My Calamitous LOVE Affair with Coffee!

My Grampa Page's coffee mug. Funny how seemingly insignificant objects, a coffee mug, can stir deep memories and emotions.

I love coffee.  I love the smell and the taste.  I love the memories that coffee stirs up for me.  (This reminds me to give you a heads up about my new book, be looking for it later this fall. (If I get my butt in gear and finish it!) I have used coffee in the title as it stirs up much fun and memories for me. I hope it will for you, as well!)

Coffee Memories: 

1. My Dad's coffee mug (for many years it was just like Grampa Page's mug above!) sat right next to the stove, geared up and ready for AM coffee. The mug may have changed but its station in life has not.
2. My Gramma Page was a coffee-a-holic.  This is a love statement; a statement of awe. She could drink a cup, at midnight, and go right to bed. Me... I would be up until the next midnight bells were rung!

I have never had a coffee drinking habit. Coffee is a rough road for me, hence our calamitous love affair. I love coffee, coffee does not love me. Caffeine sensitivity is a tough ride. One cup of regular coffee can send me down a path of jitters, racing heart, and a crazy head for hours. The effects will finally wear off, with much relief on my part, only to rebound hours later and send me on another caffeine jolt. Good thing I never aspired to be a drug addict, something tells me I would not fare well! I inherited this drug sensitive gene from my Mom. She also does not fare well with a cup of coffee!

Maybe a year or so ago, I thought it would be fun to have a coffee in the AM ritual. Something soothing, warm, and yummy that I could enjoy in the peaceful AM quiet of my home before the daily chaos ensued. This liquid crack stuff is addicting! It is very easy to slide into a coffee habit as the body, mind, and spirit ask for more, every AM. I even purchased a hand grinder, from Sweet Maria's, to do this coffee thing right! 

I tried decaf coffee to avoid the jitter craze. Decaf is very questionable to me; like refined white flour and white sugar...a whole food  substance that has had part removed cannot be a good thing, in my eyes. Then there is the issue of: "How did they (whoever they are, these caffeine drug lords) remove the caffeine?" Was it chemically extracted or water bath extracted? The story goes that if it is organic coffee, it has been water bath extracted. Phew, no chemicals here, right? (I have read many different accounts of how this whole decaf process happens in beans.) Decaf was not for me, too many questionable practices and potential chemicals.

In come low caffeine varieties of coffee. It is amazing the amount of information there is to learn about something as humble as coffee beans! So, of course, I try these coffee beans as I am determined to have a coffee habit that does not make me crazy. The Potsdam Food Coop carries a low caffeine whole bean, organic, and roasted by St. Lawrence Valley Roasters. Of course, this liquid drug still makes my head and body reel with hyper-energy.

So here I am, one year later, and this is what I notice: I wake up groggy, cloudy headed, and feeling like I need that AM coffee to get going, to dispel the cobwebs from my head (AND wishing someone would deliver coffee to my bed!). This is a big problem for me as I have always been a: wake up spunky, feet hit the floor immediately (I am not happy lying in bed stretching and yawning, I like to move!), and get moving kind 'a gal.

My plan: I will wean myself at the end of the summer, after Labor Day (But hey, summer does not end until Autumn Equinox. I can squeak in a couple more weeks...) Seriously, here is where I sit in the AM, would you want to stop this habit just yet? I know, I know, I can sit here without my locally roasted, low caf coffee... but not yet. After Equinox!  : )

Why you ask? I really do not like how I wake up in the morning. I do so prefer the spunky in the AM me. This weaning test is to see: Is coffee the culprit in my new AM feelings OR is it my age? Time will tell... let September be my reckoning time. 

