Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Hot and Cold Coffee

Whew!  It's been a busy week.  I'm leaving for some time on the lake tomorrow, which always means a deluge of extra house chores beforehand.  And on top of that we've been pretty busy at work lately.  However, the 4th of July is approaching, and it's pretty much one of my favorite holidays so I'm super excited!

On Monday night, I attended a screening of HBO's new documentary Hot Coffee.  It details the incredibly misunderstood McDonald's coffee case.  The movie features many of the misconceptions that surround the case, and its effect on the tort reform movement in the United States.  Before law school, I was definitely one of those who thought the case was ludicrous, absurd, and down right silly.  However, we read the facts of the case in torts.  She suffered from third degree burns all over her entire lap. It's fairly shocking at how misconstrued this case has become.  From the outside it seems like everything that's bad with the judicial system, but when you wipe away the rhetoric and hyperbole surrounding it, it's just a case like any other.  The movie also focus on 3 other American citizen's encounters with the tort system.



The movie is definitely skewed against tort reform, and it does a good job of presenting it's side of the argument. Regardless of personal opinions on the subject, it's definitely worth it's 88 minute time span.  What I gleaned most from the movie, is an appreciation for the complexity of our society.  There is no right fit for every problem, no one side fits all.  Politics aside, I definitely appreciate anything that challenges my thinking.

Speaking of coffee, thanks to the Pioneer Woman's brilliance, I've been greedily enjoying the perfect iced coffee for the past several days.  It's too dang hot to drink regular coffee right now, and her ice coffee method produces top notch coffee that I am addicted to.

Photo from The Pioneer Woman.

Since I don't think it's possible to improve on her instructions (or her humor), I'll just give a basic run down on how she cold brews coffee.  Essentially you just dump pre-ground coffee into a large plastic container.  She uses a gigantic restaurant size tub.  I just use my large plastic mixing bowl.  Add cold water to the mix, stir it up, and let the coffee steep anywhere from 8-12 hours.  Afterwards you simply strain the mixture through a sieve and a cheesecloth/coffee filter.  The result is perfectly smooth, perfectly tasty, and definitely not bitter coffee.

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Also from the Pioneer Woman

She recommends (and I wholeheartedly agree) to making her version of Vietnamese Ice Coffee, using milk/half & half and a couple of teaspoons of sweetened condensed.  Words cannot express the goodness, so I won't even try.  Just do it.  You'll be happy you did.

I'm out of town as of tomorrow, but I'm taking my computer and hoping to do some posts during that time.  In the event that I get too distracted floating around in the lake{it's been known to happen}, have a safe and Happy Fourth of July!

3 comments:

Rebeka said...

Ooh that documentary looks pretty good. We read that case in our torts class too but unfortunately I had pneumonia or something awful that day and wasn't there to discuss (I got more sick more times than ever before my 1L year). I def want to watch the movie now.

And OH MY that coffee looks amazing. When we made that kind of cold filtered coffee - "toddy" as we called it - at the coffee shop I used to work at, we would put it in smoothies or dilute it with water when we served it. Is this recipe super strong? Or just right to drink straight?

Abby said...

That movie sounds really interesting, I want to check it out now. Maybe it would make more since after law school though, haha
Have a wonderful 4th!

SummerBreeze said...

Let me know if either of you watch the movie. I'm interested in your opinions!

Rebeka- I don't find the coffee too strong. I add a decent amount of milk to it though, so that may help. I am, however, a coffee fiend so that may have something to do with it! :)

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