A Good Latte Gone bad

One of the most valuable things I took away from my season working at Starbucks bar none is my espresso machine. Second to that is my latte making skills. It looks easy, but a latte is tricky and very easy to screw up. Under foam and all you have is a milky latte. Over foam and all you have is hot espresso and foam with very little milk (which can be great if all you want is foam and espresso).

Hold the steam wand to low and your bubbles are flat and deflate quickly. Hold the wand too high and the bubbles are large and never melt, which is an extra extra dry latte and no milk. BUT, if you have a good creamy foam to hot milk ratio and fresh shots of espresso, along with your syrup of choice and sugar blended lightly so as not to disturb the creamy foam, this is latte goodness that only a highly skilled barista could replicate. Believe it or not it takes a while to learn the correct consistency and only after making about a hundred lattes do you finally "get it" and from then on unless your just not paying attention it becomes second nature.

I indulged in such a latte this weekend only to have it spill on my sheets while trying to watch the news and enjoy my latte in bed. All that latte goodness gone :( along with an unscheduled laundry day thrown in. Frustration...

Which leads me to my money saving conclusions: 1)If you work at Starbucks, invest in one of their fine espresso machines before you quit, they come in handy when your hankering for a latte and don't want to leave home or pay five bucks. Latte goodness at your fingertips! 2)If you have a good friend that works at Starbucks, take advantage of their great discount (around Christmas is a good time to buy, they try to get rid of the previous years models at sometimes half the original price. That discount plus your friends can mean 75 to 80% off the original price). And please, please if you've never made a latte before get your barista friend to show you how to make a good latte and keep practicing! Finally, if you make a latte at home on a fine Saturday morning and drink it in bed, don't spill it!

New to me

If your going to do a job well, you have to have the right tools. After a semester of using sub-par tools and near misses with dull knives and slippery knife handles, I've now "invested" in GREAT knives. There not new, but they are new to me.

Which leads me to a great tip for buying quality products at half the price. Ebay! I found three of the knives featured in this 9 piece knife set I recently purchased brand new at Sur La Table for $425. I purchased this 9 knife, block holder, steel rod and several different grit sharpening blocks on Ebay for only $435. Yes their used, but with quality knives, unless they are bent or broken, simply re-sharepen and they are like new!

I costed a set like this and it runs well over $1,100 if purchased brand spanking new. I guess knives, like a car, as soon as you take them off the lot, they depreciates significantly. Sadly, most people like shiny new, but used items work just as well depending on what they are and at half the price of new, I'll keep buying "new to me" and save money for other things I may have to buy new.