Coffee

I spent three days in coffee heaven while we were in Georgia.  
The coffee brewed each morning in the family's Hamilton Beach pot was so excellent, I finally asked my son, "What kind of coffee is this?"  
He showed me the package:  Maxwell House Breakfast Blend.  
That's it?  
All I can say is, in a world where most people seem to like warmed-up stump-water (weak coffee), this household had it right.    
I realize, of course, that it's all a matter of opinion.  My mother-in-law used to come to my house and fill her cup half-full of water, then pour coffee from the pot to fill the cup.  Yuck.  My sister-in-law next door is the same way.    
Anyhow, when you are the visitor, you take what you get and shut up; but the coffee I got during my stay in Georgia was to my liking.    
Another thing I don't care for (besides stump-water) is flavored coffee.  Oh, I like the McDonald's Frappe, but that isn't coffee:  it's dessert.  I don't even like regular coffee from a pot that's recently had flavored coffee brewed it in, because the nasty taste is still there.  I use plain, generic coffee-creamer; that's the only additive I want.    
Lest I forget, for those times when you just want one cup of coffee and don't want to wait forever, Jim and Deb have a Keureg.  
Cliff had a cup of Keureg-brewed coffee the evening of our arrival and said it was great.  Later on I found out those little individual K-cups cost about 75 cents each.  Wow!  For one cup of coffee!  
I finally allowed myself one cup of Keureg coffee; yes, it's very good.  It would be convenient to have a machine that makes one excellent cup of coffee, when you want it, in a matter of seconds.  But I only allow $280 each month for groceries.  I can't devote that much of it to coffee.  
I think we're doing fine with our Bunn, as long as we use good coffee in it.  
Besides, I really don't have counter space to have two coffee pots sitting around.  


Methinks I doth protest too much.

Highlight of my morning

In case someone thinks we are having problems with Thanksgiving plans this year (due to the previous mini-entry), we aren't.  Oh, there's always a wee bit of dysfunction involved in any holiday, but nobody is angry or hurt this year, so far as I know; as much as anything, it's the memory of previous years that makes me think about holiday planning problems.  Another thing: How do you like my new header picture?  Can you see me peeking around the tree?  I loved the tractor picture, but it just wasn't "me".  And now, on to some "fancy" poetry.
Coffee.  Wonderful coffee.  I cherish it so highly that I wrote two separate (mediocre) poems about it in one year.

COFFEE

© copyright September 18, 2003

Donna Wood

If nothing else should come my way

Worth mentioning in rhyme today,

At least the coffee in my cup

Gave me some cheer, and woke me up.

If, when I get to work today,

My tasks fill me with some dismay,

I will remember (as I should)

The coffee that I drank was good!

The experts say, “Give up caffeine.”

Such a proposal is obscene!

When I drink coffee before dawn,

It gives me reason to go on.

Life's little pleasures are the best

And help us, as we meet each test.

Thank God for each day I wake up...

And for the coffee in my cup!

COFFEE

(c) copyright May 22, 2003

Donna Wood

Who figured out you could make a brew

To cheer you so, when the day is new?

Who, in Africa, munched a bean

And felt effects of the drug, caffeine?

I’ve read that a man was herding sheep

That ate the berries, then couldn't sleep.

Then monks found out they'd stay awake

If they took a little "coffee break".

Turks were the first to brew the drink

That cheered the heart, and helped them think.

Then Arabs took it for their own:

Its taste and powers became world-known.

Here's to coffee, much maligned...

But a boon to man- (and woman-) kind.

When it's hard to rise and greet the dawn,

My cup of coffee takes me on.

