On Monday I’ll be boarding a bus to take Tri-C West’s production of Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They Cry Wolf to beautiful Montreal.

The itinerary contains the phrase “French restaurant” and the word “bistro” several times so I suspect there will be plenty of blog fodder north of the border.

I’ll be taking my camera with me as well as my laptop, so there should be plenty of pictures in the blog as well.

Hopefully the hotel has wi-fi.

I rather enjoy wine, but I know squat about it. I’m mostly a white Zinfandel guy, and I occasionally find other things I enjoy. I usually joke that I have all the discerning tastes of a six year old when it comes to wine.

Tonight I had a lovely dinner with my girlfriend and two of her friends, and for it I found a white Catawba from a local winery called Mon Ami.

Very inexpensive at around $7.00 a bottle, and doesn’t taste (to me, anyway) like a cheap wine. On the sweet end of the spectrum, and gives a nice warmth in the nose (I’m sure that has a piece of terminology associated with it, but like I said, I know jack about wine.)

Anyway, delicious!

We also had tortellini in tomato sauce and French bread. Fantastic meal.

I made breakfast this morning. I didn’t make bacon, but I couldn’t think of a pun involving the word “chorizo.”

Here’s the menu:

Eggs

Chorizo sausage

Hash browns*

Buttermilk biscuits*

Orange-banana-pineapple juice*

Coffee

*Ok, you caught me. Bob Evans brown & serve hash browns, buttermilk biscuits from a tube, and orange-banana-pineapple juice from frozen concentrate. It’s not that I don’t know how to make these things, but I was hungry darn it. Also, I have no buttermilk.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks (as you can imagine.) A musical for which I was playing percussion just closed last weekend, then Christmas, there hasn’t been much time for me to just stand around and relax lately. As the hash browns were experiencing a little Maillard mayhem, I was leaning against the counter and drinking coffee.  A wave of relaxation ran over me.

I’ve been kind of stressing out over other life-related stuff lately, too, and the sudden and unexpected calm was really nice. I guess sometimes you just have to chill the hell out before life can get calmer (as opposed to waiting until life gets calmer before you chill the hell out.)

Anyway, back to breakfast….

Delicious.  Over-easy eggs (or dippy eggs for younger readers.)  The hash browns were fantastic.  And I’ve found chorizo to be an excellent breakfast sausage.  Nice little kick to it.  The juice is excellent.  And the best manual drip coffee I’ve made in a while.

That’s all.  Have a great day.

(of coffee mugs.)

As you’ve no doubt gleaned from past blog entries, I’m a big fan of coffee. I love it. I love the way it smells, I love the way it tastes, I love the way it looks, and I love all things that have to do with coffee, as well. Percolators, carafes, presses, coffee cake, you name it.

This blog is about a coffee mug. For me it exists as a sort of Platonian Form of a coffee mug, because I have yet to find it.

This isn’t about me being a snob, or me being picky, this is about comfort. You see, there are few things more relaxing for me than sitting back with a cup of coffee. Is it such a crime that I have an ideal vessel from which I’d like to drink it?

It has to be an average sized mug, about four and a half to five inches tall, and about three and a half to four inches across. The handle must be large enough to accommodate all four fingers on my hand comfortably (none of that pinky squishing crap.) When holding the mug, my fingers must be parallel to the cup (perpendicular to the ground.)

That’s it. Seems simple enough, but you wouldn’t believe the trouble I’ve had finding it. Or how many cups I’ve found that fit all the criteria but one or two. I’ll find it someday.

I wanted to call it the “Fall Food Spectacular,” but that would kill the alliteration.
My favorite month began today.  Pumpkins, cider, really good apples, pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, hoodies, sweatpants, I freaking love fall.  I also work with a high school marching band, and I’m constantly irritated at football games when the temperature is like 80 degrees.  WTF?  It’s football season.  It’s supposed to be hoodie weather at the minimum.  (Or maximum, depending on how you look at it.)

