My coffee arrived this week. The coffee snob in me is super excited! And yes, that is a box with twelve pounds of coffee in it.

I am super picky about coffee. A number of years ago I found Peet’s on line. What I loved was the little bars that showed the body, light to full, and the brightness, smooth to bright. This makes picking out kinds of coffee so much easier. Initially I tried a lot of different kinds, from many, many regions. The scientist gene kicked in and I kept track of what each coffee tasted like to me, how bitter it was to my overly sensitive bitter receptors, how it impacted my stomach, etc. (Oh, I should say I put the coffees in unlabeled airtight bags, numbered the coffees and wrote my notes by number, not name, to prevent undo influence of the subconscious. Each coffee was in two to three different bags so I would use each at different times and not know which I was having. Yes, I am that much of a nerd.) After about a year, I took all my data and did some analysis. I found I did not like South American coffee’s for the most part. They were generally harder on my stomach and had more bitter in them. Arabian coffees faired well, but my favorites were Indonesian. Sumatra in particular with Java a close second, but Sumatran coffee had my most favorable notes consistently.

One coffee in particular, found after the original experiment, became my absolute favorite. Sumatra Batak or Sumatra Blue Batak. This coffee can only be found once per year and it has a full body and very smooth acidity. Even my ‘broccoli is bitter’ taste buds find no bitter notes in this coffee. It has, to me, the best flavor, and a creamy, velvety texture that just makes coffee enjoyable. It is the one coffee I love as much today as I did when I first started drinking it. So much so that, yes, I ordered twelve pounds of it. This won’t last the entire year, but interspersed with some others – Aged Sumatra and Sulawesi-Kalosi for the most part – I can make it through the year until the next offering.

I got new plates and am soooooo happy. I love my current ones, but I have more chipped/cracked plates than intact ones at this point. Mom and I were out shopping today and we decided to try and find Dinnerware Depot. They are mainly an on-line store but they have a warehouse in Sarasota that is open to the public. After a little misstep we found it (thank you Google maps!) and just had a blast looking at everything. If you buy something in the store/warehouse (i.e. it doesn’t have to be ordered) there is an additional discount. And for those who remember when I got my china, you know how much this appeals to me.

So this set … I found it and just stopped. I loved it immediately. There are times when you see something and just know it is exactly what you have been looking for and is was it. I’m still not sure why I am so enamored with these, but I just love them. I did text Bob the above picture to make sure he was ok with it, and it turns out, he really, really likes them, which is good because I may have gotten a few place settings even without his ok. So I have new dishes and have begun the purge of the kitchen cabinets.

But on to dinner. I decided to do a simple dish tonight – pan fried steak with a homemade teriyaki glaze. It turns out teriyaki sauce is super simple to make -equal parts dark soy sauce, mirin and saki. Add it to the pan when you are just about finished cooking, let it boil for a minute, turn the contents (meat or veggies – I used it for both) over and boil for another minute. The sauce turns thick and syrup-y and coats the contents nicely.

This was so simple and had so much flavor without being salty like a lot of teriyaki sauces can be. A good success, and I think I liked it on the veggies as much or more than the steak we had tonight.

And all through the house, all the creatures were stirring, but thankfully not a mouse.
The ovens were on with goodies to bake
In hopes of a fabulous Christmas feast for a hunger to slake.

Ok, that is the best I have today. (with help from Bob after a very strong beer.) It’s not very good, but it is in the holiday spirit. And it leads nicely into my day of baking.

My Christmas prep adventure stared with my attempt to wrap Bob’s present. The box is larger than it looked and when a new roll of wrapping paper failed to cover it, after trying a few other rolls first, I improvised.

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I’m claiming the double paper in an effort to be more festive, but really, I don’t think I had much of an option.

But the baking started yesterday with the peppermint marshmallows. I found the recipe last year and decided I had to try them. While not technically difficult they are a little time consuming.

