We're building stuff!

Happy Monday, friends! It's been a very full few weeks for us here in THE HIVE. On Valentine's Day we found out we are going to be having a sweet little girl join our family in July! Please welcome her with us! We are SO excited to share in this joy. 

Along with our personal lives getting a complete makeover, we are working on constructing a new site for your viewing pleasure! Please pardon the dust and stick around with us as we make this transition.

Sending love and light to you and your family! 

From,

Ashley, Oscar, Luna and Francois

Recipe: Roasted Vegetable Medley

I love roasted vegetables! It's such an easy and diverse dish, and when it comes to food, I'm all about recipes that can be modified to suit the season, what's on hand, and what else is being served. Roasted veggies provide just that! This was our really delicious, hardy dinner from last night.

Salad from our patio-garden greens, homemade dressing, cherry tomatoes. Grilled cheese with earth balance, organic raw sharp cheddar. A smattering of roasted vegetables with my favorite seasoning combo, organic shoyu. 

Ingredients:

• You can use just about any vegetable for roasting. Garlic cloves and onions are always a must for me, but be as creative with the rest as you'd like! For this particular recipe, I'm sticking with the classic:

• Potato
• Red & Green bell pepper
• Crimini mushroom
• Elephant garlic
• Purple onion

• The herbs and seasonings also provide a lot of room for experimentation, so again, get creative! Smell, taste, explore. My trusted favorites from last night include:

• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Thyme
• Rubbed sage
• Rosemary

Portions for this dish will vary depending on how many people you want to feed. Since this was used as a main dish of sorts, Oscar and I easily consumed a full tray's worth of the veggie-deliciousness. This was: 2 small purple potatoes, half of each bell pepper, a large handful of mushrooms, 3 elephant garlic cloves, and half a purple onion. After chopping up the veggies (not too small! they will shrink a good deal while roasting) I coated them with enough olive oil to saturate their pores thoroughly, with no oil drip when held above the bowl. 

As veggie portions vary, so will the amount of spices used. This is a visual of the amount of herby coating I like to see, pre-stir. For this recipe, I used just about equal amounts of each seasoning, going a little lighter on the rubbed sage. A good rule of thumb when it comes to seasonings: if it smells strong, it probably is! Also, you can always add more, but over-spicing can ruin the best of meals! 

Veggie roasting times and temperatures vary on the size and variety of vegetables being roasted. Roasting is done at high temperatures (between 400-475 Fahrenheit) and is the fastest way to remove water, which results in the shrinking and rich-flavor-trapping that takes places in roasted goods. The browning that occurs also adds a whole other distinct layer of taste. When roasting mixed vegetables, the more tender-fleshed items will roast quicker. I love the way this tastes (think crispy, browned onions and garlic) but some people prefer to roast their vegetables with only like-items. For this batch, I roasted everything together at 420 degrees for about 30 minutes, flipping the veggies every ten minutes to prevent burning and uneven cooking. 

Optional step: with ten minutes left, drizzle a layer of organic shoyu or other soy sauce, for a little extra moisture and flavor! This photo (below) is still with ten minutes left. I know my veggies are done when my potatoes have full browned, and as you can see, they're only just starting to here.

Can be served as a main dish, a side dish, or a cold salad with the addition of a dressing. Hope you enjoy this super simple, healthy recipe. Happy Wednesday, friends! 

Weekend Recap: Snooze, Jyoti Bihanga, Patio Garden

Another weekend past, whoa! Time is truly flying. I promise for more than just weekend recaps to be posted on this here blog. And for a more aesthetically friendly layout to soon meet your eyes! You know, more than one person told me I would be tired during pregnancy, but you don't really understand the impact of what that means until you see/feel it, and boy! It's a powerful force of a thing. Needless to say, there is always a growing to-do list in our midst, and we're tackling it one day at a time! (Patience & grace, two concepts we have learned so much about during pregnancy, and will continue to learn, I'm sure.)

About being tired... sleep is something I did a lot of this weekend. It seems I can never get enough these days! Baby must have gone through a major growth spurt because in addition to the more-than-usual exhaustion, I was forced to clean out my closet and finally brave my way into the maternity section for some new gear. I'm not sure what my prejudice was against maternity clothes, maybe it's that I thought they all must be "frumpy" or whatnot, but nope! Feeling so great with my preggo elastic-waist-jeans on. (I really must thank Oscar for his encouragement in this area. I am completely blessed by that man. What a gem!)

