Owning a fully automatic home coffee machine · Thursday February 1, 2007 by colin newell
Super-Auto or fully automatic coffee makers are all the rage now. But you have to ask yourself one question: “Can you control yourself?”
Upside With a standard Super-Auto machine, you add coffee beans and water. You push a button. That’s it. Really. That’s it.
Downside Buy one of these units and you will drown in great coffee. On the evolutionary scale, there are few genetic upticks between the human and, say… the gerbil.
Or a hamster. You know what a hamster is, yes? My point: It takes very little stimulus to cascade from civilized beings to caffeine-pellet gobbling rodents.
Anyway – a true story: A wealthy uncle of mine bought a swiss made fully-auto coffee maker.. about 1700$
for his kitchen. A Solis Master 5000 digital.
He loved it. Perhaps a little too much. Heck, I borrowed it for 5 days for use in my lab. And the 4 normally adult male techs in my shop quickly morphed into human/hummingbird hybrids. The more they buzzed around the Solis for yet another shot the more hummingbird-like they became. Go figure.
The Solis is a good machine and the after-sales support is top notch. So, after a year, the sales/service centre that
sold it to him suggested a free check-up.
They were so amazed when they got it in the
shop… and they called me. I can remember the call…
Within 365 days of us, he has clocked in 14,000
servings of coffee. They thought he was running
a restaurant.
This Uncle, who is in his 60’s has a wife who is 32.
He has (or had at the time…) a 3 year old.
He claims: “I put my coffee maker on at 5AM and
I make one or two Americanos coffee every hour til
when I turn it off at 10 PM!”
Do the math. He pressed the brew button over 10,000
times in the space of one year.
Now THAT is coffee drinking!
Personally, I drink about 8 fluid ounces of coffee a day.
Not 8 fluid litres. If I drank coffee like this, my head would explode. Or maybe my bladder would go first.
Either way, if you think you can handle one of these units, go ahead an try. But keep a support group handy… or a life-line or something.
You have been warned.
50 years, 26 countries World Tour... · Wednesday January 31, 2007 by colin newell
There is talk starting to circulate that the U.S.A. may use nuclear weapons against Iran. Anyway you slice it, this is utter insanity. Knowing that, you are probably thinking that America would never just come out and drop bombs on just anybody. Well, lemme jog your memory about American foreign policy over the last 50 years.Read a good report here
The following is a list of countries the U.S. has bombed since WWII. Now I know what you are thinking: These countries needed to be bombed to protect the World from terrorism, fascism, communism and socialism. You know, to keep the World free from tyranny and opression. Right. Maintain World Peace through perpetual War. So. Here you are. 26 countries. Millions of lives snuffed out. Enjoy.
* China (1945-46)
* Korea and China (1950-53--Korean War)
* Guatemala (1954)
* Indonesia (1958)
* Cuba (1959-61)
* Guatemala (1960)
* Congo (1964)
* Peru (1965)
* Laos (1964-73)
* Vietnam (1961-73)
* Cambodia (1969-70)
* Guatemala (1967-69)
* Grenada (1983)
* Lebanon (1983, 1984 -- both Lebanese and Syrian targets)
* Libya (1986)
* El Salvador (1980s)
* Nicaragua (1980s)
* Iran (1987)
* Panama (1989)
* Iraq (1991 to present)
* Kuwait (1991)
* Somalia (1993)
* Bosnia (1994, 1995)
* Sudan 1998
* Afghanistan (1998, 2001-02)
* Yugoslavia (1999)
* Iran (200?)
Comments? [2]
Lighten up... with Blueberry Cashew Biscotti · Tuesday January 30, 2007 by colin newell
In all fairness, this is an adaptation from the Cranberry-Candied Ginger biscotti from the Christmas issue of EAT Magazine. I like coffee, as you all know, and there is nothing better than a rock-hard biscotti with a cup of rich, hot and freshly brewed joe. They go hand in hand.
For some, baking biscotti is a bit of a hassle. I mean, you have to kind of 1/2 bake it and bake it again. No problem for me. I live for hassles so I have made this a fun one. Read on and enjoy.
I did not have any cranberries. Nor did I have candied ginger.
So here we go.
2.5 cups of all purpose flour | 1 cup sugar
1 tsp ground ginger | 2 large eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon | 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder | 1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp baking soda | 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 tsp salt | 1/2 cup unsalted ground cashews
1/2 cup softened butter |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F)
In a medium sized bowl, blend or sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl toss in the softened butter. Add sugar and blend til creamy. You will need a fairly robust blender for this from here on in.
Beat in eggs, vanilla and almond extract.
Gradually add in the dry to the egg/sugar/butter mixture.
Blend until a dough starts to form.
Toss in your blueberries and ground nuts.
Knead into a ball with your hands.
Remove from bowl to floured surface. Divide ball of dough into 2 equal sized pieces and roll them into 2 12” long loaves.
Flatten loaves slightly and square off the ends, placing them on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until light brown.
Remove from oven and cool for 5-7 minutes.
With a serrrated knife, cut the loaves (along the bias) into biscotti sized (1” thick) slices.
Return each biscotti (standing on edge) to the parchment paper covered cookie sheet and return to the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until they are dried out. Do not over brown.
Remove from oven, cool and place in air-tight container.
Makes about 2 dozen biscotti. Cheers!
Comments? [1]
Morons on wheels - Darwin's natural selection · Sunday January 28, 2007 by colin newell
We had a wonderful weekend at Point No Point
Beautiful weather. Brilliant Sunshine. Rest and relaxation.
Oh yea. And a…
High-speed motorcycle crashing head-on into a BMW.
West coast road between Sooke and Jordan River and Port Renfrew, however scenic, is an environment of vehicular lawlessness that the R.C.M.P cannot get a handle on.
Every weekend the Sun comes out, zippy hives of crotch rocket driving morons (guys in almost 100% of cases) zip down this winding ocean-side road at speeds over 100 miles per hour.
They endanger their lives.
And the lives of other motorists.
And they do this every time the sun comes out.
They are male. And they are ignorant and inconsiderate of others.
Anyhow. This weekend, one of these morons on wheels met head on with a brand new BMW. Judging by what was left of the bike, there was little left of the driver. The Beemer faired much better; some crumples on the hood. That was pretty much it.
Yep. This is Darwin at work. Natural selection.
And it works.
On a more personal note, I have had these 2-wheeled morons come screaming up behind my wife and I on the West Coast road… endangering us. I treat this kind of behavior as if it was agressive assault (like there is any other kind…)
And I tend to hit back.
So watch for me.
Thank you to the word-Nazi who corrected my terrible punctuation.
Slow down! [7]
