Aug 17: How To Make a Double Shot at Home

I have mentioned before that I am obsessed with the Starbucks Double Shots they make in their stores. Not the bottled stuff, it's totally not the same. But the handmade version? Divine when they make it correctly but it's usually $3.60ish for a grande. Eesh.

So Nate and I have begun to make a version of this delightfulness at home. I figured I should share in this fun little recipe in case anyone else wants to pretend to be a barista with us.

A Starbucks DS has espresso, 2% milk, classic sweetener, and ice. I don't know why it tastes like heaven with such simple ingredients, but it does. We like to get half and half instead of the milk and the number of espresso shots depends on what size drink you choose.

At home, we do have a tiny espresso maker kind of like this one but we don't use it much because it's kind of a beast to clean. However, we also have a small 'Aeropress' from a local coffee store here in Milwaukee and we love this baby so much. I also found one just like ours here on Amazon if you want to give it a go at home.

Do you know the difference between coffee and espresso? I don't think I did until recently, and figured that espresso was just stronger coffee somehow. But my coffee-snobby-husband informed me that coffee is made when you drip the water through a filter and espresso is when you force the water through somehow. So this little Aeropress can make espresso because you push air down through this tube on top of coffee grounds and hot water. Very fancy, I know. I used to make my other favorite 'hard core' drink from SBux with our Aeropress all the time: an Americano. That is just espresso and water and I like mine hot and straight up black. It's still my 'go to' drink, actually, but every now and then a Double Shot calls my name.

Here is how we make our own version of our favorite SB drink:



1. Make simple syrup. That's one part water and one part sugar over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes until all sugar is dissolved, stirring a lot so you don't burn your concoction. We store the simple syrup in a tupperware container in our fridge to use for this drink and any alcoholic drink that calls for simple syrup (ie Mojitos!) and we usually use 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar. It's also funny that I'm saying 'we' here since Nate is always the one that makes this for me. Truth: he actually makes these drinks 90% of the time and I have only recently started making my own. I'm spoiled, I know.

2. Put three fairly big spoonfuls of simple syrup in the bottom of your cup. SBux uses 3 pumps in a grande DS, so that's why we wanted to use 3 spoonfuls at home. Then we add ice to the cup.

3. Make your espresso. If you have an Aeropress, it means you will grind 2 big scoops of coffee beans (maybe equivalent to about 4 tablespoons?) and heat up some water. Then you put the coffee in the bottom of the tube with a filter, put it right on top of your cup, then pour 3 cups of hot water into the tube. You stir the grounds in the water for 10 seconds. Then you slowly push the top of the press down into the grounds, making it take about 30 seconds to push all the way through. Be careful here since you are pushing right into your cup and if you tip it over during this manual labor you are screwed!

4. Add however much half and half you like. Or milk, I suppose, but the fatty stuff is way better. Add more ice since you probably just melted the other stuff with your coffee. Then, if you want to be super authentic, hand shake your drink to let it mix gently. Wait a bit for it to cool off and then...



5. Enjoy.

(this one was a lot prettier than the one above, actually. Love when the cream does that!)

Remember, we always make half caff coffee at home because we like so much of it, so often and that let's us feel less addicted ;) But the full caff version is great, too, just a lot stronger (duh). You can play around with how much coffee you use depending on how strong you like it. But that's how we are playing SBux baristas at home this summer. Not quite the same but the fact that ours isn't nearly $4 a pop makes it taste a little better somehow.

Miscellany

Too much to say, not enough time to make this post cohesive.

-Any music heads out there? I need your help. I heard a song while shopping at the Gap the other day and was in LOVE with it. I should have used my Shazaam app on my phone to discover the artist and title of this mystery song, or I should have just asked an employee there, but whatever. So ANYWAY, let me describe it to you and maybe someone will know who sings my new favorite/unknown song. It sounded a LOT like Coldplay, and I even googled to see if they had a new single or something. No dice. And then the words had something to do with a boat or the ocean and life....and it had the prettiest melody and maybe some strings in there. Eesh. This is not helpful at all, is it? But I really want to download the song somehow and hope someone can assist. Also really into the song 'Let's Go Surfing' by The Drums that is on the Starbucks commercial (did download this one) and also Rihanna's song 'Right Now'. I appear to have a wide range in my taste of music lately.

{UPDATE: I knew my readers would help me out here. The song is 'Ships in the Night' by Mat Kearny. YES!}

-Cecelia's birthday party decor is finally down (tear) but don't worry, a few of my projects ended up in her nursery. And now I love all of the extra stuff on her walls. It was kind of bare when I first did her nursery, I guess. Now we are busting at the seams;) Still want to get a small side table and then I think I can lay off my favorite room in the house for awhile.









-Landscaping! This is mostly Nate's domain but I do like to give my opinions on what we should do with our yard/garden/flowers. And then I take pictures after Nate and his mom do a lot of the hard work (someone has to watch the kids while they are slaving away out there!). No idea what most of these flowers actually are but they sure are pretty!

Okay, these are peonies. I know that because I love them. The rest shall remain unnamed.



Pretty!


Love hanging baskets so much


We've done so much to the yard and flower beds since we moved in. Love how it's becoming very much our own space. Working outside in the yard actually IS pretty fun....just hard to do with two small kids, which is why Nate is usually the one out there while I observe (with my camera, sometimes)


I did actually help with the potted plants on our front porch. Love.




I am also a big fan of our very mature hostas and begged Nate not to split the ones in front. He thinks they need to be spaced out in order to grow and thrive, but I feel like they have probably been there for years and years and are doing just fine. I won this year. We will see what happens next.




