Spice Up Your Coffee

Coffee is a good diversion and with a few ingredients found in most cupboards and refrigerators, the varieties are endless. Recently I've been spicing up my coffee in an attempt to use less sugar. It took trial and error to get it just the way I like it, but I am pleased with final product; at least until I get bored with it and move on to something else. The trick for me was to get the blend of spices so none of them over power the other. If you try this, it make take some time to adjust it to your particular tastes. I don't use any one type or brand of coffee, just off the shelf canned ground to drip.

Ingredients

Cup of your favorite coffee
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Ground Red Pepper
Hot Chocolate Powered Mix
Sugar and cream per your usual

Add the creamer, sugar, a spoonful of chocolate mix and the spices into the cup first.

My preferences are a good dash of cinnamon, a tiny pinch of nutmeg and a small dash of red pepper.

Mix up all the dry ingredients. Add coffee and still well.

It should give your coffee a clean after bite. You don't want the nutmeg to be immediately noticeable, as in "wow, that's got nutmeg!" You want it to mingle with the initial sweetness of the pepper.

Let me know what you think or if you have any recommendations.

November is National Novel Writing Month

"Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap."


November is National Novel Writing Month. It is a "fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."

The website NaNoWriMo is packed with well organized information, support and inspiration. There are FAQs and a forum for peer support. Groups are set up by region, and you will even have the chance to meet with fellow writers in your area.

The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel by November 30th. Quality does not matter. Quantity is key. This website's goal is to motivate writers to write every day, no matter how they feel or how busy their lives are. It helps to push writers out of editing and rewriting and fussing over the details such as flow or plot consistency. A writer is his or her own worst critic. Him-hawing over the finer points can be done at any time, but if there isn't enough to him-haw over there will never be that novel you've always been meaning to write someday.

Make someday this year!

Fun Edutainment in Chemistry

Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about anything too geeky. I have been doing chemistry research from a fairly layman's point of view. I found a fun match game for monoatomic ions as well as some videos on YouTube that explain many elements, one at a time, usually with fun examples. If anything, check out the British Professor's hair. Totally "Mad Scientist"! Also found a well put-together website geared toward teaching kids chemistry. Why aren't college classes like this? If I'm not careful I might actually learn a thing or two about chemistry!

Until next time, this is Farmer Jane saying - take two anions and call me in the morning.

Mystification - Part Circus, Part Vaudeville, All Magic!

I recently attended what I thought was going to be a run of the mill, average magic act in the small town of Crystal Falls, Michigan. I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly entertained. Check out my article over at Associated Content, and watch the video at YouTube of Barbara Tegge performing antipodism. You can see more photos on MySpace as well

Until Next Time, This is Farmer Jane quoting Timothy Tegge: "Keep the magic in your hearts, and the mystification in your mind!"