Libations Friday! 12 June 2009

Photo by once and future @ flickr

From Denny: With the economy still in the dumps along with our wallets, this video can perk up the coffee lovers. Demoed is the less expensive way to get that coveted coffee experience we no longer can afford on a daily basis like we used to do. There are quite a large variety of coffee makers available for any budget.

Sitting on the table is one of my favorite coffee companies, Gevalia, from Sweden. Every flavor they make is carefully considered, tested and just plain awesome! We are big fans of the French Vanilla flavor when we want a flavor coffee in our house. They carry coffees from various coffee houses in Europe like Café Sperl in Vienna, Austria, a coffee house still remembered with affection. Clearly, this video also demonstrates how there is still a huge market for coffee consumption!

Video: Be Your Own Barrista

“David Gregg from Behindthebuy.com demonstrates to Harry Smith a variety of home baristas so that designer coffee experience doesn't have to burn a hole in your pocket.”


Watch CBS Videos Online

From the Café Moto site comes our coffee drink recipes for this week. Their funny motto over there is “we drink all we can; the rest we sell.” You really need to check out this site!

Most of us love Café Latte. I like the way they describe the process. Find out the practical tips of how good coffee is achieved in the following offerings!



Photo by Joshua Reppeneker @ flickr

ESPRESSO

We'll put this one first as it is the basis of most coffee drinks.

RISTRETTO: "Short pour." Usually 1 ounce for a single and two for a double. The original Italian espresso.

LUNGO: "Long pour." This is the typical American espresso and is 1.25 ounces for a single and 2.5 ounces for a double.

CAFÉ LATTE

Steam 12 to 14oz. milk between 120 F. and 140 F. Prepare a single or double espresso. Pour espresso into cup and then tilt the cup and pour the milk slowly down the side. This lifts some of the espresso to the top of the cup and gives it a swirled, marbleized appearance. Sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon.

ESPRESSO CON PANNA

Espresso topped with whipped cream.

From Denny: I love the name of this one; sure made me laugh! Also, it’s a great lead-in to my silly poem. Maybe I can claim I was drinking a Hammerhead coffee when I wrote it…?

HAMMERHEAD

An American creation meant to get you wired fast and furious, hence the reference to the shark. Good, strong coffee poured over two shots of fresh espresso. Leave room for cream. Usually ordered by very fast talkers with jittery eyes.

Now for the poetry section, or should I say, silly poetry section:

Do you ever just want to jot down something utterly silly, total nonsense, of not much redeeming cultural value yet somehow it just must be significant? I mean, after all, we are all great writers of soon-to-be historical mention, right? OK, probably not, but it’s fun to dream on…

I talked about anagrams this week. As a writer I do like to play with my words like little kids play with their food (future artists at play). Every now and then I like to play with words in a visual sense where the poem only looks good on paper. Reading it out loud is fine but the auditory loses out for the finer shades of meaning only viewed visually. I like to play with words that sound alike but are not the same subject.



Photo by k0a1a.net @ flickr

Ditties are good for the soul; they help loosen up any emotional rigidity or the results of a bad day. In the following little ditty I played with the sound of the words “I, eye and aye (archaic word for yes).” Creating this little poem was a lot like reading those old vaudeville jokes of “who’s on first?” It’s a short-cut reference, using the sport jargon of baseball, and about the confusion that can happen in a conversation when you don’t know who exactly is being referenced when the speaker uses “him” or “her.”

You could read this poem on a couple of levels, like a philosophy student, or even as a conversation with God or just as silly fun. There is nothing more fun than writing on several levels simultaneously, sort of like playing multi-dimensional chess. The more simply you write, often the more meaning can be packed into it. Also, people can enjoy it on any level.

Life is like that: take a chance, make some choices and live out loud. Choose a word you enjoy, inject a little humor and you are off to the poetry races! Have some fun!



Photo by zedzap @ flickr (such a cool photo!)


Eye I


She eyed me
I eyed Him
He eyed Us

We saw

Eye: aye
Now
You see 2
Who saw whom?

I eye: aye



Denny Lyon
Copyright 13 September 2008
All Rights Reserved

Have a good weekend, everyone! Live out loud!

Libations Friday! 8 May 2009

New coffee recipes, new coffee site, original poem AND it's Friday! Does Life get any better? :)

Coffee Photo by once and future @ flickr

From Denny: With the “hurry up and wait all day” jury duty this week I didn’t get a chance to pre-load any of my posts. They were keeping us longer than usual as a Mexican drug lord was on trial, complete with over a million dollars in drugs as evidence and a SWAT team to protect his sorry criminal self from assassination. Let's hear the applause for where our tax dollars go: forced to protect mocking criminals while awaiting trial. Such is the downside of a civilized society dealing with the savage violent members.

