For many years, I settled for this. I am the only coffee drinker in the house.
This is simple, fast and easy to make for one. Then, I became coffee challenged.
Or snobbish. It just wasn't good enough. Thus, began my quest.
Taking cooking classes a few years ago at Williams Sonoma, I found this:

I had begun to relish the flavor of latte. This, was supposed to deliver it!
And, it kinda did. Kinda, you ask? It was time consuming, about 8-10 mins for a 6 oz. cup.
Sorry, that's a long time for me. And it needed maintenance. I had to fill the
the coffee and the milk chambers, then screw the contraption together. Then, plug and wait. Then, it all had to be cleaned
and dried. For one 6 oz. cup. And, it wasn't HOT. I like my coffee HOT and I like
a mug, about 10 oz of coffee.
My search continued.

Was this the Holy Grail? It was easy, fast and relatively easy to clean. I could use pods
or my own coffee! What more could I ask, you ask? More coffee. And HOT coffee.
I had to microwave the cup before I drank it. And I would need 2 cups to satisfy.
There has got to be a better way. It is just a cup of Joe, just for me.
And then,

Mr. Coffee was on sale at Target! A four cupper, fast, easy, HOT, and oh
so PERFECT! What took me so Long! Who'd thought!
And now? I'm not the only coffee drinker anymore! All four of us are
drinking coffee. Shoulda gotten the 10 cupper!

We decided to take the twins to the Elephant Bar to celebrate their 89th birthday!
There were, I think, 23 or 24 of us! It was cold and raining outside, but
that didn't stop the party! We had 3 servers trying to keep everything straight.

Dan played musical chairs to say hello to everyone at the loooong table!
Hey, Eileen was doing it too!

John and Carter cozy up with Mom. Wow, she looks great!
Dan, you moved again!

Setting up the cakes for the big birthday song, "Cameras Ready?"

John and Danielle look on.

Candles Lit??

"Happy Birthday to you!"

We celebrated Valentine's Day Sunday night because I was working on Monday, the 14th.
We started with a very nice Chardonnay, well not this one. We tried this one, but it was
too fruity, so we opened another. That one was very nice!

We're so happy with our kitchen that, and I know it sounds so ordinary, we decided
that we wanted to cook! We don't get to cook together often enough in our new
kitchen, so we thought it would be fun to do for Valentine's Day.
First, we defrosted the chicken. Those boned thighs will be sauteed.
That's the garlic press ready for action
next to it.

Next, the mushrooms were sliced. Oh, they look so good. I love sauteed mushrooms
slathered all over my chicken.
Terry likes to have a Guinness while he cooks.

The fresh asparagus was washed and trimmed. They will be steamed and
thrown together with fresh chopped tomatoes and Parmesan.

I threw together a dish of scalloped potatoes. I like them with caramelized onions
layered in a garlic and butter rubbed dish with Swiss cheese and Parmesan.

Terry caramelized the onions to perfection!

And I put a lot of love into baking a Red Velvet cake. Unfortunately, it didn't
share much love back with us. Let's just say, "it looked scrumptious"!

And, the cards and chocolate were perfect!

Hope your Valentine was good to you!

But this is what I came home with . . .