Curled up on my couch, one cold evening in December, I was watching television. While the fire crackled in the fireplace, here I was in my onesie pajamas. I stood up and looked out the window and saw the snow continuing to fall. I thought to myself, “I guess I won’t be driving anywhere soon. A nice cup of coffee would be great right about now.”
I went into my kitchen to check if I had any kind of Starbucks K Cup Pod products left in my pantry. I reached out for the box, but it was empty. “Argh, what to do, what to do?” I said. I hate it when I get a craving for something specific and I either run out or it’s nowhere near to be found. In this case, crème brûlée flavored coffee. In fact, I had no pods at all to brew. I looked around the kitchen cupboards and found that I had an old coffee maker and some vanilla macadamia nut flavored coffee I had for times when I run out of coffee pods.
I went online for a crème brûlée creamer recipe. I watched a video and read all the ingredients needed. I was in luck, I had all the ingredients and it didn’t look too difficult to make. I brewed the coffee in the coffee maker then started making the creamer. Brown sugar and vanilla extract were the main ingredients in this recipe. Several minutes had passed, the coffee in the coffee maker was ready, the do-it-yourself creamer was also ready. I combined the coffee with the creamer and it was absolutely delicious. I saved the recipe in a kitchen drawer and stood there sipping on my cup. “Hmm…” I felt like something else was missing, perhaps something to nibble on. When I’m at a coffee shop, I normally get a pastry with my coffee; however, I have no skills whatsoever in making pastry. I was not going to attempt anything pastry-making.
I decided to make something super simple that I remember eating in daycare when I was a child: Cinnamon toast. I grabbed a few slices of bread and popped them into the toaster. Then I walked over to my pantry and grabbed a bottle of cinnamon and some sugar. I opened the fridge door and scooped up a tablespoon of butter. “Voilà!” cinnamon toast. I grabbed my cinnamon toast and coffee and went back to the couch to see what was on the television. Coincidentally, a television show about simple holiday recipes with common household ingredients was playing. It featured on how to make simple sugar cookies and eggnog.
I spent the rest of the evening on my couch. I went back to the kitchen for another refill of coffee and homemade creamer. The cinnamon toast was all gone, the plate full of crumbs. The television kept on with the programs as I added more firewood to the fireplace. The house was warm and I was warm. The fire kept crackling and I slowly drifted off into auto-pilot. Before I knew it, I went to bed but could not fall asleep. I guess the refills caught up to me that night.