Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Orange Lace Cookies

Adventures in cooking.  Ok, first the disaster story, then the success story.

This started with a cookie recipe I found at Bunny Pie's place.  Being as it was the end of a perfect day, I was feeling rather adventurous and confident, and I wasn't really concentrating.  I should have read the destructions more carefully. 

First I realized I had no oatmeal.  But, I had some leftover cooked rice.  Why not, says I.  Never having tried rice in cookies, it seemed like it might be good, so I replaced the oatmeal with rice.  Now, if you've never done this, let me tell you, don't bother.  Maybe uncooked rice would work, I don't know, but rice doesn't continue to absorb moisture, and it doesn't stay soft.  The resulting cookies were fine when they were just out of the oven and still soft and warm overall, but when they cooled, each little kernel of rice had cooked up into a tiny stone.  Rock hard.

Worse yet, instead of forming 1 inch balls, 3 inches apart, I formed 3 inch balls, 1 inch apart.  This is a recipe that spreads.  The result was one massive pan-cookie.  I cut them apart with the knife and offered one to the hubs, who looked at me a little doubtfully.  Then he bit down on a rice kernel.  I'm not sure he'll eat my experimental cookies ever again.

But I learned a bunch of stuff with this experiment.  I have a better understanding of the various ingredients and what they do when you cook them.  And I have learned the number one rule of adventures in cooking:
always keep your sense of humor handy (along with the number for the dentist).

So, ok, back to the original recipe, this time with just a few small flavoring adjustments.  SUCCESS! After these cool, I'm going to melt some chocolate and do a half dip, but I wanted to get this up and post it to the Carnival.  I'll add the choco-pics later. 

Orange Lace Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup crisco
(NOTE: If you want a crispier cookie, just use 1 cup butter)
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange extract
2 tbsp orange peel shavings
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350°.  Mix butter, crisco and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla, orange shavings, and orange extract.  In a separate bowl combine flour, salt and baking soda.  Beat slowly in to wet mixture.  Finally, add the oats.  Plop 1 inch dollops onto a cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart.  Bunny said to roll the dough, but my dough was too wet to roll.  Cook for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool before eating.  The cookies will be a little puffy when you take them out of the oven, but they flatten and get crispy after they cool.  And they are DELISH!  They'll be even better when dipped in chocolate.

UPDATE: The cookies have been dipped, and are cooling/hardening as I type. 

I used a combination of milk and dark chocolate, plus about 3 ounces of a candy bar called Krackle.  It's like a Nestle's Crunch, with little rice crisps in it.  This will hopefully give the chocolate coating an interesting crunchy texture. (I'm almost too impatient to wait for the chocolate to harden, I want one NOW.)  I also added a few drops of orange extract to the melted chocolate.

UPDATE 2: The Carnival of the Recipes #80 is up at Sun Comprehending Glass!

That Famous Chocolate Factory

It's CTC in the Movies!  I haven't done a movie in a good long while, and this one is one of my favorites.  The first picture is actually from the credits.

Mouse-waddling, huh?

When Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory came out in 1971, I was a teenager, still young enough to be enthralled by the idea of an entirely edible room complete with chocolate river, but old enough to feel drawn to the inexplicable sex appeal of Gene Wilder, especially in this role. 

Sex appeal?  Yep. 

I don't think I understood it at the time, but there was - IS - something about his portrayal of Willy Wonka that was very ... sexy.  Kooky, yes.  Funny, yes.  Crazy, no doubt, but also just a little dangerous (watch that cane come whipping down in front of the children!).  And definitely sexy. 

Gene Wilder has the ability to portray totally hilarious, on-the-edge madness, with big warmth.  That's a wonderful thing, and that, to me, is what makes this movie really special.

I'd worn out my videotape of this movie and the soundtrack had started to go all fuzzy, so when it came out on DVD, I snatched it up.   The songs are wonderful, the kind of tunes you find yourself singing later, and of course there's the chocolate and the wonder and the magic.  Watching the DVD, I felt all the wonder of Charlie finding that golden ticket, all over again.  My only regret is I bought the full screen version instead of the wide screen version.  I wasn't paying attention.  But that's a minor regret.

The DVD has some great added features: a 1971 featurette, a making-of documentary which I thoroughly enjoyed, and optional commentary with the kids.  The other stuff is just filler, IMO.  The stills gallery is all black and white photos, what's the point of that? 

I haven't seen the new version of this movie.  As much as I love Johnny Depp, I haven't been able to get around the previews of him with that ridiculous Dutch Boy haircut, and whatever is wrong with his voice???  I guess I also have Gene Wilder forever stuck in my head as Wonka, but ... ok, at some point I'll probably get it and watch it.  In the meantime, I highly recommend this older version.

