Coffee and Film

A romantic comedy: a lot like Love

C&F — Sat, 06 May 2006 17:56:04 +0000

A Lot Like Love is wonderful romantic comedy, only it’s not very romantic and it sure isn’t very funny.

The movie traces the relationship of Oliver (Ashton) and Emily(Amanda) who meet on a flight from LA to NY seven years ago. Each of them declaring that they couldn’t be more wrong for each other. Life keeps bringing them back together over the next seven years, but the timing was never right.

Along the way, they each gain and shed a few other partners, he amasses a fortune and loses it in a high-tech diaper supply business, she becomes a photographer.

As the time passes by they turn from casual acquaintances in trusted friends who can say anything to each other.

I found this movie quite refreshing and something altogether different.

Iced Coffee recipe

C&F — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:01:30 +0000

You require following for making a smooth Iced Coffee

1 cup chilled brewed coffee, made double-strength or with a rich dark roast

2 rounded tablespoons sugar (extra fine)1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 tsp genuine vanilla extract

2 cups ice

Combine the coffee, sugar, cream, vanilla and ice in a blender and blend until its creamy.

Enjoy your iced coffee:

Now powered by WordPress

C&F — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 13:06:13 +0000

Today we moved coffee and film from static pages to WordPress. Some of you may see the old pages until DNS servers expire their caches. But if things went well, you shouldnâ€™t really notice any difference. Ok, some permalinks may have broken but I think most of them will continue to work.Let us know if you find something wrong with the site.

My home video setup

C&F — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 14:37:28 +0000

Iâ€™ll start by describing my current film set up. I have a Zone free Samsung DVD player and a multisystem Sony TV. All this is further enhanced by Yamaha home theater system.

All this means I can see movies from all over the world. I watched the movie Around the wolrd in 80 days on the DVD player connected to the multisystem TV and Home theater system.

Roasting with a Orville Redenbacher Presto Popper

C&F — Wed, 11 May 2005 14:37:29 +0000

With a hurricane-type lampshade attached, roasting with a Orville Redenbacher Presto 1440 watt Popcorn Popper is simple and easy.

The beans move around quickly, although you can’t tell that from the photos. The popper heats and blows air with lots of power. The beans did need quick cooling after roasting in a colander and then the freezer, though.

For the roast pretty much fill the popper until the beans were moving real slowly.

However, roasted some robusta the other day with only a handful of beans, and it went fine, albeit a little slower.

The hurricane lampshade thing (which gets real hot - make sure you have a kitchen mitt) keeps the beans from flying out, although at times with less bean one or two will pop out. What is amazing is with all that flying about (and with lesser amounts of beans they fly up at least a foot) they still get hot enough to roast to a first crack and then a second rolling crack pretty quick — under ten minutes, in any case, and a lot faster with less beans… almost as fast as my FreshRoast (just got the new improved chamber - Thanks to Tim at FreshBeans!), which is of course in itself a bottom air model.
In any case the beans move around real well, which means the roast is going to be even. I don’t understand how people can get uneven roasts with this setup unless they overload the thing.

I think I prefer roasting with the Redenbacher to my FreshRoast, except for the lack of a cooling cycle, which means thing get hectic real quick when the roasts get dark; I’m going to try freezing the cast iron pan to cool them, that should be easy and is no more obsessive than any of my other coffee behaviors.

The FreshRoast is, of course, easier to control, and you don’t risk wasting a big batch of beans. I’m looking forward towards using the new improved roasting chamber, which ships standard with the newer FreshRoast Plus.

How my life changed

C&F — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:14:53 +0000

It all started with a Saeco Maestro that I bought. Dream shots. Lots of cream. Sweetness. A taste of fruit. A new coffee odyssey that lasted for several months until the Solis Maestro died. And now I’m waiting. Next week it should be back…All this waiting has caused me to reevaluate the coffee house scene. Sacred Cup is gone… JP’s Java has awesome coffee now… As good as chez moi. And Spider House is fun as well.

Roasting in a Popcorn Popper

C&F — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 12:36:09 +0000

After breaking the roasting chamber on my FreshRoast (putting the hot chamber in cold running water), I started experimenting with roasting with hot air popcorn poppers.

The combination of an Orville Redenbocker popcorn popper and a hurricane lampshade is a perfect fit functionally and esthetically.

The beans roast beautifully, quickly, and move around very fast.

Final Product after Cooling

C&F — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:41:40 +0000

Although the beans seemed pretty cool, pour them into a cast iron pan that had been pre-chilled in the freezer.

Roasting with a FreshRoast

C&F — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 12:48:12 +0000

You’ve got to love the FreshRoast roaster. It roasts small quantities quickly, has a nice cooling cycle, is fun to watch, and lets you clearly hear the first and second roasting cracks.With a new roasting chamber from FreshBeans, you can have a bigger area for the beans to move around in. The roasts seems a little more controlled; I even stalled one by taking off the top chaff collector.