Julie’s Cappuccino Cooler
June 24, 2011 | My Jottings
I’ve had some requests for my “recipe” for the made-up concoction that calls to me in my bed each morning. “Juuuu-lie…..ooohhhh JUUUU-lieeeee….time to get up….I’m waiting for you!”
So every morning I sit up in bed at an hour that is too indecent to mention here, and put on my Acorn slippers. Then I put on my glasses and head downstairs, leaving Michael, Edith and Mildred still snoozing in the dark.
If you ever wanted to make yourself a Cappuccino Cooler, here are a few things you might want to do.
1. Choose your cup. This is important. I like drinking from a cup that actually feels right in my hand and is interesting to look at. If you happen to have a lot of cups to choose from, you might go through a process of elimination like I do sometimes.
I stand back a few seconds and scan the shelves in our kitchen that hold our blue and white cup and mug collection. If you don’t have shelves that hold your cups, you could just open the kitchen cabinet or the dishwasher door, stand back, and do a quick scan of what you have available.
On any given morning I might ask myself, “Should I choose this cup today?”
“The one that Lorna brought back for me from Mexico? Hmmmm….or should I choose this cup?”
“The cup one of my daughters gave me over twenty years ago?”
“Or maybe today I’ll have my Cappuccino Cooler in this one…”
“Then again maybe not. It’s delicate and lovely, but would only hold 1/4 cup of my concoction and I think I’d like a full cup this morning.”
You get the picture — I’m having a conversation with myself and it’s a good way to start the day. But not as good a way to start the day as having a conversation with Jesus. I really recommend talking to Him before you talk to yourself. Not kidding.
I might look at this little cup and consider it momentarily — it’s one my friend Lorna brought back to me from her trip to Israel:
But it doesn’t hold much liquid either — this pretty cup would be better for an espresso. Then I might look at this one — it’s certainly big enough:
But I usually don’t drink out of this large mug. Carolyn made it for me in her high school ceramics class and I’ve always cherished it. But it’s not dishwasher safe so has only been rinsed now and then. There’s a fine, oily layer of dust in the bottom of this one so it doesn’t make the cut.
What about this one? It’s a relatively new gift from my friend Carole who lives in the Chicago area. She came to visit recently and gave me this as a hostess gift. I love it.
Yes, this is the one I chose this morning and have liked drinking from lately.
If you really wanted to have the ultimate Cappuccino Cooler drinking experience, try matching your cup to a beautifully decorated room in your home, like this one. Or you could redecorate your whole kitchen to match your favorite cup. I believe with all my heart that if I were drinking my morning Cappuccino Coolers in that room, I would be a better, more genteel sort of woman. Refined, optimistic, and serene — those would be the words you would use to describe me.
But look at that hand. Does that look like the hand of a refined and genteel woman? No. The red and crepey skin betrays me! The blue and bulging veins tell my tales! Now everyone knows I’ve been breaking my back picking cotton doing paperwork and folding laundry and mismanaging Schnauzers. Well, fiddle-dee-dee, I guess I’ll think about that tomorrow.
Now, back to cappuccino creating. This next step you might want to skip, because it takes a little time.
2. Frost your cup. After choosing your cup, put it on top of some ice cubes in your freezer. (But don’t sit it on top of the cool pack from Walgreen’s that your husband uses on his newly replaced shoulder.)
After putting your beautiful cup in the freezer, you can attend to a few morning chores, like I do. I make hot coffee for others in the house, set up medications for those who take them, make lunches, see if any new words have been played in Words With Friends on my iPad, dial up insulin for those who need it, get things ready for the different breakfasts everyone has…that kind of thing.
If you don’t have all this to do when you get up in the morning, then don’t put your cup in the freezer before you make your Cappuccino Cooler. But if you do, it will be frosty and delicious and will seem like something special.
3. Gather your ingredients. There are only four! This is an easy recipe.
If you don’t like hazelnut flavored creamer what the heck is the matter with you you can use any flavor you like. My niece Savannah prefers vanilla so when she visited us at Thanksgiving time, I made her a Cappuccino Cooler with vanilla creamer instead.
4. Begin with instant coffee. Next, spoon one teaspoon of instant coffee (Maxwell House is smoother tasting, Folger’s instant coffee has that bitter taste many coffee drinkers like) into your beautiful, carefully chosen cup:
5. Add the chocolate. Put in a few squeezes of Hershey’s Chocolate syrup on top of the coffee granules:
6. Add the creamer. Then add a few splashes of hazelnut (or your favorite flavored) creamer. I would guesstimate that I pour in between 2-3 tablespoons into the coffee/chocolate mixture:
7. Stir. Now just stir this all together until you get a thick dark slurry. My computer dictionary defines slurry in this way:
“A semi-liquid mixture, typically of fine particles of manure, cement, or coal suspended in water.”
Obviously this slurry is a step above that slurry. Here’s what ours looks like:
Just stir for several seconds until the instant coffee granules dissolve in the other ingredients.
8. Pour the milk. Pour it just to the top of the cup. I use 1% but if you wanted a dessert-like coffee drink you could use whole milk. Very rich and creamy….
9. Taste and adjust. Stir some more, and then take a taste-test:
If it’s not chocolatey enough for you, add another squeeze of Hershey’s syrup. If you want a stronger coffee flavor, add some more granules. Too strong? Add milk. Make it your own. Even though the recipe is called Julie’s Cappuccino Cooler, I’ll step aside and let you call it Belinda’s Cappuccino Cooler or Juan’s Cappuccino Cooler or Taneeka’s Cappuccino Cooler if you like. Whatever your name is, whatever you want to call this concoction, go right ahead and do it. I can share.
