My new home espresso machine – the Casabrews 3700 Essential

Posted by Mar 18, 2025 Blog , , , , , , Leave a Comment
My new home espresso machine – the Casabrews 3700 Essential
Saturday morning splurge from Starbucks

I like to find a coffee shop on Saturday mornings, usually Starbucks, and order a hot mocha with whipped cream. That usually will run me a whopping $5-10 depending on where I end up. But it’s SOOOOO good!

Last week I decided to invest in an espresso machine for my own kitchen. After looking through the choices, and the reviews (AND the prices!) I purchased a Casabrews 3700 Essential. Good enough for a beginner but no so many gadgets that I get hopeless confused. Plus on my limited budget, I could afford it.

My brand new Casabrews 3700 Essential espresso machine

Beginner barista

This was my first time using an espresso machine. I was quite excited! Once I got my machine and set it up, I ground some Starbucks Espresso Roast in my electric grinder. Not fine enough but that’s what I had so it will have to do until I can get another grinder. (I purchased an inexpensive handheld adjustable burr grinder a few days later.) I grabbed the first mug I could find. Too wide for good crema but I just needed a couple shots of espresso and this would be fine.

I had purchased a very useful book of coffee recipes as well. It’s Daniel Lancaster’s The Coffee Recipe Book: 50 Coffee and Espresso Drinks to Make at Home. In it not only was there an easy recipe for my mocha, but a useful quick recipe for chocolate syrup. (Though granted, I could have Googled either recipe if I had so desired.)

My homemade mocha with whipped cream

Can you make mochas at home?

Absolutely! It wasn’t that difficult. Now, that said, making a good mocha takes practice. I don’t envy all the professional baristas who can make any espresso or coffee drink expertly and professionally. Not to mention all the different recipes they do for all the many customers every day. By comparison, my little home brewed mocha is a pitiful comparison.

But it is mine, and it tastes quite good. And it’s considerably cheaper than Starbucks if you don’t count the initial investment of the espresso machine itself. I’m proud of my newbie coffee accomplishment. I’m no James Hoffman, but it’s good enough for today.

Are any of you professional baristas? How about at-home coffee lovers? I’d love to hear from any of you about your own coffee adventures. Take a moment to leave a comment.

Until next time!

Weight loss? Let’s jump back on the bandwagon now.

Posted by Mar 15, 2025 Blog , , , , Leave a Comment
Weight loss? Let’s jump back on the bandwagon now.

I got labs done this week in preparation for a doctor’s appointment next week. Mostly good, except for the triglycerides and HDL which have plagued me for years. Also, my TSH is high, which means I’ll probably have my levothyroxine increased.

And my glucose was 112. Ugh. It fluctuates above and below 100, but has been above 100 more than below these days. I half expect any time now for the doctor to tell me I’m prediabetic. Regardless, I have all the markers of metabolic syndrome according to the American Heart Association (among other resources).

  • High blood sugar
  • Low HDL (the “good” cholesterol)
  • High triglycerides
  • Large waist circumference
  • High blood pressure

Mind you, only three are needed to be considered eligible for the dreaded metabolic syndrome label. Up until now, I’ve had four. I am on meds for high blood pressure, my triglycerides are high, my HDL low, and I’m a fatty. But my pancreas has thankfully behaved itself, in spite of diabetes running in my family on my mom’s side.

So if this is true, and my glucose isn’t just a fluke, I have all five markers. Yay me.

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WEIGHT LOSS IS MY NEW GOAL

Okay, not that new. But new for the first time in a few years, certainly since my sister got sick again. Last year, I was doing pretty good with walking. Managed 3 miles a couple of times before I injured myself last May. By the time I had healed in September, my sister’s cancer had taken a turn for the worse. She spent the last three months of her life bedridden and needing round-the-clock care. Meanwhile, I quit walking. I went back to convenience food.

In mid January, I was out of work. The last three months I’ve been a couch potato on junk food. I now weigh 199 lbs. At 5’5” tall, my healthy weight starts at 149 lbs. That is FIFTY POUNDS to lose!!!!!! Time to get back on that weight loss wagon.