Restless night

This happens to me at least two nights a week:  I go to bed and sleep for three or four hours, then wake up to toss and turn, perhaps dozing from time to time but getting no more deep sleep.  
This was one of those nights.  I have no pain, I even feel tired.  But sleep won't come (the whole night through, your cheating heart will tell on you). 
Oh, I'm sorry.  I drifted for a few seconds there.  
Counting sheep (or cows, or blessings) never helps put me to sleep.  At one point last night I meditated on what a wonderful thing it is to be able to breathe, to fill one's lungs with air and then exhale.  So I took several such breaths and thought of what it would be like to have emphysema, and thanked heaven I quit smoking years ago.     

I tried to avoid some negative thoughts that kept pushing into my consciousness, things I only blog about in my private space on the Internet.
I heard vehicles accelerating nearby around 2 A.M., got up, and went out to stand on the front porch, wondering if the now-mostly-deserted house next door was the source of traffic.  It wasn't.   
The dog, hearing the front door open, came out of the computer room, collar jingling, and joined me.  We heard voices nearby, no doubt the nocturnal twins in their above-ground pool with friends, a short distance away.  I thought about Tyler, the twin with cancer, and how he told my grandson a few days after his chemo session, "I'd rather be shot in the face; I'm not doing it again."
The dog and I came back inside and went back to our respective beds.  
I pondered on the beef fillets I had thawing in the refrigerator.  What to do with them?  They aren't from Clyde, they're from Sir Loin, last year's calf.  We need to use up the older meat.  Cliff said I should wrap bacon around the fillets, but he has no idea how to proceed after that.  
Keep in mind I only learned how to properly cook steak last November.  
How's a woman to sleep when she's worrying about how to cook fillet mignon?  

Then I started thinking about coffee, and that's all she wrote.  I gave up trying to sleep and got up.  
I came to the computer and googled fillet mignon.  Keep in mind these fillets are tiny little things because they come from a yearling steer of dairy breeding.  But the flavor will be great, if only I don't overcook them: we like medium-rare.
On the subject of coffee:  Do you have a favorite coffee cup?  There's always one in my cupboard that I will reach for first.  I like a good-sized mug, not too big though because my coffee would get cold before I drank it all; and I like it to have some sort of saying on the side of it.  Over the years I've had favorite cups with positive thoughts, comic sayings, and Bible verses; all of them eventually break, and I move on to another.  My first choice these days is this one:  

 I wonder who came up with this, and why?  I know there's a Green Day song, "Before the Lobotomy", and I wonder if that inspired this cup.  I don't know why it tickles my fancy, but when I saw it at a garage sale for a quarter, I had to have it.  Cliff doesn't like this one because he drinks his coffee black, and the coffee doesn't show up in a black cup so he sometimes over-fills it.  Since I use creamer, I have no similar problem.  
So, back to the fillet mignon.  The recipe I linked to wants me to use a meat thermometer to check doneness; I have no such thermometer.  I'm supposed to brown the bacon-wrapped steaks in a skillet and then put them in the oven for a short time.  
Here's hoping.  

I'm a little behind the times

Yesterday I posted here about shrinking grocery items. I should have looked more closely at the things I buy, because they've shrunk things even more than I realized.

Today I looked at a small can of Folgers coffee to find it holds only eleven ounces now. When did that happen?

I buy Eight O'clock Coffee; a bag of 100% Columbian, my flavor of choice, contains twelve ounces. I heartily recommend Eight O'clock, by the way; it came out ahead of Starbucks in Consumer Reports tests. And it's much cheaper. You can buy whole beans or already ground. Still, they're not delivering a pound of coffee, nowhere near it. Nobody is, as far as I know.

When I got my present monitor and then bought my Mac Mini, even though the monitor was larger than the old one, I started having trouble reading things online; all the print seemed so small it was unbelievable. Of course there's the CTRL + trick that makes the page you're on larger, but I was getting pretty tired of having to do that all the time.

This morning I Googled up something online that mentioned resolution and made me think that I shouldn't mess with my settings. I emailed my daughter and she suggested I go right ahead and change the resolution, because if it didn't work I could always change it back.

