Contrasts

Fruit at home...

 ...in a Moroccan bowl on top of paper Robert wipes his brushes on.

How strange and early in the morning it was...

when we had breakfast at a diner on Long Island. Lots of

little plastic containers of things and lots of paper to throw away. Diners do not

'get' tea --that you need to pour boiling water on top of the bag.....

Last Minute Christmas Wonderfulness!

Last year, right before Christmas, I came home one day to see this intriguing box outside my front door. The great folks at Tassimo had sent me this this fabulous little number. It makes cappuchino, hot chocolate, chai tea latte...oh and also coffee and tea.

You get all this hot beverage stuff done via these handy little pods - you pop one into the top of the brewer and it magically figures out what you are cooking up and adds in the exact amount of hot water for exactly the right amount of time. Now THAT'S what I call the miracle of modern technology.

It was pretty much love at first sight for me, and I've spent the last year saying to everyone who comes to my house, "May I get you a hot beverage?" And being ridiculously excited when they say yes.

So you can imagine my excitement last week when I came home and there was ANOTHER Tassimo box outside my front door...this time with the T20 model. Which is kind of like the original machine's cute little brother. And before I start going on AGAIN about how much I love this thing, let me just state for the record that the great folks at Tassimo sent me this fabulous device at no cost and with no strings attached other than to give my straight-up, no-holds-barred, honest opinion. Which is, straight-up and no-holds-barred, that I love this new version of the machine just as much as I did a year ago.

It does all the great stuff the bigger model does, but takes up less counter space. Great taste, less filling!

Over the course of the past year, I have learned that you can get the beverage pods at Amazon, at Bed Bath and Beyond, or you can sign up for a regular delivery system if you are a dedicated hot beverage drinker and are very organized. So...if you are looking for a last minute holiday gift idea, or are wondering what to do with those gift cards you got in your stocking...I'll just wrap this up by saying I do love mine. Love it. Hot beverage, anyone??

Tassimo Home Brewing System

Lemonade Mint Iced Tea

This one is going to be short and sweet, but I needed to get this up here before summer starts in earnest, because everyone needs to have a good, dependable iced tea recipe in their back pocket.

Now, I am a big fan of something called the Arnold Palmer, which is basically a mixture of half iced tea and half lemonade. The problem is, not everyone knows that a drink that is half iced tea and half lemonade is called an Arnold Palmer. So sometimes I order it when I am at a restaurant and they write it down like it is a perfectly normal thing to order, and sometimes they look at me like I have a screw loose somewhere. I have no earthly idea why this is called an Arnold Palmer, although I think a safe bet is that Arnold Palmer used to drink glasses of half lemonade and half iced tea?

And now that you know all that helpful background, here's a great version of this iced tea, and adding mint into the mix makes it just about perfect. Happy lazy summer days to you.

Lemonade Mint Iced Tea, adapted from Taste of the South

• 10 cups boiling water
• 10 tea bags
• 4 sprigs fresh mint
• 1 twelve ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
• Sugar for sweetening (optional)

1. Combine water, teabads and mint in large pot and let steep for 5-10 minutes, depending on how strong you like your tea. Remove tea bags.

2. Stir in concentrate. At this point you should taste and see if you think you need some sugar. The lemonade will sweeten it somewhat, but if you like your tea pretty sweet you might need to add in some sugar.

3. Refrigerate about one hour, or until ready to serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Last Minute Christmas Gift: Tassimo Hot Beverage System!

Okay you last minute procrastinating Christmas shoppers, have I got an got an idea for YOU. Yesterday I came home from my maniacal last minute shopping and this was at my front door. The awesome folks at Tassimo had sent me a gift of my very own Tassimo Hot Beverage System, and there it was, just waiting on my doormat.

Now, I've seen these things before -- coffee makers where you drop in the special pod and press a button and it makes a single cup, and I gotta tell you, I have not been tempted. First of all, I am not a coffee drinker (although the Southern husband does love a good cappuccino now and then). And us dedicated tea drinkers have gotten the whole single serving thing down to a science: drop a tea bag into hot water and voila. But a gift is a gift, and I wasted no time getting the box open. And right on the box were all these tempting looking cups of not just coffee, but other stuff that the teenager and I actually love and drive to far flung places to get. Chai tea latte. Hot chocolate. And yes, cappucino. Hmm.

So we pulled it out and set it up, which took about 90 seconds. Sleek-looking, right? The water receptacle is in the back, and comes off the machine so you can fill it in the sink (as opposed to pouring the water directly into the machine and spilling some of it on the counter, if you are ME.) And if you look very closely at the metal control buttons on the right, you can see me with my tripod. Someday soon I will figure out how not to take pictures with my reflection in them.

Also in the box were three packages that looked like this:

The other two were cappuchino and chai tea. I'd show you what those looked like but in my extreme excitement I ripped open the chai tea package immediately upon reading the words "chai tea" on the package. I'm sorry, but I have no self-control when it comes to some things.

Inside these packages are these adorable little pods.

And here is the wild part. See the bar codes on them? The machine reads the bar code on whatever pod you put in there, and it KNOWS what you are making and how long to brew it for, how much water to use, etc etc etc. Better living through science, people! In action in my kitchen!

OK, time to get down to business. I popped in the chai tea pod, selected my most elegant cup and put it in place.

Okay, so I DO have more elegant cups. I really do.

But I like my cow cup, and I gotta be me. Here's the back of it, by the way. It's one of the reasons I love it so.

I pushed the button. It whirred and hummed and one minute later my cup was half full of tea. Then I popped in the milk pod. More whirring. More humming. Best of all, frothing and steaming...and there it was.

One of the best cups of chai tea I have ever had. In two minutes. And you are talking to a girl who has spent an unmentionable amount of money in Starbucks saying "tall skim extra hot chai, please?" I even made the Southern husband taste it to make sure I wasn't in some dream state brought on by my fascination with the whole bar code thing, and he agreed...and then asked for a cappuchino, stat. Then my friend D arrived on the scene, and he is a die-hard black coffee drinker. We popped in one of those Starbucks Caffe Verona pods and 1 minute later...another believer.

So if you are still looking for that last minute Christmas gift....Tassimo Home Brewing System. I know you can get them at Bed Bath And Beyond, because I already sent the Southern husband over there to get us some hot chocolate pods for the teenager. (Yes, I sent him to the mall on December 23. That's the kind of ruthless woman I am. ) You can also go to the Tassimo Direct website where they will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about how it works, where to buy them, how to never run out of chai latte pods, etc. And hey -- if you get any of those great gift certificate cards and don't know what to spend it on...

That's all I've got for you today...except wherever you are, I hope you have a warm, happy, delicious holiday!

A Very Cold Afternoon at the Beach

We left it rather late to go down to the beach.
It was beastly cold.
Here Huntington Bay looking towards Northport.



The ubiquitous reeds and bare tree against fading light.
There were some kids at the beach with their dog.
One of the boys was wearing shorts. Ah youth...



The little boats don't look very inviting.



Luckily Celeste has a very inviting chair by the fire...



...and offers a nice cup of tea.