Coffee & Tea Bar

store:  Airscape Coffee Canister via Crate & Barrel // sip: Cafe mug from Crate & Barrel  //  Homegrown Monogram Mug via Anthropologie // share: Pick Me Up Mug & Tray via Crate & Barrel // brew: Bodum French press via Target // steep: Cast Iron Tea Pot via Teavana // nibble: Mini Latte Bowls via Anthropologie // go: Copco Acadia Reusable To-Go Mug via Amazon - Note: This is an Affiliate Link

I saw an image on Pinterest of a lovely dedicated home coffee bar, all set up nicely and tucked away in a corner. Our kitchen is teeny-tiny and lacks space, but we do have room for one decent-sized shelf. I'd like to set up a mini coffee-and-tea station with all the necessities: plenty of mis-matching mugs, a French press, coffee and tea, a tea pot, colorful little bowls to hold snacks, and our to-go mugs. (P.S., my mom gifted me that Teavana tea pot, the very same one, but she bought it at the Ocean State Job Lot for under $30!)

I can't decide if it's hot or cold coffee weather yet, so I've been drinking both, and switching it up with Tea Guys maple sugar tea at nights. Fun fact: I can drink coffee up until I go to bed without it affecting my sleep, although I should probably stop doing that.

What Writers Ate

Have you seen the Awl's Writer Food from A to Z describing some of the well-loved snacks, meals, and dietary habits of authors?

B is for booze, of course (Frost, Keats, everyone in the world), but Fritos also make their way on the list (Neil Simon). I thought M might be for madeleines a la Proust, but it's for milk (Molière and Balzac tried milk-only diets). Proust gets J for Java (he is rumored to have drank 16 cups of espresso a day!).

L is for loaves (Woolf and Dickinson baked, while Percy Shelley stashed bread in his pockets). P is, delightfully, for Jane Austen's morning spread of plum cake, coffee, chocolate, and other pastries. N, surprisingly, is for Nothing (the ascetics include the Brontës: Emily favored a simple diet while Charlotte had an aversion to dining in public). And, hauntingly, Q is for appetite-quelling in reference to Hemingway's time in Europe, staring at pictures of food in museums while "belly-empty, hollow hungry." But let's end on a happy note: C for, what else, champagne (Oscar Wilde)!


Check out the rest at The Awl. 

Sources:
Hu, Jane. "Writer Food From A-Z." The Awl. August 28, 2012. <http://www.theawl.com/2012/08/writer-food-from-a-to-z>

photo source: Man holding too many ice cream cones via Flickr

Snack Attack

I recently revamped my snack-strategy after nearly a semester of mid-afternoon slumps that made me completely unproductive. A nutritionist friend suggested I rethink the way I ate throughout the day.

I had thought my snacks were fine: a banana, a yogurt, etc., but she pointed out that I needed to balance the short-term burst of energy of a carb with the long-lasting energy of a protein in order to keep my blood sugar levels steady and even. It was such a simple, "duh" change—adding some almond butter to a banana or a corn tortilla with a piece of cheese. And I felt the effects almost immediately!

Based on her suggestions I jotted down a list of pairings that I keep on my fridge. The following suggestions are so, so simple but when I'm hungry, I need all the guidance I can get. These suggestions are based on my dietary needs/preferences: i.e., vegetarian and gluten free (I love Mary's Gone Crackers).

Choose something from column A and something from column B, keep the portions small, and you should be able to fuel your day without doing that awful head-nod-head-nod-head-nod-jerk-awake drowsy thing you just did at your desk.




Disclaimer: This is the advice of a laywoman. I am not a nutritionist, an RD, an RN, an MD, or in the health field in any way. When I get my Ph.D., I anticipate a lifetime of saying "I'm not that kind of doctor."  Consult your doctor or a certified nutritionist to figure out what works for you, etc. etc. 

 

Make it: Hot Sauce

Good news! Making your own hot sauce is super easy and takes no time at all.

First, the peppers on our pepper plant turned from sweet to HOT, seemingly overnight. I'm not positive what type of pepper we have, maybe a California Anaheim that hasn't turned red? Either way, my non-spicy-tolerant husband hilariously threw a couple of them into his morning omelet and had steam coming out of his ears.

Second, our plant has gone crazy—it's been producing loads of fruit all summer. After the requisite salsa and salads, I had to get creative: homemade hot sauce! I loosely followed Mark Bittman's recipe for DIY hot sauce and cannot believe how simple it is.






The result is incredible: smoky, hot, sweet, fresh. I've been putting it on everything, from scrambled eggs to pasta to quinoa & veggie bowls.



Wouldn't this make a great Christmas present for the hot sauce fiend in your life? 

Make it: Corn Tortillas

Have you ever made your own tortillas? I didn't realize until a few months ago how absurdly easy they are—the result is ten thoooooousand times tastier than store-bought packs. I buy the grocery store ones all the time, and they'll do the job for a quick dinner or emergency baked nachos. And they'll suffice as delivery vehicles for cheese and/or guacamole. But eating one plain is like eating a napkin. So the homemade version is so far beyond, is what my central thesis here is.

All you need is masa harina (corn flour; found in any grocery store), a pinch of salt, and water. You can follow the directions on the back of the masa harina bag, but I tend to cook by the seat of my pants and add water to a cup of the masa until it turns into a malleable dough. Dig your hands in there and massage the water into the flour—it's deeply satisfying. I don't use a spoon or mixer for this. Come on. In terms of flattening, I don't own a tortilla press and have experimented with rolling pins, weights, sheets of parchment, etc. After a lot of sticky dough and trial-and-error I've found that the best method is to simply use my palms to shape them and press down with the back of a spatula once they're on a hot griddle. I mean, they're rustic, so it's fine.

Top with everything or nothing. Or eggs and kale. Or all the cheese and guaca in the world!!