Perfect Iced Coffee

Lucy is growing up too fast. Since her first birthday, she has evolved from a baby into a kid seemingly overnight. Two weeks ago, she started being more adventurous with her step-taking. This turned into more aggressive attempts at walking that often resulted in her careening into furniture or face planting on the floor. But, despite the scrapes and bruises, she always picked herself back up and kept on trying. Now, she is pretty darn good at not just walking but running around all over the place. Her newfound bipidelism has transformed her from a clingy, begging-to-be-held, little ball of anxiety into an extremely happy, energetic child with a whole new world of opportunities for exploration and adventure! She has been sleeping better at night and even willingly falls asleep in her crib. Hallelujah!

Her speech has also been evolving. She adds new words to her vocabulary every day. As an example, we headed to the pool today because the temperatures soared into the mid-90s and the opportunity to cool ourselves off in the unheated outdoor pool at our local YMCA was too tempting. While at the pool, Matthew wanted to play a round of "Marco Polo." I was holding Lucy in the pool and responding "Polo" each time Matthew cried out "Marco". Suddenly, Lucy started to respond along with me, only her version of the word "Polo" sounded more like "pow-wow." It was too adorable. After we came home, both Paul and I could not resist casually calling "Marco" across the room and laughing hysterically each time Lucy would call back "pow-wow". And, as a side note, playing Marco-Polo with Matthew is fairly tedious since he loves to be "it" but really doesn't swim after the people who call out "Polo" because, well, his swimming skills are still being cultivated. We end up looking pretty silly because we pretty much just bop around without moving and yelling "Marco-Polo" back and forth at each other without anyone ever getting tagged.

Lucy has also inherited her siblings' love for all things coffee. She loves tasting my cup of coffee in the morning and will often throw a mini-tantrum when I refuse her. When I made over eight quarts of this fantastic iced coffee, Lucy was at my feet, arms waving and everything, ready to try some in her sippy cup. I told her no, but the little rebel just waddled over to her Aunt Amy who allowed her to drink a fair amount from her glass since she is currently attempting to win the title of "Favorite Aunt" from my children and believes indulging them in all their whims and fancies is the way to do it. Let's just say, Lucy stayed up a bit later than normal that night.

Lucy's love for this iced coffee is well warranted! It is smooth, creamy, sweet, and refreshing with the additional benefit of caffeine to keep the imbiber awake and alert. Paul and I normally make iced coffee by simply saving the leftover hot-brewed coffee from breakfast in a container in the fridge. However, we always noted that this version of iced coffee tended to taste rather bitter and unpleasant. When I found the method for this iced coffee that involved cold brewing the coffee at room temperature and then straining the grounds before refrigeration, I honestly did not think it would make a huge difference in taste from our previous lazy method. Boy, was I wrong! Words can't express how much I loved this. Paul drank about a quart by himself today and, between the jitters, he exclaimed, "We're making more of this stuff!" 

Oh, and adding some Bailey's totally puts this over the top! 

Perfect Iced Coffee

from The Pioneer Woman

1 pound Ground Coffee

8 quarts Cold Water

Half-and-half 

Sweetened Condensed Milk

Bailey's Irish Cream (optional, but oh-so-good!)

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 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. Add 2-3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk and stir to combine. Taste and adjust half-and-half and/or sweetened condensed milk as needed. I also like to just make a really big pitcher sweetened to our taste. Add Bailey's as needed/wanted to the glasses for the 21+ year-old crowd.