A Caffeine Boosted Reading Session

This week's "project" was completely unexpected and such a delightful surprise.  I'm a sucker for a good book. I'm also a sucker for a good cup of coffee. This week I stumbled upon both!! Yay me! 

I absolutely love reading. Books, magazines, blogs, recipe books (yes, recipe books) but mostly books. I've had a love a reading since I was a little girl. I am so thankful for my parents for introducing me to books and showing me how they can transform the world you are in if even for a moment. Some of my favorite memories as a child involve my dad taking me and my sisters to the local Borders book shop and letting us pick out one book to buy and take home. But one book would last me a good 3 hours and I'd be through it so to the library we would go. I can still smell the stale musty smell of thousands of books surrounding me as I would walk up and down the rows deciding on which ones I would take home that week.  I truly hope that my children will be able to enjoy our local library as much as I did.

My mom also loved to read.  Every night after dinner had been eaten and the dishes had been cleared and washed you could find her sitting on the basement steps reading her latest mystery novel.  I get so sad now thinking about all the books that she won't be able to read.  Right after she passed away I went on a reading hiatus.  It was just too painful to think of myself participating in a hobby that we both enjoyed so much.  But now, 5 months later I'm back at it.  Now I see it as a way to keep her with me.  I think of us sitting around our kitchen table talking about what we liked and didn't like about the last book we each read. My love of reading is a gift that she gave me that I will always keep with me and I hope to pass that love on to Oliver.  Every day we lay on my bed together and read books.  He has no clue what I'm saying but we're starting a tradition here people. 

                                                   

My sister Edie has for some time now been hassling me that I "just HAVE to read The Hunger Games".  I must admit that a young adult fiction book about a futuristic post-apocalyptic world really didn't much appeal to me. I have had my fill of movies starring Will Smith where the world is ending and it's up to one single person to defeat the aliens using only a book of matches and a can of soup. I don't need to read it in a book. However, it came to be that I hadn't read a good book in a while and didn't have any prospects so I decided to take Edie's advice and pick this one up.  Now I'm kicking myself that I didn't listen to my sister sooner (Don't tell her I said that).  As an added bonus this book is the first in a trilogy.  Reading a good book can be like meeting and falling in love with a new best friend. I get completely enamored by characters and places. So much so that I can barely put the book down and when it's over and I've devoured the entire thing I can say that I genuinely miss the people that I have met.  So when I find a good series it's a great bonus! Suzanne Collins, the author of the The Hunger Games weaves such a fantastic story. I have to say that it makes me a bit jealous that I don't have the talent to come up with such a great idea for a book.  I read somewhere that she came up with the premise of the series while she was channel surfing.  She came across a reality TV show and then switched the channel and ran across a story about the war in Iraq and somehow she decided to merge the two worlds together. I won't go into much detail about the book because I don't want to give anything away but my quick synopsis is this:  Each year a young girl and a young boy are chosen by their government to participate in the Hunger Games.  The Hunger Games involve 24 young adults being placed in an "arena" and the last person living wins.  It's all televised and broad casted to remind everyone in their post-apocalyptic world that they are not in control, their government is.  Read it you guys, it's fantastic.  I picked up the book on Thursday and finished it on Saturday night at about 2 a.m.  I'm already a fourth of the way through the second book and it doesn't look like it's going to disappoint.

So now to my second pleasant surprise of the week, homemade iced coffee!!! So, so, good you guys. I had been seeing lots of pins on Pinterest about iced coffee but really didn't give any of them a second thought. I love coffee but usually just your typical hot cup o' joe in the morning and I've left the iced coffee thing up to the experts at Starbucks. No longer my friends, no longer.  I ran across this recipe on a blog I was introduced to by fellow blogger and high school friend, Mrs. H.  She suggested I check out The Pioneer Woman blog for some photography tips and while I was looking into those I saw that she also has tons of awesome recipes.  I ran across this recipe for homemade iced coffee and it is amazing.  I made half of a batch this weekend and me and the mister finished it off this morning.  Here is the oh, so delicious recipe:


Ingredients:
1 pound Ground Coffee (good, Rich Roast)
8 quarts Cold Water
Half-and-half (healthy Splash Per Serving)

• Note: Can Use Skim Milk, 2% Milk, Whole Milk, Sugar, Artificial Sweeteners, Syrups...adapt To Your Liking!

Preparation Instructions

(Adapted from Imbibe Magazine)

In a large container, mix ground coffee with water. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature eight hours or overnight.

Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth (or a good paper towel) and set over a pitcher or other container. Pour coffee/water mixture through the strainer, allowing all liquid to run through. Discard grounds.

Place coffee liquid in the fridge and allow to cool. Use as needed.

To make iced coffee, pack a glass full of ice cubes. Fill glass 2/3 full with coffee liquid. Add healthy splash of half-and-half and 2 teaspoons of sugar.  

Obviously you can adjust the half and half and sugar to fit your taste buds.  I personally stumbled upon this new creamer this weekend and love, love, love it.  

Like I drove 10 miles out of my way to the grocery store across town to buy more because the store closest to me doesn't carry it, love.  It's only made of milk, cream and sugar.  None of that partially hydrogenated crap involved so you can feel good about putting it in your body. There are a few different flavors; vanilla, caramel etc. but my favorite is the Sweet Cream flavor.  So thank you Mrs. H for leading me to The Pioneer Woman who led me to this perfect homemade iced coffee.  So if you know what's good for you you'll pick up The Hunger Games, you'll make yourself a batch of iced coffee and you just might have the best weekend you've had in quite some time.