As I sit here drinking my iced coffee I realized this blog is like a therapist. I mean with no real results of course because nobody is responding with “that is a sign of a crazy person”, or telling me I should be working on my personality flaws. But I am good with not knowing that side of things, lol. I will just continue to rattle off all of the peculiar and absurd things running through my head here!

The other thing I have recently realized is I should be probably be committed because I feel like with each blog, I discover I have an obsession with SOMETHING else. I mean I knew iced coffee was something I stopped for every morning and sometimes drive out of my way to get (and I even learned to make it at home) but never did I allow it into my thick skull that my iced coffee habit had in fact become an obsession. You know like my purses or makeup or baking or dogs (hahaha my poor husband). I mean why can’t I be obsessed with working out? Or eating healthy? Or you know something good for me? Why must I be obsessed with shopping, purses, iced coffee and making sugary goodness?!? Where did my morals get hijacked, only to lead me down the path of deceitful goodness?!? I mean not that it is changing because I feel pretty committed at this moment but I am just wondering why couldn’t my morals have decided they would be hijacked by yoga and the gym? Instead they took a sharp left and found cake! Clearly this is my life!

Whatever… I am here for the ride. So really the only thing to do next is decide what I am baking tonight. I know what you are thinking and keep your judgmental thoughts to yourself! I will be baking with or without your blessing! And you will enjoy the recipe, damn it! I am 2 ½ seconds in to this post and feel exhausted already! Can we please disclose someone else’s problems now lol?

So you want to know how to make my iced coffee… I originally read Ree Drummond’s blog, http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/perfect-iced-coffee/ and modified it to what works for me. I have used a bazillion (Don’t judge! Jody and I both drank it) different brands/strengths/flavors of coffee. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Starbucks Christmas blend coffee to make at home iced coffee!!! It is smooth and yummy! Try it! If you don’t like it, bring it over to me haha! It is only out around Christmas, but I buy a few bags to stash in my freezer to prolong the yummy goodness.

So I have a 2.5 gallon container that I got from Walmart that I use to “brew” my coffee. It’s pretty complex so follow along… Open coffee. Pour contents into fancy red container. Fill with water. Secure lid. Put in fridge for 8-48 hours (depending about what craziness is on your schedule for the next few days). Yup… that was it. But now comes the truly difficult part and I am not being sarcastic this time. It was straining that crap. It would really make you re-evaluate your caffeine addiction. This coming from the person who ends up throwing away fruit that I am sure would have been amazing but it is now in the trash because I could not stand the thought of the mess it would make when I cut it up so it never saw the sharpness of a knife. And I bake… yea I know I don’t understand the complexity of my brain either. Anywho… So I would layer cheesecloth*** On a side not when you go to your local fancy Walmart and ask people where their cheesecloth is because not one of these locations can put it in the same freaking vicinity, they will look at you as if you just asked where they keep their unicorns. Keep looking because they were unaware they even carried unicorns at Walmart… caskets yes, Unicorns (i.e. cheesecloth) No.*** and pour the contents through just like Ree Drummond. Well she must be a unicorn because she is so poised and pretty and she ended up with a beautiful glass of iced coffee. I on the other hand had coffee ground behind the TV I think. It was a messy thing, but the coffee was delicious. And I vowed to never make it again. But on my next batch (AGAIN DON’T JUDGE! Caffeine headaches are real!) I finessed it, each time and it got better, and less messy. And then one day my wonderful husband comes be-bopping (what’s this even mean? Skipping? Hopping? Nope…be-bopping) home with little cold brew coffee bags from Amazon! Really? You couldn’t have located these prior to the coffee ground being so chaotically spread throughout the house? But I used these and they were much better than straining the coffee. I have to make it in smaller batches (or use to bags to make a full batch of our coffee), but it does make life easier to just lift a bag out of the yummy dark liquid in the fridge and consume immediately! And then I can dump the grounds and put the bag in the dishwasher. I would recommend this route or go to Walmart and look for unicorns… your decision!

Recipe:

1 bag of your favorite coffee

1 2-ish gallon container

Water

Cheesecloth (aka unicorns)

Put the bag of coffee in the container and fill with water. This is truly a trial and error recipe because if you like weaker coffee you will want to use less coffee or more water and vice versa if you like stronger coffee. If you chose to do the strain method, you will pour the coffee through a few layers of the cheesecloth. Once all of the coffee has been strained and the grounds are nestled in your cheesecloth. Be sure to squeeze any extra liquid from the ground before they find their way to the trash. If you chose to do the bags, squeeze the extra liquid from the grounds, empty your bag and put it in the dishwasher.

Now you can add whatever you like to your coffee… cream, sugar, flavored syrups, etc. Dress it the way you like and enjoy!

***Cold brew coffee has a lower acidic level (like 67% lower). If you like coffee but have a problem with the acid level, try it this way. This also helps with the “burnt” flavor that coffee can sometimes have.***