Merlins Tower

Perfect Holiday Drink: Drinking Chocolate

Posted on December 2nd, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Coffee, Food, Life.

Drinking Chocolate: My new favorite drink.

This is NOT your normal cup of Hot Coco - Those are made with coco powder whereas Drinking Chocolate is made with real Chocolate Solids.

This is like drinking your favorite candy bar but only much better.

It really is not a sweet as it sounds as it uses a really rich semi sweet chocolate.

I found it online at Amazon after seeing it on the food network on a chocolate special.

Look here to buy some to enjoy and share at Amazon: Schokinag Chocolate

Technorati Tags: Drinking+Chocolate, Drinking, Chocolate, Hot+Coco, Hot, Semi, Sweet, White, Food, Network, relaxing

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Moleskine Museum - Photography of Various Historical Moleskine Notebooks

Posted on June 16th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Art, Coffee, Communication, Drawing, Journaling, Life, Miquelrius, Moleskine, Notetaking.

Today, while I finally had a few moments to peruse the web and finally catch up on a few of my favorite websites and blogs. Let me tell you it was really nice to site down with a nice cup of coffee from the aeropress coffee maker (Still using it and loving it more and more each cup of coffee I make from it)

Well, even though I have not used a Moleskine Notebook in quite some time - (Since I switched to Miguelrius Notebooks) I still like to keep up and see if there would be anything I could use or be interested in. Well, today I noticed what I call the Moleskine Museum. It is a collection of journals and notebooks used by famous or semi famous people. You can see photographs from Picassos Notebook cover to James Chapin, Paul Bowles, Guillame Apollinaire, Georges Bataille, and Emily Sowden. Below is a sample from James Chapin.

Technorati Tags: moleskine, modo, de, museum, historical, photography, notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, sketchbook, journal, notes, note+taking

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What is For Lunch: Try the Wheel Of Food

Posted on March 5th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Beer, Coffee, Food, Pittsburgh, Web Service.

Do you have a hankering for a hunk of cheese (Ah School House Rock) Or you have no idea where you want to go to lunch? - Well the Wheel of Food to the rescue. Just type in the Zip Code box where you want to eat some grub at and then type in what you want to eat - (Lunch, Dinner, Italian, Breakfast, Pizza, Hamburgers, Steak, Seafood, Ok You get the idea) Then you get to spin the wheel of Food and see where you are going to go - What is nice is this website pulls it data from Yahoo-Local and even gives you their ratings and website info in case you don't know where this place is located at.

What does the Wheel of Food
Have in store for you today??

Technorati Tags: Food, lunch, reviews, dinner, italian, hamburger, local, pittsburgh, yahoo, school+House+rock, random, fun+site, Cool+Site

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DIY: How to make your own Parchment Paper

Posted on February 18th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Art, Coffee, Craft, DIY, Hack, Journaling, Leather, Tutorial.

Today I decided to write about a project I did some time ago it was make a new sheet of paper look old. Or how to make some good olde fashioned parchment paper. To the left is an example of what it could look like

First - I wrote in my best calligraphy handwriting on the page - (I used a heavier high cotton blend for the fiber look and feel).

I had to use Noodlers black ink as this ink will not run when adding the paper coloring. I let this dry while I gathered up the rest of the items needed.

• 1 cup of strong brewed coffee (I made two - one for me to drink while working on the Calligraphy and one to sit and wait till the right time to be put to use)
• 1 tablespoon of any instant coffee (This is to add the extra color on to the paper in a varied pattern)
• 1 baking pan - large enough for the paper to be put into.
• 1 sponge or several paper towels
• an Oven or hair dryer - I prefer the oven method - but both work
  if using the oven pre-heat it to 200-225 degrees
• An Iron (Optional)
• A zippo lighter (Optional)
• Woolen Yarn or Leather Strip (Optional)

Now this is the hard part - after you finished the calligraphy work on the paper - You need to first tear the edges in varied patter to give it that old torn look (Do this if you want to) Doing this before adding the color helps the edges get better coloring in them. Next is the really hard part - you need to crinkle the paper up into a small / medium size ball. Then you need to unball it and flatten it down - almost flat but will some of the crinkles still showing to hold the coffee to help break up the solid pattern of color.

Place the flattened sheet into the pan and pour the coffee all over the page. Making sure to cover the whole page. 

Now wait a few moments or about 1 min then sprinkle the instant coffee randomly across the page. Don't make it even as these will soon dissolve and give the page that extra color that will make it look more like beautiful old parchment paper.  

Next you want to use the sponge to blog the coffee off the paper - I waited about 2 or 3 mins to let it soak in. Use different amounts of time depending on how much color you want.

Now empty any remaining coffee back into a cup if you intend to do another sheet or throw it away. (I heard coffee grounds were good for some plants - I wonder if you could use this for some of them plants)  

Now put the paper on the tray into the oven for about 5 to 7 mins. (Make sure to watch and check often - you don't want the paper to burn after all this work)

The last step is optional - I used an iron on low setting to remove all the creases in the paper and make it flat again. Some people will like the the creases in the paper. It does look good both ways.

Now this last step is also optional - I only did this to one of my parchments and it looked really classy but I was afraid of redoing all my work. Get out the zippo lighter and light it up and get near the edges to "Burn" them slightly. This really will give it that old world look - just like this was an old pirate treasure map.

Now you can mouth this in a frame or if you want to use these for other uses you can roll this up and tie a woolen piece of yarn around it or a strip of leather to tie it with a bow. 

You can use this for creating a beautiful love poem for your wife or girlfriend, or if you are having a party and want to have some cool invitation (Great for a kids Pirate Party) or You are running a scavenger hunt - these make cool looking location maps or scavenger hunt lists. The Ideas for what you can use this for is endless. I have seen a photo printed out on a laser printer in a grey scale pattern to make the photo look like an old sepia type print.

