Happy to!
A cheap and quick way to stretch milk to get nice thick froth for your capuccino is to buy a second coffee plunger. (I actually find that this does a better job than my coffee machine!) It's important to buy a plunger with a REMOVABLE glass insert, so you can heat the milk in the microwave.
So:
1. Make plunger coffee.
2. In the glass beaker of the second plunger, put in desired amount of milk and heat to preferred temperature in microwave. Be careful not to boil or burn the milk, of course!
3. Pump plunger up and down vigorously until milk stretches. Should go to at least double what it was (although different milk gives different results).
4. Swirl it around a few times to get rid of bubbles and the milk looks thick and creamy.
5. Pour in over coffee. You'll get a nice thick foam on the top -proper capuccino style!

Here's a pic:



Cheers
Marg

G'Day Rob and Marg.
Love reading about your trip in CandM mag and on your blog. The DVD is a great follow up to these stories and you must spend a lot of time preparing articles and items for these. Rob I noticed on your Kings Canyon walk you were wearing a Saint George jumper. It looks like the old emblem (minus Illlawarra). I am an avid dragons fan and what a great year we have had.
Great work Rob and Marg.
Go the Dagons in 2012
P.S. My nickname Rocket came from my high school football days when I was likened to Rod Reddy.

Be warned the glass in these things is thin and eventually will break thus causing some crying over spilt milk ... ... if you are going to froth your milk in a plunger try a s/s plunger. We do this same trick with a s/s plunger and no spilt milk so many dry eyes in our family ...

FYI ... once a year ALDI have them on special for around $20.

s/s = stainless steel

Cheers!

Scol.

G'Day Rocket,
Thanks for your kind words about the articles.
Very observant of you about the footie jumper. It was a birthday present especially picked. I'll probably get kicked out of town ( we live in the Illawarra) when I get back home after this stint. Yes, it was a good season - the only trouble was I was in Broome when the Grand Final was on and most people over this way follow the aerial ping pong, so it was very hard to get a TV screen to watch it. - but I did & sat there on my own and watched & celebrated.
Got to like the name Rocket - you sound about my vintage.
By the way, I wore it the other day in Margaret River and had two people come up and ask me if I was still celebrating !. So there are a few westerners who know about a good thing.
Cheers
Rob

Hi Rob & Marg, you are getting great opportunity, hope you can share it with us as friends not an audience...

I'd like to see and hear in your articles and DVD's about the travel and how the big one could be broken down into smaller trips, some of the pitfalls of your planning and what you would do differently in the trip if you had hindsight?

I've been a bit critical of the journey so far, but all is good, just relax.

Snipped

That's a good idea Scol, how far back do you stand from the Microwave when you do it just like Marg.

if you want real good espresso for your capp's or lattes, then get yourself a moka, this is an Italian stovetop espresso maker, fill the bottom canister with water, put your desired amount of coffee grinds into the basket, screw it togetehr and then on to the stove, burner and let it boil. within in a couple of minutes you have perfectly made espresso fro your coffee. then you use the plunger to make your frother milk.

Or you cheat and go to harvey norman and get a latissimo milk frother, this is a jug arrangement that has a heating element and a frothing wand and it makes perfect froth everytime, perfect for your coffee's or hot choc's. costs about $140, but it is brilliant....

Stu, does it make that nice thick cream that you can sit a spoon on, or just bubbles?

We've tried so many things to get coffee-shop-type cream, but most things you can buy for home use deliver the 'soap bubble' effect!

Meanwhile, that second coffee plunger is giving us pretty good results...

Cheers
Marg

it gives you thick froth just like the cafe. really makes the caps and latte's come to life.

Also, I found the plunger was the best substitute, until I found this latissimo at harvey norman, and now it's sit back and enjoy the coffee. will not travel without it and the moka.