Anyway, I digress…

On the to do list for this fall:  (We all know how well I do with to do lists…)

• Go to an apple orchard
• Spaghetti recipe (really this time)
• Concoct the perfect hot chocolate
• Pumpkin pie from scratch (Ok, this might be a little ambitious.)
• Apple pie

So yeah.  That’s the plan.  Stay tuned.

Sorry.  For some reason, it’s hard for me to write consistently.  I’ll try harder.
Regarding the Drawing Board, I got the cold soup accomplished, but that’s it.  No margarita.  No spaghetti.  I’ll have to extend the time frame to beyond the summer.  The Morel Dilemma is still in the research phase.

Updates to follow (I hope.)

I set a goal, and I kept it. Last night I made two salsas for today’s Father’s Day Cookout Extravaganza. Ok, I’m the only one who calls it that.

For the first I made the mango, jicama, onion, cilantro that I mentioned in Salsa Dance. I think it came out well.

For the second, I just riffed. Here goes:

1 vidalia onion

1 large poblano

1 green bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 orange bell pepper

fresh cilantro, finely minced

the juice of a lime or two

2 or 3 cerrano chilis (I had never used these before. These little guys pack a punch.)

Several small tomatoes (not necessary, but I like tomatoey salsas)

3 or 4 cloves of garlic, smashed, minced

Salt to taste

Chop it up. Mix it up. Chill it up. I’ll know for sure tomorrow, but preliminary taste tests are promising. As for the choice of bell pepper, I had two things in mind: One; green, orange, and red make for a very pretty salsa. Two; I think that red peppers are sweeter. Following that logic, orange will be sweeter than yellow. I wanted a nice blend of sweet and spicy. Poblanos are great because they have the flavor of a green bell, but with just a little bit of heat. Very nice.

In the spirit of cookouts and appropriate things to put on a tortilla chip, I also made some guac:

2 avocados, mashed

the juice of two limes

5 cloves of garlic, smashed, minced

about a third of a vidalia onion, finely minced

1 tomato, finely chopped

fresh cilantro, finely minced

3 cerrano peppers, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix it up. Chill it up. Initially the lime seemed a little overpowering, but once I had added the garlic, salt, and cilantro, it made more sense in the grand flavor scheme. It’s still a very lime intensive guac, but it seems to make sense. I’m thinking about calling it Margarita Guacamole.

I tried a new beer today, as well. It’s called Land Shark. It’s labeled as an “Island Style Lager.” I don’t know what “Island Style” is, but I like it a lot. It’s got the lightness of Corona, but with a little more depth to the flavor. “More robust” might be a good way to describe it.

On a side note: I had some cilantro on my hand when I took a sip of the beer. There’s something very nice about that smell/flavor combination. It seems right.

Ask anyone who knows me, I love coffee. I love it a lot. I used to do all sorts of silly things that I thought were making my coffee taste better: putting the beans in the freezer, buying expensive pre-ground (Gasp!) beans. I’ve come a long way since then. (Mostly thanks to Alton Brown and Good Eats.) Here’s some stuff I’ve learned:

Contrary to popular belief, freezing your beans is not a good idea. This is for several reasons, the most obvious of which should be all the other crap you probably keep in your freezer. I can’t speak for you, but I prefer my Kona blend without the fishstick undertone.

Another important reason to keep your beans out of the deep freeze is that while the beans are considered a dry good, they are not completely dry. There are oils in the bean which help to give coffee its flavor. Oils are liquid, and liquids freeze.

The issue here is coffee beans (in so far as their flavor is concerned) are really very delicate. The person whose job it is to roast the beans is called a Master Roaster. It’s precision work. A few seconds shorter or longer in the roaster can make all the difference between a robust, smoky flavor and a dead, burnt flavor.

If a few seconds of roasting can destroy a bean, imagine the damage you can do by freezing it. Keep your beans at room temperature in an airtight container. Another thing to keep in mind: the beans release gas. Vent the container from time to time, or you might end up with a beansplosion on your counter.