For now, coffee and I will ramble on in our calamitous love affair.  Paula

PS  April 19th, 2015 Update about and awesome coffee substitute that actually tastes like coffee!, click here: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2015/4/19/coffee-and-my-calamitous-affair-revisited

My AM coffee "space"

Me, in my AM coffee space

PS Update on My Healing Yard.... This information came from Susun S. Weed's Wise Woman Herbal Ezine for You, July 22 - 2014

Wild Carrot Contraceptive

• Harvest fully matured brown seeds.
• Store in a brown paper bag.
• Use one tablespoonful of the seeds, mixed into food daily, for at least five days following fertilizing intercourse. 

My note: I have always read it was 1 teaspoon of the seeds from ovulation OR potentially fertilizing intercourse to your next period flow. It would take many Queen Anne's Lace flower heads to make 1 teaspoon of seeds, even more for 1 tablespoon! Lots of collection needed to sustain this method of fertility control!

This is said to change the lining of the uterus, making it too slippery for a fertilized egg to attach. 

Check out Robin Rose Bennett  for her extensive work in wild carrot as a birth control ally. 

Like Almond Butter? A Nut Butter from Heaven!

So I buy the above Vanilla Espresso Almond Butter.  Who could resist the melding of such flavors?

Taste Test:  It is VERY yummy, in fact incredibly yummy!

So, I took a huge spoonful, as I always do with nut butters.  It was probably 2 tablespoons or so... I tend to err, about my estimates, on the conservative side!

This stuff is loaded with espresso!  Eating it made me feel like I think I would feel had I been smoking crack.  I have never smoked crack, but I am certain I would not feel good.  It's that extreme jittery and agitated feeling.  I do not do well in this mode.

So, today I tried a much smaller spoonful.  I am thinking perhaps 2 teaspoons.  Still, not so good in my system. (Keep in mind, I can not drink a normal cup of regular, caffeinated coffee and not feel this jittery agitated energy.)

One thing I know about me: I do not tolerate caffeine.

Who would of thought a nut butter could be like a drug!  Well, to my body and mind it is.

Seriously, try it, it is extremely delicious.  

Caution:  If you are caffeine sensitive, like me, it is probably not for you!

Butter is Back & Better Than Ever

Now that butter is on the cover of Time Magazine... it must be true!  Butter is a superfood! 

Not that my butter eating habits are much of a secret anymore.  I used to hide my butter habit to avoid the "you are going to clog your heart" advice and lectures.  Not that I didn't pass out a few of the very same lectures in my days*, see below!

A couple of years ago I wrote an article: "Unwrapping Butter's Bad Rap" for the Potsdam Food Co-op's newsletter, it became a blog post on Whole Food Healer, and was later revised and included in my first book.  Butter is a head liner!

I confess, I have always loved butter.  I only refrained from butter when I was *eating a vegan diet (for a few years, back then, sometime in my past life!).  That is over and butter was put back in my diet quite quickly. Mashed potatoes without butter?  What is the point? I ate them, for years, at the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner table. Not anymore, mashed potatoes with butter for me, please!

Butter is awesome, yummy, the best!  Now a butter - nettle pesto, hmmm... I might be on to something here! Two of my favorite things fused together with love.  Heading to the kitchen now...

30 minutes later after picking some nettle tops:

Ok, it did work!  Butter, nettles, and garlic scapes.  Chives would be fine as well.  Have patience with the food processor as olive oil blends with the herbs more easily.  Try making the pesto with a 1/2 butter and 1/2 olive oil mix for easy blending!

So back to butter. My favorite way to eat it is off a spoon, fork, or knife.  Mom taught me this was not ok. I do it anyhow. Sorry Mom!     : )

Local to me, NY State butter!

This is my new favorite butter, thanks to Jessica Prosper of Prosper's Farmstead Creamery.  She turned me on to this butter because the cows graze on grass and the butter is made just about 3 1/2 hours from my home. Now, if I had a farmer close by making butter with grazing cows cream, that would be even better!

I buy in 2 pound tubs, a few tubs at a time.  I do not like running out of butter.  Makes me feel like an addict without my drug!  Seriously, I am not that bad. But, humor is always good!

