Visiting Valhalla Coffee in Tacoma

Valhalla Coffee booth

We made a new friend at Tacoma’s farmer’s market, Valhalla Coffee. This is Sam trying to educate us on the finer points of the Valhalla blends. He did his job, because we really wanted to visit this independent roaster.

It would seem the thing to do… to drink coffee, at a coffee house, in or around Seattle. How pedestrian. But not really, it’s Tacoma’s only independent roaster who roasts five days out of the week on location at 6th and Proctor. You walk into coffee saturated air, it’s intoxicating. Store decor is minimal, but you only need somewhere to sit to enjoy the freshest cup of coffee. And, their prices are comparable to the big corporate store that started it all. When we were there in the mid-afternoon, the store was peaceful with a few customers checking up on their e-mail and reading the paper.

Store owner, AJ, was on hand that day to chat and brew some Valkyrie Blend: Ethiopian, Sumatra and French Roast. The French press was perfect and piping hot.

We asked AJ for some coffee to bring home… and he blended it right there on the spot. Could it get any fresher than that? There’s no pre-packaging, no pre-blending, no foolin’ around here. This guy runs a top-notch coffee spot that, well, serves a great cup o’ joe without all the merchandise distractions.

Bringing Coffee Home

If you’re into coffee, a 1/2 pound of Valkyrie Blend instead of a lavender sachet in your suitcase does wonders. My suitcase (and clothes in it) smelled so good when I opened it… *reminiscing and inhaling deeply now*. Somehow, I think that this novelty has probably worn off for baristas and employees at Starbucks. Speaking of Starbucks, when we got home, I said to my husband, we need to have Coffee Friend over for a tasting. I’ve known Coffee Friend for 25 years, and certainly he’s one of my best friends since before high school. He has a great palate and a knack for verbalizing it, and he works for the big corporate coffee shop. We don’t hold that against him. As for the unimaginative moniker, he’s okay with it. I asked.

The last time we had a coffee tasting with Coffee Friend, we had some really bad jitters and my husband, oy, he felt all buzzy-headed for a few hours. We took precautions this time: only one brew, not three. We opened the bag of Valhalla Valkyrie to smell the sweet, dark roasted beans, and got the French Press out. Personally, I loved the symphony of fruity and spicy flavors.

From my notes, here’s what Coffee Friend had to say: The Ethiopian component was delicate, but hard to taste with the dark, strong flavor of the Espresso French Roast. At the first sip, when it’s piping hot, you can taste the fruit. It also has a bright floral acidity. Then comes the earthiness and spice from the Sumatra. As it cools down, you get the maltiness. Overall, the blend has very nice layers of flavor.

Here’s what my husband said: “I just know I like it.”

Thanks, AJ and Valhalla Coffee crew! My brother-in-law got us some more of your awesome roasts! Can’t wait to brew a cup!

Tags: coffee, coffee blend, coffee break, espresso, independent business, vacation, Valhalla Coffee

Life Lessons with Bubbles

I spent a good two hours outside with Ollie riding his tricycle, bicycle with training wheels, talking to the neighbors, playing hopscotch… and then he said, “Let’s blow some bubbles!” This was an exciting thing for him: I’m blowing bubbles until I nearly pass out and he’s chasing them all over the yard and driveway. There’s just something so innocent and lovely about watching your kid screeching with happiness as little round glass-like spheres float all around. Tell you what… you quickly learn how good or bad your lung capacity is!

You can find a ton of homemade bubble solutions online, but here’s a nice quick start.

• 1/2 c. dishwashing liquid
• 2 c. water
• 2 tsp. glycerin or corn syurp

Mix in a shallow pan. You can also refill your old bubble jars.

Don't eat the bubble liquid!

My “lessons learned” from bubbles that day:

• The most simplest of things are temporary
• Chase after your goal, big or small
• Time is fleeting, enjoy it while its here…

and, maybe a bubble machine would be a worthwhile purchase. *whew*

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Tags: bubbles, outside, summer

Midsummer’s Night Eve and Irish Soda Bread

I love Irish Soda Bread. Of course, it tends to get a lot of press at St. Patrick’s Day, but why not make it or eat it any time? Need an excuse? June 20 marks the eve of summer solstice, or longest day of the year for the northern hemisphere, where lots of festivals, fairs and concerts occur in Ireland (leftover from Pagan days) and Europe, for that matter. The dates change yearly, but is usually around June 20-22.

