Dandelion coffee

This is the loveliest, yummiest thing, not a bit like the instant stuff you can get at the health food shop.  All you need is a slightly messy garden with some dandelions in it.  Eat the leaves in salad and make coffee with the roots.  No need to buy special seed from the gardening catalogue, any old dandelions will do.

Leave a few to go to seed and you will have more next year. Dig up the largest plants, or save the roots of any that need to go because they are in the way.

Give them a good scrub then lay out to dry for a couple weeks.  Once they feel hard, pop on a baking tray and bake in a low oven for about ten minutes or until they have gone darker and smell roasted.  This is the secret, its the roasting that makes them taste so good.  Do keep an eye on them because its easy to burn them and they cook fast.

Dandelion roots drying

Let them cool then wizz in the blender.  Wait a while to let the dust settle before opening the lid of the blender.  Then spoon into a jar.

Dandelion coffee ready to use

To use, one scant dessert spoon or to your taste in a wee coffee filter, or cafetiere and add hot water and leave to brew for 3-5 minutes. 

Brewing the coffee

We like to add some of our homemade almond or cashew milk.

Paper napkins

How many paper napkins does it take to eat a piece of cake? Or a cafe/restaurant meal?  As a bit of a cafe addict I have been counting and typically it is around five if you eat in a restaurant.  Here's the thing: its been going up steadily.  So now there is often a glass of water on a saucer, with a napkin under the glass.  One wrapped around the knife and fork.  One put down with the main course. Another under the garlic bread, one under the coffee cup on the saucer, one under the cake and another loose one to go with the cake as well.  

Sometimes all of the above, totalling seven. So if we go out together that's FOURTEEN napkins.  And we really do only need one each.  So I take the surplus home if it cannot be put back.  Often if you hand them back,staff throw them away.  And they go in the tissue box to be used as tissue substitutes.  So we seldom need to buy tissues and I am working hard to tell cafe staff in advance not to bring more napkins.  Its hard to remember. And its hard for them to remember, they bring them anyway then throw them in the bin when I remind them.  The rubbish surges at you and it so hard to refuse, feeling like a lone voice in the throwaway wilderness.  So what I want to know is: who else out there tries to refuse and reuse napkins in coffee shops?  We have just ordered a rigid tissue box to keep them in, we don't use many tissues anyway cloth handkerchiefs prevail chez nous.