Nate and his dad planted a lot of hostas to line our property, along with mulch. I love how it's made a definite border between us and the county property next to us.


-Cecelia is thisclose to walking! She has technically taken a few wobbly steps while falling into my arms and she seems to be really proud of herself when she does this. Maybe because I cheer and jump up and down like a lunatic? I can't help it, the walking milestone is SO awesome and I can't wait to get a video of her strutting her stuff.

-Also, apparently she can stand alone for longer than 10 seconds. During a little photoshoot with Andrea last weekend, I told A that CC would probably only stand for a few seconds and then I'd have to run back in the frame and stand her back up. But, no. Cecelia stood there for minutes at a time, no joke, just waving and smiling and being a total ham. This child!! Cannot wait to see the images from the photoshoot. Andrea asked me if she could 'pretty please' do a photoshoot with C's pink high chair, at sunset, in a field and duh...I said 'Twist my arm, why don't you?'. The light was amazing and CC performed better than I could have imagined for a full hour, including four different outfits. Squeeeeeee! My little girl is one and she is a supermodel baby who loves to pose for other people's cameras, apparently. Stay tuned.











-Can I just say that NOT pumping is pretty much the most amazing thing of my life right now? I haven't pumped in over 2 months now but every single work day I still marvel at the extra time I've freed up now that I've ditched the udder sucker. I'm thankful that I could pump until 10.5 months and I'm very lucky that our breastfeeding journey has gone so smoothly (and is still going!). But I hate the pump with a passion. HATE. Taking the time during my work day to block out my schedule three times, setting up, taking down, washing pump parts and bottles....it just drained me (literally and figuratively, wink wink). I love not pumping and still being able to nurse when we are together. She is still going strong at nursing at least 3 times per day but I will probably cut her back to just nursing first thing in the morning and right before bed. I'm pretty sure she is only nursing for comfort at this point but I'm happy to continue, without any true 'stop date' in sight. Just playing it by ear but I love how relaxed she gets when she nurses, even if it's not for more than 5 minutes at a time anymore. We did it, sweet girl! Lengthy/hormonal breastfeeding post to come when we are actually done. But yeah, pumping was my least favorite ever and I love how free I feel without it.

Plus, we are totally done with bottles now. Cecelia is taking her whole milk from a sippy just fine. Pretty easy transition over here, whoo hoo! Not really sad to see all of these fancy bottles (that she refused to take for so long) get packed away.


-Also, sleep is the best thing ever. The best. All of us are sleeping again and it's glorious. C will go down around 7:30 and sometimes sleeps 12 or more hours in a freaking row (what? I know!). Truman is also back to sleeping like a champ after a brief stint of waking in the middle of the night being 'scared.' Must be the fresh air or something but we are loving sleep around here. Never leave us again, please! I will say no more to avoid the blog jinx.

-You know how I'm a hard core coffee fan? As in, I prefer my coffee straight up black and strong and can be a little bit snobbish about the type of joe I sip? I have a new love and it's the opposite of hot black coffee (but just as strong). Well, it's not really a new love but I'm falling even harder for it this summer compared to last. You ready? A grande, half caff (I'm still sort of a wuss, I know), iced Starbucks Double Shot with half and half. OMG. SO freaking good. And no, it is NOT the same thing as the Doubleshot in a can (but it's close I guess). The only problem is that not every barista really knows how to make these bad boys. It's not even on the menu they are so awesome (there I go with the snobby coffee thing again) so it bums me out when I order one and they are not made properly. Supposed to have 3 espresso shots (but if you are lucky they will do 4),  their classic syrup for sweetener, then they usually add 2% milk to it but I prefer my half-and-half. It's amazing and NOT cheap at around $3.50ish a pop. But again, so good and really 'frou frou' with the sweetener and the milk product compared to my usual black coffee. But that's okay. Try one asap and you will not be disappointed, but if you go with a full caff don't blame me when you have the shakes for a few hours;)

This is actually a Venti---free birthday drink, otherwise I'd never pay for this heavy hitter. Isn't she lovely?


-iPhone users: do you know why apps like Flickr and IG take up SO much space on your phone? Apparently I have used 12.6GB of storage on my phone already and the biggest offenders are Flickr and IG, not even my photostream. I mean, I'm not going to delete these two favorite apps or anything but I wonder why they are so HUGE on my phone? I have 21,000+ pictures on Flickr now and 1160 on IG, but why does that take up storage on my actual phone when they are external websites? Do I need to use those 5GB of free storage through iCloud or something? I have literally 2 songs on my phone and would like a few more but it's telling me I can't because of lack of storage. And my photostream is pretty well cleared off at this point. Total bummer.

























{UPDATE: Nate informed me that both IG and Flickr are apps that grow as you use them. So I had to delete each app and then reinstall them, and voila---all better. Interesting!}

-This child is too much lately, in a mostly good way. Senior pictures?


-This child is also too much. She loves her daddy more and more each day and I love watching these two together.










-Father's Day happened, and it was awesome. Nate got to golf, watch golf on TV, I went grocery shopping instead of him having to go (such a great wife, I know), we had a productive weekend cleaning the house and doing other boring adult-like things, and the kids gave Nate some really adorable crafts.

Sort of for Nate and sort of for me;)


Interview with Truman, which I hope to repeat each Father's Day


And I hope to make simple handprints every year, too. Something about handprints on canvas that makes me a little weepy.


Nate's parents gave him these chocolates and I have eaten 43 times more pieces than Nate at this point. Can you blame me?



Also, we failed at taking adorable pictures but this one with Henry photobombing in the  background was a hit on IG. Gotta love Nate shielding the sun from Truman's eyes, too.



But I did get some other cute pictures that day.








-I love summer. The end.