The recipe I make at home turns out all rustic looking, which is very different from a lot of Asian baked goods I’ve had. At the bakery the Chinese baked buns (bao or pao) and Filipino buns are typically these beautiful golden brown, rounded hills lined up on a tray.

from centurycafe.com

But, I love me a rustic bread anytime… the displays at Corner Bakery and Panera Bread are enough to make me want to carbo-load.

Irish Soda Bread recipe

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 c melted butter
• 3/4 c milk with 3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (let this mixture sit for a few minutes) OR 3/4 c buttermilk
• 1/2 c raisins or currants

Preheat oven to 425. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the wet ingredients. Mix until ingredients are just combined; don’t overmix. It’s okay to look lumpy. Fold in the raisins or currants. Transfer dough to baking sheet. Dough should hold its shape, but you can form your bread loaf how you want. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, turn down to 375 for 20-25 minutes (or until toothpick inserted at center comes out clean). Remove and cool completely.

My daughter told me it tasted store-bought. I guess that meant she liked it! Maybe next year, I can make a corresponding craft? Anyone out there make or bake anything to celebrate summer?

Happy Father’s Day to all tomorrow! I’ll be back next week with crafty tales!

Tags: baking, cooking, Irish, Irish Soda Bread, recipe

Wordless Wednesday: Williams-Sonoma and Calphalon Dinner Party

Picture by R. Lasquite

Picture by R. Lasquite

Picture by R. Lasquite

Picture by G. Feiereisel

More photos at Greg’s Photo Album. Thank you everyone for such a fun evening! Let’s do this again soon.

Tags: calphalon, cooking, dinner, Friends and Family, party, williams-sonoma

Lemon-Ricotta Cheese Cookies

Since we don’t typically eat or cook ricotta cheese in our home, and we had some ricotta cheese left in the refrigerator after our dinner party last weekend, I looked up a friend’s recipe for ricotta cheese cookies.

I just don’t like wasting food, you know? Here’s my twist on it… taken from the lemon-ricotta cheese blinis we made for our dinner party, I added lemon to the cookie recipe. And, it was lemon-y delicious!

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 15 oz. ricotta cheese
• zest of three lemons
• 6 tsp. fresh lemon juice (juice taken from the lemons – save the extra juice)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

Glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar, extra lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, sugar and cheese. Add zest and 6 teaspoons of lemon juice to butter and sugar mixture, blend well. In separate bowl, mix salt, baking soda and flour. Incorporate the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Dough will be very sticky. Using a small teaspoon scoop (or just two teaspoons), drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until bottoms turn golden brown. After removing from oven, cool for 1 minute, then transfer to cooling racks.

Make glaze by slowly adding juice to the powdered sugar. Thin consistency will probably only need a couple of tablespoons of juice. Spread over cooled cookies.

Yields about 84

Tags: baking, cookies, lemon, ricotta cheese

Salt and Caramel Brownies

Having never made brownies from scratch (unthinkable to some), I was really on the lookout for a good recipe. I think I always made “box” brownies because I thought melting chocolate was always part of the deal. I was just unsure of, you know… double boiler, making sure not to overheat the chocolate, yada, yada, yada. I never thought to look for easy recipes. So, when my husband and I saw a few recipes using cocoa powder, it was like the clouds opened up and rays of sunshine shone onto the mixing bowls. Alright, it wasn’t that dramatic, but we thought, “HEY! We can DO THIS!”

Actually, we were going to bake together since my husband is more like the “McGyver” in the kitchen and doesn’t follow recipes. He ended up doing most, if not all, of it alone because I ran out of the house at the wrong time to run an errand. What we ended up with was a nice small batch of the most fudgy brownies I’ve had in a long time. The pan was quartered into sections: plain brownie, brownie with caramel, salted brownie, brownie with salt and caramel.

He even made the caramel from scratch (took two tries)!

Not so good caramel attempt

Leftover "good" caramel

For an 8 x 8 pan, you might be surprised how long it lasted. We cut the brownies into 1-inch squares. That’s all you need for a taste – it’s so rich!

The recipe we used is from Smitten Kitchen, and can be found here. I’ll be trying this recipe out again with some Scharffen Berger cocoa…mmm.

Other cocoa brownie recipes:

• Alton Brown’s cocoa brownies
• Hershey’s best brownies

Tags: baking, brownies, chocolate, Smitten Kitchen