Grinding your own Coffee Beans
Is your at-home coffee experience falling short? You’re morning Coffee should be YOU time!
Here are FOUR good reasons why you should start grinding your own coffee beans at home.
1) Better Finished Product
When you grind your own coffee beans, you aren’t just satisfying your inner Culinarian. You’re also keeping the beans in their natural state for longer, meaning when it’s time to grind, your coffee is at maximum freshness for your enjoyment.
2) Better Shelf Life
Believe it or not, coffee is capable of going stale. Luckily, there are a few things we can do to combat this. First and foremost, DO NOT PRE-GRIND YOUR BEANS! The reason why your coffee (or grounds, not judging) goes stale in the first place is due to oxygen and moisture exposure. Grinding your beans ahead of time increases the surface area of the bean that can be exposed to oxygen. This means your coffee will stale more quickly, and bacteria has a higher chance of growing on your beloved, “pick me up”. So only grind the amount you nee to use fresh each morning.
Additionally, storing your beans in the freezer is a good way to reduce moisture exposure.
3) Grind/Brew Only What You Need
By grinding only the amount of beans you intent to use per sitting guarantees that you’re getting the freshest cup each morning. Keeping the whole bean intact until ready to use is essential for preserving freshness.
4) Maximizing Health Benefits
One thing many people don’t think about is making sure to consume food at peak ripeness. Besides the obvious impact freshness has on quality and flavor, it also has a HUGE impact on the amount of nutrients present in the food being consumed.
To reap the full antioxidant benefits of coffee, you just have to follow these few steps and you’ll be off to the races!
Keep spreading love, good people!
Best,
D.B.
Tips for Pretty Plating
The Holiday season is fast approaching. That means lots of family gatherings, playing host, and entertaining people. You’ve gone the catering route already. Now you wan’t to make something homemade for your dinner guests and show them what you’ve got!
Hi Friends,
The Holiday season is fast approaching. That means lots of family gatherings, playing host, and entertaining people. You’ve gone the catering route already. Now you wan’t to make something homemade for your dinner guests and show them what you’ve got! Wether you’re a good cook or not, the final presentation of the plated food is very important in how the taste of the dish is perceived, believe it or not. Here are some tips and tricks to “wow” your guests with beautifully designed plates…….and hopefully the food is good too. heh
Build on your Starches
A typical balanced dinner meal will include a starch of some sort. “Build on your starches” means add it to the plate first. I usually will put it right in the center of the plate. For example, a big spoonful of rice or potatoes neatly mounded in the center of the plate.
Add a variety of Color
Be mindful of the different colors that will be in your dish. For this example plate, We’re building off a base of roasted diced potatoes and our main entree is roasted airline chicken. Those are two ingredients with very minimal color. If we presented these items on the plate by themselves, no one would be excited to eat it. So, We’re going to add a bright vegetable to the mix. It could be something green like broccoli. Red like beets. White like cauliflower. It really could be anything. For the example dish we’re building, we’re going to add broccoli and keep a fresh lemon, as well as some fresh chopped parsley handy for later.
Build “Up” on the Plate
Alright, so we’ve got our mound of diced potatoes in the middle of the plate and our steamed broccoli on the top right side of the potatoes in a nice neatly presented mound. Now we’re going to take our nicely caramelized airline chicken and lay it over the potatoes on an angle. Making sure we build the plate up high and not letting the potatoes flatten under the chicken. Building “up” on a plate with the focal point at the center is more of a southern style of plating. It creates for an interesting contrast of depth that catches the eye.
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Garnishes
Alright, lets review this again. So now we have our neat mound of potatoes in the center of the plate stacked nice and high. Our bright green steamed broccoli in a neat mound to the top right of that. And we just added the chicken atop the potatoes in a visually interesting way. This plate is already quite pretty by itself but it is missing a little something. Take the fresh parsley you chopped earlier and sprinkle it on the plate - dusting the chicken, potatoes, broccoli, and exposed part of the plate. Now take your lemon and zest some of the lemon rind over the chicken and the broccoli. Once satisfied, slice the lemon in half and drizzle some of the juice over the food on the plate.
Finishing Touches
Alright, now my mouth is watering. The only thing left to do is get a damp paper towel and gently wipe around the edges of the plate where juices may have dripped or unwanted parsley or zest may have fallen. Finish with a little salt and pepper, take a step back, and be proud of the edible piece of art that lays before you.
pro tip: You could even take the presentation up a notch further by adding a quartered wedge of salted tomato or a very light sprinkling of some smoked paprika to give it an extra pop.
Keep spreading love, good people!
Best,
D.B.