a filter work-around

We have a wonderful aeropress coffee making gadget.

If you are a coffee drinker and haven't heard of one you must check it out as it makes some nice, smooth coffee one cup at a time.

Recently we went on a little mini vacation to a deserted island.

Well, ok, it wasn't deserted but we knew there wasn't going to be a grocery store so we'd have to pack as many supplies we could think of for the trip.

Have you ever gone on a trip and not forgotten something?

Neither have I.

Hubby was so good about remembering all the little details and even remembered to bring coffee, tea and our little aeropress maker. We were set!

Until we went to make the coffee. Missing those cute little round aeropress filters.

What to do?

Well, Hubby had a little brainwave. The tea bags we brought happened to be round. How about taking apart a tea bag and using one side as a filter?

First he gingerly separated the two sides (we did not have scissors but real men don't leave home without their Swiss army knife).

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of him putting the tea bag filter in the aeropress but I did get a picture of him plunging the coffee.

I took his picture to show that the tea bag filter worked quite well and did not leave any grinds behind (I cannot figure out how to spin this picture left 90 degrees, sorry).

Great coffee maker - you should try one out! But don't forget the aeropress filters to save you some hassle.

Beware what lurks in the dairy case

I like to spend as little time as possible shopping but a weekly trip to the grocery store is unavoidable (online shopping isn't time-efficient enough for me either).


Unless I am getting special ingredients for a recipe I usually trod through the usual outside sections of the grocery store replenishing our produce, bread, meat & dairy. The odd time I'll throw in a treat for the teenboy like chocolate milk.


I don't tend to dilly-dally so once the chocolate milk caught my eye, it took me only a second to think "sure, he'll like that" and pop it into the shopping cart. I briefly noticed the dairy company had changed their carton design but that's as far as my noticing went.





The teenboy noticed the problem minute he opened the fridge.


"ORANGE CHOCOLATE MILK?!?!??!"


What? They can't possibly mean orange flavoured chocolate milk?


Sure enough, that's what they meant. We are both chocolate purists so putting fruit flavour with chocolate is just considered wrong. I had a taste and it reminds me of a "Terry's Chocolate Orange". If you like that then you'll probably like the milk.  This carton is good til June 6th if you'll take it off our hands.  heh


The orange strip on the package had caught my eye when I first saw it in the dairy case but the word "Orange" certainly had not (my fault for not paying enough attention - but they could have been a little more obvious about it).

I have no idea how popular this flavour will be but I'm thinking they'll sell maybe 1% of the of the amount they sell of the pure chocolate milk --- so why bother making it would be my question. Time will tell how long it survives on the dairy shelf....or if they decide to come out with other combined chocolate flavours.

pay what it's worth...

Have you heard of this restaurant and its ground-breaking concept of "pay what you think it's worth"?  

I admit it does go right along with my socialistic tendencies but even I would be uncomfortable throwing in any old amount - I need to know the estimated value of the food so that I can contribute a fair amount.  

There are those who will abuse the concept and probably kill it before it really gets going.  But kudos to these guys for giving it a shot!  I hope we get an update a year down the road to see how well it's going.

OCD or too much time

Is it just me or does the produce guy at 

The Market have too much time on his hands?  

Either that, or a little OCD.

The Pain of the Popcorn

We have an air popcorn popper (no microwave) and so Nate was making popcorn with it last night.

At one point while the corn was popping he felt something like a "bug bite" between his fingers.

As a reflex he sort of squished his fingers together only to realize that made it hurt worse.

He then realized there was a hot kernel stuck between his fingers and got it out fast.

The photo shows the blisters that a hot kernel can cause after only a few seconds.

Nothing a little aloe vera gel can't heal in a short time but still, the pain. Owweeee.

peppercorn mixture ?

I'm not a fan of pepper but I have a budding gourmet in my house who wanted to make a steak & season it with pepper one evening. For the occassion we purchased some gourmet pepper - a 6 peppercorn mixture.


However, the steak tasted very, very salty. I coudln't figure out why until I looked at the label.

So, you're telling me the number one ingredient in a six peppercorn mixture is SALT?!

Wow, I never would have thought to read the label on this one before buying it.

no WHAT added?

WTH - are you telling me there is a regular ocurrance of bleach-stuffed chicken out there???