Thursday, August 25, 2005

What To Do? What To Do?

We have a very lovely coffeepot that was “free” from Gevalia just for trying their line of wonderful gourmet coffees. It is classy, sleek, and smart. It is the stainless steel model with a visible water level, clock, and we can program it to brew our coffee at the precise moment we…er…I or Bill, that is…step out of the shower and don a fluffy white bathrobe. There is a certain status that we feel we have achieved in this acquisition. We are almost yuppies.

So, after purchasing what we deemed to be the equivalent exchange in luxury coffee flavors, we cancelled our shipments. Now we’re back to Folgers, Sanborn and Chase (which I fondly refer to as Sanford and Son), and the occasional splurge of Seattle’s Best (my apologies to any Starbuck’s loyalists). We still have the coffeepot, our trophy of sorts, to remind us that we are still high ranking among coffee drinkers the world over.

Alas, a day of fear and dread came when we discovered that we had run out of cone coffee filters. These were the Melitta specialty papers that strained our coffee so meticulously that every cup was as smooth and enjoyable as applying mineral oil to a baby’s bottom. When we realized the fate of our existence I did what daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers have done for centuries: I told myself that I could deal with this little setback and that we would still enjoy our breakfast blend, just differently.

Upon opening the pantry my eyes seized upon a package of basket filters. With practice I have become skilled and quite nearly expert at folding these circles into cones. There is an art to this, however, and might take some trial and error but the resulting product is nearly the same as a factory made cone filter. On occasion when my eyes are still blurry from an unsound sleep (pregnancy in the last trimester will do that) I will place a folded cone into the coffee pot, pour in the Folgers grounds which I have fine-milled for a slightly gourmet flavor, and brew a ¾ pot of coffee only to discover fine silty grounds on the bottom of my cream and sugared beverage. I tell myself that this is to be expected but I resolve to make better folds and creases for next time.

Now if I can keep all these pesky flies out of my coffee cup my mornings would be most pleasant.

Glory

6 comments:

Trinka said...

Hey at least my bird wasn't in a coffee cup. :)

I have the same coffee pot ... obtained in the same fashion ... with a few scant scoops of the good brew left before I go back to Maxwell House.

Trinka

Carol L said...

After seeing the movie, "Racing Stripes" I'll never look at flies the same way again. There's a scene forever etched on my memory about a fly named "Scuzz" doing a little back stroke in a man's espresso as his brother "Buzz" gets onto him about it. Sorry, but those two were HILARIOUS!!!

You know, you can forever solve your filter problems by purchasing a fine-meshed screen filter which can be washed and re-used over and over - not quite to infinitum but close enough for my satisfaction.

And there is a problem with paper filters in that some of the elements which actually make coffee not as harmful as some would like to suggest are actually filtered out by the paper, whereas, a mesh screen will let those elements through. Certain oils which act as a solvent to keep coffee from being as toxic to the system get caught in the paper filter never reaching the contents of your coffee pot.

Another thing about a paper filter is...have you ever driven by a paper plant??? Whatever the source of that that smell is, that's what's in your coffee after brewing with a paper filter. Ew!

And the mesh screens are actually not all that expensive. It's merely a matter of finding one that fits your filter holder adequately enough to do the job.

Blessed regards,
Carol :)

Refreshment in Refuge said...

What a hoot, Glory!

Rocky said...

Interesting. We here at the office have a hard enough time with the regular filters, so I can imagine how we'd do folding and creasing!

Je t'aime said...

I love reading the amount of energy and thought that goes into your posts. If ever there were a blog to put the rigors of everyday life into interesting and enticing words, here it is.

Just imagine, a blog about a coffee pot!

I know the coffeepot of which you speak. Mark attained one at the same place, having the subscription where pounds of gourmet coffee are sent to your door however often you want. When I helped pack up Mark's kitchen, lo and behold, there were around 30 lbs of coffee! Gourmet coffee! Since we mostly deal with espresso and lattes, this isn't going to be an issue with us for like... centuries!

Our new espresso maker allows us to avoid the filter/yucky paper smell issues. LOL

BTW, Carol, I thought the same thing! Scuzz and Buzz are the brightest part of that movie, and hilarious!

Anyway, we use the regular coffee in our espresso drinks, when we avoid the expense of the local Starbuck's. I prefer Moxie, but since Moxie Java is local, Mark is not so used to it and prefers Starbuck's. Oh well, I'm not as big on the coffee drinking as he, so I concede.

We were hoping to make a weekly ride to the coffee shop a mandatory relaxing experience for us. To do so, we printed off a google map of each Moxie and each Starbuck's location in the valley and intend to visit each one.

I know, we are silly. In our little family espresso, chocolate, and bicycling takes precedence on our silly and hobby times. (I guess that was easy to see when we offered our first company in weeks a chocolate chip cookie with dark chocolate syrup and chocolate whip cream!)

Am waiting for the pics of the lil one to come!

Je t'aime

Bill & Glory said...

trinka, a bird would leave a bigger mess, now, wouldn't it?

carol, I haven't seen the movie. We have "A Bug's Life" and "The Lion King" and that's as much of talking insects and animals as we can absorb at one time.

gina, there's a'plenty more where this came from. You should stay with us for a day and you'll see what I mean!

bill, offices are NOT conducive to perfectionist tendencies. You can ask my hubby about that (right, Honey?).

je t'aime, oh the indulgences we take for granted! You have eloquently captured the supreme enjoyment of the three c's: coffee, cookies, and chocolate. Life is truly good!

Glory