The Return of Espresso Saturday

While living in The States, one of my favorite ways to spend a day off was to enjoy a leisurely breakfast with friends. One friend of mine and I called it brekie and another friend of mine and I dubbed it espresso Saturday.   It's comfort food for the soul.  Needless to say that breakfast or coffee out with friends doesn't happen much in Malawi.  In fact, I was living in Lilongwe for 3 months before I finally got a chance to indulge.

I was so excited that I took a picture of me drinking a cappuccino. Sad.

It's not that I don't drink coffee in Malawi, I still indulge daily but... I just don't have a coffee maker or an espresso machine.  So how do I pull that off?  I mix boiling water and coffee in one cup and pour it through a strainer into another cup.  Or ... I drink instant coffee.  Oh yeah, I am definitely roughing it. 

So while visiting my friend Cara and her family in South Africa over Christmas break, I spent leisurely mornings and evenings sipping homemade cappuccino. It was refreshing.  I decided that I definitely needed to schlep one of the gizmos back with me to Malawi.

Drum roll please.

Introducing The Espresso Machine/Coffee Maker

Picture me smiling on the other side of the camera.

Monday was a public holiday, which meant no school.  In order to properly break in the espresso machine (coffee maker and burr grinder) I invited the ABC staff over for Cappuccino Monday.  Needless to say it was a big hit with about 20+ people.