SORRY, Not Sorry

Every year for my mom's birthday, we do pretty much the same thing, but she loves it.  We get the three daughters together for board games, cake, and hang time.  Mom's board game of choice is SORRY.  Old school, but it's her favorite.  I'm almost always yellow.   This year was no different.
I drove through McDonald's to grab coffee for the Little One and I before heading to mom's house.  Our usual Frappe's on a hot July day.   We watched a little tv and then let the games begin.
With my older sister joining us, the four of us sat down at the table for a family fun game of SORRY.  This particular game was intense up until the last minute.  All four of us were neck and neck down to each having three guys in home and one in the safety zone.  In the end, I won.  I'm sure it was thanks to my super secret strategy.  I try to keep a man in the start for the entire game, if I can, so if a SORRY card is pulled, I can use it long after everyone else has all their characters out and almost home. I get a quick skip ahead and crush the competition.  Just after the first few rounds, everyone else has already pulled all their men out so the SORRY card is useless to them.  Wait, my mom reads my blog?!  My secret's out.
After a couple of games, it was cake time.  We got a store bought chocolate cake.  It was dense but not too heavy.  My sister brought Brownie Bites that we put chocolate frosting on top of.  When cake time was done, we were all thoroughly chocolate wasted.
Flowers given, presents opened, games played, and cake devoured, mom had a great day.  Can't wait to do it all again next year.

Little One always gets the large mocha without whipped cream.  Mine the small with.  Sugar!

Must Go Back

The Little Boss took a cruise to Greece so we got together to grab coffee and catch up.  We picked the new center in Westlake Village to find a place.  There is lots of options to chose from there, including In N Out, Tifa's other location, and what we ended up choosing, which was Jeannie's.  A friend of ours referred to it as pricey but once inside, it's more like getting what you pay for.  (Officially: Jeannie's Gourmet Food Hall)  It's called a gourmet food hall as when you enter, you are greeted with several locations that grab your attention.  To the left is the baked goods and coffee counter, straight in front of you is a cafeteria style, long counter, to your left, passed a small sitting area, is a gorgeous bar with bar seating, booths, and tables with clear, acrylic chairs.  At first, it can be slightly overwhelming but then you understand what's going on.  This is not a normal sit down style restaurant.  It's more of a boutique, fun restaurant, possibly something you would see Downtown.  Offering it's breakfast menu until 3pm and happy hour everyday, featuring options like a cheese platter, sushi, and flatbreads, it definitely not the norm for restaurants in the valley.
During our visit together, the weather was nice so we sat out front.  A slightly private, shaded patio faced the fountain that sat in front of the restaurants across from us.   We saw some really relaxed seating areas with glass fireplaces that look like they would be wonderful to have a glass of wine at.  Little boss and I ordered our food and started chatting it up while we waited for them to make our food and find our number card.  All of her pictures from her trip were saved to her laptop but she shared with me a stunning panoramic of the boat leaving Venice while she told me about the ports they stopped at and the hikes they took.  She didn't have a lot of time for shopping but did bring me back two postcards.
My coffee arrived first.  A delicious, creamy mocha.  As I drank, the inside of the mug revealed a message: Love has no... well, I don't know what the rest of the message said because I had been caught up in the Little Boss's stories.  I'm sure it was something profound, like Love has no unknown karate moves.  Ok, maybe not.
Her flatbread was fresh and tasty and my side order of French toast was massive.  For some reason, all the dinnerware had the restaurant's name branded on it.  The napkins too.  Everything was great.  My mocha didn't have the sandy chocolate remnants that come with some coffees and our food left us satisfied.  Definitely a place where you could split a meal and dessert and not break the bank or your belt buckle.
We were too close to Tifa to not get gelato after, so a strawberry basil for me and she mixed up a coffee with lemon pistachio.  They gave us little rolled cookies in it for free.

The fountain is to the left from this view.

Bye Bye Venice!

Tifa always has the prettiest fresh flowers.

And The Winner Is....

Congratulations Marisol Schmitt!  She won the 100th blog contest.  (Chosen at random) I loved hearing about all of the go-to drinks you guys have.  After starting this blog, I've expanded my knowledge of coffees.  Each culture, each region, down to each person has a different way of preparing and serving coffee.  I still haven't tried a fraction of what's out there.
My hands down favorites used to be a cup of green tea in the morning, Genmaicha, being the tea that centered me for the day.  As for coffee, anything from McDonald's, white chocolate ice blended from Coffee Bean, or anything with loads of sugar in it.  My tastes have developed and changed in the last few months.  I've taken my coffee more natural and strong.  I loved the Almond Essence latte from Balconi I had last month.  I'll be doing a blog next about Jeannie's that had a great mocha and Roladin, that had something all their own.  I can't wait to share that with you all.
I'll be having more giveaways and contests in the future.  Thanks again for following my coffee.