I had such a comforting weekend, and I think I might still be in a bit of a weekend mode. I spent part of Saturday afternoon with the magical writer, Diana Abu-Jaber (she visited our library in celebration of her latest novel, Origin, which she read passages from), and then Saturday evening and all day Sunday with Andrew reading and sipping lattes (with cinnamon!) at assorted coffee shops.
For those of you who are familiar with Diana's food books, you might appreciate this anecdote. Diana gave me the gift of cinnamon on Saturday. Here's how it happened: we were at the Coffee Bean ordering lattes -- an iced latte for her, and a hot latte for me. As we stood at the sugar and spice bar, she held up a bottle of cinnamon in her pale hands and said, "Try to have a little cinnamon everyday if you can. Sprinkle some in your latte."
Then she began to gently shake the jar, coating the surface of her latte, and I found that I was enchanted.
"I do this and it makes me happy," she smiled. "Also, it's very good for you. My auntie always told me that cinnamon was good for you, and I've discovered that this is true. I've been reading about it."
I told Diana that I was inspired and that I didn't mind saying so. I said that nutmeg had always been my spice of choice, but that I didn't use it very often as even the subtlest shake seemed to overwhelm my coffee.
"And so, in the future," I said. "When I find an opportunity to swirl cinnamon into my latte, I most certainly will!"
*
You can read the interview I conducted with Diana Abu-Jaber earlier this year on the Riverside Public Library's Readers and Writers page.
(image courtesy of starbucks)
