Making a Melange

There’s a local coffee shop near here called Forbidden Flavours. The owners are good friends of my brother and sister-in-law, so we went to check it out.

We’re now regulars, known by name. We have “the usual” (2 large decaf melanges) waiting for us when we get to the counter. It’s wonderful to have a place like that in this day and age. Personalized service, where the owner knows our kids and we hear all about hers. The baristas all ask about how school is going. That in itself is enough to keep us going back.

Unfortunately, the “Forbidden Flavours” line item on the budget is quickly climbing. $7 for 2 large drinks adds up pretty quickly. So, we figured out how to make our own version of “the usual”. We still go to the shop often, just not quite as often as we used to.

A Melange is a drink made with real chocolate milk (not white milk with syrup added), steamed and frothed, with a shot of espresso. No whipped cream or any other garnish, so it’s not very sweet, just flavourful. One of the reasons I love them so much is that they aren’t sweet; it’s not like hot chocolate, more like a cocoa latte.

Warning: This drink is the crack of the coffee world. Everyone we’ve taken to Forbidden Flavours for a melange has fallen in love. Our home version is close, but you have to try the real thing. Trust me.

Recipe for Home-Made Melange
makes 2 Melanges

1 1/2 cups milk (we use skim)
2 heaping teaspoons - 2 tablespoons cocoa (adjust for taste)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups very strong hot coffee (I use 1 and a half or even 2 times as much grounds as usual)

Heat the milk to near boiling. We do this in a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave, but a pot on the stove would work.

Transfer the milk to a tall narrow container. We find that a large pickle jar works perfectly. Add the cocoa and sugar. Use a hand blender to blend the cocoa and sugar and milk together. When they are mixed, slowly lift the blender while it’s still spinning, so the milk gets whipped into a froth on top. This is the part that needs the tall container. If you use a normal bowl or pyrex cup you’ll get milk all over the walls. I speak from experience.

[edit: Thanks to Ash's comments below we tried using our French press to foam the milk and it was wonderful! We just poured the heated chocolate milk mixture into the French press and pumped until the foam was twice the volume of the milk. We will use this method now instead of the hand blender. (As a bonus, it's more environmentally friendly!)]

Pour the milk into 2 coffee mugs, just over half full. Add coffee to fill the mugs. Enjoy.

If this recipe has any appeal at all, and there’s a Forbidden Flavours near you, I strongly urge you to check them out.

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Glorified Peanut Butter
(serves 4)
Stir with mixing spoon until thoroughly blended in order listed:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup of powdered milk
1 tablespoon raisins or currants

We buy all natural peanut butter, which means it separates when it sits out at room temperature.

To mix the peanut butter in the jar, I stick one (and only one) beater in the electric beaters, plunge it into the peanut butter and turn it on to low or medium low. I carefully move the one beater up and down until all the oil is mixed in.

Then I scrape off the beater and offer it as a reward to whatever child happens to be shadowing me in the kitchen. I store the peanut butter in the fridge and no longer suffer from dry crusty peanut butter in the bottom of the jar!

It was one of those days yesterday. You know. The kind where everything just seems mixed up and strange.

Our meal chaos plan yesterday included:

Lunch for Breakfast (We had mini pizzas and leftover brownies.)
Breakfast for Lunch (We had raisin oatmeal and OJ.)
Snack for Dinner (We had cheese chunks, marshmallows, and cookies)
and
Dinner for Snack. (By the time I got back from the grocery store, it was 7pm! We had smokies on buns, with salad and chips)

And I’m a self-proclaimed health nut?!

I’ve had a nagging headache for the past few days caused by packed upper sinuses. I can breathe fine, but I’ve got post-nasal drip and my head feels like it’s pumped about 10 PSI too tight.

I put it off, hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but it’s time. It’s time to pull out the big gun.

Shamelessly copied from Dr. Weil because it is so wonderfully effective.

Ginger Garlic Tea for Colds

Peel 1 inch of ginger root and grate it into 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper and simmer another minute. Remove from heat.

Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 1 or 2 cloves of crushed garlic. Add honey to taste (usually about a tablespoon).

The ginger and lemon are vitamin C, the garlic is a natural antibiotic, the cayenne pepper and the ginger make your tear ducts work so your nose runs and clears out. This is the absolute best thing for colds and stuffy noses that I have ever tried, bar none.

Now, don’t be mistaken in thinking this is like a nice cozy cup of NeoCitron. This stuff has a kick. Ginger, garlic and cayenne mean your mouth will burn, your eyes will sweat and your nose will run like a tap. You’ll soon realize that this is a perfectly acceptable exchange for how amazingly it clears your sinuses and stops your cough and sore throat.

That first sip is a bit of an eye opener, but keep at it. Drink it down, and don’t forget the bits of garlic floating in the cup, they’re chock full of good stuff.

Wonderfulpages.com: your source for character-building drinks since 2006.

