Coffee Hop!, a New Release, and Betty Ren Wright

offee, coffee, coffee! I love coffee!

As a Turkish Anglophile, I keep trying to like tea. I drink it the Turkish way, and I've tried it the English way, with milk, but... I just can't do it. It simply doesn't taste as good as a shot of espresso with steamed milk, or a 'perfect cup' (where the filter is set directly over the mug and hot water's poured over the coffee grounds and filters directly into the mug. Yes, there's a proper name for this, but I can't remember it).

I do love a Turkish tea with simit (sort of like a bagel), though!

But back to coffee. Why all this coffee talk, you ask? Because Michael's hosting a bloghop on Friday!

I'm a little early, but that's because I've already had a few lattes... I love coffee!

I mean, look at this happy row of lattes!

Look at this yummy coffee!

My favourite is actually a flat white, as they call it in New Zealand, apparently. No foam at all, just steamed milk over espresso. I Googled public domain images for flat white, and for some reason this guy came up:

I could have a saucer of milk ready for him, if he wanted to snuggle while I sip my coffee...

And then, of course, there's Turkish coffee!

Contrary to what people might think, it's not bitter at all. Especially not if you make it with sugar (though I don't). Here's a quick how-to:

Find a cezve (any local 'ethnic' shop, whether Lebanese or Arabic or Armenian, should have some).

Find a Turkish cup (because this is the only way I know how to measure the water), which is a wee thing about three fingers high.

And find a Turkish teaspoon, which is half the size of a North American teaspoon. Also, you need your coffee ground as finely as possible. The blend or roast doesn't matter too much; you could use some of Michael's Colombian coffee! Just make sure it's ground very fine; a number 1 on most coffee shop grinders or, if you ask for Turkish grind, they ought to know what you mean.

Cezve, cup, spoon, coffee, and sugar if you want it. This all works on an electric stove, but it's better over a gas flame. Heck, I suppose you could do it over the fire if you're camping!

Directions for Making Turkish Coffee: Measure one heaping teaspoon of coffee per person and a level teaspoon of sugar per person, if adding, into the cezve.
Then fill coffee cup with water and add that water to the coffee (and sugar) in the cezve (one cupful per person).
Stir with the teaspoon to dissolve the coffee and place cezve over medium heat/flame. Watch it until it just begins to bubble and boil.
Once it starts to boil, pour a bit into the cup(s), just enough to coat the bottom. Return cezve to flame and let it boil again. Pour some more into the cup(s). Repeat a third time.
On third boil, pour the rest into the cup(s). Serve with a glass of water and maybe a square of Turkish delight on the side.
Drink all the liquid, leaving the sludge on the bottom. Invert your saucer over your cup, and flip, so that the cup is now upside on the saucer.
Wait till it cools, then lift the cup and read your fortune from the shapes you see. If there's a half moon in the liquid on your saucer, that's good luck!

Meanwhile, guess what? Tara has an erotic novella coming out on Monday! Visit her blog and check out the cover for Hands-on Therapy. Can't wait for this release!

In sad news, author Betty Ren Wright has passed away. I found out yesterday, through Scholastic's Twitter feed. Appropriate, really, since it was through a Scholastic book order that I got the two Wright books I've read, Christina's Ghost and A Ghost in the Window. I wonder what made me choose them from the catalogue? Having loved them, I wonder why I didn't get more? She's written over 30 books, plus short stories and board books! The most well-known of her novels, apparently, is The Dollhouse Murders. I'm going to reread the two I have, and then maybe start to get some more, probably from Abebooks. I tried Alibris, but they don't offer free shipping to Canada. The books cost about 1.50$ each, but then they charge you 20$ shipping per book!

This week is Get Real on the Internet Week, hosted by Real Simple magazine.

"For every day until Friday, we're encouraging people to be completely honest when they post on social media. Real Simple staffers (starting with yours truly) are no exception — we'll kick things off with unfiltered glimpses of our own lives on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. What you see might scare you. Or make you feel a lot better about yourself. Or a little bit of both.

So if you want a dose of reality on social media, join us by using the hashtag #rsgetreal. Then visit RealSimple.com for more, including a hilarious caption game where you can tell us what's really happening in those annoyingly perfect Facebook pictures, plus a photo album of Kodak moments gone awry."

I just might post some photos of renovations at my house, which happen to be progressing more slowly than I'd like to let on...

What unfiltered photos would you share?

Which Scholastic authors do you love?

Are you a tea person, a coffee person, or neither?

Perhaps you'd prefer some single malt, in honour of the just-release trailer for Outlander!