Good luck and Stay warm (Brr)

Technorati Tags: parchment, sepia, old, fashioned, olde, diy, paper, craft, hack, calligraphy, fountain, pen, ink, noodlers, black

6 comments.

Aeropress Review Recap

Posted on December 18th, 2006 by Merlin.
Categories: Coffee, Gadgets.

Well it has been some time since I purchased my Aeropress Coffee Maker and have been using it almost daily (3 or 4 times a week) for about 8 months or so (I forgot when I purchased it) I absolutely love the coffee that this device makes. Plus it is so very easy to use.

Here is what I do to make coffee with this is to grind two scoops of beans with my burr grinder I have it set to espresso grind. I then pour it into the aeropress. (To setup the aeropress all you do in put in a filter on the bottom twist the cap on to the press and you are done) Next heat the water I use water that is about 165 degrees (This seems to be the perfect temp for coffee as it will not release bitterness) and pour to the top of the #3 marked oval. Next I use the included paddle to swish the coffee around for about 10 to 20 secs. Then I put the plunger into the top and start the pressing. The pressing takes about 25 to 35 seconds to completely get all the water thru the grinds. I am usually using a larger 14oz coffee mug. The coffee is only about 1/2 full don't be alarmed you need to add additional water to the desired level as you have espresso strength coffee without it. Depending on how I feel I may add cream and sugar or just drink it black. Thats it about 90 secs to a perfect cup of joe. (Note: As I write this I am drinking a cup)

The coffee this device produces is the smoothest and best tasting coffee ever. Even if you go to Starbucks or your local coffee joint you will not get a better cup of coffee. Yes every once in a while I will use my french press but that usually has a fine gritty taste as it doesn't filter as well as this does. But it does produce a nice foamy crema on top. But 95% of the time I am using the aeropress - In fact I have not used my nice drip coffee maker since I got this. (Anyone want to buy a used coffee maker - It is a Cuisinart® Brew Central Coffee maker)

The past few weeks have been great using the Storyville Coffee I got as a buzz agent. If you remember this is the coffee that is roasted the day it is shipped. SO it is very fresh and very tasty. Well for the other evening for the beer tasting my good life long friend Dave decided to come as well. Well he Showed up bringing gifts. First, he is a coffee snob and roasts his own beans at home. Well, I decided to ask a true coffee snob what he thought of the aeropress and what it produces. He was impressed with the flavor and sweetness from his own beans. So much in fact he will be placing an order for the aeropress coffee maker. Yes he said he read the hype online about it but just could not believe how well it produced a cup of coffee until he tasted it. In fact he called me this morning and said he brewed coffee with his beans and said it just didn't have the same amount of flavor as the aeropress coffee maker produced.

If anyone needs a good Christmas Present Idea I would suggest giving one of these. 

Addtional Resources: Sweet Maria's Take on this (About 3/4 way down the page) and How to Brew
Single Press Coffee Review of Aeropress
Video of Aeropress in Action

TAGS: Aeropress Coffee Beans Burr+Grinder Coffee+Grinder Drip+Coffee Aerobie Gift

1 comment.

Storyville Coffee Time - Spreading the Buzz

Posted on November 26th, 2006 by Merlin.
Categories: Anything Else, Coffee, Communication, Gadgets.

Recently I joined a website called BuzzAgent - a website that gives you products to try and let other people know about them - Or to create a buzz. This is a form of word-of-mouth advertising. I guess it is like this blog where I tell you what I thought about a product I tried (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) but in real time with live people. ;-)

Well this assignment I got sent a shipment of Storyville Coffee - I got the Prologue version of their beans (Caffeinated) They also have Epilogue (Swiss Water Decaffeinated Version) - They only have Coffee Flavored Coffee and let me tell you it is fresh - In fact they ship it to you the day they roast it. Honestly this has to be some of the freshest coffee I have ever tasted. But you don't just have to listen to me to believe this because I got some friends involved to try it out.

I was meeting some friends for our annual after-thanksgiving morning coffee and deserts - We all bring our leftover deserts and have coffee and the leftovers deserts (Pies, Cookies, cakes, etc…) . This has been a ritual for a few years. Instead of us trying to fight all the mall traffic we get together for a nice circle of friends to chat and basically have some fun and extend our Thanksgiving.

Today, I was able to serve the coffee from Storyville. I ground the beans in a new burr grinder and loaded up the Bodium French Press. The kit beside having this fresh coffee also included a DVD about coffee and coffee brewing. We actually watched the DVD that was included in the kit (fun and informative). One of the comments made was that this had to be the best coffee he has ever tasted. (He usually buys his from the local coffee house) He mentioned that their was no bitter taste at all. I told him that it  had to do with the process of making the coffee in the french press but more importantly it was also how fresh the coffee beans were. After we tried the Storyville Coffee we then tried some of the standard starbucks coffee pre-ground in the French Press. I think everyone was amazed - becuase we did the same type of brewing and time but the taste of the starbucks pre-ground was not nearly as good as the fresh tasting Storyville Brand. I think I created a coffee lover as well as one of my friends said he normally doesn't like coffee as it usually tastes bitter and / or burnt. But he loved the non bitter smooth taste of the Storyville Brand, he did like the Starbucks but did comment that the Storyville had a better taste. They all didn't know how much a good brewer (The French Press) and fresh roasted coffee beans would make a difference.

I have always been a firm believer of the French Press and the Aeropress Coffee Maker (The Makers of the Aerobie Frisbee). And this taste test this morning proved just that.

Tags: coffee aeropress french+press adult pastime cake cookies thanksgiving black+friday

3 comments.