I am a health-nut. My husband’s family all struggle with cholesterol problems. A few weeks after I got married, I began my nutritional journey into ways to help ensure my husband will be around as long as God will allow.

My husband followed me on this journey, although not always as enthusiastically as I might have liked.

It was with great mirth that I read the little encouraging email he sent me a few days ago:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:

Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Now I’m off to my Rosetta Stone Language Lesson! (available for free through our local library!)

My very first “public” blog for the Carnival of Beauty was in the Beauty of Bread. I posted my recipe for my Whole Wheat Bosch Bread and I forgot to write in the recipe instructions when to add the yeast!

Yikes!

Of all the terrible mistakes to make. I’ve fixed the original post and mentioned the error at the Carnival.

I apologize most profusely.

–Mrs. Pages

(The Carnival of Beauty is on so pop on over to Motherhood and Beyond for stories and recipes about the Beauty of Bread!)

When I first got my Bosch Concept I was so excited. I had read that you could make four loaves at a time in an hour! After I used it, I was very disappointed. Apparently, I could only make four bricks.

I ended up using it as a really expensive blender for a long while before guilt forced me to try making bread again. I found a few recipes on the web and adapted them so they used ingredients that I had on hand.

Now I really do make four loaves in just an hour, and absolutely love the results.

WonderfulPages Whole Wheat Bosch Bread Recipe

Ingredients

16 cups of flour, approximately
6 cups of water, heated to 125F
1/2 cup milk powder (optional)
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
1/4 cup honey (or 1/2 cup sugar)
2 tablespoons active dry yeast

1 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons vital gluten

Directions

1. Making a Sponge.

(I found that a sponge makes lighter whole wheat bread. The extra time is worth it.)

Add the 6 cups of warm water to the Bosch bowl. Add the milk powder, oil, and honey. Measure out 6 cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of yeast into the bowl. Place the cover on and mix these ingredient on speed 2 or 3 for 20 to 30 seconds, until well mixed.

Let this mixture rest for twenty to thirty minutes. The sponge should be foaming and growing!

2. Making the Dough

Add the 1 tablespoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of vital gluten to the bowl. Turn the Concept onto speed 1 and steadily add about 10 cups of flour just enough for the dough to clean the sides of the bowl.

Then turn the speed up to 2 and knead the dough for 5-7 minutes until the gluten develops. I “window test” for gluten by pulling off a chunk of dough and stretching it out into a square. If the dough stretches like bubble gum and thin “windows” appear, than the kneading is done.

Take the dough out of the bowl and place on the counter. Cut it into four equal sections. Take each section, press it out flat and then roll it into a loaf. Place each loaf into a greased bread pan.

(Today, I used one of the sections to make a pizza dough. I usually make three loaves and one batch of cinnamon buns.)

3. Rising the Dough

I cover my dough with a clean dish towel rinsed in hot water and wrung out really well. Place the bread pans in a warm place for approximately 30 minutes, until they double in size. I usually turn my stove onto 100F, let it come up to that temperature and then turn it off. I place my bread inside the oven for twenty minutes. Then I take it out, place it on the stove top and preheat my oven to 350F

(Today, since I made a pizza dough, I rolled it out, covered it with plastic wrap and then put it in the fridge. I do not want my pizza dough to rise until I bake my pizza. So it will stay in the fridge until dinner time, when we add sauce and toppings and then bake it, without letting it rise!)

4. Baking the Bread

Preheat your oven to 350F. Bake the loaves for approximately 30 minutes. I often use a meat thermometer to check one of my loaves. The internal temperature should be 200F.

When done remove the loaves from the oven and let sit 10 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pan and let sit on a wire baking rack until cool, approximately 30 minutes. Slice and enjoy!

5. Storing the Bread

Fresh bread is best if eaten within a couple of hours. We eat at least a loaf a day in our home, so I will freeze the other two loaves. I store them in resealable freezer bags. You can slice the bread before you freeze it and then just remove slices as you need them.

Oh and here’s the pizza that I baked latter in the day!

I found Baking Bread 101 to be an extremely helpful site, though it is difficult to read.

Shalom
–MrsPages

Bread deals with living things, with giving life, with growth, with the seed, the grain that nurtures. It is not coincidence that we say bread is the staff of life. ~Lionel Poilane

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35

In my never-ending quest to ease the meal time rush, I have created the following recipe. It’s simple, quick, low fat and vegetarian.

Speedy Gonzales Soup
serves 8

2 cups frozen corn
2 - 540ml cans of black beans, rinsed
1 cup salsa
1 - 28oz can diced tomatoes
5 cups water or stock
1/2 tsp cumin
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp Italian herbs

Toppings
1 cup no-fat cheese
1 cup no-fat sour cream
2 cups low-fat, baked tortilla chips, crushed

Place all ingredients, except toppings in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
Serve in bowls and top with a couple of tablespoons of cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips.

If time and energy permit, serve with cornbread and a fresh fruit salad!

Enjoy!