I've posted more Wonka pictures in the Movie Gallery, but before I end here, I just want to include one of my very favorite moments -- Willy Wonka and the edible teacup ... priceless:

The Perfect Day in Cups

I have had - am still having - the most wonderful day.  The most delicious splendiferous day.

This morning I finally found perfection in my morning joe.  It's taken me a while, and a lot of trial and error, in spite of bccy's destructions, but I finally finally got it right.  I used my Jamaican Blue in my little cafetiére, with just the right amount of coffee, just the right water temperature, just the right brewing time, and just the right girl to drink it with the proper amount of reverence and appreciation. I savored every sip. 

And the morning was fine, sunny and sweet, but not too hot yet.  My strawberries are fruiting, and although my honeysuckle and jasmine have not yet started to bloom, there was a faint scent of orange blossoms in the air.  Altogether a perfect morning.

We can just skip over the mid-day grind, although with such a good start I'm happy to say I got a lot done, and was even proud of my creations.

Afternoon break-time has arrived, and I have to admit I've been looking forward to this for hours. 

There was this tea I used to lovelovelove.  I can't remember the proper name, but I called it orange spice.  It was really heavy with an orangey-cinnamon flavor, and I've never found anything that quite matched it.  Well, I think I have finally found something.  One of the teas that came in my Portsmouth sample box - Masala Chai, Black Blend. 

I thought chai was just another word for tea.  I had to go look it up to see what this was.  A googlesearch found "chai from India" (rich black tea, heavy milk, a combination of various spices, and sweetner).  And the masala part comes from an Indian word meaning any spice blend.  Culinary Teas lists common spices used (for instance, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and cloves). 

Portsmouth's website doesn't say exactly what they put in theirs.  Mystery spices.  Whatever is in it, it sure is good.  The first cup I made was too strong.  Second steeping is just right.  JUST right.  I need to use a little less tea next time.  It is a little more fruity of flavor than the orange-spice I used to love, and a little less cinnamony, but that seems to make it all the better. 

And the afternoon is continuing as the day began, fine and blue and not too hot.  There's even a light breeze.  I'm going to take this delish cuppa out into the afternoon and get away from this office buzzing with electronics.  And after I've thoroughly enjoyed my tea, I'm going to make cookies.  Can it get any better than this?  Well, ok, maybe if I won the lottery.

Ta!

Coffee Shop Marketing

A couple of ideas from the pro marketers...

First, an interesting way to use a coffee shop as a marketing tool for whatever business you're in: Coffee Hour Marketing, remarking on Rosa Say's original post, and I agree, this would also be a great way for coffee shop owner's to generate business as well. 

Next, some marketing tips from MarketerBlog for coffee shop owners: Wake Up and Smell the Espresso or the Mocha Java, or Whatever.

Tisane Tasting

I got this wonderful little package of samples from Portsmouth Tea the other day, and I'm just getting round to tasting them.  I didn't want to venture in while I was still sick, as my taster would have been quite ... off. 

Today I'm trying the rooibos blends, a tisane, not technically tea since it's not Camellia sinensis, but that's word-quibbling. 

I've never had rooibos before.  I wanted to try it since it was mentioned in one of the past Carnival recipes, and piqued my curiosity.  According to Wikipedia: Rooibos means 'red bush',  is a member of the legume family of plants, and is commonly used to make a tisane (herbal tea).  It grows exclusively in the mountains of South Africa.  As to flavor:

The tea has a smooth, non-bitter flavour that is pleasant hot or chilled. The unfermented variety has a very mild "green" taste reminiscent of green tea but without the astringency; the fermented type is quite different, with a stronger sweet and fruity taste. The mild flavour of rooibos has made it popular in multi-ingredient herbal tea blends.

Well, I've only tasted these two blends, so I'm not sure about plain rooibos, fermented or not.  I'll have to get some and try it. 

Of these two that I HAVE tried, one is a thumbs up, and one a decided thumbs down. 

The White Chocolate Toffee is the most horrible stuff I have every tasted.  I have to admit my expectations may have skewed my experience.  I mean, c'mon, when you see something that says "white chocolate" and "toffee" you have your mouth set for a certain taste sensation. The second factor that turned me off was the smell.  It smelled like old, gone-bad fruity wine.  Is it possible for fermentation to go overboard into rancid?  Maybe it was just the wrong flavor combination for me.  I don't know, but in any case, I went ahead and made a cup to try, determined not to let my expectations or my nose make the final decision.  The taste wasn't as bad as my nose said it would be, but it still wasn't great.  Nix on the White Chocolate Toffee.

