coffee

This is my weekend morning cup of coffee, usually brewed after reading and lounging around in bed - enjoying a lie-in as some say here. Sometimes I don't get to drink it until after making breakfast, or brunch, though.

Weekdays, after my quick morning bike commute, I usually have two poured at once from a communal pot into a thermal travel mug that I sip from while at my desk.

I don't remember when I first started drinking coffee regularly - probably during college. It was a regular household feature growing up since my parents always brewed a morning pot. They used to use an electric percolator but switched to drip in the 80s when it got a bad rap.

I appreciate the drink but wouldn't call myself a coffee connoisseur and usually brew at home since I prefer it black. I do enjoy an espresso drink out from time to time and drink instant sometimes, too. 

Throughout the years I've brewed coffee in many ways. Cone filter into a cup or thermal pot.

Italian espresso pot - a percolator - but not seen as "bad for you" as old percolators

Vietnamese drip coffee filter, traditionally used to brew a strong coffee to mix with condensed milk for a delicious iced coffee.

photo by Maggie

When my colleagues got a new drip coffee maker, I bought the old one. I haven't owned an electric coffee pot since graduating from college and it takes out that extra step of boiling and pouring the water - as if that is so difficult, haha! The capacity is much more than we drink though, so usually brew half a pot.


Drinking coffee is more of a routine for me than an addiction. Some mornings I don't bother drinking coffee and just have water instead...and if you're wondering, I do drink tea, but it's coffee that I make at home.

Baking

This post was prompted by the question at the end of Maggie's post "don’t you just love to [take photos of the things you] bake?" She was writing about apple crumble, so I figure she meant dessert, but I don't have as big a sweet tooth as some, and don't bake sweets as much anymore since there are less people to eat the end product. 

Looking through my Facebook profile and Instagram feed as well as photos on my iPhone to jog my memory from the beginning of the school year, I found several snapshots of some of the things that have come out of my oven. I haven't taken photos of everything though - dinners including lasagne, roast vegetables or roast chicken aren't included in this post. Sometimes I bake to use leftovers - quiche is one example.

Pizza - dough from a quick recipe that you can leave to let rise and bake focaccia with or not. Used a bell pepper languishing in the refrigerator until it was starting to wrinkle and sausage that was frosting over in the freezer.

Crostata - an Italian cake-like jam tart - delicious for breakfast and used up the last of my sister's homemade plum jam.

Bread - besides pizza dough or focaccia, this one rolled with sun-dried tomatoes and cheese, others plain or with herbs, and a another not pictured made sweet with a bit more sugar, milk and fruit (apple is a favorite).

A dense moist cake using an overripe banana in the batter and swirling in a jar of pineapple jam someone gave me from Malaysia. I was considering making Taiwanese or SE Asian pineapple tarts, encasing the jam in a shortbread crust, but I went for the less labor-intensive route. I do love shortbread though...

Oatmeal cookies and my mom's favorite, pecan pie - with pecans she shelled for me (after I ate my fill of them raw).

Cheesecake bars with a chocolate crust

Brownies and Blondies

Keeping with childhood traditions, an assortment of baked goodies to give out at Christmas. This past year it was peppermint shortbreads,  gingery German Pfeffernusse, and roasted pecans (sweet and spicy with a little chili powder).

I bought a block frozen puff pastry on sale and had fun playing around making Palmiers and apple and banana tarts.  Not pictured are the pot pies made with leftover stew - easy dinner!

I enjoy puttering around in the kitchen, just not the clean-up!

Observations

I'd forgotten what it's like to have little ones around. Even though I work with a group of active school age children, there's a noticeable difference in energy levels when comparing my classroom and home when there's a toddler visiting.

That said, it's been a delight to see how much my niece has grown and changed since our visit last summer. She's nearly two years old - I've forgotten what milestones are achieved when, but I've noticed her fine motor skills when (trying) to turn the key on a little wind-up toy, balancing little pattern blocks (modeling her mom), and eating with her (tweezer-like) chopsticks, as well as how she's learning and saying the names of colors, shapes and numbers (pattern blocks again, and upon noticing our big clock). I've also enjoyed observing her (quirks and) expressions.

*chopsticks photo by Alex

*crab photo by Alex

In transition

I've noticed that this blog has turned into more of a travel log than "a day in the life of Maggie and Alex" how it first started here in 2006. There's nothing wrong with that, but now that Maggie and Alex have grown and have their own ways to document what's going on with them via their own blogs, Facebook, Instagram and other accounts, I've been thinking whether and how to change direction regarding what I post. I started by changing the original tag line.

While considering, I've been reminiscing. Before this blog, I had a website on Geocities (from perhaps 1999) to keep family and friends up to date on what was happening with our family half a world away. To put content up I was dabbling in HTML and on DTP Adobe Pagemaker before WYSIWYG and had photos on Zing and Ofoto - any of those names ring a bell?

I found some of the old site on the Web archive Wayback Machine.