Living Out of the Box

Thursday Tutorial: Nescafe Instant Coffee (On Friday!)

I decided that if Mrs. N can do a 'How to', than so can I. I will be choosing some simpler tasks though:)

To start things off right, I decided to do a tutorial on how to make a cup of instant coffee. Don't laugh....you can screw this up. I am doing this because I am now taking public transportation to work, so caring a hot cup of coffee on a bus, train, bus and bus is not my idea of fun. So, if I can make a decent cup of coffee at work, I will do it.

So first off you need supplies.

1) Coffee Cup - I went with the thermal cup with lid.

2) Instant Coffee - I tried Nescafe. I'll get to the taste later.

3) Optional - Cream, Sugar or any other "Fixin's" - I went with the Coffee-mate French Vanilla pack.

4) Hot/Warm Water Source - The galley area at my office has a hot water tap on the coffee maker. The Nescafe packet said only 6 oz. of water....I pushed the amount up to fill the full cup, it was probably 10 oz.

5) Stir Implement

Next up is the actual coffee 'brewing'

1) Prepare your supplies.

2) Mix coffee, creamer and water. I chose to put the dry ingredients in the cup first, and then add the water. I find that this helps with mixing.

 

3) Stir ingredients.

Finally, you need to taste, and hopefully enjoy the cup of coffee. The entire process took me less than 1 minute. Not bad.

I have had Nescafe before, but never in pre measured packet form. It was very good and when paired with the French vanilla creamer, it was quite good. The extra water in the cup did not affect the taste for me. I will be enjoying many cups in the weeks and months to come.

That is all for now. I hope you have a great day.

Mr. A

PS... this would have been posted yesterday, but I forgot about it. Whoops. xoxo N

Tortillas

When we make any kinds of foods like tacos or Cuban black beans and rice (my favorite), our family tends to favor flour tortillas. I think it reminds Mr. A and I of our time in Arizona. I worked in an office building that had a woman who would come once a week and sell homemade burritos. I always got a bean burrito. They were super nummy and the thing I liked best was the homemade tortilla.

Sometimes I get something in my head that is food related and I NEED to make it. For a while it was homemade pizza crusts. They were all great, but how do you compete when you can get a fresh pizza from a store to take home and bake for a whole five bucks? And it's HUGE. Occasionally, I will make bread or soft pretzels or egg noodles from scratch and while they are excellent I don't always have the time for a big project.

A while ago I was thinking about tortillas. The one's from the store aren't like the one's the burrito woman used. I missed them so I set out on a mission to make my own. First I tried THESE. They are good... great even and I always have all the ingredients on hand. BUT, they weren't what I had in Arizona. Because real tortillas use lard which seems gross, but I can't help but like them that way.

We have been watching Mexico: One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless. He's a Chicago guy with three restaurants which we have never been to... I do want to go. Anyhoo, I looked up his Flour Tortillarecipe after seeing him make them on his PBS show. You know how sometimes you watch someone make something on TV and it still doesn't work out the way they did it... THESE DID. It was amazing as every step happened exactly the way he said it would. They bubbled and sizzled and browned just exactly like Rick Bayless said.
 

After mixing, I separated them in to small balls and let them rest. 30 minutes later, I rolled them out.

 

Mr. A was in charge on the pan and flipping them. Once he would place one on the pan, it would sizzle loudly. They each took about 30 seconds on each side. As they cooked they became poofy like a pillow.

Finally, after they were cooked, we placed them on a cloth an wrapped them up to keep warm. We stored the left overs in the fridge and reheated them in the microwave when we wanted to eat them. They didn't last long at all. I highly recommend making them the Rick Bayless way... NUMMMMMMMMM!!!!

Beer and Lost

I am sitting with N watching 'Lost' and drinking a Leinie. I like beer, but have had trouble getting into Lost. Remember I like Star Wars. N is a big Lost fan...she is telling me we should have had a farewell to L party....my thoughts, not so much. I was able to pack for a trip and go on a beer run, and still stay up to speed..... Anyway, beer is good, N is happy, so I am happy:) A