Java Java Java

First off, even though most of you likely won't see this post until tomorrow or Wednesday, I'd like wish a Happy and Blessed Passover to all of my Jewish friends on this very Holy Day.

Well, we did it. We finally broke down and caved in to the pressure of Monday through Friday morning life in the 21st century.  Now, don't get me wrong.... We haven't exactly been living in the Dark Ages. For the last several years, hubbs and I poured our morning coffee from a standard "Automatic Drip Coffee Maker".  A 14 Cup Cuisinart Brew Central, to be exact.

I wouldn't call either of us coffee connoisseurs, but we can both be a little picky when it comes to our daily dose of "eye-opener". That being said, I did grow up with a father who was a simple and kind man, but was a complete coffee snob.  He wasn't always concerned about the brand, roast or blend of coffee that he drank, but he was a stickler for fresh brewed, percolated coffee.  To say that he despised automatic drip coffee makers would be an understatement of mammoth proportions. If it wasn't fresh perked or if it was over 10 minutes old, he wouldn't drink it. It was that simple. This was a man who knew every diner, truck stop and roadside restaurant within a 100 mile radius of home, by how good or bad their coffee was.  The food was just an afterthought.  He even carried a small percolator around Europe in his rucksack during WWII and made "camp coffee" in foxholes and bombed out buildings. I still have his favorite percolator in a box in our basement.  I keep telling myself that one of these days I'll go down and unearth that bad boy and make myself a big old pot of memories. Usually, it's at about 3:00 AM that I think about it, so that tells you how unlikely it is to happen any time soon. It's an old Farberware pot that looks almost exactly like this:

Of course, Daddy's pot is a bit worse for the wear than the one in this picture, but it's not damaged. It just has a certain patina that comes from years of love and hand washing by the man himself.  He never trusted Mama not to use soap. After each pot of coffee was finished, he would rinse it out with very hot tap water and dry it with a clean kitchen towel. (which made Mama furious, not to mention making it necessary for her to replace her kitchen towels on an insanely frequent basis) About once every two or three weeks, he would "brew" a pot of white vinegar, to take care any serious build-up of coffee residue. This was not a time when you wanted to be anywhere near the kitchen because the fumes from vigorously boiling vinegar can be overwhelming, to say the least.

But, I digress...... The point of this post was to "fess up" to finally giving in and purchasing the newest thing to come up the coffee pike.  (or is that "down" the pike??)  Either way, I'm sure that Daddy would be appalled! Yup! That's it, you guessed it!  We bought a Keurig single cup brewing station.  The Keurig B70 to be exact. I resisted as long as I could, but the pressure was just too strong.  I got so sick of  the work it requires to keep a drip coffee maker in top brewing condition. Plus, it's reached the point where it has become an issue of basic economics. In a nutshell, we've been wasting perfectly good (and expensive) coffee from Monday through Friday. Hubbs fills his commuter mug once on weekday mornings, right before he leaves for work and over the next half hour or so, I'll drink another 2 equal sized mugs.  If you brew a full 14 cup pot of coffee, you waste a great deal of it when you're only consuming 3 mugs of it a day.

There are about 25 other excuses reasons that I could come up with to justify our new purchase, but let's face it..... We wanted it.  And we couldn't be happier!  It even has a separate little accessory called "My K-Cup" that allows you to use your own ground coffee instead of the little pods that are made for it. (of course we bought it!) Sure, it's a bit of a novelty right now, so it's going to be exciting to use and experiment with, but it's the convenience of the machine and our laziness factor as we get further into middle age that makes this new coffee maker such a joy. So without further ado, here she is!

Isn't she a beauty?? Not only does this miracle of the weekday morning make great coffee, but it also brews tea (both hot and iced) and cocoa and who knows what other purposes I can find for it down the road? We're still keeping the drip coffee maker for those times when we have a few more coffee drinkers in the house and we also still have our faithful French Press pot for those times when we're feeling a bit European and pretentious. And some day, I'll dig out Daddy's beloved percolator and make myself that pot of memories.  But for now, it's single cup brewing all the way for us!  Anyone else out there fallen in love with the Keurig??  I'd love to hear what you think.

An Economic Reality Check

My goal is to ultimately keep this blog light, informative and hopefully fun! for me and the good people who are kind enough to read it, but every once in a while it's impossible not to hunker down, get serious and have a little reality check. (at least for me, anyway) Now, I'm sure if given the choice, we would all prefer to have our lives just roll happily along without having to worry about the less pleasant details getting in the way, but that's something that's becoming more difficult for the majority of Americans to do these days.  Don't get me wrong.... It's wonderful to try to maintain a positive outlook at all times, but practicality isn't a bad thing either.

According to a January 25, 2011 article in the LA Times, the USDA is predicting that food prices are rising anywhere from 2% - 3% in the coming year.  I'm no genius when it comes to economics, however, with our economy and the country's National Debt being what they are these days, and with so many honest, hard working folks losing their jobs, this prediction does not bode well for the average family just trying to put food on the table.

While consumer goods and services continue to increase in price, both the blue collar and white collar Jane and Joe who are lucky enough to actually be employed, are not seeing similar (if any) increases in their paychecks. Deductions for health insurance, 401K's and pension plans (if there even is one), not to mention state and federal taxes, are also rising significantly and bringing net or "take home" wages to new lows. Hubbs works in a middle management level position for a national corporation.  His salary pretty much matches the "middle class average" for our country and he and his coworkers haven't seen a single penny more in their paychecks in the last couple of years, because his company isn't giving out even basic cost of living raises in an attempt to try and keep overhead down. From what I read and see on the news, it's the same all over the US.  There are small privately owned businesses shutting their doors for good all across the nation.  Mom and Pop enterprises are slowly disappearing from our cities and towns, because it's darned near impossible to compete with the big chains and they simply can't afford the expenses associated with doing businees anymore.

The most frightening part of this shift in the economy is that it doesn't look like anything is going to change for the better anytime soon. You don't have to be a financial wizard to know that increasing consumer costs coupled with stagnant or decreasing paychecks and mass lay-offs across the nation, means there's no such thing as "disposable income" anymore. Sadly, most Americans are struggling already just to pay for the necessary costs of living, like mortgages/rents and utilities. We're not talking cruises to the Bahamas here....  We're talking the normal everyday expenses for food, clothing and shelter. Tack on car payments, fuel for those cars, college tuition, property and school taxes and a long list of costs that go along with raising a family, and it's hard to imagine how the average family could possibly thrive over the next few years, unless something happens to shift the economy back in a more prosperous direction.  People who never used a coupon in their lives are anxiously awaiting the Sunday supplements.  Folks who had difficulty ever sticking to a budget plan, are diligently calculating every penny that is spent.

I'm not attempting to debate politics here. (my daddy always taught me not to ever discuss politics or religion) I certainly don't have the solution to this issue. It's just something that's been weighing on my mind quite a bit these days. (and I'm positive that I'm not alone in these thoughts) Whether you're the "praying kind" or you're not sure where you stand on the subject of faith or spirituality, the one thing that I believe we all have in common is hope. So, whether you pray for a resolution to our country's financial dilemma or just have hope that it will change for the better, I'm pretty certain the ultimate goal is the same..... A path back to the prosperity that America has been envied, hated, loved and fought for, generation after generation, and for the peace of mind and stability of all  her people.

I'll try to make it a point to regularly post recipes for low cost satisfying meals, as well as some of the money saving tips that I use and that I hear about others using.  Feel free to share any of the tips you use to keep expenses low and satisfaction high. Luckily, most of the good old fashioned homestyle or comfort foods are on the more economical side anyway!

Live Well, Eat Well