Mocha Coffee

There's nothing like warm beverages in the cold of autumn and winter!

Tea

Hot water

Chai

Coffee

Warm broth

Hot chocolate

Wassail


I'm a big fan.


Anyways, yesterday I discovered a new way to enjoy my coffee.

Mocha.

It's so yummy- you really should try it yourself!

• Brew 1/2 mug of very hot coffee (It doesn't matter what coffee you use or how you brew it).

While you're making the coffee, you can prep the rest of your beverage:

• In a large mug or travel mug, pour approx. 1/8 - 1/4 cup milk and 2 liberal scoops of instant hot cocoa powder.

• Now pour your hot coffee into your milk/hot cocoa mixture and stir well.

Tah-dah!

Mocha coffee! 

(Sorry, no pictures this time-  I was in a hurry to get out the door!)


It takes just a few minutes

It's delicious!

And you paid far less than Starbucks ;)


Experiment with the amount of milk/powder/coffee till you find your perfect ratio. 


Enjoy!

~
ISA

My Heart Is in The Highlands

 

On cold, damp October afternoons

My heart is in the mountains

In the woods

Soaking in the stillness and the overcast cloudy sky

The smell of the wet woods and leaves

The occasional crow, echoing in the distance

The amber, pine needle carpeted forest floor, which absorbs the sound of my footsteps

The pine trees, tall, dark and slender, with all but the very top branches dead and bare of needles

A group of deer a short distance away, who feel safe to move around on a wet, misty day

My cozy winter coat, with pockets to warm my chilled hands

The sight of my condensated breath in front of me

A rotten, slippery, fallen log, which gives way and breaks apart - *THUD* - under the weight of my step

The sight of a neighboring mountain, who's trees display a brilliant array of color

The nearby rustle of a squirrel in a tree

The clearing of open fields, green with clover

The cold damp setting in

Hiking down the mountain, from whence I came, giving in to gravity's pull and hiking briskly

Slipping and stumbling on wet leaves and rocks and I go down

Down

Finally reaching the bottom of the hill

Stepping onto the winding road, and hearing the crunch of my steps once again

Gazing down the road, towards the river

Turning

Just a few paces down the grey, gritty path

Turn to step through the entry in the old wooden fence

Up the ramp

 

The clunk of my boots on the porch

Quickly opening the screen door

Bursting through the front door

In the warm house

Sitting down in the living room

On a stuffed arm-chair

Boots off.

Coat hung.

To the kitchen!

Time for a mug of hot cocoa
 

 

~

 

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth ;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Farewell to the mountains, high-cover'd with snow,
Farewell to the straths and green vallies below;
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

 

~Robert Burns

Pumpkin Bars

Everybody knows it's not fall without something pumpkin!

Today's baking-with-pumpkin adventure was pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting!

 

 

These would be great for a thanksgiving dessert or family get together.

 

To make them a little healthier I used whole wheat flour in place of some of the flour, substituted half of the oil for applesauce and used neufatchel cheese instead of whole fat cream cheese.

 

As a general rule, anything pumpkin + cream cheese is a delicious combo.  I recommend it.

 

Buenas Noches!

 

~

ISA



Crockpot Cooking Is Not My Forte

So today I made a discovery.

While in theory, the idea of tossing ingredients in a pot and leaving them to cook into a delicious meal sounds genius

In practice, crockpot cooking just isn't my specialty.

This morning I attempted made a chicken crockpot meal.

One piece of advice is: don't try cooking something for the first time for church potluck on a Sunday morning.

I put the chicken and sauce in the crockpot at the right hour and turned it on.

But then came the fatal error...

Putting the rice in too early.

It was microwave rice, and we don't have a microwave at church! 

There was nothing to do but put it in at 9 instead of 11.

But little did I know

That when I put that crockpot meal out at 11 o'clock for potluck lunch

My chicken and rice would become a sort of chunky, gross looking paste.

While the taste wasn't horrible,

The presentation was enough for anyone to think twice before serving themselves a helping.


So the moral of the story:

While all those crockpot recipes look easy-peasy

Crockpot cooking takes skill and these skills take time and practice to cultivate!


Hope you've had a refreshing Sunday-

May we all be relying on God for his strength and joy to serve him throughout the coming week!

Psalm 28:7
" The Lord is my strength and my shield;
    my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
    and with my song I praise him."

~
ISA

Carrot Chicken-Broth Soup

This is a recipe for soup!

You know that feeling when you're sick and nothing sounds appetizing?

Or what about when you're not super hungry, but you still need something for dinner.

Look no further!

Try "Carrot Chicken-broth Soup"!

Essentially, chicken noodle soup... only without the chicken or noodles ;)

It's so fast and easy!

Ingredients:
1 box of chicken broth (I used trader joe's) or frozen homemade chicken broth
Water (several cups)
1 packet of sodium free, msg-free chicken bouillon
3/4 bag chopped baby carrots
Celery salt to taste
Onion Powder
Salt to taste (if desired)

Combine the above ingredients in a pot and cook till the carrots are tender to your liking.

Enjoy!

~~
ISA

October Baking

Hi all,

How is everyone?

I'm ok, though not feeling terrifical, due to an oncoming cold.  But all things considered...

I'm thankful for each new day - for opportunities to learn, be humbled, and draw closer to the Lord! :)

Lately, I've been accepting this cool October weather as the perfect excuse to bake!

You've probably noticed the theme in my posts by now...

I like to bake.

Here are 3 recent recipes I've tried:

Sunday morning I made blueberry muffins.
(I believe this was the recipe I used).
Changed it up a bit by using whole wheat flour in them.
Also for the topping: melted the butter and added oats instead of flour.

The only negative about the muffins was... that I got them in the oven too late and was consequently 30 minutes late for church! :P

Still working on those time management skills.

Molasses cookies.

MMMMMMMMM!!!!

(recipe).

These are so good. 

If you've never made molasses cookies you really must try. 

It's like a ginger snap, only chewy!

There were originally a whole batch of them but now the above picture is all that remains. ;)

And last, but not least:

Peanut butter cookies!

You can find the recipe that I used here. 
The only changes I made were substituting margarine for the butter and rolling the balls of dough in sugar before pressing them with a fork and baking. 

These are delicious, though they tend toward the dry side.

Also: if you make your cookies small, know that this recipe makes a lot of cookies.  (roughly 6 dozen in my case).



Well, that's all for now.

Hope you're having a Terrifical Tuesday! ;)

Que le vaya bien!

~Isabel