Cookin' With Leo

By Leocthasme

A long HOT, and DAMN HOT, summer here in West Texas, so cooling out on the back Patio is how I have been spending this summer. Well, one particularly Damn Hot day I was cooling off with a cold tall one, whatever, when who should appear out of nowhere, but Aztec Annie. Am I seeing things or really dreaming, I wondered? What is Aztec Annie doing around here all by herself?
“Hey Annie”, I said, “what are you doing around here all by yourself”? “And, where is my Dear Sweet Italian Fairy Godmother”? “Don’t you two pall around together anymore”?
“Yea, well, she on vacation somewhere in the South Pole”.
“South Pole”, I stammered, “What in hell is she doing in the South Pole”?
“She say it’s too --- hot (fairies never use slang (cuss) words) where she was.”
“Geez, never heard her say that before, she spends most of her time in Rome anyway, fluttering around in the ruins of Caesar’s Villa, wherever, digging up old copies of Caesar’s Concubine’s, Kitchen Classics, whatever.”
“She say, Rome too hot this year too, so she take off for South Pole, where she say it Cool Place.”
“I guess so Annie, might be a good place for West Texans too, this summer.”
“Hey, well, I no come to shoot breeze too long, I want out of this Hades (see no cuss words)Hole too, so sit tight, I got nice cool Aztec Coffee recipe for you and all your Texas friends or anybody else to cool off.”
Annie don’t use a magic wand thing like My Dear Sweet Italian Fairy Godmother does she just goes “TATATATATATATATATATATATATATAATATAT…..” and magic happens, whatever.

Anyway, so now I have a nice coffee cooler for the long hot summer and a waker upper too, whichever, so here it is and I am calling it Aztec Coffee. Got a better name?

For Annie’s Aztec Coffee, here is what you need:

3/4 cup dark roast coffee, fine ground

1 teaspoon cinnamon plus extra for dusting

1 cup Half and Half coffee cream

1/3 cup unsweetened Cocoa powder

¼ cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure Vanilla extract

6 tablespoons pure whipped cream

6 cinnamon sticks, long to use in cups

And here is how we do it:

Place the coffee and the 1 teaspoon cinnamon in your coffee maker, add six cups water and brew according to your coffeemaker’s directions. Meanwhile place the Half and Half, Cocoa powder, and brown sugar in a saucepan and simmer on low heat till sugar is dissolved. Don’t scorch or burn. When the coffee is finished brewing, pour it into the Half and Half mixture. Divide the mixture between six coffee mugs. Top each with a spoon of whipped cream and dust with Cinnamon, Serve hot with a cinnamon stick for a stirrer.