A New Culinary Hobby

Many of you know that I have taken up the hobby of making homemade ice cream. I have embarked on something new this year. I am now roasting coffee.

What is this all about you may ask? Grandma Judy was kind enough to babysit for us so that Amanda and I could go over to another couple's house for dinner. We enjoyed the company of four other grown-ups with no kids around. It was incredibly liberating not to have to either hold a child or wonder if Amanda was being burdened with one of our children.

At this party I learned about the art of coffee roasting. It seems that it is not as difficult as it may seem. All you need is a hot air popcorn popper. I ordered some beans online and picked up a popper at Wal-Mart today. I roasted my first two batches of beans tonight. I wimped out on the first and made a pretty light roast, but I think the second is going to be fantastic. We'll see in the morning.

What's great is that I'm roasting decaf so I don't have to worry about the chaff burning in my popper. Setting things on fire would be bad, right?

Noah seems to be better today. He's still a little warm and his appetite isn't at his normal voracious levels, but he seems pretty good.