Coffee (Chai)

Let me tell you about my history of coffee.

As a child my dad and my grandparents (probably my Aunts and Uncles too, but I don't remember that) drank this nasty black stuff. It tasted disgusting. Seriously.

When I walked into the Cook's Nook in McPherson (if you're in the McPherson, KS area you must stop by this fabulous store) and was taken by one of the most fantastic smells ever. Coffee beans. Oh my, I love that smell.

In college there was a small coffee shop, The Blue Lion, just on the edge of campus in this bizzare house-shop-thing. It was basically in the middle of nowhere, making it an un-ideal location for any North Manchester residents. My girlfriends, aka Apple Pi's, and I would pop over here during a football game. I would always order a Chai.

Chai. Yum. My Aunt Suze introduced me to chai (I think) since I didn't like coffee. It's all very foggy. However, I remember the chai at The Blue Lion. I believe it was Big Train chai. It's a powdered mix, which I normally would not advocate, but it's SO GOOD. Seriously. I'm a bit of a chai snob. It's all I drank for 4 years when I was pre-coffee. I've only really seen it at small local coffee shops, so if you see it grab a cup. A recommendation for powdered mixes though: get it hot or blended, iced just doesn't work out as well. (It tends to get lumpy.)

Anyways, I have transitioned to coffee. First it was mochas and frappucinos then lattes then (when I ran out of money) regular coffee. Thank you Megan for helping me through this transition.

Last night I was thinking about something to bake when I went to Tasty Kitchen, which is a Pioneer Woman website. If you don't know the Pioneer Woman, you should take a couple of hours (days) to read through some of her stuff. She's my blogging inspiration. Basically, a goddess of the blogging world.

So I went to the Tasty Kitchen website wanting to find some cookies when I came across this recipe for Chai Gingerbread Bars. OH. MY. LANTA.

Please go make them.

I know I don't have any pictures, but if you'd like to donate to my "Get-Amy-a-Camera-Fund" I'm accepting donations and then you will see pictures coming out of my ears. I'm currently at $1.34, I think. Only $798.66 to go. I'm saving for a Nikon Digital SLR, used or new...

Oh and now I love coffee and I'm not sure why I titled this "Coffee" when it should obviously be titled "Chai." There, I added Chai to the title.