Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

No scoffing from me. If your local supermarket has it, I suggest Caribou Coffee's Mahogany. Very dark but very smooth. Cafe Bustelo is another good option. It is wonderful as espresso but it also brews a very nice cup of coffee when brewed in an auto drip coffeemaker too. OK, now you can all scoff at me instead. LOL ;-)

Glad to see this review because I just ordered a pound of each by mail. Wish Caribou would open a shop or two on the West Coast. Will comment after coffees arrive and I try the two. Any thoughts on the Lacuna blend? I bought a half-pound of that to try as well.

Carrie, drop them a note in the mail, or even an email. What could it hurt? :-)

Many years ago I found a recipe similar to this one and it was a favorite, but of course the recipe got lost. :-( So very glad to see this post, Carrie! Thank you! These cookies are delicious!

The pound cake and the brownies sound delicious. Apple crisp or crumple would be an easy, do-ahead dessert, too.

@Kumiko: I just finished canning this year's quadruple batch of your yummy pumpkin butter, again using canned pumpkin puree. I added a little over a 1/4 cup of bourbon to this batch just to finish off the little bit left in the bottle. ;-) Next weekend I plan to make another large batch without the bourbon. I started getting requests for the pumpkin butter back in September! You have a winning recipe, Kumiko! :-)

My husband and I are from the Central Valley of California, and our reception was in a local reception hall. We wanted to keep it classy but comfortable, so we strewed the tabletops with rose petals and miniature candy bars. We didn't plan it but this turned out to be a great icebreaker because guests would go from table to table trading for their favorites! =)

This article is great. It's good to see folks noticing another style of coffee roasting. Another roaster worth noting, Blacksmith Coffee Roasters, makes a "Swedish Morkrost" and "Swedish Skanerost" that are my special favorites. This isn't an advertisement, just my opinion. =)

My husband and I were detained by US officials when we returned to the US from Mexico because we were bringing in an entire case of vanilla, and we were on foot. Why were we detained? Because it was a "suspicious amount". It took quite a while for the agent to accept the fact that we had a dozen friends and family who had requested vanilla extract. We actually had to produce the list we made of the people who wanted the vanilla. After being quesitoned repeatedly about "Are you professional bakers, why does anyone need that much vanilla?" and the clincher, "Don't you know you are putting the US vanilla distributors out of business?" (What??!), we were allowed to go on our way, lugging the box with us. That was several years ago and our own two bottles of vanilla are almost empty, so we might have to go back for more. ;-)

Any opinions on Mauls sauce from Missouri?

I am a lady who lives in a small town in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. I transplanted from Southern California to live on a ranch with my sweetheart-husband who indulges my lifelong dream to have a huge vegetable garden. I have worked a myriad of jobs and learned a lot from each of them. Amongst them have been nanny, bank teller, beer brewer, and documents archiver (not all at the same time, of course LOL).

I will never be as "good" as the rest of you. LOL =) My "4 o'clock" of choice is graham crackers with a schmear of peanut butter or Nutella (or both, yum!), and a cup of good strong tea or coffee with milk and sugar.

That yogurt with honey or maple syrup does sound delicious, though. I might have to try that. =)

Cheerwine is available in CA, or at least in our community. Being on the way to Yosemite, we have a fairly good selection of soda pops at our local stores so visitors will find their favorites. =) Cheerwine is my 2nd fave cherry pop, Mr Pibb is 1st. ;) Vernor's is the best ginger ale around!