Butter recently has had a big popularity boost with the Bullet Proof Coffee craze.  I tried it, why not?  I will try anything once!

What I learned, butter is best eaten from the spoon, knife, or fork! Why ruin good butter or good coffee? Want fat in your coffee?  Find a source of pasture-raised, whole cream or 1/2 and 1/2 and dose up your coffee in style. Coffe tastes better this way AND saves the mess in the kitchen making the bullet proof stuff. If you try bullet proof coffee and like it, go for it.

I prefer my coffee with butter like this:

on a piece of buckwheat toast.  Organic buckwheat grown close to me, just over the border in Canada, and baked at Little Stream Bakery. 

Now the amount of butter on this 2 inch by 3 1/2 inch piece of toast was triple, what you see above, by the time I finished eating it.  Maybe 2 1/2 to 3 Tbsp. of butter.  Butter is definitely better on toast than in my coffee!

Eat butter, it won't kill you!  Paula

PS  Maybe Gardenshare has an more local source of NY State butter from grass fed cows? Aviva, any thoughts?  

I know Birdsfoot Farm has some very, deep-yellow cream from their grazing cow!  

I want local butter that is that deep yellow!

Cheers!

Coffee: Getting Rid of the Acid Reflux Issue

Coffee: Getting Rid of the Acid Reflux Issue

A big complaint I hear frequently:  "I have given up my beloved morning coffee as it creates and exacerbates gastric acid reflux problems the entire day.  I do not want esophageal cancer from reflux."

Hey, who can blame anyone?  Cancer is not something we warmly invite into our lives.

2 things to try: (see lifestyle info at bottom of post)

1.  Spice blend: add a pinch or two to each cup of coffee.

Equal parts of cardamom, ginger, and unrefined sea salt.  Put these together in a small jar and keep next to your coffee stores. Remember to use with each cup of coffee.  Keep a small jar in your purse, coat pocket, or glove box for coffee on the go.

2.  Cold brew coffee into a concentrated extract and use to make your hot or cold coffee beverages.  (For a iced coffee delight I over indulged in while visiting Costa Rica, click the link.)

Cold brewing is lower in caffeine and much lower in acid.  Less acid is good for the gut and esophagus!

Tools for the brewing:

How to:

Cold-brewing coffee is easy.  Get yourself a 1/2 gallon mason jar with a lid and a strainer.

Combine one cup of coarsely ground beans (organic, fair trade, and shade grown... of course!) with four cups of cold or room temperature water.

Give the mixture a stir or put lid on and give a good shake.  I shake this anytime I pass by it on the kitchen counter.

Let the magic of infusion go to work. You are making cold, cowboy coffee!

I let the mixture magically infuse for 12 to 24 hours.

After 12 to 24 hours, strain the solution through a coffee filter, a fine mesh sieve, or layered cheesecloth so you don’t get a mouth full of grounds. No need to be completely cowboy about this!

Filter the mixture, once or twice, and you have delicious coffee.

Good for 7 to 10 days in your refrigerator.

When heating for hot coffee, gently heat, please.  Boiling is not kind to your cold brew!

Finished!   To make in the quart jar, just cut recipe in 1/2.

Enjoy your cold brewed coffee, hot or cold.

PS  There are many "recipes" out there and they all vary.  First time I made cold brewed coffee it was 1 pound of coffee, ground up, to one full gallon of water.  I cut the recipe in 1/2 and used a gallon glass jar.

My advice with all recipes and all cooking:  be creative, play around, and find what works for you!

PPS: Lifestyle Healing: Acid reflux is a warning check engine light on your body's dashboard. Addressing what has created the reflux in your life will help you to self heal and get rid of the underlying causes of the problem. Problem gone and addressing this problem and ridding its root causes will prevent it from becoming a bigger problem, a deeper degenerative disease.

Lifestyle Healing Info: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/free-health-info/

Self Healing Classes to dive deeper & fix yourself!  http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/home-study-classes/