Shadow Footprints

"Black as the devil,
Hot as hell,
Pure as an angel,
Sweet as love."

--Charles Maurice de Talleyrand- Perigord

Ah, espresso. How do I love thee?

• A short black, in the demitasse cups with saucers at home. Savoured slowly.
• A long black, either at home or out and about, served as a shot of espresso in a slightly larger cup, with hot water on the side for me to decide how much to add.
• Latte, with more foam than a flat white, but not as much as a cappuccino. This is an espresso flavoured milk drink, not a coffee. Preferably served in a large glass or a bowl, not a cup. No sweetening needed as the sugars in the milk mitigate the delightful bitterness of the coffee
• An iced long black, with the espresso poured over ice cubes and topped with chilled water.
• An iced coffee, again with the espresso poured over ice cubes in a large glass and topped with milk. No cream or other nonsense added.

All the coffee in Columbia won't make me a morning person.

I also like your near relative, made with a plunger.

Caffeine is my shepherd; I shall not doze.
It maketh me to wake in green pastures:
It leadeth me beyond the sleeping masses.
It restoreth my buzz:
It leadeth me in the paths of consciousness for its name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of addiction,
I will fear no Equal™:
For thou art with me; thy cream and thy sugar they comfort me.
Thou preparest a carafe before me in the presence of The Starbucks:
Thou anointest my day with pep; my mug runneth over.
Surely richness and taste shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the House of Mochas forever.
~Author Unknown

This evening I've baked, for the first time, Stained-glass window biscuits and gingerbread biscuits.

I've done it for my party, I just want to know why I'm doing all this.

I had a lot of trouble trying to find the boiled sweets for crushing; it's all soft lollies now. I had to buy a packet of mixed lollipops and hop the colours were good.

On Saturday we went to see GALS present GALS and FRIENDS. It was a good concert.

On Sunday I baked a Christmas Cake for the first time. It was from my mother's old cook book and it didn't have all the instructions, so I had to improvise based on other recipes. I put spoonfuls into a greased muffin pan and the rest into the cake tin. The small ones made excellent individual portions and I think I'll do that in future, especially if I do it the day or so before I want to serve them. I'll also be able to reduce the recipe size to be able to do this more often, and adjust the choice of fruit content. I baked the cake for serving at my annual tree-trimming party. I'm scheduling the party for Sunday 10^th December. This time it'll be a casual afternoon affair instead of a night time party.

Friends came around for dinner last night. We sat on the patio while the meat was barbecued over the brazier, then sat inside as the weather chilled. Dessert was the individual Christmas cakes served with coffee and tea. Comments indicate the adjustments I made were acceptable.

I made the four of us one of my large calzones for dinner tonight, filled with mince, capsicums, mushrooms, tomato paste, basil pesto, parmesan, mozzarella, and Moroccan Harissa pizza topping from Kato. It was well received and both guys were pleasantly surprised. (Little Bear had had one of my calzones before so knew what to expect.) I do enjoy cooking, and it's nice to cook for people who aren't fussy about the components.

I'm now learning to recognise when my emotional state is being affected by low blood sugar. I only realised I was being affected this way last week. Sometimes it got really bad and I could not attribute my emotions to being directly caused by any specific actions of anybody. Generally I get feelings of anxiety and of being isolated. I was getting worried that I'd have to see my doctor about it.

Having managed to accidently lose weight over the past couple of months I want to keep the weight off and continue the habits I've started to develop. I don't want to get back into the habit of eating just because it's meal-time, but I have to be aware that I may need a small bite to eat.

I was okay over Easter, even though I ate only one small egg on Monday, and left-overs from Sunday night's dinner.

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464184/

I saw Sione's Wedding on the big screen today. It was great. There's some good lines in it.

It seems that a lot of people have seen an unfinished bootlegged copy. I'm glad I saw the full thing.

After the movie we went to Little India in Kingsland for dinner. Food was very tasty.

Link: http://shadowfoot.com/recipe/2006/03/23/margarita_chicken

I cooked Margarita Chicken for dinner tonight. It was delicious.

I found it in the September 2005 edition of Men's Health magazine. I generally prefer the US edition of the magazine, but the Australian one is what is available locally.