I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
Captain’s Log, Stardate 06.06.2007
Many of you know that my husband, Captain Caffeine, roasts his own coffee. I thought I’d show you a few pictures.
Here is his coffee roaster. Yes, it was an air popcorn popper in a previous life. It’s actually a special design of popcorn popper in that it has vents on the side of the column instead of at the bottom, where most air poppers have their hot air vents.
He stuck a can (top and bottom removed) to extend the column so beans don’t come flying out of the popper.
Here are the green coffee beans.
They’re a rather sickly yellow-brown color. However, the advantage of keeping green coffee beans and roasting them as you need them is two-fold:
1) You get fresh-roasted coffee that’s no more than a week or two old (and Captain Caffeine says he really can tell when coffee has been roasted more than a week ago)
2) Green coffee beans can be bought in bulk because they’ll last up to a year in storage without getting stale. Roasted coffee is only good for a few months, at best.
Here’s the coffee in the roaster.
Captain Caffeine stirs the coffee every so often.
Captain Caffeine has to rapidly cool the coffee as soon as it reaches a certain point, so he pours them back and forth between two sieves, which are really supposed to be for straining soup but he got them at Goodwill for cheap and they work great.
The roasted coffee.
Many of you know that my husband, Captain Caffeine, roasts his own coffee. I thought I’d show you a few pictures.
Here is his coffee roaster. Yes, it was an air popcorn popper in a previous life. It’s actually a special design of popcorn popper in that it has vents on the side of the column instead of at the bottom, where most air poppers have their hot air vents.
He stuck a can (top and bottom removed) to extend the column so beans don’t come flying out of the popper.
Here are the green coffee beans.
They’re a rather sickly yellow-brown color. However, the advantage of keeping green coffee beans and roasting them as you need them is two-fold:
1) You get fresh-roasted coffee that’s no more than a week or two old (and Captain Caffeine says he really can tell when coffee has been roasted more than a week ago)
2) Green coffee beans can be bought in bulk because they’ll last up to a year in storage without getting stale. Roasted coffee is only good for a few months, at best.
Here’s the coffee in the roaster.
Captain Caffeine stirs the coffee every so often.
Captain Caffeine has to rapidly cool the coffee as soon as it reaches a certain point, so he pours them back and forth between two sieves, which are really supposed to be for straining soup but he got them at Goodwill for cheap and they work great.
The roasted coffee.
Comments
Just think, years from now, when you're both retired, at least he'll have something to occupy his time!
He really likes his coffee doesn't he? Reminds me of my Mom:D
I can only hope to meet a guy who has mastered the art of roasting coffee. I'm an addict.