Monday, April 22, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
How Coffee Sloshed Into My Life
Sitting here in the sunshine with a cup of home brewed coffee and half and half, I realized I forgot to tell you how I came to be committed to this relationship. It's been about 12 or 13 years now that coffee and I have been going steady with only intermittent digressions- I sometime swear off it and hang with Republic of Tea's Green tea with Plum but that's another story. Simply told I was carrying a cup of a fancy sugar- filled coffee to a client and it sloshed. I wiped it up with a finger and tasted it and discovered right then and there that it didn't taste like my mother's dirty black Maxwell House. It was sweet and light and tasted more like the coffee ice cream i had sampled though the years.
After that taste bud opening event I began ordering iced Mocha somethings (without the whipped cream ) and that summer and then little by little switched to lattes and coffee with cream when from whence I write today.
I have no real allegiance to any one brewer although I have a Peet's card and drink and order coffee form there for Real Estate Open Houses. When I taste something at your house that you like and I try it out to see if I like it better than Peet's.
After that taste bud opening event I began ordering iced Mocha somethings (without the whipped cream ) and that summer and then little by little switched to lattes and coffee with cream when from whence I write today.
I have no real allegiance to any one brewer although I have a Peet's card and drink and order coffee form there for Real Estate Open Houses. When I taste something at your house that you like and I try it out to see if I like it better than Peet's.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Keeping Company with Caffeine
Some times I need it and sometimes I don't.
I didn't drink coffee until about 14 years ago.
I carried a cup of Maxwell House upstairs to my mother more or less every morning for the six years that we lived in the "Brownstone" ( actually red brick, painted white) on Barrow Street in Greenwich Village. Her bedroom was on third floor and the kitchen was in the basement. As it swished around I remember thinking that it was ugly black water which I had no intention of ever drinking. I have to admit that it smelled delicious but I was never tempted to taste it..
My first encounter with caffeine was a relationship that I developed with Lipton Tea when I was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I ruined it with sugar and lemon but I got the caffeine that it promised.
I was still drinking tea, although I had classed up to English Breakfast, by the time that we bought our Kensington house in 1998. I even carpeted the stairs with leopard carpeting so that my spills would be disguised. Coffee was my mother's drink not mine.
I didn't drink coffee until about 14 years ago.
I carried a cup of Maxwell House upstairs to my mother more or less every morning for the six years that we lived in the "Brownstone" ( actually red brick, painted white) on Barrow Street in Greenwich Village. Her bedroom was on third floor and the kitchen was in the basement. As it swished around I remember thinking that it was ugly black water which I had no intention of ever drinking. I have to admit that it smelled delicious but I was never tempted to taste it..
My first encounter with caffeine was a relationship that I developed with Lipton Tea when I was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I ruined it with sugar and lemon but I got the caffeine that it promised.
I was still drinking tea, although I had classed up to English Breakfast, by the time that we bought our Kensington house in 1998. I even carpeted the stairs with leopard carpeting so that my spills would be disguised. Coffee was my mother's drink not mine.
More about caffeine in my next post.
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Talking about food....
http://livability.com/top-10/top-10-foodie-cities-2013-second-helping/berkeley/ca?
Berkeley has been designated as one of the ten best places to eat... But we knew that didn't we?
Berkeley has been designated as one of the ten best places to eat... But we knew that didn't we?
Saturday, April 06, 2013
I NEVER FEEL COMPELLED TO STICK TO A RECIPE
I never stick to a recipe. I always play with it and the results are amazing.
Over the past few years I have been experimenting with doing more than "assembling", which is what this busy Realtor did after visiting Trader Joe's. I have been cooking. Really cooking. Last night a I made a delicious dinner in half an hour.
I realized that if I treat food like art I CAN COOK !
What about you?
Here is the next one that I am going to try, and those of you who know me know that i almost never eat fish.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/health/striped-bass-or-mahi-mahi-with-fennel-leeks-and-tomatoes-recipes-for-health.html?src=rechp
Over the past few years I have been experimenting with doing more than "assembling", which is what this busy Realtor did after visiting Trader Joe's. I have been cooking. Really cooking. Last night a I made a delicious dinner in half an hour.
I realized that if I treat food like art I CAN COOK !
What about you?
Here is the next one that I am going to try, and those of you who know me know that i almost never eat fish.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/health/striped-bass-or-mahi-mahi-with-fennel-leeks-and-tomatoes-recipes-for-health.html?src=rechp
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Greeted by one of the owners, we had a tour of the property to understand how it has evolved over the years with a look at what their vision is for the future. Not only to they make award winning wines which we tasted and enjoyed ( and the purchased because we enjoyed them and knew we would like to serve them to our friends at home in the Bay Area) but they have event spaces and now a few overnight rooms for guests who so enjoy the wines at these events that they would rather not drive home.
By the way the owners Virgina and Al Silbowitz are smart, friendly people who know their business, that of making wine and making guests feel at home. Enough of their family members are involved with the winery at this point to make it a "family business". One can see that it features care and pride as well as great wines, now with a series using labels made especially for the winery by long time friend and artist David Lance Goines.
I think that anyone going to Ashland or as we were, traveling to points further north, should make a spacial stop to visit Al and Virginia and family at Grizzly Peak Winery. It is slightly off the beaten track but easy enough to find if you Google it and call ahead. And if you are planning a wedding, Bat Mitzvah or other festive event consider their beautiful winery as a venue.