Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Happy Chocolate Covered Raisin Day

I'm not really big on chocolate covered raisins.  I prefer my chocolate sans fruit for the most part (leaving aside my occasional obsession with chocolate dipped strawberries).  I'm not really a fan of raisins either.  And I have to wonder why anybody would create a DAY to celebrate this particular choccy covered fruit... let alone a "National" holiday.  Nevertheless, here it is, March 24, National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day. 

Go forth and celebrate!  Eat some wrinkled dried grape redeemed by milk chocolate goodness!

 

More on unusual holidays:

http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/shamansanchez/holidays.htm

http://www.brownielocks.com/month2.html  

oooOOOOO YUMMY

Look what Bubba got me!

Warning!  Those with allergies to chocolate take a step back. 
The rest of you, step forward!!

 

 

If You MUST Drink Decaf...

I have this nightmare that one day I'll develop an intolerance to caffeine and *gasp* chocolate.  In this dream I walk around licking the rim of an empty cup, depressed and hollow-eyed, not from lack of sleep but from thwarted desires.  What would I do without my 3 favorite things in the world?  Coffee, tea and chocolate make life worth living! 

Because of this nightmare, this product - D+Caf - caught my eye.  It tests your beverage for caffeine to insure that - if you MUST drink decaf - your cup really does contain unleaded.  I had to try it.

In case you don't know, decaffeinated beverages are not totally caffeine free.  Under federal regulations in the U.S., caffeine levels have to be 2.5 percent of the product or lower in order for a product to be labeled "decaffeinated."  (Check out this article if you're interested in how decaf becomes decaf.  Or this great article if you're a home roaster who needs decaf beans.)  Now, according to most sources, an 8 oz cup of regular drip coffee contains between 104-192 mg caffeine.  Tea can run between 20-90 mg caffeine per 8 oz cup.  What is being sold as decaf varies, too, but this study showed that your average restaurant unleaded can contain caffeine ranging from 8.6 milligrams to 13.9 milligrams, and Starbucks decaf espresso contained 3 mg to 15.8 mg of caffeine per shot.

Which isn't too bad IMO.   But obviously if you have to cut caffeine out of your life entirely, drinking "decaf" won't do the trick.  (Prune juice maybe?  Gaaaah.)

Swenyway, this little D+Caf strip-doo-dad tests for caffeine levels of less than 20mg per 6 oz cup.  I did the test using Millstone Hazelnut Cream, regular and decaffeinated, using the same amount of coffee / water and same brewing method.  The picture here shows the results of the test strips.  Yes, the one on the left is the decaf, the test strips worked.

But I must confess I was a bit disappointed.  I was hoping for something more precise.  Something ... well ok, something less than a tricorder readout, but closer to a pool chlorine test strip maybe, that would show me a range.  Colored stripes ranging from green (really really LOW caffeine level) to RED for "danger zone".   These little strips are more like a pregnancy test.  It's either yes or no.  Heh.  So, if the little line on the left is all you see, then you're safely in the unleaded zone.  If you see two lines, or one dark line on the right, you've got too much go-juice in your cup. 

That is valuable info if you have a caffeine sensitivity and really REALLY need to know what you're drinking.  I still would like to see more precise information, but I might have to keep a supply of these on hand, just in case my nightmare ever does come true.

Related: Can't Get Enough Caffeine?

It's Pumpkin Time!

I have some new pumpkin recipes to share shortly, but first, BIGFAT Bumps to some of my favorite recipes:

• Pumpkin Scones - seriously the best scones in the world.  Be sure to read the comments for great ideas to make them even mo-bettah. 
• Pumpkin Spice Dessert - a great substitute for traditional pumpkin pie, try this one for Thanksgiving!
• Pumpkin Custard - more than a pud, this recipe is both elegant and easy.
• Pumpkin Bread - moistish and molishious
• Pumpkin Crepes - something different for brekky, or a cozy party brunch
• Pumpkin Cheesecake Cups - a great, sooper-easy Fall recipe to do with kids, more of a faux cheesecake.
• Roasted Pumpkin Seeds - do something scrumptious with all those seeds after carving your punkin!

Enjoy!

The Best Kind of Houseguest ...

The best kind of houseguest ... brings chocolate.  A stellar houseguest brings GREAT chocolate.

We had a visitor from New Zealand recently who ranks at the top of my list.  She cleaned up after herself, didn't stay too long, was friendly to our unruly dogs, but best of all, she brought us some of the best, swear-to-god TO-DIE-FOR chocolates from the Chocolate Boutique in New Zealand. 

They were tasty and SO pretty.  Little swirly decorations and fancy shapes, melt in your mouth chocolate, and different flavored fillings and centers that were just right, not too sweet, truly something amazing. 

