Latte Art

Latte art is a style of pouring steamed milk into a shot of espresso that creates a pattern or design on the surface of the resulting latte.

I had read about latte art in the paper and how they have actual latte art competitions. I had wanted to see it for myself, so this last weekend, while in Milwaukee, I had my first latte, with latte art, at Alterra Coffee. What a treat!!

The New York Cookbook

I am a huge fan of New York City and when my mom gave me the New York Cookbook for a gift one year, I was so excited.
This is one of my absolute favorites, because it has a variety of everything- including ethnic food. Not only does the cookbook have fabulous recipes, but it has stories behind the recipes and food history.
Some recipes I love are: Staten Island Pasta with Chicken
Chocolate Black Out Cake
Ann Getty's Meat Loaf

Those are just a few of the great recipes in the book.
So, if you're interested in the book it's: New York Cookbook by Molly O' Neil
I will leave you with a recipe for hamburgers that is super easy and so good!

Madison Square Marinated Hamburgers

2 lbs ground beef round
8 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups dry white wine
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Form the ground beef into 6 hamburgers. Place in a flat nonreactive
bowl or baking dish. Sprinkle the garlic over the hamburgers, pour the white
wine over them, and season with salt and pepper. Cover with plastic wrap
and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, turning the hamburgers every hour.
Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking.

Preheat a grill or broiler or heat a seasoned cast-iron skillet over medium
high heat until almost smoking.

Grill, broil, or pan-fry the burgers for 3 to 4 minutes per side for rare.
Serve on kaiser rolls.

Serves 6

2 Tea's and a Book

I love finding new things- especially new foods, places to go and books. Recently, I have found a few things I just have to pass on because I enjoyed them so much.
I'm not a huge fan of tea. I really wish I was, but found 2 tea's I like a lot.
The first one, I have to give credit to my dad for finding. We were at a Japanese garden, having breakfast, and he had a tea called Sweet and Spicey Red Tea. It was wonderful! It has a wonderful, strong cinnamon flavor.
Last night, my daughter and I were running through Starbucks and they have new tea latte's out this month. I was given a sample of the London Fog tea latte. It starts out tasting like tea, but ends with the taste of cardamon filling your mouth.
So good!!!
And finally, I found a book I am enjoying so much. It's a "travel guide" to Ancient Rome. It's so fun! I love History and travel, so I find it very interesting.
Did you know you cant travel to Rome, by ship, from November 12- March 27? And never travel at the end of the month, since it's considered bad luck.
So, the three thing to check out are:

-Sweet and Spicy Red Tea (Caffeine Free) by Good Earth
Cinnamon Orange flavor

-London Fog tea latte at Starbucks
*** On Tues. Jan. 13, at your local Starbucks store, they are having a
TeaTime event with complimentary tea and food samples.
It's going to start at 2 p.m.***

-"Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day. Your guide to sleeping, shopping and sightseeing
in the City of the Caesars" by Philip Matyszak