Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Update

Just a quick post- added some new page elements for everyone. Enjoy!

Monday, April 2, 2007

Red Eye Gravy

Very popular in the South, Red Eye Gravy is made with the drippings of pan fried country ham mixed with black coffee , perhaps mixed with flour. Mmmmmm tasty!

Monday, March 26, 2007

Choclate Coffee Milkshake

The warm weather is fast approaching- here's a recipe for making a basic coffee milkshake.

Brew a pot of coffee- let cool to room temperature.
Add one pint of softened chocolate ice cream to a blender
Add 8 oz of cooled coffee to blender.
Blend until smooth- you can adjust the thickness adjusting the amount of milk that goes in.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Quick Tip for Making Flavored Coffee

Here's a quick tip when you want to add a little something extra to your daily caffeine fix. Try adding a touch of powdered flavoring such as cinnamon or an extract of vanilla and/or almond. Add the flavoring to the coffee before brewing, and brew coffee as normal. And try mixing flavors- cinnamon/vanilla, almond/vanilla- the possibilities are endless.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Cappuccino Machines

When you are dealing with a drink like coffee, one of the great advantages is that is such an old an time honored drink that thousands of recipes are available for it. You can make many of them with a cappuccino machine. You can try Caribbean coffee, Mexican mocha, Cuban cubano, and grog, or Viennese, Turkish and Vietnamese coffees. There are all delicious.
For Caribbean mocha, bake a coconut for 30 minutes at 300 degrees F )134C). Once it is cool, crack it open and scrape out the coconut meat. Grind it well and mix it with a half cup milk and heat it on top of the stove until the mixture thickens. Strain to remove the particles of coconut and add to your coffee to make an exquisite blend.
A mocha drink is a blend of coffee and chocolate, a perfect pairing. For Mexican mocha, add a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon and nutmeg to a teaspoon of chocolate syrup. Blend well and pour into your coffee and add sugar. For an special treat, you can blend in whipped cream, or dolop it on top.
A Cubano is a strong coffee, a small cupful drunk straight and hot, swigged back like a drink at a bar. A shot of Cubano may be too much for a gringo, so milk or rum is often added.
The traditional English treat of grog is usually served at Christmas. Orange and lemon peel are placed in the bottom of a cup. Butter (1/3 tbsp.), brown sugar (1 tbsp.), and a pinch each of clove,nutmeg and cinnamon are heated together. The coffee is poured into the cup and the spice mixture added, along with sugar and cream to taste. What a feast for a holiday or anytime!
For Viennese coffee, dark chocolate is melted with light cream and coffee whipped in until a froth is achieved. Sprinkle with cinnamon and slivered cocoa, and you will suddenly be hearing Mozart.
Turkish is the oldest coffee and, like many old things, the simplest. If you want to be a purist, you will need a "dzezva" pot. Boil a cup of water and add sugar; remove from heat and add coffee. Put back over heat and boil once again. This boiling makes for a strong cup of coffee! When a froth forms, let cool, remove the froth and enjoy. A specialty drink of Vietnam of iced Vietnamese coffee. You will need a Vietnamese coffee press, but once you have one, the process is easy. Place your coffee grounds in the press, pour a tablespoon in the bottom of a cup, pour water over the press, let drip and add ice. Simple and delicious.
Take a culinary tour of the world through these great coffee traditions and recipes and enjoy coffee at its very best.
The magazine writer Johnathan Bakers is especially interested in topics like coffee. You might discover his articles on cappuccino machines over at http://www.coffee-espresso-maker-tips.com/cappuccino-machines.html and many different sources for cappuccino machines news.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Johnathan_K._Bakers