Other than sleeping and shopping, our weekend was filled with the usual delicious food eating, wonderful love sharing, and just-can't-get-enough time together. Not to mention beautiful weather, a great prenatal appointment, ice cream, and an amazing dog. Here's a little photo recap of our past days. Enjoy!

1. Best bagels on the planet.

2. Beautiful sun rain.

3. Coffee!

4. Morning date with my sister to celebrate her birthday. Happy 23, sis!

5. Coconut Chai tea, so yum!

6. SNOOZE!

7. Biscuit and gravy.

8. Hashmash.

9. Tried cake pops - didn't like them at ALL, gross! 

10. Flowers at Jyoti.

11. A favorite place to dine.

12. Ornamental Plum trees are blooming all over San Diego, so beautiful! I love winter blooms. 

13. Oscar surveying our patio garden progress, lookin' good! Major greens harvest soon to come.

14. Frenchy approves. 

15. Pure satisfaction.

16. Have you had a doner today?

17. New flower pot is doing well!

18. I found shoes at Target that I wanted, but they didn't have my size. Baby of course insisted on driving me to three Targets, determined to get what I wanted. So in love with that man! 

19. Out with the old...

20. In with the new!

21. Jeans with a stretchy band around my tummy, oh yeah! Lovin' it. 

22. Had to go on a date to celebrate.

23. Baby got a new hat, quack quack.

24. Straight to my heart.

25. Brownie sundae with caramel and espresso chip ice cream, wowie! 

26. End of the weekend. Went to bed with a full heart and clean apartment. The best! 

We have our ultrasound scheduled for Thursday. If all goes well we will be finding out the gender. Can't wait! Love to you and yours. Make it a great week!  

Handpicked

Happy Thursday, friends! The sun is starting to peek her little head out of hibernation here in San Diego, and I have the intuition for very hot spring and summer months ahead. Should be an exciting adventure with my ever-growing belly. Can't wait!

Here's a list of this's and that's which kept me laughing, crying, loving and scrolling through web pages this week.

• Oscar shared this beautiful music video with me, presenting it as a dedication. I cried like a little girl. It's SO amazing! (Love you, honey bunny!)
• How perfect is this cookie cutter?! Must-have.
• Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin & The Farm Midwives is now screening across the country. For $200 we can host a community screening here in San Diego. Anyone interested?!
• Karen's DIY tooth polish.
• From the amazing ladies of Small Fry Blog, 25 of the cutest kids you've ever seen talking about Valentine's and what love means.
• Did you know!? Not all bees live in groups. Thanks, Amber, for sharing this wonderful tutorial on making your own solitary bee habitat. 

That's all for now, folks. Enjoy! And make it a great weekend, wherever you are. 

Weekend Recap: Published, Urban Market, Gender Reveal

Happy Tuesday, friends! It's a cloudy, semi-cold day here in San Diego and the weekend was much the same. Oscar and I took some much needed time for ourselves, to relax and restore our bodies, minds, and spirits. Here's a recap in photos of what kept us happy and occupied, with details below.

1. Thank you so much to Amber over at OB People's Organic Food Market for publishing this article from HOME IN THE HIVE! Great way to start my Friday, and the salad was delicious, too!
2. My sweet man after racing home on his bike to spend his lunch hour with me and pansita. Love!
3. Speaking of tummy, we turned 18 weeks pregnant on Friday! Movements are in full force now and baby is kicking/punching/somersaulting up a storm! It's so magical.
4. Saturday morning coffee. 
5. Love our thrift-store-found vintage tea kettle.
6. Invisible Children and Warby Parker teamed up for the Common Good Urban Market. Local shops, music, and food were in abundance. Check out a video recap here.  
7. When it comes to food trucks, Miho does it right.
8. Farm to Street!
9. GreenGo grilled cheese, yum! 
10. Finally got to meet the amazing Lucia Jayne Warner and catch up with her awesome mommy and daddy.
11. Birds on a wire.
12. Hairball! 
13. Frenchy gets a much-needed haircut
14. And last, but certainly not least, we announced our baby names on Sunday! We will be finding out the gender on Valentine's Day. So excited! 

That's all for now, folks! Make it a great Tuesday, wherever you may be.