coffee taste-off

The other day I happened to be in East Aurora over lunch and decided to continue my quest to try various coffees and form an opinion about how they taste. This isn’t the point of this post, but I’ll go ahead and tally up my findings so far:

-Tim Horton’s: terrible! It’s bitter and acrid and burned-tasting.

-McDonald’s: not bad, certainly acceptable in terms of drive-thru coffee. Not a huge fan of their McCafe drinks–they’re way too sweet, but when I ask for less syrup, they seem ‘off’ to me.

-Starbucks: LOVE their new blonde roasts (Willow and Veranda). Whether I get plain coffee or a “fru-fru” drink, I’m always happy. Plus, they’re happy to accommodate my “may I have half the pumps of flavor, please?” requests.

-Orchard Perk: it’s the cute little coffeehouse here in the village that is oh-so-convenient on my way to and from school. However, whatever roast I had the other day wasn’t all that great. I’d be up for going back to try another roast, if they have one.

-Taste: their coffee is OK (their fru-fru drinks always cool down too much!), but it’s the atmosphere you go for, anyway. They have multiple roasts, and now that I’m becoming somewhat of a coffee ‘connoisseur’ (ha! hardly…), I feel like I can make a good decision when presented with options.

-Firefly: Perhaps the best brewed and most extensive selection. They source from two different small-batch roasting companies and have multiple roasts (with descriptions!) available at all times. Each cup is hand-poured or french press, so while it might take five minutes, it’s worth it. I keep getting Stumptown’s Columbia roast.

-Panera: LOVE their hazelnut roast–who doesn’t?? AND they have all-you-can-drink iced coffee in the summer! Fantastic, except for that time I was studying and lost track of the time, and the number of cups I’d had…

-@ home: we have a Keurig and a tried and true favorite is Gloria Jean’s Butter Toffee (we’re high class, I tell you….)

-Dunkin’ Donuts: LOVE their coffee! It just has a really smooth taste and I’m always happy no matter what I get. I typically just order a regular cup and add plain cream and sugar since I like the flavor so much. The problem, of course, is that there is one in East Aurora, so I can go ALL. THE. TIME. The only thing that prevents me from going more is that it’s located in such a spot that makes it a little hard to get in and out quickly, nor do they have a drive-thru, so it’s not the quickest of stops. But then again, I’m not exactly known for lightning-fast decision-making, either. (My husband is falling off his chair laughing right now, I just know it.)

Shall we say I might be a bit over-caffeinated? I blame school.

how do I top thee?

I made bread today. Well, my bread maker did while I was viewing online lectures for my summer class.

I chose whole wheat cinnamon bread with apples and raisins, a combo I’ve been thinking about for awhile now. To heck with the fact that it’s not ideal meat-and-cheese sandwich bread! Or is it? (I’m betting it’s fantastic, but then, I’m an adventurous eater surrounded by wimps. Humph.)

Andrew’s out biking in the sunshine, so I was in my own for dinner tonight. This is what happened:

My textbook (I couldn’t run the risk of cracking the third Hunger Games book open; I’m too close to the end to stop!), two slices of bread (I couldn’t bear to waste the heel after I cut myself a piece, so I decided I’d just eat it, too), and fruit and veggies with homemade ranch dip. I use ‘homemade’ loosely, since it’s just the last of the cream cheese and the last of the ranch dressing mixing together, but whatever.

My quandary? What do I put atop my bread? Will plain butter allow the bread’s own taste to shine best? What about the classic strawberry jam? Or my usual, a nut butter? And what about this craving for honey, I’m having…?

Here they are people, in order or appearance:

Strawberry jam, blueberry nut-flavored honey, crunchy almond butter, and plain butter.

The verdict? On toasted bread, I’m going to go with plain butter, and a pb&j sandwich would be excellent as well. The flavored honey was way too sweet, but the jam was nice.

Can’t wait for toast tomorrow!

all stocked up

(An alternate title to this blog could read: ‘On why I might make an OK mother after all’)

Andrew and I are flying to DC this weekend to spend the holiday with my family, and we enlisted Abigail to come stay with Hadrian instead of kenneling him.

My first thought was of all the goodies I could have out for our houseguest. I can’t help it. It’s the pineapple in me.

(Hadrian is also all stocked up on toys, too.)

However, between all of the Layers being on ‘diets’ (some more strict than others), and my unwillingness to buy what I call ‘crap,’ (gosh, that sounds harsh) you won’t find Combos or Cheetos or anything of that nature lurking around here!

Bananas, apples and oranges, as well as a selection of pseudo-healthy cereal bars and things (just about anything is ‘healthy’ in moderation, I think), and some crunchy things like Quakes and multigrain tortilla chips.

In the fridge Abigail will find celery and baby carrot sticks, as well as strawberry yogurts and 100% juice boxes.

There are even goodies in the freezer!

I walked down the frozen section in search of acceptable popsicles, when I came across all these Skinny Cow treats ON SALE. I tell you, it was like the White Mint bars were CALLING to me. And I know one of Abigail’s favorite flavors is cookies and cream, so I had to get both. Of course. I threw in some lemon sorbet bars thinking Andrew would like that flavor as well.

And, not to out-do myself or anything, I included a selection of the things I’ve made with the abundance of overripe bananas we’ve had on hand: strawberry-banana muffins, my banana bread with coconut and walnuts turned into muffins, and King Arthur Flour’s Chocolate-Chip Banana Squares.

In making my favorite banana bread into muffins, I decided it needed to be even healthier! One and a half cups of sugar just seemed WAY. TOO. MUCH–even for two loaves–so I slashed away…again. Here is my updated page with the recipe. The muffins baked up nice and high; this is, hands down, the BEST banana bread recipe EVER.

I’ll also be putting out some of Andrew’s butter-flavored microwave popcorn bags, some of my favorite mac and cheese in a box (Annie’s!) and coffee pods.

I’m sure Hadrian will have a ball with Aunt Abigail (she calls him ‘horsey’), and we’re happy to have her come stay and keep the animals company. I just hope she doesn’t think all my ‘health food’ is too weird…