My New Favorite Thing

Wanna get totally blissed out for a couple of minutes in the middle of a crazy day??  
I have 1 word for you: Affogato.  It is, quite literally, a scoop of vanilla gelato drowning in a shot of espresso. 

We slide out to our favourite Italian deli a couple of times a week and have one of these little numbers.  And seriously, I can tune out just about anything when I'm sipping one of these babies.  You get this with wine, you say?  Well.  I self-diagnosed gout about a year ago so have barely touched a lick of alcohol since. No wine for me.  Especially no beer.  Thank the powers that be I can still drink coffee!!!  And it's not just about the drinking of it, either.  I can and do (often) go to the deli and order one, but I can just as easily make one at home.

Measuring the coffee into the stove-top espresso maker.  Scooping the still-hard gelato (too soft and it is just in a puddle in your cup).  Pouring -- slowly -- the steaming hot espresso over the gelato and watching the merger.  Taking that first sip.  

Ahhhhh.

And Then.  

A sigh of pure relaxed joy, knowing ... 

I can have two.