Coffee Monday

Today is one of those days where coffee is constantly on my mind. I've only had 1 cup too, my typically soy latte from the coffee bar at work, but I'm missing that extra punch of caffeine that I usually get from my French Press before work to get me out of the non-stop haze from the weekend.

They come in all kinds of pretty color options too.
Mine matches perfectly with my French Country kitchen color scheme

As you might imagine, Saturday was a long, very wonderful, once in a lifetime day. It reminded me how much I love this city and how blessed I am to have genuinely good, fun people in my life. And Sunday was a different kind of long... a lot more mellow but one of those days you are fighting against to ever let end because it was just so unexpectedly amazing. Maybe more on that later but now I'm sitting here, and work has slowed, and I have a lingering smile on my lips every time I think back on the past few days and I just wanted to document this feeling as best as possible with physical words because I'm fully aware how rare and beautiful this state of mind is.

More about coffee though. A few years ago, to cut down on precious counter space I downgraded to a French Press. It's inexpensive ($15-40 depending on the size and type), light, compact and extremely easy to clean, all major pluses for me and my NYC apartments. And I've turned a few friends onto it too, because in my very humble opinion, the French Press does make a superior cup of coffee. Also, for better or worse, it was basically just me having coffee, although I would have the occasional house guest I was surprised to find that many friends and most of the guys I had dated just never got into it, so it seemed silly to buy some fancy expensive and space wasting maker for little old moi. It's actually funny because I love coffee to the point where it became a kind of joke prerequisite for a potential partner- good looks- check, good attitude- check, nice dresser- check, is fun to be around-check, drinks coffee- silly I know but it's hard to explain to the non-coffee drinker just how important that 1 cup is and how it can really make or break a day, or at least a morning.

If you are unfamiliar with the French Press- or unsure how to use it let me just say it is the easiest thing. All you need is a kettle- or something to boil water- and the press. I get a little particular about certain things, I save plenty of room in my suitcase when I go home to stock up on my favorite coffee, I prefer to grind my own beans but I definitely don't get all crazy about certain things, i.e using filtered water, measuring out exactly how much, etc. For a really great tutorial though check out this post from Sprouted Kitchen- which really goes to show that coffee is more than just an art to make, it photographs pretty well too. So here's how it's done.

• Put water in kettle and set to boil on the stove
• If you grind your own coffee then do that. Take the top part off the press (i.e. the pressing part) and put the grounds in
• Once water is boiling, pour over the grounds. Let sit for 3-5 minutes- depending on how strong you prefer your coffee and the push the press down over. It'll press the ground to the bottom and leave the strong, frothy coffee ground free on top