When using an auto-drip coffee maker (which I avoid whenever I can), remember that cleanliness is key. When I was growing up, my parents didn’t always wash the water reservoir and carafe between uses. I came to think this was normal. When you think about it, though, by doing that you’re allowing all sorts of crap into your coffee that doesn’t need to be there. If you must use an auto-drip, try to get one with a removable water reservoir. Wash it, the carafe, and the grounds basket after every use. Use a coffee maker cleaning product to flush out the works every once in a while. The pump and tubes and stuff pick up mineral deposits from your water that affect the flavor of your coffee. (This is one of the principal reasons I avoid the auto-drip.)

All that said about getting the best use out of your auto-drip, try the manual drip method. It’s just like an auto-drip, but manual (amazing, I know.) Put a funnel with a filter of grounds in it atop a thermal carafe. Heat the water, pour through the grounds. Easy as pie. (A slice of which would go well with a good cup of coffee.)

The advantages of this are significant. Other than the fact that there are no works (tubes, pumps, reservoirs) to get gunked up by mineral deposits and other impurities, you have complete control over just about every aspect of your coffee. You control the water temperature (around 200 degrees for optimal brewing temperature), you control the beans (if you use fresh and grind them yourself), you control the brew time (four to five minutes is optimal.)

With an auto-drip pot, the carafe sits atop a burner to keep the coffee hot. Unfortunately, by heating the coffee, the pot is also destroying the flavor. Using a thermal carafe allows you to keep the coffee hot for a good long time without killing the delicious coffee goodness.

As I mentioned before, it’s best to use fresh beans and grind them yourself. If you buy a bulk can of pre-ground beans, you’re gambling on two important factors: the age of the beans and the age of the grind. Once a bean is roasted, it starts losing its flavor. Once it’s ground, it loses its flavor even faster.

In short, don’t gamble on your beans. Buy in relatively small amounts, and often. I buy mine from the grocery store. (I’m not sure of the rules about mentioning specific brands on a website. The name is synonymous with “really big bird which is the national bird of the United States.”) I buy their house brand whole bean, and have only been disappointed with the freshness once. Try to find out when the shipment comes in and buy accordingly to maximize freshness.

Another place that the freshness of the bean should be assured is from a local coffee house. Find the busiest local coffee house (if it’s busy, it’s probably because they have really good coffee) and buy your beans whole from there.

On the subject of grinding: Grinding your own coffee with any grinder is better than using pre-ground. However, if one had to choose between a blade and burr grinder, one should always go with the burr grinder. The reason for this is the consistency of the grind size. A burr grinder uses two grinding surfaces, one that spins and one that as stationary. The distance of the moving surface from the stationary surface controls the grind size. A blade grinder uses a blade (go figure) and there is no control over grind consistency.

I use a blade grinder, and it works just fine, but a more consistent the grind size makes for a tastier brew.

For something different, try brewing your coffee with a French press (which I’ve seen called an Italian press at least once. I’m not sure why.) Use a coarser grind, add the beans and water, allow to brew for four minutes, and press the plunger slowly all the way to the bottom.

I have a small French press which I use from time to time. It allows more of the oils and particulates (the stuff that gives coffee its flavor) from the bean into the final brew. I think of the French press method as being more faithful to the bean than the drip methods.

As I’ve mentioned, I am not an expert.  And while my friends would say that I take my brewing very seriously, I’m not without my bad habits.

For example: I love percolator coffee. (It’s a guilty pleasure of mine.) If you’re not familiar with how a percolator works, the grounds basket sits atop a large urn of water.  When the water boils, it runs through a central tube up to the grounds basket, trickles through the grounds, and then the process repeats. This violates two coffee rules. First, the temperature of the water is above 200 degrees (it’s boiling.)  Secondly, it continues to heat the coffee after the brewing stops.

Now you know my terrible secret. Please don’t judge me.

Thanks to Alton Brown for teaching me just about everything I know about coffee, and to to about.com for information regarding burr grinders.