AT THE COFFEE POT

 

From Linda Lee Greene, Author/Artist

 

My mother is up before the sun and lights the fire beneath the 25-cup coffee pot, lowering the flame to a slow simmer. She draws in the aroma of the mountain-fed spring water that is being transformed into a nectar of the gods by way of the coffee grounds, and then walks out to the front porch of the farmhouse. In the distance, the Appalachian foothills, shrouded in dark haze, tilt back gently against a sleepy horizon. It is a heavy-eyed vista, dozy, as if reluctant to wake from a pleasurable dream. Bold, black silhouettes of a cluster of crows scratch the ground beneath a stand of tall and fragrant pines, disturbing the quiet. Like mythic creatures sensing watchful eyes, they ascend as one unit, a black monolith reaching into the sky’s newly-born half-light, and then the column fragments and fades on flapping, dark wings into nothingness.  

Descending the two steps to the yard, my mother rakes her bare toes through the dew-sogged grass, barefoot again for the first time since the weekend before, and the weekend before that, and as many weekends as she can remember—always the weekends on her parent’s farm and away from the madness of our home in the big city. Yet again as on all those weekends, the farmhouse is bursting at its seams with humanity: my Poppaw and Mommaw; my parents, my brother and my two little sisters; five of my mother’s siblings and their spouses, as well as a dozen or so of my cousins, all of whom like us have workday lives in busy, faraway places. In these warm spring days that will be yesteryears too soon, some of the men and boys bunk out in the hayloft of the barn and the women and girls pile in together in bedrooms of the farmhouse, the beds topped with cushy pads of feather ticking gleaned from the farm’s ever-flourishing flock of chickens, and overlaid with Mommaw’s handmade quilts. Others stretch out on the floor atop more of Mommaw’s quilts. It is a family reunion every weekend. My mother is unable to stop her mind’s eye from comparing the open faces of our loved-ones with the pinched faces she so often encounters on the teeming highways and byways of the metropolis that is our “official” home. The sweeping country landscape and clear air transport my mother’s attention back to these precious hours with our family. Mommaw’s ministrations in the kitchen, heard through the screen door, and the rooster’s loud crowing form a duet that announces the drowsy dawn.

Sluggish footfalls on the stairs and across the porch wend their way to the gurgling coffee pot on the kitchen stove. We somnolent spirits of the morning, all of separate names and distinct personalities, gather as a solid unit, cups in outstretched hands—and the pot is drained to its last drop. The coffee washes the sleep from our eyes, and some of us congregate on the porch while others repair to the barn. The cows need milking and the pigs slopped. And the coffee must be brewed again to get us through the coming hours of the day.©

 

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Coffee Grounds Rub

RECIPE COURTESY OF THE KITCHEN

 

·         Level: Easy

·         Total: 20 min

·         Active: 20 min

·         Yield: 2 steaks

 

Ingredients

2 tablespoons coffee grounds (from brewed coffee)

1 tablespoon black peppercorns 

2 New York strip steaks 

Kosher salt 

1 tablespoon vegetable oil 

 

Directions

 

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1.     Make sure the coffee grounds are dried out. If they are still damp, spread them on a baking sheet and place in a 350-degree-F oven until just dry, 6 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

2.     Place the coffee grounds and peppercorns in a spice grinder and grind until the pepper is coarse. Pat the steaks dry with a paper towel and sprinkle liberally with salt. Sprinkle generously with the rub, making sure to coat the steaks well. Press the rub into the steaks.

3.     Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until hot and add the oil. Add the steaks and cook until a nice crust forms and the steaks are cooked to your liking, about 4 minutes per side for medium rare.

 

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Multi-award-winning author Linda Lee Greene’s latest novel:

 

 A CHANCE AT THE MOON

Love ˖ Betrayal ˖ Murder

 

Dinner at our house at seven: steaks rare, and Sav red from Napa heaven—an upstairs/downstairs curious affair; an aroma of blood in the air.

 

Amid the seductions of Las Vegas, Nevada and an idyllic coffee plantation on Hawai’i’s Big Island, a sextet of opposites converge within a shared fate: a glamorous movie-star courting distractions from her troubled past; her shell-shocked bodyguards clutching handholds out of their hardscrabble lives; a dropout Hawaiian nuclear physicist gambling his way back home; a Navajo rancher seeking cleansing for harming Mother Earth; and from its lofty perch, the Hawaiian’s guardian spirit conjured as his pet raven, conducting this symphony of soul odysseys.

 

“5 Stars…I loved this book. I got lost in the realism and all that was going on, and it made me feel like I was watching a movie instead of reading a book. If you want to be left breathless in a sea of a million emotions, buy this book. It will captivate your senses on every level. I highly recommend A CHANCE AT THE MOON.”

 

Purchase Link: https://tinyurl.com/3dc75u6p