Fireside Coffee

Even as a child, I loved the smell of coffee brewing. Some of my earliest memories of my grandmother and great-grandmother are involving coffee. For Mammie, it's remembering her in the kitchen making coffee in an old-fashioned peculator. For MaMa, it's the smell of Sanka or Taster's Choice as she poured boiling water into her cup. She always filled the cup to the brim. Then she added milk and sugar so that the coffee spilled over into the saucer. Of course, the coffee in the saucer was sipped first!

When I still lived with Mom and Dad, I often did grocery shopping along with buying coffee. Back then, the choices were determined by brand and then the type of coffee maker you had - automatic drip, peculator, etc. Years after moving out, I went to buy coffee for my Mr. Coffee machine leftover from MaMa. Imagine my surprise as I'm searching for automatic drip coffee. Coffee is no longer an easy choice determined by your coffee maker. Along with all sorts of new brands, there are little meters on the cans that show the type of roast - medium, dark, etc. Well, it's not really in cans anymore! I just stood there looking and wondering what to buy. I finally decided on medium roast and hoped for the best. It worked out and I developed taste for coffee, any coffee. I like instant, decaf, or brewed. I like it alone, with cream and sugar or with hot chocolate. I like fresh, a day old, or iced. I do not understand paying $4 for a cup of coffee. I especially do not understand it in today's economy, when you can add your own flavors easily and inexpensively.

Sunday is usually the only day I can relax with an early morning cup of coffee. My favorite is Fireside Coffee, a blend of instant coffee, creamer and hot chocolate. Most days I will use the leftover coffee from the day before, bring it to a boil, and add it to my Fireside Coffee mixture. I figured out one day that I'm consuming the equivalent of six cups of coffee at one time. Try the recipe (click here) and I'm sure you'll like it. You might want to just mix it with water though. Gotta go now - coffee's waiting and then I have to bounce off some walls from my caffeine rush!