Coffee, tea and sweets and snacks. A few photos.

mmm-yoso!!! is a compilation of  food.   All sorts of food,  whether prepared in the home or purchased outside the home.  Cathy is COMC(Cleaning Out her Memory Card) today.

Hi.  I just wanted to share some nice moments I have had by taking the time to sit down with friends and share snacks.  002
Open Face sandwiches (salami, Havarti, chopped liver all on whole grain) with hard boiled eggs and coffee.  With Mrs. P, who is from Denmark.002
Olive assortment, salami, a sheep's milk cheese with olive oil and crackers with Mr.& Mrs. D.  There was wine involved.074

A selection of baklava from Babi's Bakery, which had been in El Cajon but has closed.   The Kanafa is on the left.   The top is orange colored shredded filo topped with chopped pistachios.  The filling…the heavenly filling… is a *very* soft sheep's milk cheese, Nabulsi.  The cheese  is mixed with or has a pour over of a simple syrup which is flavored with rose water.  Subtle and heavenly.  The wheels of pistachio filled baklava were excellent. Neither of these items was too sweet.  Another bakery has taken Babi's place and I will be posting on it soon. 

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Mrs. B made me an assortment of cookies for us to have with tea, and extra for me to bring home to The Mister. The cookies were made with real butter as well as lemon peel and orange peel and almonds.  Mrs. B knows I don't crave chocolate. 012
Mr. C and I met at Yogurtland in Mira Mesa.  I like the tartness of the yogurts here.  Bonus! the spoons are biodegradable.001
Breakfast  aebelskiver with Mrs. P.  Similar to a small popover, this round pancake is simply topped with sugar. (This Mrs. P is from Copenhagen.)004

I met up with Mr. S  for a coffee and chat in person and not online.  Starbucks has recently begun selling "Starbucks Petites".  Very small servings of sweets, each less than 200 calories, each $1.50.  This is the peanut butter mini cupcake, 180 calories.  There seems to be  a lot of frosting in proportion to cake.  It's good and the size-two or three bites- is more than enough to satisfy any sugar cravings I may have. 007 
Mr. and Mrs. P are French.  This is a photo of the remnants of what was left after I stopped by for what I thought would be a brief visit. Always traditional, there was a salad, bread, stew, wine, coffee and sweets.  002
Caffe Vergnano 1882, an international Coffee Shop, has just opened their first stand alone shop in California, in Hillcrest, on the West side of 5th close to University. Most Caffe Vergnano locations are inside other stores and not stand alones.  Walk inside, and you feel as if you are in Italy.  There are small snacks and excellent coffee.  006
I met up with Mr. S a bit more than a week ago and he snapped this photo of a medium cappuccino with the stenciled logo (and the other cup is a double shot topped with a 'kiss' of milk foam, a macchiato).  Just ordering a coffee here gets you one of the wrapped "biscoffee" cookies you see on the plate.  A post about the varied snack selections available (pastry with Nutella, panino, fococcia)  is being 'researched'.  

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Here is a Caprese salad The Mister made for us the other day.  Burrata from Trader Joe's, tomatoes and basil from our yard, all topped with olive oil, salt and pepper and sided with some seedy buttered bread from Charlie's Best.  Again, with some wine…as an afternoon snack.

In compiling the items for this post, I realized how fortunate I am and what a variety of  friends I have.  Of the above visits, only two people I shared a coffee and/or snack with were born in the United States.  I am glad we know how important it is to stop and take the time to share time…an easy way to share is with food.

I hope everyone will have a really good weekend.