Kitchen Gear: Coffee

I do love coffee, but I'm far from a purist. Coffee snobs are like wine snobs; they must tell you every note and how it is made and the best way to brew it.

I'm going to give you a quick review of my two coffee machines in my kitchen. 

Good ole Mr. Coffee. Traditional drip kind where you just put the water in, put some coffee in the filter and let it brew. This one is fancy because it lets you set a time to brew. Like before you get up. So its ready when you get out of bed. Happy dance right?

Well anyways, its dependable and makes good coffee. Just clean it with white vinegar every now and then and it will keep chugging along. My favorite coffee to use with it is...

Or for those of you in Texas (Amazon sells it as well)

Next up the the Keurig Single Cup 

Now I'm sure most of us have seen these. Basically you select a flavor of coffee, place the k-cup in the machine and hit brew. Now it is by far not the best cup of coffee you will have ever had, but there are a few instances where it works quite well. 

1. When you have a ton of family in the house that all drink coffee at different times. Dad in the morning, Mom and lunch, Grandma at dinner and Brother all day long. I don't like to leave my Mr. Coffee on all day so this works out well. Everyone gets a fresh cup when they want it. They also can have a choice of different flavors depending on what you got at the store. 

2. When you forgot to set the Mr. Coffee and are running out the door late to work. It brews in about 30 seconds. 

Overall I like the K-cups. They have lots of flavors to choose from and offer tea and hot chocolate as well. Two things to keep in mind

1. It will cost more than a lb of ground coffee

2. Some K-Cups are instant coffee not grounds like in the above picture.

To offset the cost, some people buy a reusable cup and fill with their own coffee. My own experience is that it doesn't make the coffee strong enough and if I'm going through the trouble to fill my own k-cup, I might as well use Mr. Coffee. 

Get yourself a great mug and enjoy an afternoon cup of java!

Kitchen Gear: CamelBak Water bottle

Pretty epic right? That was taken somewhere in Southeastern Utah on my Outward Bound trip 10 years ago. on a disposable camera. I spent 30 days in the wilderness that is La Sal Mountain Range, Cayonlands National Park and a rafting trip down the Colorado river. 3 of those days were spent alone on a solo adventure. The other with 10 other teenagers. One of those teens was on a Morehead Scholarship from UNC Chapel Hill and another one was court ordered because he was a troubled teen. We were quite the eclectic group but had to come together to build our own shelters (most nights under the sky was fine), cook our own food and navigate as a group. I am still friends with one of the girls I met there. L and I were of similar size so we were each other's partner. Sharing the loads of our heavy packs and talking about our teenager problems. This is where I was first introduced to CamelBaks. We were not issued them but we wished we were. Instead we drank out of nasty white Nalgenes that surely hundreds of kids before us had used. We treated the water with Iodine so the insides of the bottles were stained brown. I was told you shouldn't treat your water in a CamellBak as it forever ruins the taste. None the less the signature mouthpiece of the CamelBak was very intriguing but soon forgotten as I went back to my suburban ways. 

My sister a few years ago introduced me to CamelBak's water bottle. She had hers with her University logo on it and I thought it was really cool. Soon after I because the proud owner of a 750 ml and a smaller 400 ml Children's water bottle. Living in the dry climite of the West it is very important to stay hydrated all year long but especially in the summer. Green Bean loved her water bottle and we could carry it everywhere instead of a sippy cup. A study done at Pepperdine University (Go Waves!) showed that people drink 24% more water when drinking out of a CamelBak. Easy to carry and makes me drink more water without me realizing it? It doesn't get better than that.

I have 5 water bottles now floating around my house. Turtles is addicted to them and loves to suck on them while riding in her stroller. I have had to replace the bite valves because of children teething on them, but that is expected of normal wear and tear. They can be placed in the dishwasher or hand washed easily. There is a plethora of choices such as insulated, filtered and stainless steal. You can buy them online, outdoor store or even Target. So it will be easy to stay hydrated this summer, just pick up a CamelBak and take it along!

A tradition of dressing up on the last night along the banks of the Colorado River. We met up with another group and all celebrated together. 

Kitchen Gear: The Kitchenaid

When I was registering for my wedding 4 years ago I had no idea what I needed in a kitchen. One of the things I knew as a baker was I had to have a Kitchenaid mixer. Nothing comes close to a Kitchenaid mixer!

I have the Kitchenaid 6qt Pearl Metallic blender. It is very sturdy and has a powerful motor. It comes with 3 different paddles: a beater, whip and dough hook. 

The beater is amazing for pretty much everything. It can also be used to make baby food purees, mashed sweet potatoes and the occasional birthday cake!

The whip is what I use for quiche, whipped cream, meringue and making my own mayo. 

The dough hook is for that very special time of year when homemade rolls and cinnamon buns must be made. (hint: it is in December)

Kitchenaid offers many attachments to plug into the "hub" of the mixer. I wouldn't mind trying out the food grinder or the slicer/shredder. As I keep branching out into new recipes I may have to break down and give it a whirl!