conuly

In this, I stand out from my mother and sister (and, according to my mom, all of Belgium).

When I make my mother coffee (she only drinks about 127 cups a day), I usually put half-and-half in it, both because she likes her coffee light and sweet (and with chicory, which is neither) and because I always want her to have more calories. She's at a healthy weight now, but she's never been exactly a hefty eater. Except yesterday we were out of half-and-half. Made a mental note to buy more, took out the milk, as is my habit I sniffed it first and - yeurgh. Out of milk, too. And I just bought it, too! Usually we have some shelf-stable and evaporated milk in the pantry... no, out. But I did find the non-fat condensed milk we accidentally got last Thanksgiving, so I tried that.

Today I bought more half-and-half, in an utterly unprecedented half-gallon size (!) and decided to try combining the half-and-half with the last of that fat-free condensed milk, to use it up.

One more thing... in order to test that the coffee is hot enough, I typically take a very small sip. "That's sure coffee all right!" I mostly do this to amuse my sister and nieces (well, the announcing part, I mean), but also because I think their suggested replacement of dipping a finger in is gross. Surely a clean spoon is better than my finger, clean or not! Anyway, I learned something today. If you combine chicory coffee with a very large amount of condensed milk and half-and-half, it's almost palatable!