Oct 31
Gotta’ have that morning cup of inspiration, but just can’t be bothered with little things like taste and aroma? Then maybe what you need is inhalable caffeine. AeroShot comes in a plastic inhaler that shoots powdered caffeine directly onto the tongue, bypassing the line at Starbucks, the espresso machine, and presumably the rush to find the restroom an hour later.
Thanks, but I’ll stick with my mug of French Roast, if it’s all the same to you….
Oct 28
Espresso Blackened Beef Tenderloin
Ingredients:
4 Portions tenderloin beef; 8-ounces
Salt and pepper
2 c Decaffeinated espresso coffee beans; (finely ground)
Season beef with salt and pepper. Dip the top and bottom of the beef into the espresso. Place the beef espresso end down in super hot cast iron pan. Sear all sides of the beef leaving the one espresso crusted side unseared until your finished with the rest, then place the un-seared side down in the pan and place into a 500 degree oven. Cook until desired temperature, 2 minutes being rare and 8 being well done (times will vary). Always let your meat rest for a few minutes after cooking. It lets the juice set into the meat.
Public Domain Recipe
Oct 27
“Chocolate, men, coffee – some things are better rich.” ~Author Unknown
Oct 24
Coffee Rating:
4 out of 5 coffee cups
The Starbucks Christmas Blend has worked its way up to iconic holiday drink status, right alongside eggnog, spiced cider, and mulled wine. Each year, fans look forward to the blend and stock up on beans to get them through the season.
To clear up confusion, Starbucks releases the beans under two names: Christmas Blend and Holiday Blend. They are packaged differently, but they are the exact same beans. In 2010, the Christmas Blend was in a red package with a Christmas caroler, while the Holiday Blend was silver and featured a snowman.
The coffee is a Latin America, Asia/Pacific, and Sumatra blend. The beans are roasted separately, and then blended together — this is uncommon, as most beans are blended first and roasted second. The aged Sumatra beans are quite rare, and they mix with the other beans to create a coffee that is herbal, spicy, and sweet. When smelling the coffee, the syrupy spicy sweet is apparent, as is a nuttiness. The coffee tastes balanced with smooth spices and big body.
In my opinion, the Christmas Blend isn’t quite as impressive as the Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend, a shame because while the Thanksgiving Blend is on a very limited release and available for barely a month, the Christmas blend is in shops for a few months. However, the Christmas blend is a very complete and smooth coffee that complements all the treats that accompany the holidays. Be sure to snatch some up — and while you’re at Starbucks, get a peppermint white chocolate mocha — yum!
About the author: Sarah Beckman is an editor at Affordable Style. She can’t wait for winter so she can wrap up in winter scarves, sip on Starbucks holiday drinks, and put on her reading glasses to revisit holiday favorites like A Christmas Carol.
Oct 21
Dark Bread
Ingredients:
1 c Warm water
1/4 c Maple syrup
2 tb Yeast
4 Eggs, at room temperature
1/4 c Molasses
1 tb Instant coffee
2 tb Carob powder
4 c Whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 c Rye flour
1/2 c Corn meal
1 Egg
1 tb Water
Combine warm water and maple syrup; sprinkle on yeast; set aside. Using a whisk, blend eggs, molasses, and coffee. Add carob powder and 1/2 of flour. Beat until smooth. Using a wooden spoon, mix in rye flour and corn meal; beat thoroughly. Gradually add remaining flour. Turn onto floured work surface and knead 15 minutes. Place in lightly oiled bowl; turn dough so top is also oiled. Cover with a towel and let stand for 1 hour. Turn out, punch down, and knead for 3 minutes. Form into round loaves. Place on lightly oiled cookie sheets. Combine egg and water; use to brush loaves. Let rise again for 1 hour; bake at 350 degrees, 30-40 minutes or until thunking sound is made when bread is hit with a knuckle.
Public Domain Recipe
Oct 20
“Conscience keeps more people awake than coffee.”
~Author Unknown
Oct 14
Black and White Brownies
Ingredients:
Butter & flour for baking pan
1 c Cake flour, plus 6 tablespoons, sifted after measuring
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tb Instant coffee
4 oz Unsweetened chocolate, melted, cooled to room temperature
5 1/2 oz Unsalted butter
1 1/2 c White chocolate, cut up
4 lg Eggs
1 c Plus 10 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter and flour a 9 x 13-inch baking pan and set aside. Blend the flour with salt and coffee and set aside.
In a double boiler, over medium heat, melt the chocolate. When melted, add the butter and melt, over low heat and stir until smooth; let cool to room temperature. While this is cooling, cut the white chocolate into bit sized bits
With an electric mixer beat the eggs and sugar for about 5 minutes or until light, thick and ribbony. When the chocolate has melted, fold it into the eggs along with the vanilla. Gently with a rubber spatula, fold the flour into the batter in a few smooth swift strokes. Do not overmix or the brownies will be heavy. Fold in the white chocolate chunks and transfer the batter into the prepared baking pan.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top springs back when you press it lightly with your fingertips or when a toothpick when inserted in center of dough comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let set until completely cool. Cut into rectangles and wrap individually in plastic wrap or foil to keep them very fresh.
Yield: 20 bar cookies.
Public Domain Recipe
Oct 13
“The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.”
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Over the Teacups,” 1891
Oct 10
You always knew that a cup of coffee first thing in the morning would give you that boost you needed go get going. But who knew you could also power your car with it?
A group of British engineers were able to power a car up to 77.5 miles per hour using nothing but coffee–more specifically, used coffee grounds. After gathering all those leftovers, they dried the grounds, compressed them into pellets, and burned a mixture of coffee grounds and wood in a gassifier, which converts the fuel into a combination of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane, that in turn powers the vehicle’s engine. There was no indication whether the coffee they used was “leaded” or “unleaded”.
Oct 7
Vietnamese Coffee
Ingredients:
2 tb Sweetened Condensed Milk
6 oz Strong Black Coffee
In restaurants and cafe, dark-roast coffee is brewed in an individual drip pot that sits on top of a glass, slowly dripping into sweet milk. it takes a good 10 to 15 minutes for the water to finish dripping through, and the coffee is sipped at an equally leisurely pace. Both the coffee and the pots are available in Southeast Asian markets, but any type of coffee and any brew method that produces a strong, rich-tasting cup will do.
Place the milk in the bottom of an 8 ounce glass. Carefully pour in coffee, trying not to disturb the layer of milk. Stir milk up from bottom and sip coffee. There will probably be some milk left in the bottom of the glass when you are finished.
Makes 1 serving.
Variation: This coffee may also be served iced. Add ice cubes on top of the sweet milk and proceed as above.
Public Domain Recipe
Oct 6
“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.”
~T.S. Eliot
Oct 3
We all know that coffee can give us a lift, but who knew it could be this powerful? A new study from Harvard School of Public Health suggests that women who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day were fifteen percent less likely to develop depression than those who drank one cup of coffee or less per week.
You can check out the entire article here.
