Category: The Kitchen

Espresso, Latte, Mocha, Cappuccino, Etc.

I have never been a big coffee drinker, and Andrea is even less of one than I am.  I never really wanted to drink any until my latter years of high school; and even then, with spoons full of creamer and sugar.  Beginning college, I would occasionally drink a cup for breakfast, eventually weaning myself off of the creamer and sugar.  For the most part, when I drink coffee, I like it black.  Some may find this laughable, but the caffeine in coffee doesn’t do anything to me.  I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing!  When I drink it early in the morning, it doesn’t wake me up; and when I drink it late at night, it doesn’t keep me awake!  Go ahead, call me strange…

Well, since Andrea and I  have been married, I have taken to like coffee more.  As the weather has gotten colder, coffee drinks have sounded even better.  Trust me, though, I am no coffee-fanatic.  I can count the times I have been to a coffee shop like Starbucks on one hand.  However, I do know that they have some fantastic drinks.  About a month ago, Andrea and I visited one of those shops that is just a block’s walk away from our home.  I can’t even remember what the place is called, but the drink that I had was fantastic.  Andrea enjoyed her’s a lot too–Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino.

Well, to make a long story short, a few weeks ago I ended up buying a small espresso machine for our home with one of our last wedding shower gift cards.  It is just about as simple as it gets, but has everything.  Since getting it, I have discovered quite a few things about these coffee based drinks.  The first thing is that espresso is completely different from brewed coffee.  Someone said that is just about the most abuse you can put the poor coffee grounds through without killing them.  Espresso is boiling water forced through finely ground beans with very high pressure.  The ounce and a half of liquid that goes through that torment and into a cup is a called a shot of espresso.  All of the other major coffee drinks are based off of this espresso.

Steamed milk is the other major ingredient.  It is cold milk that is heated with a steam wand that is normally attached to the espresso machine.  For example, a latte is 1/3 espresso, and 2/3 steamed milk.  A cappuccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk, and 1/3 foamed milk (milk with lots of air infused with the steam wand).  A mocha is a latte with made with steamed chocolate milk and syrup.  That’s just a quick rundown…

Believe me, I have not gotten into this very much.  I don’t have a bean grinder, and don’t plan on it anytime soon (though I wouldn’t mind having one some day).  My machine is about the most entry-level model you can get: thirty-five dollars.  But we really like our new machine!

That’s one way to make Andrea really happy: just make a pumpkin-spice cappuccino, carmel latte, or mocha and give it to her on a cool evening!  It is definitely a comfort drink for us!

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A homemade cappuccino

Our Attempt at Pizza

Some of you may think this is partly a food critic’s blog.  It does seem to be that way sometimes, doesn’t it?  Both Andrea and I have a love for good eats.  Since we are newly married and don’t have the enormous budget it would take to support being restaurant critics, we like to make our own food, then review it.  I am especially the critical one!  I really enjoy making some things.  Since we have been in PA, I have tried making a few things from pretzels, to Italian Beef, to donuts, and now to pizza.

And it’s not just any pizza that I tried to make today–my evening off from work.  I adore wood-fired/brick oven pizza!  The greasy kind that is made in bulk in rotating ovens at CiCi’s buffet is just what I DON”T want to make–those are pretty easy, and taste sub-par to me.  If I am going to take the time, I figured, to make pizza at home, I want to do it right.  The problem is that brick oven pizzas are not all that easy to make.

Several months ago I was curious on just how those few-and-far-between places that make brick oven pizza do it.  I found out that it took a VERY hot oven (500+ degrees), a pizza stone, and a peal (a big pizza spatula).  Today, as we were out at the store, I saw it–A real pizza stone–included with a little wire rack and pizza cutter for only six dollars. What do you think?  I just passed it up?  Not!

We got home in the late afternoon and I all of the sudden wanted to make it for dinner.  I researched a couple of recipes online and pretty much found what I wanted.  It took a 550 degree oven, and all of the normal pizza ingredients.  We made our own sauce out of those canned tomatoes that we make fun of so much and some spices.  Then I made the dough with mainly 5 parts white flour and one part whole wheat flour (for chewiness, the recipe said).  Then I had to heat up that pizza stone in the hot oven, and…ahhh!!! I still don’t have a peel to put the pizza in the oven with!  So I made a makeshift one out of a cardboard box that we had.

I slipped that pizza in the oven and, oh no, a slice of pepperoni slid off the pizza an d stone and on to the bottom of the oven.  Do you know what occurs when something like that happens in an extremely hot place?  Fire!  Thankfully, I just blew the flame out a few times until it burnt off.  Other than that, that was the only real mishap.  It only took about six minutes to cook, and came out pretty good looking.  We used our peal-wannabe to take the pizza off the stone and onto the top of the oven.  We cut it up, and served it.

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It tasted delicious!  That pizza stone does wonders!  It tasted just like I wanted, and that’s coming from me of all people!  The crust was crisp on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside.  Even though the pizza wasn’t perfectly round, it tasted great.  The funny thing is that we live practically right next to a good pizza place: Golden Crust.  Occasionally we can smell it through our open windows; and we both agreed it tastes better.  Take that Golden Crust!  We’ll save that recipe!  Maybe it will even be a family tradition.

Our Attempt at Italian Beef

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Lately, Andrea and I have been missing some Chicago street food “delicacies”–especially the famous Italian Beef sandwich.  Our favorite is form Al’s #1 Italian Beef on the corner of Wells and Ontario.  It is SO juicy and mouth- wateringly delicious!  There is nothing close to it out here in the east.  Some York County favorites are crab cakes and pickled beet eggs–not quite a Chicago hot dog or Italian Beef.  So last night, we decided to make our own!

We found what looked like a good recipe online, and tried it out.  After marinating over night, we heated up the juice and dipped that beef in it…very good!  We found most of the ingredients we needed except giardinara (try finding THAT in PA).  The thing most native Chicagoans find tasteful (including my wife), is to dip the whole sandwich back into the juice.  Italian beef is overflowing with all kinds spices and flavor.  We just finished eating a few minutes ago, and were pretty impressed.  Now it wasn’t quite up to par with Al’s, Portillo’s, or the Fairhaven cafeteria, but it was close.  A valiant attempt indeed!