I would love to show you what they looked like, but unfortunately, this is all that's left:

Ok, I'll fess up, I'm the nibbler.  But I was polite.   I waited until the hubs wasn't looking.  And as you can see, I didn't leave too many bones in the boneyard.

I found their website here.  Now I just have to see if they'll deliver.  Overseas for less than an arm and a leg, intact, not melted, even when shipping to Arizona in the summer?  Oh well, that's probably asking too much.    

Kitsch or Kewl?

I can't decide if this wabbit fambly tea set is cute-and-collectible or just gawdy-but-good-for-a-giggle. 

It was a gift from somebody who figured I needed more tea sets for my collection, so I'm loathe to throw it out.  It's a complete set - teapot, creamer, sugar bunny, 4 cups, saucers and little spoons.  Momma wabbit's head comes off, as does sugar bunny. 

It gave me a great chuckle when I unwrapped the box, and I do love bunny wabbits, but could I actually leave it out and serve tea with it?  I dunno, whaddya think ... kitsch or kewl?

Jane Austen -- Out Loud

I think I've mentioned here that I love Jane Austen.  Have I mentioned that I also love audio books?  Well combine the two and I'm in a little corner of heaven. 

Over the past few years I've collected most of the Jane Austen books on audio tape or CD, but there has been one version that I was never happy with.  I had a version of Pride and Prejudice that was read by a woman with a deep and gravely voice.  At first listen I thought, oh this will be fun, she can do all the men's voices as well as the women's, but the overall effect was ... well, in a word, awful.  Horrible.  Icky, even. 

The voice and the dramatic ability of the reader is SO important with audio books.  Especially with something in a period piece like the Jane Austen works.  Now, maybe I'm a bit spoiled having listened to Jim Dale do all the Harry Potter books, but honestly, if you're going to have somebody read through a whole book, unabridged, it ought to be somebody who is pleasant to listen to.  It doesn't even have to be Jim Dale quality for me, but it does need to be pleasant, and not overly singsong (don't get me started on having Michael York reading ruining The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe from the Chronicles of Narnia boxed set I got -- although I have to say the bad experience was nicely balanced by the heaven of listening to Jeremy Northam reading The Silver Chair - oh yummy yummy, I could just eat him up!)

ANYway, despite the gruff voice that grated on me, I held onto my Pride & Prejudice tapes and listened to them frequently, not wanting to admit that I had wasted money. 

Fate rescued me!  One of the tapes broke.  All gucked up in the tape player!  Whoohoo!!  I was free to order a new copy without guilt.

Shopping with no ability to preview the voice of the reader is majorly frustrating!  That's worth an email complaint or two.  But I'm here to tell you that the new CD version has arrived and is splendid, mahvelous, so soothing to the ear it's brought me back to my full state of bliss, in my little corner of heaven here, with Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice (read by golden throated Irene Sutcliffe!)

Color me happy!

Foam Sweet Foam

My brother called me a coffee snob the other day. 

"Coffee snob?" says I.  "Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

After we finished this highly erudite and mature conversation, I stopped to think about it.  Am I a coffee snob? 

I don't use all the fancy words like "cupping" and "floral and bright" to describe my tasting experience.  Coffee high mucky mucks can get into the special language trap and that puts people off.  I don't do that.

And I don't look down my nose at other people for what they drink.  I don't care what they drink or how they fix it.  I am very fussy about what *I* drink - ever since I started roasting my own coffee I can't drink much else - but I don't shove it down other people's throats.  Heh.  So to speak.   Except occasionally I play coffee bar for visitors, just so they can see what coffee really ought to taste like.

But I'm not a "purist".  I do sometimes drink black espresso shots with no frills.  But the fact that I like a latte or cappuccino might make me "less than" in a true coffee snob's eyes.  So by way of proof that I'm not a snob,  I have to cop to my latest addiction - sweetened froth.  omg this is good.  I just put a little sugar in the milk before I froth it.  The idea here is not to sweeten the coffee, although that happens too, but to sweeten the foam. 

I wonder if my brother will accept this argument. 

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ok, first I have to apologize.  This is NOT the recipe for cream cheese brownies that I've been promising.  I will get that posted soon. I will, no really, I will!!!  But for today, I'm bumping some old posts here by way of wishing everybunny a Happy Valentine's Day. 

Be sure to take a trip back a year and visit the Valentine's Day Carnival of the Recipes, which has some truly splendelicious goodies for you and your Valentine.

And here are some pictures I shared many moons ago, of a fun and scrummy Valentine's Tea Party I had:

First, I baked some Wally-Mari-Brownies (that's brownies with walnuts and marascino cherries inside). 

I just used a brownie mix, and these cute little heart-shaped tins I found in the baking aisle.

Added some chocolate kisses to the plate because ... well... you can never have too much chocolate.