Why didn't I think of that?

Anyway, everything looks great now. I love it when a problem has such a simple solution; I'm only wondering why it took me two months to do something about it.

I've started making my cheese ball. Here's another example of stores cutting back on what they stock. My cheese ball requires three of those small jars of Kraft cheese spread: One pimento, one Roka Bleu, and one Old English. I went to two different stores, but there was no Roka Bleu; so I'm using a second Old English.

I made Fruity Jello cookies last night (with fresh-churned butter); I've bought about six bags of chips of various kinds (I never buy chips) and dip to go with them. Look out world, I'm gonna pig out!

This morning we got Cliff's sister on the airplane for her first flight ever; she called from Milwaukee, where she switched planes, and seemed to be doing fine with it. I predict she's going to want to fly again.

I wasn't always this picky about coffee

I write this entry from a motel in Branson, Missouri. I'm being as quiet as possible, trying not to awaken my sleeping husband and two granddaughters. I'd like to awaken them, because we're going home once everybody's up. And if going home twere done, then twere well twere done quickly (my apologies to Shakespeare and Lady McBeth). However, as a lifetime member of the early risers' club, I've learned that some sleeping dogs are better left laying. (Geesh, what's wrong with me this morning?)

Breakfast at this motel starts at 7 A.M. on the dot. I've been needing coffee since 5:30, but I held off. Finally the time came, and I got myself a cup and came back to the motel room, only to realize this motel coffee tastes like recycled stump water.

I tried to force myself to drink it, but finally I broke. Remembering a McDonalds around the bend and across the road, I grabbed my billfold and silently crept out into the early-morning Branson traffic; I needed my daily walk, anyhow.

But I was hardly out of the parking lot when I spotted a Krisby Kreme shop next door. They'd have coffee, right?

I hate to tell this story on myself: I walked in, saw "coffee: $7.99" and thought that meant per cup. After making a hasty exit, I realized the sign also said "fresh-ground or whole-bean", and it hit me that price was a per-pound, roast coffee price. Please remember, I hadn't had a shot of caffeine yet, so my mind was very cloudy.

The lines at McDonalds, both at the drive-through and inside, were unbelievably long; but having ventured this far, I was determined to have myself a real cup of coffee, so I waited for the one employee up front who was trying to meet the needs of many hungry folks.

Now I sit here sipping on my large McDonalds coffee with three creams and realize it doesn't touch the goodness of my Starbucks fresh-ground coffee at home. It is, however, greatly superior to what the motel offers.

I can't wait to get home to my prized little hand coffee mill (that cost something like $75) and my flavorful coffee beans ($17 for less than three pounds at Sam's Club), which I never grind until just before I brew my coffee.

I wasn't always a coffee snob. Oh no, not until I stumbled upon the blog of a man named Ariel who mostly posts about basketball (in which I have no interest at all) but also writes about Church-planting (an endeavor I admire, but probably will never have a part in) and, once in a blue moon, he blogs about coffee. That's the part that's done me in.

The funny thing is this: When I first began grinding my coffee, Cliff didn't see the big deal: "Doesn't taste any different to me," he snorted.

I normally wake up at least two hours ahead of him (he works evenings); so I'd make my freshly-ground coffee, drink it all, and, when he was up, I'd make his Folgers... the only coffee we'd ever used in our entire married life.

One morning he woke up in time to have one cup of my special coffee before I made his Folgers. That's when he noticed the incredible difference, and now he's a convert too.

A.J., you ought to be ashamed, corrupting two old fogies like us.

My latest coffee grinder

I wrote here, the other day, about my cheap-o coffee grinder that ground itself to a halt after only a few weeks of use. So Cliff and I returned it to the Wal-mart where I purchased it and traded it in for one just like it. I still intend to eventually get the German-made, hand-driven one. But right now I have other priorities for my money than a coffee mill.

