What do you do if your coffee maker totally bites the dust?
This frugal-meister improvises with what's on hand: one carafe, one funnel, paper coffee filters, and a kettle to boil water.
When undertaking any improvisational technique, there are drawbacks, like time, effort and maybe some clumsiness.
But the pluses of improvising, like this, can be very compelling.
- One, there's no outlay of cash to achieve your goal. (In this case, some good coffee.)
- Two, the tools and accessories used can be put back to their original uses, requiring no extra storage for the instrument they're replacing. (For my kitchen, the counter top has a clean vibe going on.)
- And three, I can tweak my process and even improve on the resulting outcome. (I'm making better coffee by getting the water to a hotter temperature, and keeping it better, by not sitting on a hot burner, but instead in an insulated flask.)
And this is just how I've been making my coffee, lately.
First obstacle -- getting the filter to tuck neatly into the funnel.
Cone-style coffee filters are more expensive than basket-style. But cone-style is what fits, best, in the funnel. So, I make my own cone-style out of a basket-style, with just a couple of quick folds.
I flatten the coffee filter into a circle. Then fold the filter in half, and then half again, creating a wedge shape.
The folded filter now fits in the funnel, point down. I put both the funnel and filter into the mouth of an insulated carafe (a mason jar or thermos also works).
The cone-shaped filter has 2 "pockets" which can hold grounds. I fill one of these filter-pockets with coffee grounds.
When my kettle of water comes to a boil, I slowly pour it over the coffee grounds that are in the paper filter, and allow to drip through. Voila, one pot of coffee.
I share this because you never know when you could be without your coffee maker, like there's a power outage and your electric coffee maker doesn't work, or, you're camping or picnicking, or, you don't have a working coffee maker (remember those college days with minimal kitchen equipment?). As long as you can boil water, you can make your morning brew.
Now it's your turn to share. How or what have you improvised, using what you have on hand? Doesn't it make you feel awesome when you can cobble together a substitute for a piece of equipment, a tool, or appliance that you've grown accustomed to using?