The perfect complement to go with the brownies: Rosebud Gong Fu tea, which just arrived from JingTeas.com.

This is the perfect tea.  I lovelovelove it. Lightly scented/flavored, and there are tiny little rosebuds right in the tea.  It's a treat for all the senses.  Pretty to look at, wonderful smell, the taste is perfect, and the little afterbreath of roses is delightful.

And of course, the only possible china to use was my gold-rimmed roses cup and plate.

My Cozy Winter Tea

It has finally gotten cold enough here to qualify in my mind as "winter".  Just in time for Christmas.  Heheh. 

So I have an excuse now, to get out all my pretty Christmas things.  Today I'm having afternoon tea using some of my mom's china. This pretty gold-rimmed cup and plate are adorned with holly leaves and berries, and what I think are winter roses.  Very pretty. 

The holly reminds me of growing up.  My grandparents had a ginormous holly tree growing right outside the back door, and every year we kids had the job of cutting sprigs to decorate the house with.  Great, albeit prickly, fun.

For goodies this afternoon I'm munching on a lemon scone (in a word -- YUM), and cream cheese brownies that are to die for.  I really shouldn't be even LOOKING at these brownies, considering how much I ate for Thanksgiving, but it's my birthday, so what the hey. 

Heh.  As if I needed an excuse to eat chocolate. 

The recipe for the brownies will be coming soon! :)

Crack-Me-Up Teapots

While searching for cups on the net, I ran across Andy Titcomb's hilarious teapots. 

These on the right are the Toddler Teapots.  Aren't they a hoot?? If I had muy ducets I'd prolly become a teapot collector.  I just love kitschy stuff like this.

They're a little (a lot!) out of my price range - the one I really want is this cutey little dormouse teapot, but £75.00 translates to about $150 I think. Holy cats.

And at that price I'd be afraid to use it. 

Pumpkin Custard

Whatsa custard, you say?   We 'mericans usually think of a custard as anything resembling a pudding.  Our traditional pumpkin pie filling is usually something in a custard. 

Custards done the traditional euro-francais-way can get quite tricksy with the double boiler and the eggs going in one at a time, sometimes involving additional thickening agents, etc etc.  But for one-dot cooks like me, there are easier ways. 

This recipe is sooper easy, and the result is a nice change from the traditional pumpkin pie.  I started with the Pumpkin Custard recipe found here, and changed it to suit my taste (can't stand ginger snaps!  and don't get me started on pine nuts!!).  It's been thoroughly tested and sampled and ... sampled some more.  I'm happy to say it passed the custard  mustard  muster.  Pfff.  It's reel gud.

Vanilla Pumpkin Custard

1 (29-ounce) can pumpkin
2 cups hot milk
2/3 - 3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs
1 cup crushed vanilla wafers
4 tbsp melted butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Beat together in a large bowl: pumpkin, heated milk (1+ minutes in the microwave does the trick), sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and eggs.  Stir in cookie crumbs, butter and vanilla.

Butter 8 10-ounce custard (baking) cups.  Spoon pumpkin mixture into the cups.

Combine chopped pecans with 1/2 tsp cinammon and 1 tsp sugar.  Sprinkle nut mixture on top. 

Place cups in a large shallow baking pan filled with hot water deep enough to half immerse cups.  I didn't have custard cups, so I used large muffin tins. placed in a cake pan.

Bake at 350° F for 45 minutes or until custard is set. 

If you used cupcake tins like I did, spoon, allow to chill overnight, then remove carefully with a spatula into small bowls.  Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Makes about 8 servings.

Enjoy!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I'm exhausted.  And Thanksgiving is still 3 days away.

Well, I can't really blame Marie Callendar, it's not their fault I walked the length of the grocery store 5 times looking for the stupid corn bread mix.  Only 2 of those trips were by myself.  The next was taken in the company of a store employee who swore to me they had some.  1 1/2 circuits later, she finally stopped to ask somebody else, and the 3 of us took another turn and a half around the store, enlisting the help of yet another store employee on the way.  We finally found it.  Not exactly hidden, just packaged differently (no more big round container!), and on a different shelf.  Boy I hate it when they change things.  Oy, my aching feet.

Recipes coming tomorrow.  I'm trying out this really interesting recipe for pumpkin custard.  They're baking at this very mo.  I just need to stay awake long enough to take them out of the oven.

The really big conundrum of the evening ... where am I going to put these custards?  Assuming they're fit to eat, of course, I'll post the recipe and pics tomorrow.  But they need to be chilled, and there's not one spare inch of space in my fridge.  Hmm, might have to co-opt the hubs' beer fridge.  Would he complain about having warm beer when game time comes?  Is that grounds for divorce?

Oh, before I forget, the theme for this week's Carnival of the Recipes is "What to Do With Thanksgiving Leftovers".  Perfect!