Frothy Bliss

I have a stove top cappuccino maker which I love dearly, but have always been a little bummed that the frothed milk doesn't come out as pristine white micro foam that I look forward to in a good coffee drink.

Just call me a foamed milk snob!

A friend on Facebook recently posted this link on how to make milk foam without a machine ... and it is awesome! Of course I love cappuccinos and tea lattes and after trying this method I am making them all the time.

This black tea latte really hit the spot. With a little Billy Holiday's I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm playing in the background and a knitting project in hand, it's been a good afternoon.

Thanks to this easy trick, I make espresso in my stove top cappuccino maker and create the foam by hand. I am not exaggerating when I say that it rivals Starbucks, and from my own kitchen no less! Hint: the higher the fat content in the milk, the better the foam. Plus, I don't have to clean much, waste much, or wait long.

Ooh, I think I'll have to go get some Chai tea now. The perfect Christmastime drink I think.

Meeting For Coffee

This morning I enjoyed my morning coffee with Ruth and Naomi. We shared many things with each other. I served my recipe for an outstanding homemade pumpkin spice cappuccino while Ruth taught me about the hard work of gleaning from barley fields. I showed off my snazzy Moleskine journal, and Naomi told me all about how the great famine in her life came to an end through the Lord's provision. I learned about the importance of friendship, faith, kindness, love and diligence.

Suddenly my contributions don't seem very impressive compared to their great lessons; but I am grateful for the time we spent together.

On The First Day of December My True Love Gave To Me ...

... The Curse of Clumsiness!

November went by so fast! It feels like it was just Halloween and here I am on December 1st, listening to a Bing Crosby Christmas album on the record player, driving on slippery roads, and trying not to panic that I barely have any shopping done!

To further my strange mood, I went to Starbucks today because they have joined the (PRODUCT)RED efforts in saving lives in Africa. If you buy a specialty drink from them they will donate 5¢ of the cost to the Global Fund. I thought to myself that I might as well support such a cause and get a great cup of coffee while I am at it.

I ordered a Peppermint Mocha Twist, which is usually too sweet for me at 9:00 in the morning, but I was feeling festive. It was delicious ... that is the three sips of it that I had. I managed to carry my drink and my son to the car without slipping on the black ice in the parking lot. I managed to successfully open the door and get my son into his car seat. Then I managed to bump my full coffee cup and all of the contents spilled onto the asphalt. My precious - and may I add, expensive - drink is now a wet mess on the ground. At least some of my money is going to a good cause, even if I never had the chance to enjoy my blissful concoction.

On a good note, my son had a great old time because the barista who made my drink asked if he could give my boy a cupful of whipped cream. I thought it was a strange offering, but let me tell you my son LOVED it! But then, who wouldn't love a cupful of whipped cream?

My drink had whipped cream. Peppermint whipped cream. With chocolate shavings. Sigh.

Blog Fodder

The Fruits of All Hallow's Eve

We had a fun Halloween this year. The kids' costumes turned out well; we went trick-or-treating with great success in the candy department; and I managed to actually carve a pumpkin or two.

I made little pumpkin houses this year. It was fun gathering the sticks to make the window panes (my daughter helped).

As I was carving the pumpkins I started to feel adventurous and decided to keep the seeds to roast and enjoy as a snack. It was a lot of work separating the seeds from the mushy, orange guts and thoroughly washing them. It was nice to eat them when they were fresh from the oven, but the husks are like eating sawdust. I chose to peel off the husks and just eat the green seed inside which tasted pretty good. Then yesterday I was at the store and saw that I could have just bought the seeds in bulk and saved myself a lot of trouble. Oh well, I am still proud of my efforts!

Free Coffee for Voters

I did it, I voted. I feel a great sense of accomplishment by having done so. And now I will receive a little reward by going into my local Starbucks on November 4th and getting a free tall cup of coffee ... that is if I tell them "I voted". It is all a part of their V2V campaign to get people to have a voice in this election and make your community a better place to live. So, if the satisfaction of knowing you are exercising your rights to vote in this country isn't enough of an incentive, maybe a FREE cup of Starbucks brew is.

Lights Out, Little Cookies

Mother's Cookies is shutting down. That's right, no more pink and white Frosted Animal Cookies, and no more of my personal favorite: Taffy cookies. Now, while I don't buy many cookies from the store, I still feel a great sadness that this American tradition is no more. What do I do now if I want a Taffy cookie? Where do I go? Who do I turn to? Yesterday I was in the grocery store and saw that indeed there were only three types of Mother's Cookies left on the shelf and in very few quantities. Forget the Wall Street bailout, we need to bail out Mother's Cookies! I plan to buy one of the t-shirts shown above. I doubt it will fix the company's bankruptcy problems, but it may the only thing left of those beloved little confections.

