Maple Bourbon Dairy Free Waffles Re-Boot · Friday December 28, 2012 by colin newell
I love breakfast. And waffles or french toast – well, they are the breakfast food of life. And there are no more popular recipes than my waffle recipes – the single most requested page on this blog!
1 3/4 cup of all-purpose unbleached white flour
1 heaping tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (or a pinch)
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 Egg yolks
1 3/4 cups premium quality Soy or Almond milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 fluid ounce Makers Mark, Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, or your favorite bourbon
1 Tablespoon Pure Canadian Maple Syrup
2 Egg whites
In a large mixing bowl (which will ultimately hold your several days worth of waffle mix) stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a smaller mixing bowl beat egg yolks. Add Soy milk, cinnamon, maple syrup, bourbon and oil.
Add to flour mix all at once. Stir or fold til mixed but still slightly lumpy.
In yet-another-bowl whip egg white to form a stiff peak.
Gently fold egg whites into soya-flour-oil mixture leaving a few peaks of egg white visible.
Heat waffle iron letting waffle mix work for about 7 minutes.
Pour batter onto greased and preheated iron. Do not open while the waffles are cooking! Timing will vary depending on your iron. Assume 3 minutes til golden brown.
Serve with butter, more maple syrup, fresh blueberries and hot, hot coffee on the side!
Enjoy!
Bonus blog - serving the social media masters - but why · Tuesday October 9, 2012 by colin newell
Between my blog (right here), my coffee website and my radio-tech-geek site, I have upwards of 100K readers per month.
100 thousand. Unique readers.
And the stats to back it up.
But I consistently ignore the bigger audience (you folks out there in blog land)
in favor of spending my free time quipping on Twitter and posting the periodic axiom on Facebook.
But why? Why? WHY?
Well. I have been thinking about it.
Part of having 1800 twitter followers – which is a small number in the big scheme of things, is that I can attach a face to so many of these good people. It is, in fact, a conversation – a back and forth if you would. A kind of interaction that does not really happen as effectively on the Blogosphere. Unless of course the occasional blog reader chooses to comment on something – which is great. I LOVE comments.
Twitter is great. No question. But it can be frustrating at the same time. Every one of the 1800 followers is a sentient personality, with fabric, substance and real edges. Twitter is blog-3D. And a twitter writer needs to put substantially more energy into the 140 character snippets because you are trying to convey a focused thought and be aware that potentially several thousand sets of eyes might take a peek at your thought… and react to it… good or bad… in near real time.
So. I love twitter and my following readers.
And if twitter is fun (and not effortless) then Facebook is even more challenging and more frustrating… because you are preaching to a largely converted choir, who are going to be less tolerant to the spectrum of your (my) muse.
Meaning, as over the top as I can be on Twitter – as funny or unfunny as I can be – or as cynical or jaded, my thoughts are quickly lost in the conversation as other funnier quips move up the feed chain.
Not so much on Facebook. Things are moving a little slower – and I find it way easier to become impatient with my FB friends and likely they are experiencing the same thing about me. I am challenging at the best of times – and not always in a good way.
So. My big audience gets nixed more than occasionally. I guess it is about balance and managing all the social media tasks. I will most certainly talk more about this – because the discussion has merit and it’s an opportunity for me to dial it down a bit… and who in my social media circle would not want that!
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Mad about Fall Chapter 2 Take a moment - appreciate your coffee · Saturday November 12, 2011 by colin newell
I was talking to a ham radio operator in New Jersey today… about the weather…
his weather.
And while I chatted I was brewing my first thermal carafe of organic Costa Rica coffee from Every Day Gourmet Coffee roasters – St. Lawrence Market, Toronto…
(And) That part of America has had rain, snow, floods, hurricanes and honest to goodness tornadoes…
and an earthquake.
Between sips of my Hario poured brew I noted that… Here it was gray. A normal shade of gray for Victoria this time of year. (With) A bit of wind. A bit of rain. And a steady temperature of around 10 degrees (Celcius) or 50 degrees on the (Far) scale.
My wife and I went downtown this afternoon to do a few chores. We walked outside in the rain – a rain that seemed to fall out of the sky and divert around us before striking a glistening sidewalk. Charming.
Looking around downtown Victoria (on the southern tip of Vancouver Island) one sees great coffee shops, eateries and attractions on every corner. Victoria, in fact, is a coffee lovers mecca where every form of brewed caffeinated enticements await the adventurous. I try not to take for granted that, per capita, we have more quality Joe joints per square mile than anywhere else in North America. Yea, Seattle and Portland are great – and so is San Francisco (and Vancouver) but that involves driving.
You do not need a car in Victoria to enjoy a broad variety of coffee consumption here.
You just need time, a fistful of dollars and a clear head – that will soon be buzzing with psycho activity after your first 2 or 3 beverages.
In Victoria you can get your java brewed; in a French press, in an Aeropress, in a vacuum brewer, in an air pot, in an espresso machine, with a Hario pour over… and in ways I am not even familiar with yet. Yup, just trying to keep up.
Victoria barista’s and their cafe owner associates are among the most informed, educated and passionate in the business – Our cafe experts in Victoria frequently go to the source or the place where the coffee is produced. They know the farmers. They care for the people that produce the raw materials. There is a direct and living connection between the coffee served in Victoria and the people that are caring for it.
You can taste it in the cup and feel it from the people that work the coffee here in the city.
On some level, it almost makes sense that Victoria has a land and real estate market that is virtually unattainable for virtually all of the folks that live here – because this place is so desirable.
And looking out into the wind and rain and subtle dampness… Well maybe, just maybe… this will be as bad as it gets.
A city with a mild rain and a great, great coffee scene – that keeps getting better and better…
I love it… and respect it for now…
Until I pack up in January and move from one paradise to another… on the Big Island of Hawaii (where we hang out for 1 month every year.)
More on that later!
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Victoria Spring 2011 Getting Funky with Rick May · Tuesday April 5, 2011 by colin newell
Local Bass player and session musician, Rick May featured on this DB Clifford snippet.
If you do not find yourself shaking something within seconds of this track starting, you had better spot yourself for a pulse!
Rick May, locally known for his involvement in The Superior Cafe is a past partner in “Java on Johnson”, The Old Town Cafe and La Boheme Restaurant in the eighties.
Rick has played bass guitar with Michael Jackson (on the hit song “Beat It”), members of DEVO, Mae Moore (touring this summer), Marc Almond (Soft Cell), Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix experience, Ricki Lee Jones, Roger Taylor of Duran Duran, etc etc.
Rick can often be found, when in town, sampling the great coffee at Habit Coffee & Culture on Yates Street in the Atrium (at Blanshard).
You can check out his thing on his website – RickMay.ca
