French Press in the Morning

Ugh. It's been a week since I posted? Apparently I disappeared from here for a while.

Really though, I just get sick of staring at a computer all the time, and need a break on occasion. So, here I am again.

I was reading Wally's blog over here a minute ago, and I thought "I should go write about that." You see, Monday she mentioned that she was going to go set up her coffee pot so she could just press on in the morning.

I miss the days of pressing "on."

Let me explain. My husband and I live in a small house, with a kitchen not much bigger than an apartment's kitchen. (In fact, I remember one apartment I lived in that had a bigger kitchen.) The husband does not like coffee. In fact, unless it is specifically Turkish coffee, he detests it. He'll drink a sip of it, and make a face that I thought only people who had eaten rotten sour grapes make.

Thus I decided early on in our tiny half-butt kitchen adventures I would keep my coffee habit out of the house. It's just easier that way, and frees up quite a lot of counter space. I settled for tea. (Don't get me wrong here, tea is great. But in the morning, I really would rather greet the day with a warm cup of creamy beany goodness.)

Keeping the coffee habit is expensive. And it doesn't allow for Saturday morning coffee that lasts all day. I decided to have coffee at home that was more than three sips of heavy sludge that leaves me with caffiene jitters that last all day long. But I wasn't willing to give up counter space.

You remember me mentioning tea, right? We have a tea kettle to boil water for making tea. This is one of the functions of a coffee pot - making water hot. I figured I could make do with a French Press, boil tea water for the husband, and coffee water for me at the same time. I could make him a pot of tea, and me a pot of coffee, and the world would be a happy place.

Here is where Wally's post comes in. See, she mentioned that she and coordination don't happen in the morning. And I thought, ugh, dealing with coffee filters? I remember doing it years ago, before I realized I really could do that in the evening before going to bed. And, like Wally, it wasn't pretty. The filter got folded, and I could never get decent access to it. There were always coffee grounds I felt compelled to wipe up before running out the door. And let's not mention my neighbor coming over in the morning "Can I have some coffee?" never really got out of her mouth before I was pouring her a mug.

Something happened between now and then though. There's something that I enjoy about the French Press, and the morning ritual using it forces on me. Even if I did put the grounds in the cylinder in the evening, I would still have to do more than press "on". I have to boil water, for one. I also have to get the lid back onto the cylinder after pouring water. I was dumb and bought a press with a lid that has to go on just "so." And the grounds have to sit and get happy in the water - just the right amount of time to finish getting myself ready. And then I have a lovely, creamy cup of coffee to take with me out the door, and spill half of it between the door and my car, and drink half of what's left on the way to where I'm going, and spilling the other half of in my car.

Ahh ritual. What was the point of all that again?