Paws Under the Door

My son is so silly. He loves to come into my office when I am working and close the door. He then gets mad that it is closed but he can't open it himself. Today he was grunting and whining so that I would open it and then he erupted in a high pitched giggle. I looked to see what he thought was so funny and saw my cat's paws sticking out from underneath the door. The cat and my son then continued to play, touching each other's "paws" and this provided much entertainment for some time - times like these make me so glad we have all the billions of toys taking up precious real estate in our house.

Blog Fodder

Ever since starting this blog, I look at life in a whole new light. I often think “will this make a good story on my blog?”. My husband can attest to the fact that I will call interesting things, “blog fodder”. So, I have decided that postings with “blog fodder” in the title will be fun stories that I have wanted to post, but may be unrelated to each other.

Time for Money

Sunday is allowance day for my daughter. My husband and I sat her down and told her that since she was a good girl and did what she was asked (clean room, take dishes to the kitchen) she would get the money she earned. We told her to go get her piggy bank. As she darted up the stairs, she yelled “Yaaaay! Time for moneeeeeyyyyyy!”


Alright! You’re Cool!

My son loves to display his new found skill of giving five. If you hold out your hand and say “gimme five” he will get a huge smile on his face and slap your hand with both of his. After he does that I will say “Alright! You’re cool!”; this causes him to giggle and squeal with delight. Then that makes me giggle and squeal with delight. Ah, kids are so fun!

I’ll Have My Usual

Earlier this month, in The Greatest Invention of All Time, I mentioned how much I love my stovetop cappuccino maker. That thing really is fabulous. But sometimes I have a lot of errands to run and I’ll indulge in having someone else make it for me. I will take my Starbucks travel coffee cup with me, that I bought five years ago, and go through a drive-thru. Well, today it happened! Someone actually remembered my usual order!

I pulled up and started to hand over my cup and she said “Coconut right? And decaf?”. Yesssss! She actually remembered my coffee cup with the watermelon print on it and that’s how she recalled my order from last time. Next time I’ll just pull up and say “I’ll have my usual.” I’ve always wanted to say that!

If you see this cup headed your way, please know that my "usual" is a tall decaf cappuccino with a hint of coconut.

The Many Faces of Facebook

I never realized how behind in the online world I was until I joined Facebook (two days ago), and discovered how many people from my past already had profiles. In such a short time of being on there, I already have nine “friends” and most of them are people I knew from high school or the church I went to many years ago. It is a great way to catch up with people and network.

I’m feeling nostalgic. Suddenly I am sent back to the days of Beach Olympics, Mexico mission trips, and CVHS football games. My wish is that my children will have similar growing experiences and opportunities that I did.

The Greatest Invention of All Time

Okay, so maybe that it is a bit of an exaggeration to call it the greatest invention, but it comes pretty close! I am talking about the Bialetti Mukka Express stove top cappuccino maker. This polished aluminum beauty allows me to have a cup of frothy deliciousness whenever I want – and I don't have to leave the house to do so.

In my town there are very few places to get a truly awesome cappuccino, except for the local bagel shop. And being a busy mom, I rarely have time to stop somewhere and enjoy a cup. Coffee kiosks are very popular with my demographic – it's the battle between The Human Bean and Dutch Brothers. Both are good, but I think a cappuccino or latte deserves to be consumed out of a real cup. Going to these drive-thrus is also hard on the wallet and I can tell when the espresso machine hasn't been cleaned out.

So what is a coffee lover to do? Thumbing through a Crate & Barrel catalog I found an item that looked so intriguing I had to try it myself. I ordered the Mukka Express for a whopping $89, skeptical of its ability to produce my precious drink. When it arrived, I was a little overwhelmed by the contraption. There are many of steps you have to take to ensure a great cup of coffee. The instructions said you would have to discard the first few cups as you are “seasoning” the pot. I wasn't prepared for the huge amounts of coffee spewing all over my stove! It has taken me some time to get the system down, but since doing so I have enjoyed playing around with different blends of coffee. It doesn't produce perfectly white foam, but it takes up little space on the counter is easy to clean. Here is my recipe for a near perfect cappuccino:

Coffee Blend:
½ Starbucks House Blend
½ New Mexico Piñon Coffee
This blend provides a great espresso flavor without being too strong, the piñon gives a mild nutty flavor.

Milk:
Whole milk works best if you have it. It is okay to add a little heavy cream to low fat milk too.

If you love this creamy Italian drink the way I do, I highly recommend this wonderful apparatus.