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THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET

So for the next 30 days, I will do two things. NO FAST FOOD! I will prepare my own food instead and keep it as clean as possible. I am going to focus on the Mediterranean Diet. It’s healthy, my doctors have recommended it, and I like most Mediterranean cuisines (Spanish, Italian, Greek). Plus a few years ago, I had done Connie Guttersen’s The Sonoma Diet, which fair results. I still have that book. I might dig it out again for inspiration, though I have no plans to follow the diet itself.

The second thing is start walking again. At least 30 minutes three or four times a week. I’ll see how a month of this goes, and then re-evaluate.

If anyone has struggled with weight loss, feel free to comment. I know there are others out there, so let’s give each other some support!

Until next time…..

Winds of winter, promise of spring

Posted by Mar 11, 2025 Blog , , , , Leave a Comment
Winds of winter, promise of spring

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

This is my first blog in many years. Blogging has changed a lot since the days of MySpace, before SEO and algorithms ruled the world of internet content. But two months of unemployment and birds chirping outside my window gives me spring fever. I want to write. Writing is my passion.

A ROUGH WINTER

My sister Pam died right before Christmas. She had been my best friend of 60 years (my entire life) and a part of me died with her. It was a long battle, nearly 10 years, with cancer – originally Stage 3C, then nearly 6 years of remission before coming back with a vengeance at the end of summer 2022. And just over two years later, she is gone. My heart is broken.

The same week she died, I had taken a new job, and just like that, both were gone. I decided this was as good a time as any for a sabbatical. Only now I just want to find something to bring in some money. My background is the printing industry, graphics and prepress. Nobody wants a designer who isn’t an expert at web design. And my inability to lift 50+ lbs keeps me from the more manual jobs. So I keep looking.

ON WRITING

Like I said, though, writing is my passion. I have written much of my life: journals, planners, song lyrics, the would-be novel, and of course blogs. I am still somewhat unsure what I will write about, what my eventual niche will be. But that will come. I am sure of it. The universe will provide.

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MOCHA AND WONDERLAND

I am both a coffee and a tea drinker, and my idea of cozy is a warm mug and a book. I like cozy mysteries especially, and perhaps will review a few here in the future. I am trying to learn to like black coffee, but so far I do better with lattes and mochas, and the traditional hot chocolate. Or herbal tea. I can always drink tea, hot or cold.

I sometimes think I would like to be a barista.

Wonderland is my name for my world after Pam, after loss. A world of wonder, of joy in grief, of beauty in sadness. Wonderland is my world of hope.

… AND HERDING CATS

Misty (photo by Doni M)

I have my two cats, who I swear keep me sane. Misty is six years old, a black and white mask and mantle cat, dainty and sweet, but fiercely independent. She’s a rescue, and one half of a bonded pair I adopted in December 2016. She believes everyone is a friend and tries to play with everybody who comes to visit.

Cory (photo by Doni M)

The story goes that at 1 year old, she met Cory, a half-year-old kitten, and the rest was history. I like to imagine she found the kitten and adopted it as her own. Cory is five years old now. He is my Monster Cat, coming in at 18 lbs of muscle, a gray and white cap and saddle gentleman. Unlike Misty, he is terrified of strangers. It took him a full year to learn to trust Pam.

Photo by Doni M

WINDS OF CHANGE

The cold, damp chill of winter seemed to mirror my own life in these first months after my sister’s death. Now that it is March, the cold has given way to sunny days of promise, albeit with the two-often severe thunderstorm (this is tornado alley, after all).

It’s been nearly two months since Pam went away. Last year at this time she was preparing to go to France. She loved to travel, both here and abroad. I think she had been to at least 30 countries. It pales to my own feat of one foreign country, and that was two days just over the border in Canada 35 years ago.

And now, I feel like she has gone on another one of her trips, and she just hasn’t returned yet. So I just wait for her to come back home.

Grief is funny like that.

WHAT’S NEXT

I am still applying to jobs. I have another interview next week. After some two dozen interviews I don’t have my hopes up, but I do need work. I hate having to live off my savings and dipping into what should be a retirement fund. Meanwhile, I will work this blog, and maybe eventually it will turn into something useful. And maybe others will get something out of it as well. I hope so.

Spring is here. Life goes on. Time to find out how to adapt to this brave new world.