M. Y. O. I. C. (Make Your Own Iced Coffee)

Well, just this week, summer came to town. Our apartment has reached that stage in which heat creeps in first thing in the morning and stays stubbornly put until well after sundown. It is hot. It is muggy. Visions of ice cream dance in my head. Sometimes I just stand in front of the open refrigerator (I'm totally going to get run out of Cambridge by the energy-flag waving hippies for admitting that).

Sufficed to say, my morning coffee ritual changes with the seasons. Because one must first make espresso (that is, hot espresso) in order to enjoy an iced espresso beverage, and because making that espresso involves heat, and because the thought of any additional heat makes me wilt, and because at any Dunkin Donuts within a 50-mile radius of Boston there is a perma-line, I have finally adopted the coolest (yes, it's a pun) home cold-brew method that you have probably already been doing for, like, ever. It's kind of genius.

What you must do is stir some coarse-ground coffee beans into room temperature water and let it sit out overnight on the counter. Just a wee stir--that's it. In the morning you have a coffee concentrate that is as versatile as it was easy to make. Want cappuccino? Add steamed milk. Want coffee? Add hot water. Want that perfect iced latte with almost no effort? Add ice and milk. Don't even get me started on the dessert applications of this concoction.

Minimal Effort Cold-Brew Coffee

4 oz. coarse-ground coffee beans (that's 1/4-lb.)

2 3/4 cup room temperature water

1. Stir together and let sit out overnight.
2. In the morning, strain twice through a fine-mesh sieve.
3. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Thoughts....

Because I like espresso, I use dark beans. If you grind at the store or at home, don't get too fine. The long soak will get all the bean-y goodness, I promise. Also, this "recipe" is a ratio thing. The general consensus seems to be 1 lb. (16 oz) of coffee to 12 cups of water. Divide and conquer at will.

Coffee Cake Muffins

Ever woken up on a snowy morning with about 8 inches of powdery goodness on the ground outside and immediately thought "I must have something freshly baked, warm, and delicious for breakfast!" ? Today is just such a day, and I went straight to one of my favorite coffee cake recipes from Cooks Illustrated. Their recipe makes 12 delicious muffins; mine makes just 4.

Here's some tips on the recipe: (1) It calls for a food processor, which makes this easier, but is not necessary. I happen to have a mini prep machine, but you can chop those pecans with a big ole knife and mix the rest by hand. (2) It calls for 1 Tbsp (or about 1/4th) of an egg. You can beat an egg and dip out a Tbsp, or ---HERE'S A BIG SECRET ALERT -- buy some egg substitute and keep it on hand. I wouldn't use it for gooey stuff like cookies and custards, but it really makes no difference in cakes, breads, and other fluffy baked items. If you're doing a lot of dividing, egg substitute is a great thing, because eggs themselves are hard to split up.

Coffee Cake Muffins (care of Cook's Illustrated)

Makes 4

2 Tbsp pecans

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup flour

1/4 c sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter, soft

1/3 tsp baking powder

pinch baking soda

3 Tbsp sour cream

1 Tbsp beaten egg or egg substitute

1/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350º. In a food processor, blend pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon until nuts are about the size of sesame seeds. Remove from bowl of processor and set aside. (Alternately, finely chop pecans by hand and mix with brown sugar and cinn.)

In now-empty processor, combine flour, sugar, and salt until well mixed. Add butter and process until incorporated, about 4 1-second pulses. (Alternately, cut butter into mixture.) Take out 1/4 cup of this flour-butter mixture and and add it to the pecan-brown sugar mixture. To the remaining flour-butter mixture, add baking powder and soda, pulsing to mix.

Stir together sour cream, egg and vanilla. Add to flour-butter mixture and pulse just until flour is moistened, 5 or 6 1-second pulses. Add streusel (pecan-brown sugar-flour mixture) to batter, RESERVING 3 Tbsp to sprinkle on top of muffins. Mix with a gentle hand.

Divide batter between 4 paper-lined muffin tins. Sprinkle with reserved streusel. Bake for 15–18 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 7ish minutes.