Apologies and Caffeine

Okay, I have to ask for everyone's forgiveness. I have been a terrible blogger this month. I submit my abject apology. Of course, I could use as my excuse the fact that my computer is completely full, which I had no idea could even happen, and I can't download any photos. I've been going through everything on my computer and deleting unnecessary stuff and Mike is going to fix it so that it, um...isn't full anymore. I'm not tech savvy; I break technology. I have no idea what the proper terminology is for a full and un-full computer, something to do with memory and gigabytes and hard drives. But since I have deleted a bunch of stuff off the computer, we're going to give this another shot and see if we can get the photos to download.

To get myself back on the blogging bandwagon, provided the computer cooperates, I'm going to do a post of something I've been making a lot of: COFFEE!!!

Hey it worked!!

Unlike my beloved parents who hate the stuff, we LOVE coffee. Of course, mine must be suitably sweetened and diluted with cream, but I do love it.

This household has been on a quest for a good cup of coffee for a long time, since we got married in fact. Even a tolerable cup of coffee would have been acceptable. Alas. It only took us about four years to discover it.

When we got married, we got a mildly expensive-looking, grown-up coffee pot which made fairly horrid coffee and was impossible to clean. So we finally chucked it and bought another cheaper one from Target. That one fared better than the expensive one, believe it or not. It made good coffee once in a while, passable coffee regularly, and undrinkable coffee occasionally. And then one day, it turned itself on and started brewing coffee even though the timer wasn't set and there was no water or coffee in it! We threw it out.

We then moved on to not drinking coffee at all but that didn't really work for us. Coffee seems to start the day on a good note. So during another trip to Target, we came across a Bodum French Press. Eureka!

Coffee Making Essentials

Let me tell you, this is simple, easy and cheap and it always makes great tasting coffee.

The french press was about $25 and we bought a small coffee grinder for about $15. For the coffee brand, I prefer to buy the whole bean Breakfast Blend variety of Green Mountain Coffee and grind it fresh every morning, which takes 10 seconds. I've tried other brands of coffee but Green Mountain is our favorite.

After the coffee is ground, dump the grinds into the bottom of the french press and heat up a pot of water. When the water is just before boiling, remove it from the heat and pour it into the french press. Put the top on it and leave it alone for seven to eight minutes. Press the plunger down and pour into mugs.

Mmm...

Voila. That took no time at all and it always tastes good, except for the occasional user error.

Best of all...The french press is dishwasher safe! It can't get any better than that.