Now, the second rooibos blend was quite different.  Avalanche Rooibos Blend is citrus-y but light, not overwhelming, and it has a little peppery backbite which I like.  An altogether wonderful cup.  I did have to let it steep for longer than I would any of my black teas, about 8 minutes I think.  One thing I really like about Portsmouth is they give you instructions right on the tins for how much tea to use, how hot the water should be, and how long to let it steep.  A nice touch.

While I waited for it to steep, I poked around in it to see what it was made up of.  All kinds of little round things and pokey things and green and red things.  Pretty stuff.  According the website, it's "apple bits, lemongrass, ginger, orange peels, basil and red pepper".  Ummmm, and rooibos, right?

Inventors Needed
Here's a question for both coffee and tea drinkers who deal with different water temperatures ... how do you test the water?

I remember reading Fortune's water temperature destructions for the french press, and I know also that many teas are best steeped at water temps other than boiling.  I could get one of those stick thermometers, but I thought, wouldn't it be a great thing to have a water kettle that told you the water temperature???  So you let it boil, take it off the heat, and now you need to know when it's cooled to the right temperature.  I looked on the net and couldn't find anything that quite fit the bill.  I found one that you could supposedly set to the temp you wanted, but the reviews said the thing was fussy, had to be tested and calibrated because they're all different, and the dial wasn't exact. 

What do other folx use?

Well, anyway, that's enough reviewing.  I'm off to enjoy a second cup of the Avalanche.  No caffeine in it, but that's ok.  It's a citrus tisane kind of afternoon.

Chocolate Cafes?

Is a Chocolate Lounge the new coffee shop?  I mean the way a coffee shop used to be, when it was ok to sit for hours  and where many of the world's problems were solved over steaming cups.  A place to gather, sip, indulge, chat, and relax...

Check this article: Coffee shop feel of chocolate cafes catching on nationwide

And here's the big question...

Where can I find one in my area? 

Chocolate and Caffeine

That chocolate acts as a stimulant doesn't surprise anybody I'm sure, but the main stimulating chemical isn't caffeine.  The real choco-high mostly comes from theobromine, a stimulant with physiological effects similar to those of caffeine, but ... different.  Theobromine takes longer to effect the nervous system, and lasts longer in the system, than caffeine.  Wikipedia says

Theobromine has very different effects on the human body from caffeine; it is a mild, lasting stimulant with a mood improving effect, whereas caffeine has a strong, immediate effect and increases stress.

Most coffee-heads would argue the stress point, but ... whatever. 

I'd heard so much associating caffeine and chocolate that I wanted to know the truth of it.  Is there caffeine in chocolate?  Apparently there is, although it's very small doses, and what's there, is there by human intervention.  Chocolate doesn't naturally contain caffeine.

The confusion may come from the similarity in their chemical makeup.  Or maybe it's the fact that there's sugar in most of the chocolate stuff we eat, which gives a false sort of "high" that can seem like the effects of caffeine.  The actual amount of caffeine in hot cocoa or chocolate candy is pretty small. 

The average cup of hot cocoa contains about 10 mg of caffeine but over 200 mg of theobromine. A 3 1/2 ounce chocolate bar contains approximately 12 mg of caffeine and 155 mg of theobromine.

Compared to an average cup of drip coffee (60-120 mg) and black tea (45 mg), that's not much, caffeine-wise.  Most of the comparison charts I found on the net identified just the caffeine content, and ignored the theobromine content.  Except for this one, from foodreference.com:

		Caffeine		Theobromine
White chocolate 3ounce bar or 1 cup chips		0.0 mg		0.0 mg
Baking chocolate, unsweetened 1 ounce		57.120 mg		346.360 mg
Semisweet chocolate 1 ounce (chocolate chips)		17.577 mg		137.781mg
Milk Chocolate 1.55 ounce bar		11.440 mg		74.360 mg
Cocoa mix 1 envelope/3 heaping tsp		5.040 mg		169.680 mg
Cocoa powder, unsweetened 1 tbsp		12.420 mg		111.078 mg

What about the caffeine content of your favorite chocolate products?

Ben & Jerry's Coffee Fudge Frozen Yogurt (8 oz)  -- 85 mg of caffeine
Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Bar (1.5 oz bar)  -- 31 mg
Perugina Milk Chocolate Bar with Cappuccino Filling  (1/3 bar, 1.2 ounces) -- 24 mg 
Hershey Bar (milk chocolate)  (1.5 oz bar)  -- 10  mg
Coffee Nips (hard candy)  (2 pieces) -- 6 mg 
Cocoa or Hot Chocolate  (8 ounces)  -- 5  mg
Cadbury Chocolate bar  (1 oz, 28 g)     -- 15 mg
Chocolate Jello Pudding Pops,  (47 g)  -- 2 mg

IMO, chocolate AND coffee is the best of all possible stimulant combinations.  You get both the quick and the delayed lift.  You get the long lasting effect of the chocolate, which counteracts the fall from the caffeine high.  You get the increased sense of well-being that comes from theobromine, as well as the increased alertness from coffee.  Now I ask you, how much better can it get? 

