T Stands for This and That

 Hi everyone. And a happy T day to everyone who stops by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog  blog for our weekly drink share.

     Last week was a busy one. I took a couple of beach walks, tackled a few indoor and outdoor chores, made some homemade macaroni and cheese, received my  new box of honeybees and went with my husband down to Boston for his transplant appointment.  Along with a few other things.

     The drive into Boston was NOT fun, and we were stuck in a lot of slow traffic. Some of it had to do road construction, and some it had to do with an accident, and some of it had to do with traffic lights not working. If you've driven in Boston, it is not known for  easy driving, as are many other cities. The other day some of you asked if we were able to do anything else in the city besides his appointment, but since the drive in took extra long, once the appointment was done we decided to skip out of town before we hit the later in the day traffic crunch.

AH, this beach was  so much more relaxing, even if it was a little chilly.

      And here are the bees in their shipping container. The can on the top holds a bit of sugar water for them to feed on  while they are in transit. It goes all the way down into the container, but in this photo I was pulling it out here to release the bees.

       The day they arrived was wet and really chilly so I waited a day to release them. I've got my fingers crossed enough of them are alive and have been able start getting established in the hive. They were pretty lethargic when I installed them, but the queen was pretty feisty.

The shadow in this next photo isn't very good, but I peeked in to see how the new hive was doing. I have 2 different feeding sources in this photo, and the one they are really all over is the pollen protein patties. You're supposed to give the bees a few days to adjust, so this week I'll be doing more of a look than than I did for this photo.

Another fun thing that happened last week was I had some HAPPY MAIL.❤ The card was even perfect for T day.

Thank you Elle for thinking of me. 

I need a drink to share for T, and since the good weather is on the way (or ishere when it isn't raining), it was time for POP's to open last Saturday. Hurrah! That is always a reason to go out to eat, and this year we went for a late lunch in the mid-afternoon rather than waiting for dinner.  We were already number 172 on our slip, so the early lunch crowd must have been pretty good. (Assuming they started the new season with #1.)

Here's  our drinks, which we brought from home. We shared a fisherman's platter which came with fries and coleslaw. It also had fried fish, fried scallops, fried clams and fried shrimp. It's a good thing we had worked all morning in the yard and that we didn't plan on anything for dinner. 😏

    That's all for me this week. Some of you mentioned you would like the yellow cake recipe from last week, so I'll include that below. I can't believe how long this cake stayed moist in my cake holder. It was fresh tasting for over a week, but our weather was still pretty cool.

Have a great T day and week ahead.

Fluffy yellow cake from America's Test Kitchen recipe

bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes

(sorry, there is no metric in this cookbook)

1. In a bowl mix together:

2 1/2 cups/10 ounces of cake flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

2. In a second bowl whisk together:

 1 cup buttermilk at room temperature

10 Tbsp of melted unsalted butter

3 Tbsp of veggie oil

2 tsp vanilla

6 egg yolks

3. Using a clean mixing bowl, with a mixer or by hand whip: 3 egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Then add 1/4 c of sugar and white until firm peaks form. This should take 2-3 minutes.

4. With your mixer or by hand:  take the flour mix from step 1 and gradually add the the liquid mix from step 2. Mix until no lumps remain. 

5. Then using a spatula: gradually  and gently stir in the stiff egg whites until there is no egg white visible..

6. Have two  greased and floured  9 inch cake pans (I used 9 inch, but I think the cake would have been taller in 8 inch pans) ready: Add half of the batter to each pan. Gently tap them  a couple of times on the counter, and then bake in the 350 degree F oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Baking should take 20-25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and then wait until they are completely cool before frosting.  Frost with your favorite frosting.