For the Birds

It’s been known for, well, as long as I can remember that throwing rice as the Bride and Groom run to the cars is ‘the thing to do’ at a wedding. However, anyone who’s ever been at a wedding with this fiasco knows that it isn’t the best way to celebrate the new couple. I mean, who wants to spend their limo ride to the reception picking rice out of your hair or clothes. There are many alternatives to the old-fashion cooking rice on the market now’a days and after hand testing them all, we’ve found the best!

Heart Shaped Bird-Friendly Wedding Rice. This elegant looking rice is not only edible for the birds that want a piece of the party, but its also heart shaped so that it doesn’t look like something that came out of your pantry. At less than $20 a bag, this bag of wedding rice can fill up to 100 wedding favors.

If you like the idea of catering to the birds on your wedding, or are just throwing a party and want some cool gifts to give away, we’ve found these awesome Bird Seed feeders. They either come in the form of Garden sticks, or as hanging hearts, but either way, they’re sure to be a fit for all your eco-friendly guests!

Twenty-Four Hour Sale is ON!

Hey Bee’s, you all should be receiving an email here shortly, if you haven’t already, about the 24 hour sale that WeddingFavorsNow.com is exclusively offering to you. We’re very excited to be teamed with such a great company! The sale will go on from six p.m. tonight, February 15th (central standard time) to six p.m tomorrow night, February 16th and will give you a 25% discount promotion code for ANYTHING on the site including clearance and back ordered items. There is a minimum of $10, which shouldn’t be too hard!

Take a look at the new Mindy Weiss collection, we’re sure you’ll love what she’s come up with! WeddingFavorsNow.com is in the process of uploading the whole line to their site, so keep checking back to see whats new!

Tips on Registering for Kitchen Gadgets

The smartest thing to do before running into the closest Pier 1 and registering for everything you want, is plan a day with your soon-to-be new mate and walk around your home and look at the things you NEED. You may want those perfect wine glasses, but if you really need new dishes- you might consider finding those first and making sure the ones you want hit the list.

We’re finding more and more couples trying to stay away from the oh-so easy kitchen gadgets and heading towards more ‘couple friendly’ items like his and her’s gifts. Such as couples mountain bikes, or even surfboards for that honeymoon in Hawaii. We’re also noticing couples registering for wines and electronics, as well as the hottest new cleaning gadgets such as robotic vacuums. But as we all know, the timeless gift that is sure to hit everyone’s registry is some sort of cookware, and while shopping for the latest and greatest, we’ve found that Copper is the way to go!

So no matter what ends up on your lists just be sure the things you need make an appearance!

KARCHER RC3000 Robocleaner - the best Robotic Vacuum ( Karcher RC 3000)

Creamy Banana Bread

As Christmas draws closer with each passing day, if you’re like us here at ABridetoBee.com you’ve probably found yourself headed towards the kitchen with your baking shoes on. The challenge however, before jumping into your mixing bowls, is to find this years perfect recipe! After searching through every magazine and cook book published within the last fifty years, we’ve found some secret recipes (old and new) that are absolutely to die for! We’ll post more recipes over the next few days that have been ‘kid tested-mother approved’ and will surely be a hit with all your friends and family!

Here’s another one we found on our quest to come up with a more moist banana nut bread and something that was easy to make and ship to our friends.

Creamy Banana Bread-from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups mashed bananas (@ 3 banana’s)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Cream the butter or margarine and cream cheese together. Gradually add the white sugar, and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the mashed bananas and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and soda; mix until batter is just moist.
2. In a small bowl, mix together chopped pecans, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and cinnamon.
3. Divide 1/2 batter into two greased and floured 8×4 inch loaf pans. Sprinkle pecan mixture over batter in pans, and top with remaining batter.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
5. *When we made this recipe we did it without the pecans for those of our friends who have nut allergies. And we tried the recipe with the original one cup of (2) banana’s and it was not banana enough for us, so we added 3 and made a difference. We also only baked the bread for 40 minutes instead of 45. But make sure you use an oven thermometer to test your oven for accurate temperature. We found out ours was off by 10 degrees!  

Triple Chocolate Cookies

After numerous requests for homemade cookies from my little honey bees I cooked like Betty Crocker this weekend. Over 15 dozen cookies to be exact, 15 loaves of creamy banana bread and carrot cake and I was also on the quest to come up with a gourmet cookie better than the toll house chocolate chip cookie. Anyway, during my research on whether to use butter or shortening, why I should use salt and how to make a thick gourmet cookie, l I found this awesome recipe for triple chocolate cookies from a website called, expertvillage.com, they promote themselves as the world’s largest how-to video site. It’s pretty cool.  Anyway, I made these cookies below and I read through the transcript and wrote out the directions and sharing them with you. You should check out their website, it’s amazing what’s on there. Enjoy! My friends and family loved them.

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES BY COOKIESCOUTURE.COM

Preheat oven to 350* bake cookies for 10-12 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups Flour

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Cup Softened Butter Room Temp (2 sticks)

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar

3/4 Cup White Sugar

Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Tbsp Vanilla

1/2 Cup Dutch Cocoa

2 Cups Chocolate Chips

Cream the butter and the sugar on Medium speed, cream for about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and scrap down sides of bowl and give it one more good mix. In a separate bowl mix 2 cups of flour and add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and then add 1/2 cup of cocoa. Use a wooden spoon make sure it is dry incorporate all the dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Start on low speed so the dry does not fly out the sides. Mix for about 3 minutes. Do not over mix. Stop mixing  then add chocolate chips and mix for about 30 seconds until you see the chips mixed throughout the dough.

Get a scoop and dip in water to prevent sticking and scoop out dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Then place in freezer for 5 minutes. This prevents the dough from spreading. Bake for 12 minutes at 350*. Remove from oven and remove parchment paper with cookies off hot pan to a cool surface.

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