Stay Cool

GG will be back tomorrow. The terrible storms of Friday night & ensuing power outages have wreaked havoc in our world. We hope you have electricity or that it is restored soon. Here's a new-to-us online travel magazine (via Lori) Wayfare to read & an iced coffee recipe.

To all the people we saw waiting to get into cafés for the wifi, good luck!

ciao-meow from Giulia who is resting after many severe asthma attacks due to the power outage. xo

(photograph via Lolita)

Irish Coffee

There's an Irish coffee in our Friday future. If only we'd thought to replace the Jameson's sooner rather than later it could be our Wednesday treat. Mimph.

Here's Martha Stewart's delicious recipe which uses real whipping cream & you should; otherwise, you'll start making "skinny" Irish coffees. If you don't have cream in the house but want to make this tonight, maybe you have vanilla ice cream. It works. Here's another good Irish coffee recipe using brown sugar from a local-to-us chef. (More hot drink recipes from Saveur)

ciao-meow/the management

PS: Happy last night of Hanukkah! Happy 4th day of Christmas!

(photograph via Martha Stewart)

Iced Coffee Break

That time of year is here: the first iced coffee of the summer. We make it at home with a minimum of fuss. The large Bialetti moka, fresh ground coffee, milk or half-&-half. Add sweetener of your choice. (Make extra every other day & freeze into cubes so you don't dilute it with water.) We make it the night before, like Michelle.

ciao-meow/GG

(delicious photograph by Francine Zaslow)

One More Cup of Coffee

Buona mattina, bambini. Some photographs while waiting for espresso. (Giulia is still asleep.) We hope to be back today; allergies & such have laid us (GG, too) quite low. Mimph.

ciao-meow/GG's barista

[Coffee Break by Emiliano (credit); sleepy cat-your life, it seems extravagant, & Napoli, beauty in everything/tumblr, both via we heart it]

Espresso expression

It wouldn't be so bad (Monday) if we had this cup of caffeine, uh, coffee. (photograph credit)

ciao-whine-meow,
GG's editor

Coffee Love & Bleeding Espresso

We love reading Bleeding Espresso & visit often. Do go...it's a free trip to Calabria, southern Italy complete with What's Cooking Wednesdays, Love Thursdays, & everything in between. We've not time to ask her for a photo, so we go with this hilarious poster...kind of sums us up sometimes.

Michelle's self-description: "Michelle Fabio, an American writer and attorney leaves the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania for her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy, falls in love, gets two dogs, writes to her heart's content and begins bleeding espresso. No, really."

Take it from GG Central, she's funny, kind, & thoughtful. Coincidentally, she's up for Best European Bloggie Award. Visit her & then vote...she didn't ask us, we think you should!

ciao-meow & baci!
GG's editor

(vintage coffee advert via we heart it)

Coffee Love

Looks like fun, wish we were there. ..The coffee cup has a favorite bicycle-theme from CircaCeramics of Chicago (we're in a Christmas-red mood, they take custom orders--deadline 18 December). Photograph of coffee from the art of coffee & have a little fun with your coffee photo piles.

While you linger over your coffee, tea, or cocoa...think about what you can do to give the Zimbabwean people support. Of course, we're talking about Robert Mugabe. As in go now, go now, get out. South Africa could do a lot & they are not (no matter what they say). Go to the Enough Project & check with their links.

Have a great afternoon & evening.

ciao-meow, bisou,
GG Central

The Art of Coffee

Who says you shouldn't play with your food? Look at Have A Little Fun with Your Coffee. There's a devilish (or vampire?) bunny, musical notes, a swan, leaves, feathers, & more. We particularly like these photos: the bow-adorned little girl & what we think looks like the adorable Bella, an English spaniel we met on Thanksgiving. We're going to try this at home between real work today. GG wants a portrait en café & we try to humor her. (photos via pileofphotos)

bisou,
GG's editor