February Coffee Talk

It’s the first week of February. That means it’s time to get a cup of our favorite hot beverage, pull up a virtual chair, and talk about what is on our minds. I have three things to talk about today over hot black decaf.

Lovefeast

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that the Moravians in our town really know how to celebrate communion.

Each year at Christmas time (and a few other times throughout the year), rather than using bread and wine to represent the body and blood of Christ, Moravians use Moravian Sugar Cake and coffee (or chocolate milk). They call this celebration a Lovefeast.

Last Christmas Eve, some members of our family participated in a Lovefeast.

My daughter-in-law, who is not from the area, was charmed by the service, which includes singing, candlelight, and, of course, the special communion.

This year she and my son, who live 3,000 miles away, attempted to recreate a Lovefeast in Oregon  to share with her family.

My son is an accomplished baker. Armed with his great-grandmother’s rather sketchy 100-year-old recipe for Moravian Sugar Cake, he set out to make the sweet treat. Because they both are vegetarians, he replaced the lard called for in the recipe with butter, but the sugar cake turned out beautifully.

My son, a tea drinker, even had coffee for the celebration.

 

Handwriting Analysis

This is a photo of my youngest grandson’s letter to Santa. He is five years old.

As a grandmother, I am amazed by his neat handwriting, which is already better than his father’s. (And mine. No, really.)

When his father was in second grade, his teacher called me and told me she thought he should participate in “special” phys ed classes.

Apparently, she noticed that when he wrote in his workbooks on the left-hand page, he would write with his left hand. On the right-hand page, he would switch the pencil over to his right hand. Both sets of handwriting looked equally bad.

She believed these phys ed classes would help him pick a dominant hand that he would use to write with all the time, and the quality of his handwriting would improve. My son eventually selected his right hand to write with (he does everything else left-handed), but his handwriting never improved.

Little did she know the truth: he inherited his terrible handwriting from his mother. Thank goodness my grandson didn’t continue this trend.

The Perfect Sweet Treat

At Christmastime, one of my friends gave me a jar of dried apple slices. She made them in her food dehydrator. I had never eaten them before. I popped one into my mouth and was amazed at the intense burst of sweet-tart flavor.

I have written before about my no-added-sugar diet designed to lower cholesterol. I miss having something sweet after meals. These apple slices, made from Honeycrisp apples, provided just the perfect sweet bite for an after-dinner snack.

I don’t have a food dehydrator, so I tried to make them in the oven. The best way I found was to first slice an apple as thinly as possible. Next, line a baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper, bake the slices for 70 minutes at 225 degrees F, flip them over, then bake another 70 minutes.

I now snack on dried apple slices all day long.

Thank you for joining me for coffee and conversation. I hope to see you again for our March Coffee Date.

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