Great Espresso made with a Bialetti Percolator

I love a great cup of coffee. I mean, a reeaallly delicious cup! When life gets me down, the aroma of a cup of superb, strong espresso relaxes me. I don't know why, but it does. I just love it immensely. However, if I happen to taste a crappy cup, it will only put me in a foul mood. There is nothing worse than drinking a flavorless cup of black water. Yuck.

On a daily basis, in the mornings when I'm rushing to work, I would use my ceramic French Press to make my coffee. Once brewed, I'd just pour it into my travel mug or thermos and off I go. But, there is nothing compared to using a stove top percolator to make a cup of REEAAALLLLY good coffee/espresso at home. Not that it takes any longer to do... I just enjoy the process of making it, watching it fill up in the little pot when I have more time. On weekday mornings, I'm always in a rush to leave so I can't be watching the fire when using the percolator.

I stayed home this entire weekend and made my good and strong coffee with my Bialetti Percolator. I love how the aroma lingers in the air when I make my coffee this way. It is much stronger and it's so satisfying. The percolator I have is the 6 cup (which is like 1 American cup) Bialetti Break~ Caffettiera (Espresso maker). I love this thing so much!





I use my trusty KitchenAid coffee grinder to grind my coffee beans right before I make my espresso. The texture of the coffee should be like grains of sand. I find that this grind works the best for the percolator.





To make the coffee, just loosely fill the funnel shaped filter with the freshly ground coffee. Fill the little tank with filtered water and screw the top of the coffee pot with the tank together tightly.








Make sure the flame is on low. You don't want the flames to wrap around the coffee maker because it could burn.



After a few minutes, you can hear the coffee start to fill up. The right amount of heat combined with quality coffee will give crema like any good espresso should.



When the coffee is almost filled, it's best to remove the pot from the heat, so the remaining coffee wouldn't be shooting out. I've made a mess quite a few times with out really paying attention. Not good. Also, this way the crema will still be there when you pour the coffee out.



So good!



This is the cheapest way to make real Italian style coffee at home. Just froth some foam as topper and you'll have a nice cup of cappuccino! Yum!



What is life without a delicious cup of espresso! Enjoy!

B-day Gift

I've trying to get things that are more compact these days. This is the perfect little rice cooker. It even plays music when the rice is done cooking! Love it.



Perfectly cooked rice! First batch.


After fluffed!

Lunch Dishes

Ever since I started this new job about 3 weeks ago, what to eat for lunch is a big question. So last weekend I tried to make some dishes so I can bring lunch instead of eating out. Bringing lunch to work definitely also saves money. I can use the savings to buy my nice cup of joe when the urge hits. Gourmet java is something I cannot give up, even in this poor economy. I need something to pick me up to go on!

So, I alternated the dishes on and off (with steam rice) for lunch during the past week. It kind of worked out well. I'm going "try" to continue with this routine if I can and have the energy. (I'm pretty tired this weekend.)





Squash with Carrots and shredded Cabbage.



Pork/Bones, Carrots, Tomatoes, and Ginseng Soup.



Pork tenderloin with Cabbage Stir Fry.



Green Asparagus roasted with olive oil and fresh black pepper.

Pasta and Cupcakes

It rained on and off from last night through most of the day today. Kind of gloomy...but we desperately need some rain in Southern Cal. I was not feeling well yesterday and still had lingering symptoms from my migraine, so I stayed in. With all the stress I've having due to the job hunt, the economy and all, I thought maybe spending some quiet time at home would keep my anxiety attacks from ocurring so often. I moped around in the afternoon, took care of my kitties then... decided to play house and cook some pasta for dinner. I had to use up my Barilla Whole Wheat Pasta since it's either already expired or about to... anyway, I think dry foods are okay to eat if they past the expiration date a bit.

Everything I cook in my kitchen is "semi-homemade". I didn't learn from the Food Channel's Sandra Lee, but I wish I could have before I canceled cable. Well, I'm just not a big cook is all....so, I rarely do anything completely from scratch. This Pasta dish is real simple. Most people who experienced my cooking never had any complaints, instead they all enjoyed my food. But still, I'm no Martha Stewart.

So, I threw together the Pasta dinner fairly quickly because I wanted to bake some cupcakes later in the evening.

Ingredients:
-Some Garlic
-Some yellow/green peppers (whatever I had on hand)
-Some roma tomatos (diced)
-Some frozen sweet peas
-and left over cooked pork tenderloin pieces
-Some Jar tomato sauce (I like the sun-dried tomato flavor one)

Seasonings:
-Salt
-Fresh Ground Pepper
-Parmesan Cheese
-Red Chili flakes
-Olive Oil
-Basil (throw in at the end, I didn't have any on hand)

Cook the pasta to al dente in a big pot of water with salt. While Pasta is cooking, stir fry all the ingredients together and add some olive oil for taste last. Once Pasta is cooked to al dente, drain and add to the stir fry pan with the ingredients. Add tomato sauce, mixed it up, season the pasta, sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese and voila... dinner is served. Garlic bread is good with the dish.



I always make too much of everything. I think I'll be eating pasta for a quite a few days if I'm home. I'm trying not to waste food! Times are hard right now.



Don't know what came over me. I have just been wanting to make some cupcakes lately. After my pasta dinner, I made some. Made them right out of the box. Duncan Hine's Carrot Cake mix... yup, don't mess with a good thing if don't have to. To tweak the instructions into my "semi-homemade" ways, I used 8oz of sour cream instead of vegetable oil (the cake will be moist and less oily) and used 2% fat milk instead of water as the box instructed.

I used the tin foil jumbo cups because I didn't want to fuss with the pans and all. This was the first time I used these and I wasn't sure how much to fill the batter, that's why some of them came out bigger than others. Next time I'll remember to fill them all about 2/3 of the way for uniformity. The cupcakes did turn out amazingly moist! A success. The creme cheese frosting was another story.... IT IS SUPER SWEET! I didn't make my own creme cheese frosting since the supermarket canned one was on sale a few days ago, so I bought it. The Pilsbury one specifically. I would not use this brand again... it tasted too sugary and lacked the creme cheese flavor. Nonetheless, the cupcakes do taste pretty good all together. I just have to drink my black coffee with it is all. I think people with a sweet tooth may like them more than I. Anyhow, I spent couple hours NOT having an anxiety attack. I could now understand why some say cooking IS relaxing. It's also nice to have people to cook for and share your foodw with. After all, the food you cook tastes better when it is the food you share.

Unfortunately, I have not gotten the frosting technique down yet. They really look "homemade" eh? Haha. I hope it's not too pitiful-looking to share some with my next door neighbor.



This is the one I ate. Tasted good with black coffee. Yum.



Again, made too many....



I'll take some to Mom's tomorrow!