Packin' up (by Kat)

Mr. Boom and I are heading out in less than three hours for our weekend trip through the North Cascades. Mr. Boom, of course, finished packing his things last night. He's all set. He's ready to go.

Me, well, I'm not Mr. Boom, am I? He's the math major, I'm the anthropology major. Our weekend preparations directly illustrate our educations, I'm afraid! Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny may be disproved, but that doesn't threaten my statement one bit.

In order to prepare for our trip I am cleaning my espresso maker. Some people put on clean underwear in case they die in an auto accident. Me? I clean my espresso maker. Please Lord, don't let me die with a dirty espresso maker on my counter. I couldn't handle the shame...

In order to prepare for our trip I'm making croissants and pain au chocolate (chocolate-stuffed croissants). They're in our bedroom, raising in the heat that older homes are known for in the summer. This is Mr. Boom's dresser. You don't actually think there's room for this kind of thing on top of mine, do you?

I made a big batch of potato salad yesterday. I figure between the croissants, the potato salad and the car food, we should be good for three days. Right? Right?

Car food. Dare I admit this to the world? I love Kraft cheese spread in the little jars spread on Triscuits when I'm in the car. This isn't something I'd be caught dead eating at home, but on a car trip it's a non-negotiable requirement. The cheese product (seriously, that's what it's called) is best bought in a gas station. Ideally the jar will be dusty and the label should have evidence of water damage. Like a fine wine, the yellow goo needs to age and have a good story behind it.

I've also made several jars of espresso, frozen solid, to which I'll add milk and call my morning latte. So. Potato salad, croissants, car food, espresso. Three days? No problem. I hope.

In order to prepare for our departure in less than three hours I'm checking on the bees. Because, you know, they're really going to be sad while we're gone. They're going to miss me a lot. Right?



Other items:

The trail cam did not catch sight of the cherry pit pooper last night. We'll set it up again when we return.

The grapes outside the kitchen door are beginning to look like grapes! Pretty!

No, I must get packing. Seriously. No excuses.
Oh look! The kitties are being cute! Grab the camera!

Espresso-powered toffee from on high (by Kat)

Yeah, I probably don't need to qualify this post by adding my name. Bet doesn't "do" coffee.

I do.
I. Do.
Oh boy do I do!

Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite bloggers, posted a recipe she developed for coffee toffee.
I've never made toffee before, but I've wanted to try it. Somehow, I just never got around to it until someone, some wonderful some one, combined coffee and toffee. The procrastinating stopped right then.

I pretty much followed her recipe. However, not having instant espresso powder, I used freshly ground "high octane" coffee beans ground in my burr grinder at the finest setting. I also upped the quantity from 1.5 teaspoons to somewhere nearer a heaping tablespoon. I cooked it to the 300 F she suggests. My thermometer may be low, but I think next time I'd go up just a little higher, maybe 310 F?

I roasted hazelnuts form the bulk section of the local grocery store. After they were slightly cool I brushed them with a cloth, then went outside and blew all the papery skins off. Easy peasy, and yet the most time-consuming and complicated part of the recipe.

Seriously, people, from start to in-my-mouth-oh-lordamighty-these-are-good was less than 15 minutes. I think it might have been less than 10 minutes, but I won't swear to that. Is was so fast, however, that I have exactly zero photos of the process. If you don't live where the temperature is in the single digits, you will need to wait a little longer for them to cool. It took these approximately three minutes to go from melted-sugar hot to (literally) freezing cold.


Based on the photographic evidence, you might think I wasn't very careful in spreading the nuts over the melted chocolate. Ummm, would you believe my if I said it was an experiment to see if the little nut pieces tasted better than the big nut pieces? Yeah. Well. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.