring them with, in the bottom of that old trunk I wrote about earlier.  Knowing my love for all things old and well loved, Mom and Dad had the beads restrung for me, and I’ve been wearing them proudly ever since, whether I’m in court or pouring beautiful beeswax candles.

The beads are imperfect, unmatched and bumpy in spots.  Clearly, great grandmother loved them, as they are the sole material thing of beauty in the entire trunk of her memories.  Did they belong to her mother? Did her husband give them to her after the birth of their first son?  Did she buy them for herself, as a widow?  I’ll never know.  I wear them and know that there are mysteries in life that remain unsolved, that make the last tangerine stroke of sunset, the last platinum fire of starfall before dawn, that much more illuminating.

2010.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

buzzin’ birthday cake

My world was rocked yesterday when I realized that I am not the only girl in the world who finds Darling Summer Help … well, darling.  Yesterday, DSH, or “Dish,” as we’ve taken to calling him, journeyed to the big city out on the prairie to pick up his … Darling Girlfriend.  And it turned out that Darling Girlfriend’s birthday is today!

So, Pseudo Sister and I set out to make a special dinner to commemorate her arrival to near Babb.  We visited the “wedding gifts closet” and selected a darling cake pan for Darling Girlfriend’s birthday cake.

And then we called my mama for her fabulous Rum Cake recipe … if you’re gonna eat cake, it better be rum cake!  Rum cake is absurdly easy to make and guaranteed to impress.  It took less than 5 minutes to whip up, and in those 5 minutes we were distracted by the Bacardi and forgot to take pictures.  While the cake was baking, we prepped elk medallions, spicy-steamed-green-beans, potatoes-n-vidalias, and green salad.  Mmmmm.  Have y’all figured out yet that we’ll seize on any reason to cook a good meal at Hillhouse?  Especially for a birthday!

The cake finished baking, and Pseudo Sister and I poked holes in it and poured the rum-butter-sugar glaze all over it and tried to restrain ourselves from gobbling down the whole thing.  We sliced a little bit of cake off each half in order to put the two halves of the beehive together, and were impressed with the finished product, though the bees themselves are hard to see in this picture.

Pseudo Sister and I were models of self restraint yesterday.   We had to sit there and smell this cake for hours before DSH and DG returned home … but the look on Darling Girlfriend’s face was worth it when we served her the cake!

Happy birthday, Darling Girlfriend!  We appreciate your sharing DSH with us this summer.

2010.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

carpe weekend

As y’all know, I turned 30 on Thursday.  The last four days have been a birthday gift you just can’t buy – Summer arrived, and with it, my dear friends and family.

On Thursday, the Going-to-the-Sun Road fully opened, and we were in line at the St. Mary entrance to witness the “Logan Pass CLOSED” sign being taken down!

The Going-to-the-Sun Road never fails to amaze me with its architectural wonders and sheer beauty.  Here, we are driving through “The Big Drift,” an area just east of Logan Pass that generally holds so much snowpack that it must be surveyed every year to determine the road’s location before it can be plowed.

Logan Pass was sun dappled, hoppin’ with folks, and packed with snow.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at Logan Pass and then retraced our path down the road, heading for Many Glacier, my favorite part of the Park, where we enjoyed a little stroll around Swiftcurrent Lake and then indulged in G&Ts on the Many Glacier Hotel deck, the best deck in the world.

At home that night, my mom prepared some of my favorite dishes for my birthday meal: grilled Copper River salmon, panfried halibut, asparagus bunches, potatoes-n-Vidalias, farmer’s market salad, and rum cake with pineapple-coconut sorbet and grilled pineapple.

It. was. heavenly.  Mom, Dad, Honeydew, and Darling Summer Help offered a champagne toast to me, out of my grandmother’s gorgeous champagne saucers.  Thanks, y’all.  I’m grateful for my thirty years on this Earth.

After dinner, Honeydew took me up to Warehouse No. 1 to give me a birthday gift, the sweetest I have ever received.  He fastened six bee hive sides together and branded our logo and name into the wood.  It is not done yet, but when he is finished, we will have a beautiful sign to mark the entrance to Glacier County Honey Co. World Headquarters.

I think I now have a better understanding of why my parents treasure the Christmas ornaments my brothers and I made for them above all else – except in this case, no kindergarten teacher guided Honeydew’s hand.  He came up with this idea all on his own, and I can see his love for me in the branded wood.  Thank you, sweetheart.

On Friday, my parents went home to Whitefish, and Brother Dear, the Hot Buns, and Dan arrived to continue the celebration.  Saturday, LJ stuffed us full of her famous French Toast (thanks, LJ!) and we hiked to Shangri La, an off-trail area of the Park that is one of my favorite places.  I’ve been there many times over the years, and each group I’ve hiked with has been special.  This trip was no exception.

Kestergill, LJ, Darling Summer Help, me, Brother Dear, Ray-Ray, and Dan – at Shangri La, on Mt. Wilbur, Many Glacier Valley, Glacier National Park, Montana

We saw a goat, many sheep, one cow moose, and a sow griz with three cubs.

But more about Shangri La later – it is worthy of its own blog post!

Apres hike, we enjoyed huckleberry margaritas on the Many Glacier Hotel deck, Twistas at Two Sisters, and burritos, burgers, and BBQ at Gib’s Roadside Grill in Babb.  Yum!

Today, Ray-Ray and Dan headed back to Missoula, but Brother Dear, Kestergill, LJ, Darling Summer Help, and myself drove up to Logan Pass for skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing, and sledding under sun drenched skies.

Darling Summer Help borrowed my randonee “Sweet Fat Thang” skis, which are plastered with green butterflies – we decided he is a heck of a real man to be able to rock these girly skis!

Kestergill brought her split board, and LJ and I strapped on our snow shoes and our hiking skirts.

And up the pass we went!  That’s Mt. Oberlin in the background.

Here, Kestergill, LJ, Darling Summer Help, and I approach the ridge beneath Mt. Clements from which we wanted to ski and sled.  Can you see the green sled I’m dragging behind me?

Darling Summer Help earned those turns!

Kestergill looked professional, as ever.  And so happy.

LJ and I hopped into the green sled and took a wild ride down the hill, laughing hysterically and somehow keeping ourselves, our packs, and our snowshoes in the sled the entire way down.  We’re professional, too.

If there was ever a day to be skiing up on Logan Pass, today was the day.  Carpe weekend!

Summer, welcome back to Montana – we’re so glad you’re here!

2010.  Glacier County Honey Co.  Photo credits to Sanford Stone and Jeff Street, too.  All Rights Reserved.

 

National Watermelon Seed Spitting Day

I was born on National Watermelon Seed Spitting Day. That was yesterday.

Today, Brother Dear and the Hot Buns arrived from Missoula and Whitefish.  They are here on the premise of helping me to properly celebrate turning 30.

I’m glad to make it to 30, because, as I know too well, it’s not a guarantee in life to make it this far.   But I’m flat out thrilled to have my girls up for the weekend, birthday or no.

More to come on our adventures!

2010.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

thirty

This is me, and my puppy Budgie, about thirty years ago.

Not much has changed.  I spent some of today, my 30th birthday, with my dogs, and my parents.  We went into Glacier – the park service conveniently opened the Going-to-the-Sun Road as a lovely little birthday gift to me.  It’s been a wonderful day.  And now I’m going back to hanging out with those I love, and getting off the computer.  May your evening be equally festive!

2010.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.