Originally found at: The World is My Oyster

Grace and peace,
`tim

I’ll have to say: the Chocolate Espresso Pecan pie is absolutely wonderful.  I definitely recommend giving it a try; this is the second year in a row I’ve taken it and it’s been the first or second to be completely gone both years!  It’s especially satisfying since I have an incredibly horrible time getting pecan pies to turn out and this one always sets up perfectly!

Sour Cream and Raisin pie is an old-style pie -   I gave it a new twist this time though by using a brown sugar meringue instead of a regular one (simply replace the white sugar with an equal amount of packed brown sugar – it really works!)  It started to sweat by the time I took a picture, but I’m quite happy with how it turned out:

This year the “new thing” I wanted to try was the salt water taffy though.  What a blast!  I’ve made regular taffy before (with varying degrees of success) but every batch I’ve made with this turned out great – it’s practically fail proof!  You can find the recipe here, and it’s small enough that you can pull it by yourself (although it makes around 90 pieces!)  I thought I’d share some pics (from the third batch -the first was root beer, the second was butter rum and the third peppermint). Oh, and I used a full dram of candy flavoring not the recommended 1/4 dram — definitely a good choice.

If you every want to have a get together with some people and do something different – this would be a great group activity.

To top the evening off we raised almost $5000 for local charities and had a great night of food and fun!  Wish you could have been there (I’ve only met a few of you in real life and would love to change that eventually) – maybe next time!
Grace and peace,

`tim

OK, I have no clue how much better it is for the environment than gas… indeed, it’s probably not. But I want one! The version in the article is a beast and I’d like my “gassification unit” attached to a smart car, but either way. Ingenious!

Grace and Peace,

`tim

BTW, there’s no way you can come up with a comment on the phrase “gassification unity” that I already haven’t thought of!

I started off wrong and the whole thing is somehow inverted (maybe I should have started with a purl row?) but here’s what it looks like in progress:

As for other things,

• I’m woefully behind on where I hoped to be on my Thesis proposal.
• I’ve submitted an article on “church size” to Perspectives but it took them weeks to even let me know they got it and I doubt it’ll be printed.  Oh well.
• My parents and sister came up for Thanksgiving, which went pretty well (and included Christmas presents – which Sophia has decided she REALLY likes).
• My habenero plant (which is growing in our living room) has about 15 perfectly ripe peppers on it – WAY Cool!
• My coffee plant (which is about 3 years old) isn’t doing so well and is only about 6 inches tall.
• Darkness has set into Michigan.  The sun has gone away for the year and seasonal depression is lurking just around the corner… Again… oh well, time to pull out the light and start tanning.
• And finally, of course, Advent is here which means another busy season.

Hmmmm… I guess I seem blah… yep.  Pretty much.

Actually, though, life is going well.

Knowing that this season was just around the corner, I picked up a little booklet by Goosberry Patch (Cookbooklet #19) entitled “hot cocoa.” It’s an entire booklet with recipes for making – yep you guessed it – hot cocoa. Unfortunately several of the recipes start with “chocolate drink mix” which seems to be cheating and kind of grates on me, but one of them that doesn’t is the “Spiced Hot Cocoa Mix” on page 18.

It’s not as creamy as hot cocoa “should be” and I’m all about Splenda, so here’s my revised version. Enjoy!

Mix all ingredients in a 1-gallon plastic bag:

• 1 1/3 c. Splenda
• 2 c. Powdered Milk
• 1 c. Baking Cocoa
• 3 Tbs. Instant Espresso Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. Cardamom
• 1 (10.2 oz) container of French Vanilla Coffee Mate (I use the sugar free)

Put 1/4 c. in about a cup of hot water. mmmm… Gotta love winter!

Grace and Peace,

`tim

Here’s where things get fun. Today I received a thank you gift from the members of this year’s Seminarian Seminar (a group I facilitated two weeks ago at General Synod). Yes. It was a half a pound of the “world’s rarest coffee.”

The palm civit (a cat-like animal that looks, to me, something like a badger) eats the coffee berries and eliminates the beans which are then collected, cleaned and, of course, roasted. The process is very labor intensive (on the human side, on the cat side, I don’t suppose it’s a big deal).

I’ve now given it a try. It’s very “earthy” – a distinct flavor unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before (nothing like cat poo…or at least, I don’t think so… all of my years of cleaning litter boxes as a kid never resulted in actually tasting the stuff). JJ says it tastes like dirt. Oh well, more for me. I’m just excited to have some. I had a cup brewed via a single-serving Swiss-Gold this evening (basically, the same as “drip”). Tomorrow, I think I’ll give it a try in my Moka pot… and the next day? Maybe I’ll pull a shot of espresso with it.

Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You may be turning green at the thought; I’m just excited! I’ll let you know if the different methods produce dramatically different results.

Interested in knowing more? Check out “The Purr-fect Cup.”

Thank you GS3!

Grace and Peace,

`tim