Corn syrup, sugar, water and salt combine with crushed peppermint candy to make a sticky, sweet oh-my-it-burns-when-you-accidentally-touch-it goo. That isn’t a bad thing, but it is a warning. Making marshmallows also involves a lot of whipping and some creative use of confectioners sugar. Every surface the mixture will touch needs to be coated in confectioners sugar so it doesn’t stick – because trust me, if you leave even a little not coated, it will stick.

Bob helped with these today – he cut the marshmallows into little squares for me. That may not sound like a lot, but given my inability to cut a straight line and all the other baking I was doing, it was huge for me. The results when covered with a bittersweet chocolate are perfection. Even Bob who does not like marshmallows has indulged in several at a time.

My other baking adventures today included the pecan pie cheesecake with the yummy goodness topping and a caramel chocolate pie. Now the cheesecake is easy … No real issues there, but the chocolate pie sometimes makes me question my sanity. Do I make it because I love the pie, because it gives me an excuse to ask Bob to rub my shoulders, or because it is just one of those things that you make just because. Probably all three, but mostly because it is such a good pie. Not an easy pie, but it is darn good.

The pie starts out looking like this

After about twenty minutes of whipping over a double boiler to about 160 degrees so it doesn’t kill anyone, it looks more like this

And after more whipping to cool it down, and the addition of the chocolate, butter and whipped cream it looks like this

Worth every second of shoulder pain for this one.

And just because she is super cute, a gratuitous picture of Miss Leia who helped with all the wrapping.

One of the thing that I remember most about Christmas time is the Crèche. It, for some reason, has a prominent place in my mind when I picture Christmas as a kid. Whether at Grandmom’s or our house, I see the lit nativity … And hear dad as he tried to get the wires right every year. We’ve had he manger for a while … Housing the troll and cow bride and groom from the wedding cake, but now it holds the full scene. Thank you Val for letting me have it.

We were a little concerned about the space, but with the exception of the palm trees that no longer exist, the star that I could not get to stay and the icicles that I could not get hung, everything fit. Bob did surgery on one wise man and one shepherd. I think it looks pretty good.

Maybe next year I will ask Bob to tackle the lighting and figure out the icicles. This year, I just wanted it up.

There was not much food news this week. I was fighting a cold (the cold won Thursday) so it was take out and soup this week. Today I felt well enough for simple dishes so for breakfast I made banana pecan waffles.

I know, they don’t look like much, but the pecans are the ones Mom (Bob’s Mom to be clear) sent us from the grove in Georgia. We know fresh ingredients make a huge difference, and honestly, nuts are no different. Yes, they last forever if kept in the freezer, but really, if you ever get a chance, go for fresh. It becomes very hard to buy them in the grocery store out of season. The bananas came from my veggie basket last week so they were super ripe and super sweet. Perfect for waffles.

Dinner was a Japanese comfort food dish … Chicken cutlets crusted in panko with an onion sauce. The original recipe calls for pork, but I had chicken, so we used that and I replaced the rice in is with barley. Used what I had on hand. The sauce is on onion, sliced thin, one cup chicken or veggie broth/stock, one quarter cup soy sauce, one quarter cup miran, a few slices on ginger and a pinch of sugar. Let it boil then simmer until it reduces (about a half hour total) just a little and the onions are soft. The chicken is dredged in seasoned flour (just salt and pepper) then in egg, then in panko bread crumbs. Pan fry in a little oil and it’s a dish. Not the best/healthiest dish out there, but darn good.

And I got a chance to use my fancy new thermometer.

I have Mom and Dad’s mailbox luck with kitchen thermometers. No matter what, I kill them. They die quickly and sometimes dramatically. Given that, I was hesitant to spend the money on a really good one, but I heard so much about these, and well … I made the mistake of asking Bob if I should get one. I should have know the answer … this is the man who bought his own laser. Thermoworks makes these (by hand according to the website) in England and every review I read gushed about them. So I got one. And I have to say, I love it. Three seconds (tops) to get an accurate reading. It actually gave me two reading in about one second. Clear temp display and easy to keep clean. And it just looks cool. It is a good thing they are expensive or I would be tempted to get multiple colors.

The cats were in super cute form. Leia kept moving from the tree when I tried to get her picture, but the other two did let me get theirs.

Happy one more week to Christmas!