rainy friday fika

I need no excuse to indulge in favorite fika finds. But if I did, a dreary day like today would be a good one, I s’pose!

So, let’s! (Indulge.)

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Have you heard about olive oil in your coffee? Starbucks Italy launched Oleato drinks in Milan last month; Southern California will be first to have them stateside this spring. And my response to all that was …yuck.

We drink our coffee straight around here. Strong and black and often. So I don’t know why I thought to give this a try. But —

Oh. My.

It’s good.

Besides the terrible name–remember Olestra?!–it’s quite a treat.

photo credit: Getty image

I found a copycat recipe here and made it twice this week. It’s nutty and creamy and totally won me over. (Troy, too. He said he’d never guess there was olive oil in it.) If you try it:

• I made espresso-strength coffee in my French press (because we don’t have an espresso machine at home).
• I used half almond milk, half heavy cream (because that’s what we had in the fridge). Sure, heavy cream may counteract the LDL-lowering efforts of olive oil; if I’d had creamy oat or cashew milk, I’d have skipped the cream.
• I used our standard Kirkland organic EVOO (because that’s what we had in the cupboard!). It’d be worth picking up ‘something special’ for these, though.
• I frothed the milk with an immersion blender (since we don’t have a frother). No problem.
• I think it’s rich and delicious as-is, but you could add honey if you like your lattes sweet.

I’d love to hear what you think, if you brave it!

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I’ve stayed away from added sugars long enough to learn I’m way better off without them.

But. I caved to the siren song of a cardamom cake from this super-cozy cookbook my parents gave us when we moved into our house last spring.

If you like cardamom, the book’s worth buying just for this cake. (And it just so happens to pair really darn well with an olive oil latte!)

Sugar? It’s going to be a mostly for me. As in, I’ll pass on added sugars most of the time. But hard and fast ‘food rules’ pretty much…never…work for me.

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Last weekend, we spent an afternoon with friends in Buffalo…to catch up, have coffee and snacks, and play games. They introduced us to Mexican Train Dominoes–called Dominó Cubano in Mexico; Longana in Cuba; Pai Gow in China.

Troy made the astute observation, Good thing we didn’t know about this during lockdown.

For sure!

I can’t think of another game we’ve all loved as much… Fast-paced, takes strategy and luck, requires enough concentration to engage you–but not so much you can’t interact. We’ve laughed more playing Dominoes this week, at fika time once and a couple of evenings, than we have in a while. Even Lincoln–the toughest customer for a family game–will ask after dinner…Mexican Train, everyone?

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How about you? Do you have any fika time favorites? Drinks or treats or games?

With that, I wish you a wonderful weekend, whatever the weather. I’ll be back on Monday for the first day of…drumroll, please…spring!