So you can guess how many people wanted to be on that jury... I didn't really care if they picked me or not as I can't be intimidated and have no use for bullies. I was the last person to be paneled and once they found out I was a journalist I made the immediate cut. Many of the jurors complained that it was a bit creepy giving out your home address and other personal information in open court since the accused has the right to know where his accusers live. Talk about a law that needs to be changed - like yesterday!

Apologies for any inconvenience to my readers as I know you clock in from time zones all over the world. Usually I try to load at least one post a day by early morning my time (and Canada’s) so folks across The Pond in Europe have a read by late afternoon.

Hello to the folks in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Greece as I’m surprised to find so many readers from Eastern Europe. Hello to those of you in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Finland, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and Denmark!

As to the folks in the Mideast - like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - and Asia - like lots in India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia - Thank You for checking in for a visit!

Now on to the coffee portion! Found this interesting coffee site: BestOfCoffeeNews.com.

Here are some of their coffee advice tips:

Troubleshooting Coffee

Does your coffee taste bad? There are several possible reasons why the coffee doesn't taste right. Here are some possible solutions to common coffee problems.

• Stale coffee beans or stale grounds? This will create a recipe for bitter coffee. Get fresh coffee!

• A dirty pot? An unclean coffee pot makes bitter coffee. Follow the coffee maker cleaning instructions.

• Poor water quality? Typical city water may lead to bitter tasting coffee. Use clean water if possible.

• Using an incorrect ratio of coffee grounds to water? If the ratio isn't right, the coffee can turn bitter, or make the coffee taste like nothing.

Coffee Maker Maintenance

How to you clean your coffee maker? In order to be able to keep making good coffee, do this every month:

1. In case you have a built-in filter, take it out.

2. Fill your carafe with water and add two tablespoons of vinegar.

3. Pour the mixture of water and vinegar into the coffee maker and turn on the coffee maker.

4. Let it brew halfway through the brewing cycle and stop the machine for about 15 minutes. Resume the brewing process and let the brewing finish.

5. Now, rinse the carafe out and brew plain water through the system - twice. Rinse out the carafe, and you're now all done!

Here are two recipes from BestOfCoffeeNews.com:

This is definitely one I’ve not seen. I suppose if it’s made with fresh farmer’s market yogurt it could be outstanding, though I doubt I’d try it with what’s available in most grocery stores stuffed full of preservatives, additives and sugar.

Coffee Yogurt Drink

Ingredients

• 8 ounces plain yoghurt
• 8 ounces cold black coffee
• Sugar to taste
• Ground cinnamon

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a blender and serve in a long glass with a straw. Decorate with cinnamon. Serves 2.

***
This one sounds refreshing for a summer drink with all this mint!

Peppermint Coffee Cream

Ingredients

• 2 ounces white creme de menthe
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 8 ounces hot freshly made black coffee
• lightly whipped double cream
• mint chocolate cut into thin slivers

Warm a brandy glass. Add the creme de menthe and the sugar. Add the hot coffee, stir well. Pour the whipped cream over a spoon onto the top of the coffee. Decorate with the slivers of mint chocolate. Drink through the cream without mixing.

***



Photo by Sarah Sitkin @ flickr

Now on to the poem. How many times do you find yourself amused by something small that happens in your daily life? Parents and grandparents experience this often. Do try to record those amusing real life incidents - if only to write about years later. Look at it this way: you can embarrass your kids at their wedding, entertaining the wedding guests with funny stories.

Though I don’t have children there are times when my husband is a great substitute. Most days he is the hard-nosed tough-minded businessman. And then his Irish side pops up out of nowhere to hijack his personality and he is like a daredevil nine-year-old on a sugar rush! He definitely keeps my life from being too serious.

No matter how annoying he gets I still enjoy watching him at play – or should I say watching him “in play” like some strategic game plan like you see in sports. It’s like a coach called Life handed him a playbook and told him to execute it! The way some people’s minds work when mildly stressed and the inventive solutions they create…

As you read this light-hearted and total silliness ditty, think of the amusing childrens' writer Dr. Seuss' “musical words” in your head and you will have the right frame of mind to be amused and follow the beat of the poem. Oh, and don't forget to write fan letters to my husband! :)

Have a good weekend, everyone! Thanks for visiting!




Pastel Drawing by Denny Lyon


The Husband Who Cleans

Lunching together at home my husband and me
One Friday summer at noon: Horror happened!
Spilled my red sauce dots, splat! All over ivory

My husband he comforted me, No big deal!
I’ll clean it later, good intentions he had
OK, I agreed, forgetting ‘til many hours that late

Like many a wife I circled back to clean
But not found those red dots! So astonished was I!
My husband proudly approached to show me you see
Pointed to where the red spot dots had been dining
And declared the ivory cloth so spotless and cleaned

I peered closer, doubting, to examine for wet
Found none, now perplexed, now downright puzzled,
What ever did you use to clean “It”?

