Thursday, April 1, 2010

A Pot of Coffee

You can kind of tell what sort of a day you're having by when you put on your coffee and how much you make. Like for instance, right now I'm brewing a full pot of coffee at 1:30 in the afternoon. Typically, that states that I've got a lot done so I feel like I deserve a break from the stuff I've still got to do in the afternoon. It's not a desparate situation since, after all, it is only 1:30; it's kind of a congratulatory pot. However, let's say that it's 11:00 at night and I just put on a full pot of coffee. That is a desparate situation. That says more of a "term paper due the next day" or a "I promised my boss I'd have this done for tomorrow." A pot of coffee at 3 a.m. speaks of ill children with no sign of immediate relief. A pot of coffee at 5 a.m. is iffy. A cup is safer. You see, if you make a pot of coffee at 5 a.m. that implies that you will be around long enough to drink that whole pot so you probably woke up from a dog barking or some thunder and couldn't get back to sleep. Making a single cup of coffee is safer since that implies travelling. Perhaps you're taking your coffee in a travel mug and needed to get up at 5 a.m. to travel to the mountains for a fun ski trip! I love early morning travel, so that's a good thing to me. A full pot at 7 a.m. is standard operating procedure. A single cup at 7 a.m. makes me think that you should give yourself more time in the mornings before you have to race out the door. Wake up 15 minutes earlier and you can get a latte from Starbucks! A full pot at 6 p.m. is wonderful - it means you have company! A single cup at 6 p.m. is kinda sad - you don't have company and you still have work to do. If you ever have doubts about the underlying message regarding the amount of coffee you are drinking and when you're drinking it, do the safe thing - drink tea.
I did some stuff done this morning to deserve my pot of coffee right now. For one I touched up some spots on our wall where we patched over after we had painted so now we can hang our gorgeous new mirror back up. Gabe just fell asleep for his nap about half an hour ago and only gave me about an hour of time this morning where I wasn't required to hold him. So I got all my emailing done - hopefully for the day - and in the hour I got to set him down I tidied up some stuff around the house.
Do you ever make your own iced tea? We used to make it at the cafe I worked at in High School. The secret is the sugar syrup. we would brew 4 tea bags in our coffee makers instead of steeping the tea. Less swill at the bottom. Then you let that cool in the fridge and serve it over ice with a shot of syrup. We usually did raspberry flavored or something to that extent so the syrups we added we usually berry or fruity at least. Vanilla is a safe one to do and if you want something more authentic do a black tea and lemon flavored syrup. I was planning on serving those at my house all last summer but the Italian Sodas kinda took over. I worked at another cafe in town a few years after I graduated and I was in charge of making up the specialty drinks each week. So in the summer I made two amazing italian sodas. Cremosas actually - italian sodas with cream. Well, the first one was a root beer float. They had root beer syrup there that had never been opened and they were just going to throw it away because no one ever ordered it, so I mixed it with some vanilla, added the club soda and topped it up with some cream and it was fantastic! The other one I did was a pina colada cremosa. Pineapple, banana, coconut and a twist of passion fruit - it was great.
For dinner tonight we're having a pork roast with a balsamic reduction. Matt and I went out for dinner a couple months ago and there was a balsamic reduction on the salad plate and it was so sweet, and so nice that I used my bread to clean the plate. I've been dying to make one at home ever since and I figured the pork would be a great pairing for the sweet, tanginess of the balsamic.
Our summer is looking pretty full already and it's only April 1st... Every weekend in April we are busy, and then three weekends in May are booked up already. June is swamped, July is hardly better and August - well, let's just say I'm almost looking forward to September. But, inspite of it being crazy busy, it will be really fun. We'll get out to Canmore, see lots of our friends, go to Panorama, a couple of weddings, a few parties... it's going to be a lot of fun. Just hopefully not too much fun :)
I just found out that I get to go to the zoo on Saturday! I'm so excited! I really love going to the zoo and I especially love taking Gabe. The last time he went he was 3 months old and he slept almost the whole time. He woke up when we got to the zebras and then he managed to stay awake to see the giraffes, the hippos and the fish. But he only really liked the fish. I'm not sure he even could tell that the giraffes were animals. I think he just considered them trees. In any event, this next trip out will be alot better because he'll be awake for it! And we get to go with my cousins whom I hardly ever get to see anymore.
Well, my coffee is ready and that means I'd best get back to work.

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)

1 comment:

I would love to know what you think of my recipes, or even of my antics! Let me know!