10. Enjoy. Finally, stand in the middle of your kitchen in your Acorn slippers, lift the (hopefully frosty) cup to your lips, take a dainty sip and say, “Mmmmmm…”
Someday I hope to stop drinking my Cappuccino Coolers. They’re just too yummy. I think when a person reaches the age of 53, a gradual decrease in yumminess should be already occurring in their life.
Let me know if you try your own concoction…what flavor creamer did you use? Did you do everything I’ve instructed you to do? Did you chill your pretty cup? Did you stir well until a slurry was achieved? Did you stand and say “Mmmmm?” Did you drink it in the room in your house that matches your cup? I want to know.
Enjoy, and have a wonderful day!
This post makes me want to:
1. Move to Duluth.
2. Go shopping for coffee mugs.
3. Buy the ingrediants for a cappuccino cooler!
4. Get an iPad so that I can play words with friends with you… even though I would be hanging my head in shame at your awesomeness.
5. Look up acorn house-shoes. I’m hoping (and guessing not) that they have acorns on them somewhere. Because that would be just… cute.
6. Sit in my recliner with my book, Run Baby Run, while drinking coffee.
I think you should do all six of the above, Savannah. 🙂
I’m coming with Savannah !! Cappacino coolers are awesome but absolutely no hazelnut creamer…..no hazelnut anything. I’ll take chocolate velvet creamer, please. However, I do have to say I would rather have this “pretend” coffee in the afternoon. REAL coffee drinkers drink hot, strong coffee in the mornings to get their gizzards going.
That’s a good way to refer to digestion, Christy! I can see it now – a new Ex-Lax commercial – “take Ex-lax today, to get your gizzards going!” 🙂
Ohhhhhhhh for more of that HAZELNUT CREAMER – perhaps a triple dose and then if not enough, I could always add more. There are also the real Hazelnut oils that you can add with your rich (still cream in whole milk)and don’t forget some local honey to top everything off, now that is a morning cup of java 🙂
Yes, we should make it a family morning event, Lar. 🙂
Not to be outdone, determined to find some way of ruining their health if at all possible, across the pond in England you can find a household of vegan wholefooders making this recipe: A heaped teaspoon of instant coffee granules in just enough boiling water to dissolve them; a good slug (to taste) of maple syrup; a couple of big serving-spoonfuls of Swedish Glace vanilla ‘ice cream’, about a third of a litre of soya milk (sweetened/unsweetened – adjust maple syrup accordingly) – all whizzed up for about a minute in the whizzer. In fact . . . see you later . . .
That sounds absolutely delicious, Ember. We have lots of maple syrup in Minnesota – this would be well-received here! I will try this!
Jules ~ I would have to disagree with your statement of “when a person reaches the age of 53, a gradual decrease in yumminess should be already occurring in their life.” Most assuredly it should be an INCREASE not a decrease! It is the time we can finally take the time to enjoy all the yumminess we have already experienced and truly appreciate it! I’m just sayin’ ~
I secretly agree with you, Taun. 🙂
Still waiting to be told what creamer is….? Strange American habit no doubt. When I want a treat I simply add icecream to the coffee, one scoop per cup, but caffeine is what runs in my veins instead of that red stuff & ususlly it’s the caffeine I want, not the sweetners! lol
BTW I adore your cup of choice. Blue & white is my very favourite colour combination.
I meant to write you about creamer, Ganeida! Creamer is usually flavored cream that people add to their coffee. I’m assuming some Aussies do drink cream in their coffee? Or milk?
Here we can buy “half and half” which is a thicker milk with a higher fat content that people usually use in their coffee. Creamer can be just that “half and half,” but it’s usually flavored. So we have cream (or creamer) that has flavorings added to it, like Hazelnut, French Vanilla, Irish Cream, Amaretto, Caramel, etc.
Here’s a popular line of creamers: http://www.coffee-mate.com/Products/Default.aspx, and also here: http://www.internationaldelight.com/French-Vanilla.
Do you have any of these kinds of products in Australia?
I like your ice cream idea a lot. You go for the caffeine, I go for the fat and sugar. 🙁
Oh, I’m not adverse to the fat & sugar! ? I just get it other ways. Coffeemate I think I’ve seen but would refer to that as a powdered milk ~ just add water. If I want cream, which I love with pasta[see?] I use the real thing. These language differences so amuse me. Thank you for the information!
I, too, have seen many new words on your blog, Ganeida. It’s actually fun to learn another country’s vernacular.
If you visited Minnesota you would soon hear that some of our most common exclamations go like this: “Oh for cute! I love those shoes” or “Oh, for sweet, that is an adorable baby!” or “Oh for darling! I think that new haircut is perfect!” A lot of o-fers going on and it took me a while to get used to it.
Also, if something is unpleasant here, we hear the word “ishy” a lot. Worms, mucus, puke and the like are always ishy. In California we said “icky.” What do you say there? 🙂
Julie, I’m not sure I can answer your query on a family blog. Aussies tend, on the whole, to be a blunt & down to earth lot & the common exclamations really aren’t repeatable. It makes for some interesting *driver comments*. 🙂
That makes me very curious, Ganeida. 🙂