PW's Perfect Iced Coffee

The other day I tweeted about Pioneer Woman's "perfect iced coffee" and how much I wanted to try making it. Yesterday, I finally did it.

I went out shopping with Bubba before reading time yesterday to buy a big glass container to use for soaking the coffee grounds. I spent about $18 on what seemed to me a pretty big bowl. Pioneer Woman must have containers the size of Oklahoma to fit a whole pound of coffee grounds and two gallons of water. My "huge" bowl only fit a quarter of her recipe. I can't even imagine how big her pots are or where she keeps them. Oh wait, maybe she keeps them in "the lodge." How awesome would it be to live in a place like that? I can't even imagine it and yet it's their "guest house"!!

Anyway, so I made the iced coffee concentrate yesterday. Pretty easy considering you just pour cold water over coffee grounds and let them sit. We had to go buy some cheese cloth and then try to figure out what to do with it. I meant to take some pictures but it got messy and I already felt bad needing my husband's help to finish my "project" after he'd been at work all day. Pioneer Woman has awesome pictures on her site - see link above.

Last night as we were cleaning up the coffee ground mess, we were talking about how good the iced coffee will taste. When my husband came up to bed he mentioned how the whole fridge already smelled like coffee. Good thing he really likes coffee...and since it was my idea/project I can't really say anything. He got up a little early to have time for a cup of coffee before getting on the bus/metro and texted me that it was really good. So, of course I had to try some too. While Bubba was eating his yogurt I mixed my ice, coffee concentrate, skim milk (sad, I know) and sweetened condensed milk (hooray!). It was awesome! As I added the milk I noticed how pretty it looked and thought about taking a picture. Then I decided to stir it and drink it before Bubba needed my help. Luckily, I had more than one glass and got a picture of the second one (or was it the third!?). Holy cow was it totally worth the mess of last night.

I don't think I'll be able to have it around all the time. I like my coffee sweet which is why I stopped drinking Starbucks...too many empty calories and fat. However, having some of this every once in a while would be heaven - and so much cheaper than Starbucks too! If you like coffee, I hope you take the time to look at Pioneer Woman's post showing the recipe and try it sometime - you'll be happy you did.