White Chocolate Mocha

• 1/4 cup light cream
• 4 oz espresso
• 2 tablespoons white chocolate syrup
• 1 oz white chocolate, chopped
• 1 tsp Creme de Cacao
• 1 tsp Amaretto
• Whipped cream

1. Heat cream until it almost boils. Remove it from the heat
2. Add the chopped white chocolate and whisk
3. Stir in the Creme de Cacao and Amaretto, whisk well.
4. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the white chocolate around the sides of a heated mug
5. Pour in espresso and then the cream
6. top with whipped cream and drizzle with remaining white chocolate

Serves 1

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The basic formula for coffee syrup is one cup of water to one cup of sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves and then simmer for about five minutes, or until the syrup is reduced by half. The different flavors come in when you add cinnamon or vanilla or whatever you like. As a general rule the flavors should be added during the simmering phase to get the most out of them. Then, just pour the syrup through a strainer and you have your syrup. If you are using extracts add them after the syrup is removed from the heat.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• 1/2 of a vanilla bean
• 2 tsp maple extract
• 1 star anise
• 2 tsp almond

Experiment with whatever you like. You can afford to with this, it costs very little.

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Do not try to make an Eggnog Latte low cal, please? There are just some things  meant to be high calorie and this is one. You can use a steaming wand if you have one. I don’t so I have to improvise with a stove, a pan, and a blender. Just be extremely careful when using hot liquids in the blender. The steam builds up and the top can pop odd and spew scalding liquid all over you. Always start at the lowest speed and work your way up, keeping your hand firmly on the blender cover.

These are great to sip by the fire while you are making your online wish list on Amazon. Everyone has one, right?

Copycat Eggnog Latte Recipe

• 1/3 cup milk
• 2/3 cup homemade eggnog (or good quality commercial)
• 1 shot espresso
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• Sweetened whipped cream

Instructions

1. Pour the milk and eggnog into a pan and heat over low heat to 145F, stirring constantly.
2. Carefully pour into a blender and, holding the cover on firmly, begin blending at the slowest speed and work up to the highest. Blend for about 1 minute or until frothy. Be careful you can get burned if it flies out of the blender.
   
3. Preheat a mug in hot water.
   
4. Brew the shot of espresso, or heat up your JazzyBird and add it to the mug.
   
5. Pour the milk and eggnog mixture into the mug.
6. Top with a generous amount of whipped cream and a grating of nutmeg

Serves 1(tall)

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This chai latte sort of eases the transition from summer to autumn with those amazing chai spices…but thick and icy cold. Say goodbye to summer tonight, sitting on your porch with some friends and sipping this….

Iced Chai-Coconut Frappe

• 1 cup your favorite chai, made double strength and cooled
• 1/4 cup sweetened coconut milk, like Coco Lopez
• 1 oz Amaretto or 1 tbs almond coffee syrup
• 1/4 cup half and half
• 1 cup ice
• Pinch of black pepper if desired

Blend in a blender unthil thick and smooth. Pour into a frosted glass and top with a dollop of whipped cream. Garnish with some browned coconut flakes or even a sprinkle of cracked black pepper.

Serves 1

Have a great Labor Day!

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And no matter how cool you are..you just gotta stay cool. Here is a great way to do it. This iced coffee recipe is worth buying old fashioned soda fountain glasses for. Seriously good. It was a big hit at the tea room.  It calls for 4 oz of espresso. Here is a GREAT place to use that JazzyBird that is still in the freezer.

Mocha Chiller

• 4 oz espresso, chilled
• 3/4 cup  coffee  ice cream
• 1/2 cup ice cubes
• Chocolate syrup
• Whipped cream

1. Blend the espresso, ice, ice cream, and sugar in a blender until smooth.
2. Squirt chocolate syrup around the inside of a tall, frosted glass
3. Pour in the espresso mixture
4. Top with whipped cream and a garnish of grated chocolate or chocolate syrup.

Makes one and I bet you won’t share.

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The house fills with flies as people run in and out and gallons of lemonade, tea, cokes, and other beverages are consumed. The only requirement is that guests bring food to share and control their children.

Seems fair to me.  I am not a fan of uncontrolled children. People assume because I have 8 kids I LOVE children. Not true. I like kids all right but I have no tolerance level for undisciplined, uncontrollable, disrespectful kids. They all seem to end up working at the local grocery stores but that is a whole ‘nother story.

Anyway, if you are looking for something a bit different to serve this Fourth of July take a look at this. Coffee coke float,with just a quick glug of Kahlua for some pizzaz. You can leave the Kahlua out if you want but it is just awesome with it.  Serve it in old fashioned ice cream parlor style shake glasses and top with a mound of whipped cream.

