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I’ve decided that I’ll periodically discuss cool stuff I’ve been doing in San Diego and a lot of cool stuff I’ve been doing recently (besides intense Ikea-expeditions) is cooking. I thought I’d start the series off with something simple.
Last night, I made a variation of Lifehacker’s guide to iced coffee. It’s a bit time-consuming (I brewed mine for 16 hours, though LH recommends at least 12) but you can brew this before or after cooking dinner and save it for the next morning. You can find the original article here: http://bit.ly/mp9Z3
Ingredients:
1 cup coffee grounds (I used Starbucks Espresso Roast)
4 cups cold water
1 coffee filter
Optional:
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Take a large tupperware container and mix the water and coffee together. You can add any infusions you want now. The vanilla added a nice sweetness but the cinnamon was a bit prominent so feel free to half that and add later to taste. Make sure the lid is tight on the container and shake the shit out of it. Like real good so the water and the coffee are all over one another. And then store that baby in the fridge. You may want to periodically shake it up as the grounds will settle to the bottom (I might try an engineering experiment to figure out the weight of the coffee ground by seeing how long it takes to settle!!).
In the morning, you can do two things. I put my pants on and then placed my reusable coffee filter in my coffee machine and simply poured the contents through it slowly and deliberately and with incredible purpose and tenacity, collecting the iced coffee in the pot. I poured some in my glass, adding milk and sugar to taste, and stored the rest for afternoon coffee.
An alternative is that you can keep your pants off. And if you’re lacking a coffee machine and pot, find another tupperware container and rubber band a coffee filter over its opening (do it loosely with a dip in the container so the mixture doesn’t spill out when you’re pouring). And it’ll be easy to store for later. You could also use one of those fine-mesh strainers if you have them lying around. Or put the coffee filter in a colander and hold it over the tupperware and pour slowly. Get creative, people.
I’m also thinking of trying my hand at Irish coffee (1 cup whiskey, 1 tsp brown sugar, in short shorts) or Mocha (swap espresso for mocha coffee beans and maybe 3 tbsp cocoa powder, in a banana-hammock).
I also made some chicken in a pineapple-balsamic glaze that I ate over arugula last night but I’m still figuring out the recipe. It was delicious but I think needed some more sweetness to play with the spice of the arugula and the acid in the balsamic. I’m also thinking up a new way to crust chicken legs that I’m going to try out tonight. I hope I can make it sing like Bea Arthur in a negligee reclined on a baby grand piano.
