The Mother of Invention

Over the weekend, I ran out of coffee filters. Apparently I use these really specific coffee filters (unbleached brown basket-type) because I haven't been able to find them in my normal day-to-day living. It seems I have to actively seek them out, but in the meantime I've devised this method worthy of this site's name:

1) I put the kettle on with the amount of water I use, measured by the numbers on the outside of the auto-drip's carafe (which inconveniently do not directly correspond to the U.S. or metric standard).

2) I measure out and grind the coffee and place the grounds directly inside the carafe.

3) When the kettle whistles, I pour the water over the grounds and steep for a few minutes.

4) I use a fine-mesh strainer to strain the grounds as I pour it into a glass measuring cup.

5) I pour a cup of coffee and prepare according to my current coffee preferences, which recently I have had to adapt to my current non-dairy lifestyle. (No steamed milk, no half & half; instead, a combination of vanilla rice milk and a drop of the refrigerated Coffee Mate French Vanilla.

While this produces excellent coffee, superior to that which emits from the auto drip, it is what I'd call a pain in the ass. Plus, the supposed benefit of not using the tree-killing basket coffee filters is somewhat balanced by the amount of water it takes to wash the various implements this process uses. Also, the black sludge that is left in the strainer, at the bottom of the carafe, and at the bottom of the glass measuring cup is just ugly.*

What's an alchemist to do?


* The recent "Green Issue" of ReadyMade Magazine advises sprinkling used coffee grounds in houseplants as a cheap fertilizer. But how long can you do that? I've already sprinkled two days worth of coffee grounds in the relatively few houseplants I have. Maybe I'll place some in a hose sprayer bottle and water some outside plants...

Cheap-ass silkscreen

Hey, I love my Print Gocco, but this is a viable alternative at a very, very low cost. I'm all for frugality (even if only in theory), so if you're feeling adventurous, try this:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/craftgrrl/3674467.html?thread=32252771