No more hauling appliances to wherever I'm staying like a freakin' addict.
I can't believe it's taken me this long to find out you don't need to do anything crazy at all to make a decent cup of coffee; all you need is a decent filter (preferably the permanent gold kind because disposable paper ones tend to leave a weird paper towel-like aftertaste) and filter holder and some hot water. As in, manual drip. I have fucking had it to here with automatic coffee makers--they're horrible, messy and leaky and uncleanable and the temperature of the water is never right, and needlessly expensive and wasteful once they inevitably break down after a couple years--and was just getting fond of my vacuum pot, but now that I don't wish to drink more than 1 cup of coffee a day it doesn't work so great and is more effort than necessary. This whole, "put the filter over the mug and pour just-boiled water over the grounds" thing is brilliant, it smells divine when you're doing it, it's cheap as fuck, takes 5 seconds to clean up, and doesn't require electricity, ah...it also doesn't take up any counter space. I am in love, and yeah, embarrassed I never knew until now. Duh.
EDIT: in a similar "oh my gosh apparently cheap is ok after all maybe" vein, I keep reading about how boxed wine might be making a comeback of sorts, where decent stuff is being made and boxed, not the hideous '70s-era dreck (I mean hell, if David Wondrich and SFGate are admitting some of it's pretty good, who am I to judge...also, I do just love this writer's attitude, it's refreshing, and I agree with him and Wondrich that for me anyway, not being a wine expert at all, wine is best approached as a condiment of sorts for delicious food...watching wine snobs react with ire to this makes me smile too, I admit). I would kind of love this, because as always mentioned in Chowhound threads, the problem of wine preservation in bottles is maddening. What the heck are you supposed to do when you only want 1 glass but you do really want that 1 glass with a tasty dinner, or something you're cooking calls for 1 cup or whatever and you don't want to finish off the rest of the bottle. Or for trips or whatever, the portability issue. Hmmmm...
Speaking of, some notes for when I go to B or J's for what to look for/see what they have:
Seven (Spanish blend)
Pinot Evil (french pinot noir)
Bota Box
Boho (merlot)
Tefft (cabernet or merlot)
Banrock Station
Fish Eye (shiraz)
Black Box
Morris (pressings, a blend)
Maipe (malbec)
La Vielle Ferme
Vi Zorro (VV! among others)
Seeberger Pfalz riesling
Big House (white)
Powers (cabernet)
Hardy (shiraz?)
Killer Juice (cabernet)
Three Bandits (pinot)
Red Truck
French Rabbit
Yellow and Blue
Washington Hill (rainier red)
Rain Dance (shiraz)
Naked Grape
Le Faux Frog
De Bortoli (gold seal line)
Delicato
Trove
Free Range
Corbett Canyon (really??)
Pierre Plouzeau (chinon)
Dtour
Cuvee de Pena
Cotes du Rhone
blends
France
Italy's Botter
though i do need to be careful not to fall into a weird twilight place where the boxed wine is fancier than normal so it costs a lot more, but then it's still, y'know, um boxed wine and maybe i'll end up all like "i could've just bought 1 bottle of something nicer and been happier." sometimes i hate trends and demands, what they do to prices, even as i discover and follow them myself...
EDIT: in a similar "oh my gosh apparently cheap is ok after all maybe" vein, I keep reading about how boxed wine might be making a comeback of sorts, where decent stuff is being made and boxed, not the hideous '70s-era dreck (I mean hell, if David Wondrich and SFGate are admitting some of it's pretty good, who am I to judge...also, I do just love this writer's attitude, it's refreshing, and I agree with him and Wondrich that for me anyway, not being a wine expert at all, wine is best approached as a condiment of sorts for delicious food...watching wine snobs react with ire to this makes me smile too, I admit). I would kind of love this, because as always mentioned in Chowhound threads, the problem of wine preservation in bottles is maddening. What the heck are you supposed to do when you only want 1 glass but you do really want that 1 glass with a tasty dinner, or something you're cooking calls for 1 cup or whatever and you don't want to finish off the rest of the bottle. Or for trips or whatever, the portability issue. Hmmmm...
Speaking of, some notes for when I go to B or J's for what to look for/see what they have:
Seven (Spanish blend)
Pinot Evil (french pinot noir)
Bota Box
Boho (merlot)
Tefft (cabernet or merlot)
Banrock Station
Fish Eye (shiraz)
Black Box
Morris (pressings, a blend)
Maipe (malbec)
La Vielle Ferme
Vi Zorro (VV! among others)
Seeberger Pfalz riesling
Big House (white)
Powers (cabernet)
Hardy (shiraz?)
Killer Juice (cabernet)
Three Bandits (pinot)
Red Truck
French Rabbit
Yellow and Blue
Washington Hill (rainier red)
Rain Dance (shiraz)
Naked Grape
Le Faux Frog
De Bortoli (gold seal line)
Delicato
Trove
Free Range
Corbett Canyon (really??)
Pierre Plouzeau (chinon)
Dtour
Cuvee de Pena
Cotes du Rhone
blends
France
Italy's Botter
though i do need to be careful not to fall into a weird twilight place where the boxed wine is fancier than normal so it costs a lot more, but then it's still, y'know, um boxed wine and maybe i'll end up all like "i could've just bought 1 bottle of something nicer and been happier." sometimes i hate trends and demands, what they do to prices, even as i discover and follow them myself...