Go forth and MOCHA!

More on the caffeine content of chocolate:
* http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/caff.html
* http://www.cspinet.org/nah/caffeine/caffeine_content.htm
* http://coffeetea.about.com/library/blcaffeine.htm
* http://www.foodreference.com/html/fchocolate.html

Tids & Bits

Update from the abyss.  I've been sick.  Being sick sucks.  Nothing tastes right.  I can't enjoy any of my usual delights and distractions, foodwise, drinkwise, or otherwise.  I haven't had any attention to spare from my body's complaints to blog, which really sucks.  Still, I'm determined to do Chocolate Friday, I am, I Yam!

Before I do that though, I wanted to post real quick about a few other things. 

I've been working hard on my Coffee Croons and Tea Tunes list. Many thanks to Kat, who has been most helpful.  I'm still missing some mp3's, and I know there are tons more tea songs out there somewhere, and probably a few coffee songs too.  If you know of any, please post in the comments, or email me. But the deal is, I'll prolly have to take the mp3's down soon, so if you want to hear any of these songs, better do it now.

I missed last week's Carnival of the Recipes, hosted at Physics Geek.  Go check it out!

What else, what else... I know there was something else.  Gawd, my kingdom for a brain cell.  Ah well.  I need more coffee.  I'll be back to post Chocolate Friday when the caffeine has hit.

Bodum Assam Tea Press

I know this isn't a new item, but I just got one, on sale at my local grocery store.  I really want one of the double-walled thermal tea presses, but ... that'll come later.

The Assam Tea Press from Bodum. 

It's cute.  A cute round little teapot.  Not pretty or elegant, but definitely cute. 

I really like a glass pot.  I like being able to see the color of the tea as it steeps.

This is my first experience with a tea press of this kind, and I like how it works. 

The holes in the tea container only go down about halfway, so that when the tea is the strength you want, you simply press down and the tea is pushed down to the bottom and steeping stops.

Well, not quite.  I did find that there was a tiny bit of leakage.  I could have removed the holder after steeping, but I frankly wanted to see if it really did stop steeping or if the tea would just keep getting stronger and stronger.  It wasn't a lot, but I did notice the second cup was stronger than the first. 

The tea did manage to stay fairly warm for the 2nd cup, even sans double-wall or tea cozy.  But it's not really practical for me alone.  I usually don't drink more than one cup here by myself.  I'll continue to use my one-cupper IngenuiTea for my solitary afternoon tea, but this little tea press will come in handy for when I have guests.

If I was going to rate such things, I'd give it 4-cup salute (out of 5).  Me likes.

Oh yeah, you can buy them online here, or here.

For the Love of Chocolate

Carnival of the Recipes #77 is up for viewing and host Prochein Amy did a great job.  The theme for this week is one of my favorite things in the whole world - chocolate!  There's a mouthwatering selection of chocolate recipes (check out Keewee's Fudge Cake, shown here), plus a hefty chunk of non-chocolate recipes too, just in case you get sick of brown stuff. 

Believe it or not, I actually do eat foods other than chocolate.  In fact, I actually found something I DON'T like chocolate in.  I hear you say, WHAT?  NO!!!  But yes, it's true.

I usually eat yogurt, fruit and cereal for breakfast (although this morning I did have one of my choco-almond chewies, because ... it was there, and demanded to be dunked in my morning coffee).  Part of the cereal mixture I make myself, with a variety of dried fruits and nuts, and I must have bought a different mix last trip to the store because it had chocolate chips mixed in with the nuts and stuff.  I didn't realize it until I bit down on one, mixed in with my strawberries, almonds, granola, and black cherry yogurt. 

I actually went "YUCK!"  Now that surprised me.  I've always thought I would love chocolate with/in just about anything.

Anyway, back to the Carnival... special nod to Mensa Barbie's contribution in which she explains beautifully the best way to melt chocolate. 

Now, just to add to the choco-pile, here's another Valentine's Day gift idea for chocolate lovers: a place that offers premade Chocolate Gift Baskets, or better yet, lets you make your own chocolate gift baskets.  They let you choose from a variety of domestic and imported chocolates, gourmet chocolate cookies and cakes, chocolate biscotti and chocolate cheese cakes, and pots of chocolate accented coffees and cocoas. They even let you pick the basket/container, and some of the baskets are pretty enough to be great gifts all by themselves. 

I think this may have to be a gift to myself this year.  It's either the chocolate basket or the "make your own" coffee gift basket. This is gonna be tough.  I don't know if I can choose!