Coffee Coke Float

• 2/3 cup half and half (light) cream
• 2 1/2 cups espresso, or strong coffee, cold
• 4 scoops coffee ice cream
• 1 -2 liter bottle of Coke
• 1/2 cup Kahlua if desired
• 4 frosted glasses

Mix the cream and the cold coffee

Add 2 tbs Kahlua to each glass

Place a scoop of the ice cream in each of four glasses

Half fill each glass with the coffee then fill up the rest of the way with Coke.

Serves 4

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White tea. Adding the tea gives the flavor another depth and it is really good. White tea is very delicate so it doesn’t overpower the flavor of the fruit, in this case honeydew.

For an added intensity try this with Republic of Tea’s Honey Dew White Tea

Honeydew-Lime Iced Tea

• 6 cups cubed honeydew melon
• 2 cups water
• 1/3 cup sugar, more or less to taste
• 2 tea bags of white tea, or amount of white tea leaves to make 2 cups of strong tea
• 1/2 cup lime juice

1. Bring water and sugar just to a boil. stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat.
2. Add tea or tea bags and allow to steep for 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Let come to room temperature.
4. Check to make sure there are no stray seeds on melon. Blend the melon in a blender with the white tea until it is a liquid. Blend in the sugar and lime at low speed, just until sugar dissolves.
5. Pour over ice and serve with a lime wedge.

Makes about 6 servings depending on size

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Light Up Las Olas is a dark roast, blended from Columbian and Brazillian coffees. The aroma of the beans is spicy and licorice-y.  Nice.

The flavor is described on the site as having notes of cocoa. Eh. Maybe.

The flavor is warm and smoky, a bit too acidic at the end for my tastes. Slight nuances of marshmallow on the intake, makes you think you are going to have a toasted marshmallow flavor but at the last minute it morphs into almost an amaretto-pecan.

Oddly, with the flavors invoked this is not a smooth coffee. After the first few sips you lose track of the flavor of it and it becomes just coffee.

On a scale of 1-5 it gets a 3. There is nothing outstanding about it and yet it isn’t bad. I liked it much better sweetened and cream added.

By the way? If you are interested, you can follow me on Twitter… never a dull moment I promise.

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After a lot of thought and research I ended up with:

• Balsamic and basil strawberries
• Mango chicken salad tea sandwiches
• Spicy curried chicken tea sandwiches
• Mushroom, bacon, and Parmesan palmiers
• Earl Grey truffles
• Chocolate Irish Cream coffee
• Custom roast coffee
• Custom blended tea
• A selection of other teas.
• Sherbet punch

and of course, cake. Not just any cake but almond cake with alternating green tea and cherry filling. Most of the recipes will be showing up over at baking delights over the next few days, but some of them will be showing up here.

Balsamic Strawberries & Basil

Just thought you would like to see some pictures. If you are planning a baby shower, this menu works well for doing ahead. I spent most of the day friday doing the cake so didn’t have much time for anything else. It HAD to be easy and quick and transportable. It was 95 degrees, the church is 30 minutes away and I don’t have air conditioning in my van.

The cake I made for the baby shower

The lady that did the decor did an awesome job! I love the way she took vintage items and massed them together.

Vintage decor for the shower created sweet ambiance.

Apparently this lady collects items from thrift stores, antique shops, and garage sales and then uses them in a sort of cottage chic style to decorate for various celebrations.  I loved it!

Anyway, here are some ideas if you are looking for them. The shower was a big hit and we had a great time.

images:marye audet

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At some point in the late 1980s Cinco de Mayo began to take off a bit and now I think they celebrate it everywhere.  In fact, Marc and I were looking at a farm in Houlton, Maine for awhile (couldn’t sell our house, sigh) and saw that it was celebrated clear up there.  Over the next few days on Baing Delights I will be posting some menu ideas and recipes for the food part of the celebration, but if you need an after dinner coffee this is a fantastic choice.  It is based on a Food Network recipe by Rachel Ray and tweaked mercilessly by me.

Try an organic Mexico Chiapas bean for authenticity.

Mexican Coffee

• 1/2 cup ground coffee beans
• 2 tablespoons dark cocoa
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 oz Kahlua per cup
• Whipped cream flavored with kahlua

Make the coffee as usual, using the coffee, the cinnamon, cocoa, chili, and cardamom in the filter to make 8 cups of coffee.  Pour one ounce of the Kahlua in each cup then fill with the hot coffee.  Top with a dollop of whipped cream dusted with cinnamon.

8 servings

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