Espresso Coffee - How to Make an Excellent Espresso at Home

Espresso is strongly brewed coffee made by forcing steam and hot water through darkly roasted and finely ground coffee beans. The aroma of espresso makes it especially hard for many coffee lovers to resist. Coffee aficionados the world over know that a shot of excellent espresso is crucial to making a good cup of coffee. There are a variety of espresso machines in the market that can produce great tasting espresso.
So how do you make a great cup of espresso? Here are the basic steps:
1. Remove coffee ground residue of the previous shot in the shot holder before using the espresso machine to make a new cup of espresso.
2. Have adequate ground coffee ready and place it in the grinder hopper.
3. Release seven grams of the ground coffee into the shot holder, making sure that you get a full pull as you do so.
4. Using a hand tamper, even out the coffee grounds. Tamp only once and do not twist the tamper as you tamp the coffee grounds. By doing this, you are assured that the hot water and steam will evenly extract the coffee. You can also correctly gauge the pressure if you use a hand held tamper to pack down the coffee grounds as well as remove excess coffee grounds from the shot holder.
5. Secure the shot holder in place and lock the espresso machine handle so that water does not leak as it passes through the coffee grounds at a high pressure.
6. Position a warmed up espresso cup under the the espresso machine's coffee holder spout. Start the espresso machine. Keep an eye on the the color and consistency of the brew coming out of the spout. In 15 to 20 seconds, you should have about 1.5 ounces of freshly brewed espresso in the cup.
Making a well-brewed cup of espresso does take time and practice. The presence of a creamy honey-colored foam called crema that is about a quarter of an inch thick sitting on the coffee's surface is a sign that you have successfully made an excellent cup of espresso. And if a teaspoon of sugar can rest on the crema, you can probably consider yourself an espresso guru!
The crema is the result of several important factors: the coffee blend, fineness of the coffee ground, extraction time, water temperature and amount of coffee used. You achieve a perfect cup of espresso every time if you can consistently attain an optimum mix of these factors.
* Most espresso aficionados will agree that the coffee blend should include some Robusta beans.
* Several reasons could account for a dark color of crema: too much coffee grounds may have been used; the coffee grounds were packed too hard and too tightly in the shot holder, resulting to a longer extraction time of the coffee; the coffee grounds used was too fine; or too much water was used.
* There are several reasons, too, for less crema: the coffee used may not have been enough; the time it took to extract the coffee may have been too short since the coffee used was coarsely ground; there was not enough water to pass through the coffee; the coffee grounds were packed too lightly in the shot holder; or the water that passed through the coffee was not hot enough.
* If the espresso machine, shot holder or cup is cold, it may affect the amount of crema produced.
Espresso can be served as it comes out of the espresso machine or it can be served in a variety of ways. In fact, many of the specialty coffee drinks today has espresso as their base. Some of the specialty coffee drinks that have a shot of espresso include macchiato (espresso topped with foamed milk), espresso con panna (espresso topped with whipped cream), cappuccino (espresso with milk and foam), café latte (espresso with milk, but without the foam), mocha (espresso blended with milk and chocolate syrup) and Americano (a "weakened" espresso made by adding warm water).
For more great tips on making the perfect brewed coffee at home visit: http://www.coffee-paradise.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_Jensen

Just Why is an Espresso is Good for You?

If you were to carry out a search on Google for "Why an espresso is good for you?" you would be amazed at the search results you would find. In nearly all articles you will see that they are saying the good news is that coffee is good for us after all.
So just what health benefits can I possibly expect from drinking a cup of hot brown espresso. However, what is important that any coffee you do drink must contain caffeine in order for it to work effectively.
The reason it seems that drinking espresso coffee may be beneficial to a person's health is because of the anti-oxidants that it contains and which many people are unaware of. It does not matter whether you are drinking either a straight espresso or a cappuccino they both contain the same amount of anti-oxidants within them. But what is important to remember that coffee is only really good for you if you drink it in moderation. But now let us take a closer look as to why espresso and other forms of coffee are beneficial to a person's health.
Well firstly you are less likely to suffer from diabetes. In fact in data analyzed by Harvard researchers they found that drinking between 5 to 6 cups of coffee each day could slash the chances of men suffering from Type 2 Diabetes by 54% and for women by 30%.
Also in another study carried out by the Scottish Heart Healthy group they looked at 11,000 men and women aged between 40 and 59. It was found that those who drink large quantities of coffee were more likely to lower the chance of them dying from heart disease.
Another reason drinking espresso is good for you is that in studies carried out with regard to Parkinson's disease. It was found that those men who drink between 4 and 5 cups of coffee each day cut the risk of developing this disease by nearly half compared to those men who drink little or no coffee at all.
Until I went looking on the Internet I never realized that drinking something so tasty could be good for my health. So many things that benefit my health long term are not all that much fun. It is refreshing to find something I really like will help me stay in better health. So as you can see there are many reasons as to why an espresso is good for you.
For more information on how to keep coffee fresh try visiting http://www.coffeebean101.com,a website that specializes in providing espresso tips, advice and resources.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Douglas_Taylor

Time for Coffee

That morning jolt without which I could not function, this blog celebrates the noble coffee bean in all it's glory.