Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

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!

Cup Woes

I have a problem with cups.  Coffee cups in particular.

I'm really fussy.

For my morning latte, I like a bigfat (think mini-soup bowl), thin rimmed cup, both microwave and dishwasher safe, with a comfortable handle for my littlish hands.  Not an easy combination to find.  I had one, which I blogged about previously, that I loved loved LOVED.  It was big enough, had a lovely thin rim, pretty blue with little flowers on the outside.  The perfect cup.  Look what happened to it.

Is this not the saddest thing you've ever seen?  I didn't do this all by myself, I had help from a four-legged friend who got a little too rambunctious and paid for it by wearing spilled coffee on his head.

I went back to the store whence it came and tried to find another.  Unfortunately, there were none.  Line discontinued. 

I tried to glue it back together, but ... no go. 

So I got online and searched for the maker - it's one of the dine series made by HD Designs.  I found some HD Design stuff, but no dishware like this. 

Majorly bummed, I bought this, because it was the only BIGCup I could find.

Whimsical, yes.  Colorful, yes.  Big, sure.  But it's got an equally bigfat rim, and it's heavy.  Clunky even.  Not only that but - although it claims to be microwaveable - it heats up way too much in the nuker.  Don't know how to get around that problem.

Anyway, lo and behold, the other day I found a new cup that is almost big enough - just a skoche bigger and it would be perfect - and has a nice thin rim AND is safe in the nuker.  Not blue or flowery, but kinda classy in a country sort of vein.

Guess who makes it?

Yep, same company.  HD Designs.  I wish I could find a website for them, I'd email somebody and say - You're my kinda peeps!

Ok, only one more pic, in homage to this new, almost-perfect cup, and then I'm done. :)

Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans

I've missed HOW MANY Chocolate Fridays? 

Well I'm jumping back into the blogosphere with something really easy that combines two of my favorite things: chocolate and coffee.  I've always wanted to try chocolate covered coffee beans.  I wasn't sure I would like them, to be perfectly honest.  I'm really addicted to my liquid coffee, but chawing on a crunchy bean... I wasn't too sure about.

I'm here to tell ya, they're great.  This is the perfect antidote for a long drive, or a hiking trip, when coffee of the liquid variety is hard to come by.  Pop a few of these for some tasty instant rocket fuel.  I'm serious, those with heart conditions beware.  I popped half a dozen and a few minutes later, the top of my head came off. 

And the recipe is so easy!  I tried using flavorings in the chocolate, and different types of coffee beans, some more exotic than others.  And the conclusion I've come to is they're best with a good hearty basic espresso bean, and just plain semi sweet chocolate.  Exotic coffee beans detract from the chocolate.  And added flavorings seem to detract from the coffee.  Basic and not too sweet is best, IMHO.

Easy Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans

1/2 cup espresso beans
1/4 - 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a bowl, melt chocolate chips in microwave for 1-2 minutes, stirring every 20 seconds or so, until creamy.  Stir in coffee beans till completely covered.  Spread on a sheet of wax paper.  Allow to cool on counter for 10-15 minutes, then place in freezer.  Once completely hardened, break apart. 

The result looks like peanut brittle... so maybe this should be called coffee brittle.  :)

Enjoy!