For my birthday, Michele gave me some of those cylindrical cookie wafer things with chocolate hazelnut filling. I left that can at school, but they were so tasty, I got some I could offer during Bible study.
I noticed the ones I got weren’t as tasty. I must’ve gotten a different brand. I decided to bring my school cookies home because I was binging on them in the afternoons. It gave me a chance to compare the cookies side-by-side. The brand I bought was Pepperidge Farm. The brand Michele gave me was DeBeukelaer. I compared the nutritional labels to see what was going on…. sure enough, there were some significant differences.
The DeBeukelaer had ten more calories. I thought to myself: “That’s it! More calories means more enjoyment!” But then I noticed the fat content. Almost twice as much in the DeBeukelaer. It’s the fat. Mmm… fat tastes so good…
I’ve really settled in to my tea drinking at school. It could just be in my head, but I think it’s easier on my stomach. I make it in my small coffee pot.
I make a pot first thing when I get to school. This is around 6:15 or so. By 8:00 (the beginning of school), the pot is almost entirely gone. I have a study hall for Third Class (which is usually Third Period)… Around 10am. I make my second pot then. I drink that batch of tea more slowly. The last bit is usually gone some time around 2pm.
So, two pots per day… The internet says drinking a lot of tea only has a few potential drawbacks, and it requires large quantities of tea consumption. I’m going to guess that even though I’m drinking a quart per day, that still wouldn’t qualify as a “large quantity” in these case studies. Besides, it’s keeping me hydrated during the day. That’s supposed to be good, right? Plus, there’s all those healthful benefits of tea… antioxidants and all that.
So here’s tea in your eye! (Or whatever you’re supposed to say when drinking tea… Just what are you supposed to say anyway?)
It snowed a little Friday night into Saturday morning. Then there was some freezing rain. It was the perfect excuse to do nothing yesterday. A couple of times I considered doing some productive thing around the house, but I rejected the idea each time.
But I did decide to break into my raffle winnings and eat some cheese. Mmm… cheese… The basket contained Jarlsberg and Beemster X-O. They are both delicious. Jarlsberg is soft and mild and sweet and fresh-tasting. Beemster X-O is hard and intense and full of flavor. After sampling them, it was decided: I would put them on pieces of bread and bake until the bread was crispy and the cheese was bubbly. I buttered the bread, chopped up a clove of garlic (from my garden!), and arranged mixed pieces of cheese on the bread. It took longer to bake than I expected. I was thinking five minutes. It was more like twenty.
It tasted so good. I may actually do it again.
Since I had determined that I like Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea, I decided to go to the grocery store for a full box of it. I stopped yesterday on my way to school. At first, I only saw decaffeinated, but that was okay, because I’m trying to keep my caffeine intake low. I took a box. Then I saw a different brand of Irish tea. Hmmm… Maybe that would taste good. I grabbed a box of that too. Then I saw the non-decaffeinated Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea. I got a box of that too. Now I had two new kinds of tea to try and one kind I knew for sure I liked.
I was able to try both new kinds yesterday. Here are my results:
Barry’s – Sweet aroma, but a sharpness or bitterness in drinking. Milk or sugar may remove the edge. This might make a nice “Thai Tea” or “tea latte” kind of concoction.
Twinings Irish Breakfast Decaf – Weaker taste than regular. Not much aroma. Breathing in as I tilt the tea toward my lips brings a hint of the sweet smell of pencil shavings into my sinus cavity, but the flavor is only a very slight tea taste.
So I have two teas I will not drink any more of… But I did get a box of regular Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea, which I really really like. It is interesting to note that whatever the decaffeination process is for tea, it alters the flavor. I noticed it with Lipton as well. Decaffeinated tea tastes empty and flat to me.
I love breakfast cereal. I eat it all the time. It’s a good meal. It’s fortified with vitamins and minerals. It often has pretty good fiber content. And most importantly, it doesn’t give me an acid stomach.
I classify breakfast cereals into four categories: blonde, chocolate, fruity, and healthy. The “healthy” category includes cereals like Cheerios and Life. In order to eat them, I must put extra sugar on them. Fruity and chocolate cereals are self-explanatory. Blonde cereals are all shades of yellow or brown, including Honeycomb, Peanut Butter Crunch, Waffle-O’s, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and the like.
I usually have all four categories represented in my cabinet at any one time. Yesterday, I was surprised to realize that all my cereals were blonde. I think it might have to do with my acid stomach. Cereal is really easy on my stomach. And the easiest of the easies is blonde cereal. I’ve got all blondes. And I don’t mind a bit.
