Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

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.