Recessionista Brewed Coffee

I refuse to buy a coffee machine.

Reasons Why

1) I don't want to spend the money
2) I have no space for a coffee machine. The space I do have, I would like to fill with a nice food processor (yet to be purchased).
3) I shouldn't drink too much coffee anyways. A machine would facilitate more coffee drinking.

I have a French press I purchased from Ikea eons ago but I never use it. I feel that it makes the coffee super strong and a bit sludgy. I like my weak drip coffee thank you very much. So I devised a method of brewing coffee without the use of a press or a machine. I call it "Recessionista Brewing" since it was developed out of my scrappy, penny pinching nature.

You will need a tea kettle, coffee grounds, a spoon, a pasta strainer, a coffee filter and your favorite coffee mug.

While you are heating up your water in your tea kettle, position your pasta strainer over your favorite coffee mug.

Then scoop coffee grounds into your filter and place filter over the pasta strainer. This is a very delicate balancing act. Make sure the strainer is stable and that the filter sits squarely over it. You may need to do some clever maneuvering.


Pour hot water over the coffee grounds. Do this in several stages and not all at once to get the drip effect. The more stages you do, the stronger the coffee. If you pour all the water in at once, you are going to get some really week coffee. Basically you are trying to mimic what a coffee machine does, which is feed water slowing through the coffee grounds and the filter to drip below.

Voila! You have a nice cuppa drip coffee. Enjoy.

Guest Blogger Kate Gabrielle ~ Autumn State of Mind

I've been wanting Kate Gabrielle to do a guest post for me for quite a while. She's a young talented artist with a penchant for good food and I love hearing about the dishes she's making. I'm delighted that she chose to do a soup recipe with Autumn in mind. With the humidity and the blazing sun that comes with summer, some of us just need an escape and Kate Gabrielle's inexpensive and easy recipe is just the portal in which to transport you into a temperate Fall day.
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I was dieting a few years ago and came across a recipe for pumpkin squash bean soup. I can't remember where the recipe originally came from, or how it eventually evolved into the soup I make now... All I know is that it is my all time favorite soup in the universe, perfect for when you're dieting or (like I am now) just pigging out on good food all the time.

I've been in an autumn state of mind recently (the beginning of August usually does that to me) so I whipped out the old soup recipe this afternoon. There are a million reasons why this soup is perfect, but I'll just give you a few:

1. It is very healty: low fat, and high in protein
2. It is the easiest recipe I've ever made
3. It is the cheapest recipe I've ever made
4. You can add ingredients to make it many different ways
5. I could devour the whole pot and still want more. It's that good.

The total cost of all the ingredients is about $5, and it feeds my family of four, with leftovers to spare. It's the perfect new-depression era meal -- both filling and cheap, delicious and easy.

Here's what you need:

30 oz. can of pumpkin
(2) 15 oz. cans of cannellini beans, rinsed
4 c. water
2 c. chicken broth (or water flavored with a bouillon cube, which is cheaper!)
Dried oregano
Onion powder

Here are the optional items you can add:

Sauteed onions
Fresh basil
Some chopped fresh squash or zucchini
Cinnamon
Garlic
Whatever else you can think of!

Here's how you cook it:

Dump the first four ingredients into a large pot. Turn the heat on medium-high, and simmer for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then reduce to a really low heat and add the oregano and onion powder. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes more.

In batches, transfer the soup into the blender and puree until smooth. Sometimes I like to keep some of the soup in reserve so that you still have some full beans in the final soup. You can top it off with some fresh basil or parsley, or cinnamon.


When I know I have a busy week ahead of me, sometimes I cook a big batch of this soup on Sunday and keep it in the fridge, in it's original pot. A few minutes re-heating on the stove, and I have a delicious dinner, presto!

We may be in the thick of summer, but just crank up the A/C, put on some slippers and imagine that autumn leaves are falling outside your window as you eat this delectable pumpkin bean soup!