Life: Idiotropic

No, I'm not a fuzzy worm, nor a lady of leisure, yet, somehow, the cherries were lined up for me this week on my little slot machine of coffee dates.  Yes, real work was done around the coffee consumption.  Really, it was.

On Tuesday my bakery is closed (sniff), so I picked up a few random treats to try from a bakery in Betera and had a nice visit over coffee with a friend.  The pastries were bland.  Good.  We didn't eat much.

On Wednesday morning I passed a friend on my way home from the school.  My cell phone rang 20 seconds later.  "Meet me for coffee?"  Do I ever turn down coffee?  Uh, no.  So I had Cafe de Leche and the usual manzana pastry that I always get and grabbed a small Selva Negra cake for another friend who was having a birthday.  Sorry, Germany, this Black Forest cake was the best ever.  I surprised Eva with it at the bus stop in the afternoon and she insisted that I come "help" her eat it.  Do I ever turn down cake?  Uh, well, it would be rude not to, wouldn't it?

On Thursday I had coffee at my bakery with a friend who couldn't make it on Friday as planned so I tried a cappuccino this time to accompany my usual manzana sweet and found that my bakery is one of the very few places in Comunidad Valenciana that actually knows what a cappuccino is.  Delicious.  Burned off the calories shopping at the little Chinese stores here where I finally found bleach, but still can't find measuring cups.  Apparently there is no measuring when cooking in Spain.  Makes sense now that I think about it.  My Spanish friends use normal cups and mugs and spoons - the same ones they use for eating.  It's all proportional.

On Friday I'd actually planned to have coffee with Sue and Eva, so again, I went to my bakery and ordered a cafe con leche and "la manzana" as I now call it because saying what I want is really pretty pointless.  They already know.

On Saturday I needed a couple loaves of pan rustica and our weekly sweets to split and sample, but the pan was still in the oven, so Kirk and I decided to sit and have a coffee and another manzana sweet while we waited for the bread to come out of the oven. 

On Sunday, I stepped on the scale.  Hmmm.  Could Kirk have "rigged" it?   Or perhaps those extra 2 pounds that magically appeared overnight came from somewhere else?  Ugh.  Friendships are fattening.


Saturday's Samples:  The chocolate vanilla cake received a 5/5 approval rating with the crunchy dark chocolate cookie center being the favorite part.  I think the all chocolate version of this same dessert is better though.  The marbled top coffee mousse behind was ok, but neither Tiara nor I liked the texture.  Elise actually, was the only one who really enjoyed this one.  Spring must be coming because this is the first time I've seen strawberries there.  The sweet flaky pastry was topped with a whipped cream that even Tiara liked (she normally doesn't) and fruit.  Delicious.  It got 5/5 yums and the best of the day award.