He solved the problem, can’t you see?
Rotating ‘round the tablecloth one place setting
Grinning wildly, he lifted up the long S & P tray
He exclaimed, so proud he was to me, See? I cleaned!
The red dots they remained, new home, well hidden,
Under the accommodating accomplice S & P tray...



*Male Motto: If you can’t see it, then it’s clean!

*Disclaimer: My husband wants to make sure everyone knows it was the woman who was the table slob… He’s sensitive.


Denny Lyon
Copyright 18 July 2008
All Rights Reserved

Libations Friday! 24 April 2009

From Denny: The Fridays keep rolling on! Can you tell it’s been 87-degrees F. the past week here in Louisiana? My mind is definitely on those tall cold drinks! This one reminds me of when I lived in Vienna, Austria a while back and the Hungarian culture and cooking influences on the local Austrians.

From the very popular site: recipes.lovetoknow.com

Image by R. J. Malfalfa via Flickr

Photo of Sunset over coffee fields in Hawaii

Hungarian Caffe

Ingredients:

pint of very strong black coffee

A few drops of almond extract

2 well beaten eggs

2 tablespoons of sugar

4 tablespoons of thick cream

1 cup of sweetened whipped cream

1 quart of ice cold effervescent water

1 pint of shaved ice

Directions: Flavor the coffee with almond extract. Strain and place in the double boiler. At the boiling point, add the eggs, sugar, and thick cream. Cook only until the custard coats the back of the spoon. When perfectly cold, fold in a cup of sweetened whipped cream. Add a quart of ice cold effervescent water and a pint of shaved ice. Serve in tall sherbet glasses.

Another recipe from recipes.lovetoknow.com

Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans

Here's an incredibly easy recipe even the novice cook can master and be proud!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup roasted coffee beans

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Easy Directions: Melt the chocolate chips, either in a microwave or in a double boiler, until smooth. Add several coffee beans to the melted chocolate, stirring until beans are completely coated with chocolate. Remove beans from chocolate and place on wax paper to harden. Repeat with remaining coffee beans. Freeze in a single layer for 30 minutes or leave at room temperature overnight. Store coffee beans in an airtight container.


*** POEM ***

Speaking of hot weather, here’s a poem I wrote last July 2008. Sometimes I paint my insights, sometimes I journal my dreams and, sometimes, those spiritual visions become poetry.

Since I wrote this poem I ran across a health study (which I placed on my health blog, The Healing Waters, go here) about how friendship helps boost your immune system to overcome disease and give us longer life. That new validation dovetails nicely into this poem about the offering of friendship among strangers.

Comments: And, yes, you are welcome to comment upon anything on this blog, including my poetry. I buried perfection a long time ago, preferring to live out loud - and happy!



The Long Road

I was walking along a narrow long road
It stretched dry dirt, winding horizon bound
Few canopy shade-welcoming trees there were
The hot sun stared down unrelentingly, glaring

Many people there were up ahead in the long distance
I squinted my eyes to see better and saw countless advancing
Why was I walking alone with so many far forward?
I wondered out loud. Why won’t they slow down?
I complained inside. Don’t they see me, hear my steps?
I mourned deeply low, hoping no one could hear my cry

I pushed on, focused my thoughts long and deep
I walked along in contemplative self-absorption
I pondered the meaning of life so disconnected, alone

When suddenly it occurred to me to a gentle stop come
The thought tugged at me to turn around, look behind
There in the sweltering distance, a few stragglers like me
Following behind them a large crowd distant orbit, far away

Waited and waited some more I did, those few to catch up, see me
Gasping for breath, with hard effort they coughed their thanks effusively
Lightheartedly we wiled away the hours; we laughed and laughed, talked more
When, all at once, they quickly tired, melted away, a little roadside, veered off

Sitting down, enjoyed they long rest; traveling beyond the hot road continued me
They waved smiling, content goodbye; pieces, my heart, left abiding with theirs
Again alone on the road I began to mull over, lingering visit I weighed
The day grew longer, hotter, more difficult to endure, yet journeyed I

Changing focus out of reverie, scouting the people far before me
I looked up to find, abruptly, stopped square in my path, one man standing
His eyes were sparkling, his attention riveted eagerly upon mine
Who are you? I asked startled, surprised, this sudden company of one

His deliberate smile widening, he carefully spoke,
It was now my time to stop, slow down to meet you


Denny Lyon
Copyright 18 July 2008
All Rights Reserved

Photo by once and future @ flickr