I decided to read the manual that came with it, this time (novel idea, eh?). And found out I'm the one who killed it. I was leaving it plugged in all the time, and the instructions specifically say not to do this.

Who'd have thought you had to unplug an appliance when it's not in use?

Now, I'd love to have a $200 grinder like THIS. But there's something to be said for a grinder that used old-fashioned muscle power. If I ever find that one as cheap as $50, I'll snap it up, priorities or not.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my morning coffee once again.

My mornings are lacking something

Due to my reading this blog, I bought myself a fairly cheap coffee grinder at Walmart (if you call $20 + cheap).

Oh my goodness, that was some wonderful coffee.

Unfortunately, the grinder stopped working after about two months.

I'm reduced to drinking run-of-the-mill Folgers each morning.

No words can express how I miss my cheap coffee grinder. Don't tell Cliff, but I'm considering buying a hand-driven coffee-grinder. I think they cost upwards of $80, but at least there's no electric motor to stall out.

My mornings are getting expensive

I'm really picky about my coffee: I won't even let Cliff put the creamer in for me; it has to be just right. When we're on the road, we get coffee at McDonald's. I hated it when they started adding the creamer for me, rather than just giving me a couple packets of coffee-creamer.

For years, I enjoyed real cream in my coffee, thanks to my cow-keeping. I'm talking about cream so thick it stood up on my spoon, and half a teaspoon was plenty, it was so rich. It took awhile, but I finally adjusted to powdered Coffee-mate after I gave up my cows.

In the process, I found out the real cream in my coffee had been giving me heartburn. But I digress.

We went to Georgia to visit our son and his family, Thanksgiving. The daughter-in-law kept liquid, fat-free Coffee-mate and, having no other choice, I used it. Although I was sure the "fat-free" part would ruin it.

Dear Lord, that stuff had me from hello! I felt like a cat in catnip, it was that good. Since then it's the only coffee creamer I've bought; my old, much cheaper powdered standby sits unused on a shelf.

This week I was surfing the Internet and read somewhere (probably in a blog) where someone said to grind your own coffee just before you make it, if you want the best possible cup of joe.

So yesterday I bought a coffee grinder. It cost over $20. Then I went to the grocery section of Wal Mart and found the coffee beans, and practically fainted when I saw the price was over $8 per pound! Oh well, only the best for us, right? After filling my sack with the expensive stuff, I noticed the Eight-o'clock beans on a higher shelf, about half the price of the Millstone brand. Cliff suggested we buy both, so we could see if there was any appreciable difference.

So there's my morning java experience: high-priced though it is, I have to say I'm drinking a good cup of coffee right now.

My coffee consumption seems to be increasing. Is that a bad thing?

I'm editing this to add that I see no big difference in the brands of coffee, now that I've tried both. And my husband says he can't even tell a lot of difference between the fancy-schmancy stuff and our usual Folgers. This is good news, because from now on, he gets Folgers. I'll be the only one using freshly-ground coffee beans.

the perfect beverage for such a day as this

Cliff and I have become totally addicted to Folgers Flavors. It's a shame, because I had been really trying to limit caffeine for Cliff. We were doing so well, only having caffeinated coffee in the morning.

Then we tasted one of these flavors. And then another. My daughter said she and her husband enjoy these coffees too, and suggested the flavored Folgers need to be a little stronger than regular coffee. After trying her theory, I have to agree.

Cliff has always liked his coffee black, and neither of us likes our brew sweetened... until now. We add a teaspoonful of Coffeemate and a little SweetNLow to this stuff. Delicious. It serves as dessert all by itself.

This sort of day is rough on diets. It's so slick outside I can barely stand up when I take the dog out, and although there are many things I could do to busy myself here in the house, I'm spending my time sitting at the computer. Which is how I came to be reminded of Taco soup over at Sonya's journal. That was just what I longed for, on a day like this.

And as luck would have it, I had all the ingredients.

Good stuff!