Once, when picking up some, um, stuff from a friends joint, I was offered a glass of iced tea by his Texan girlfriend. She told me she manged to kick her thrice-daily 64 oz. Super Big Gulp by brewing tea at home with her fancy new iced tea maker.

I, accepting, was in awe that there was a device dedicated to this simple act. As if boiling water, pouring it over tea bags in a pitcher and leaving it in the fridge for a few hours was that hard. This appliance made it possible to have iced tea within minutes, as it brewed into a large pitcher which you fill with ice, thereby allowing you to enjoy a frosty beverage many hours sooner than doing it the old fashioned way!

I decided right then and there that I had to have it.

The next time I found myself at the Broadway department store I made a bee-line for the appliance section, picked one up and ran home.

My main issue reared it’s head upon first usage: I did not have an ice maker like my friends did. I was then (and continue to be) a slave to refilling ice cube trays. The iced tea maker required a full pitcher of ice, which meant I would need at least 4x the amount of ice I could produce. Issue. This meant that I could not enjoy a fresh, cold glass of tea immediately, as I previously thought. It meant that I would have to employ the assistance of the refrigerator to help with the chill factor or go out and buy a bag of ice. Also, a glass of iced tea requires, by it’s very name, ice and since I had used all of it for the pitcher, I would have to freeze some more. Big SIGH.

It sat in my cupboard for years making an occassional appearance when the desire to get off the Coke hit. However, overall the thing sat collecting dust more than anything else until one summer day when I brought that bitch into the office.

I set up it, completely filled the pitcher with ice from the dedicated ice maker we have in the office kitchen, tossed in a bunch of the tea bags, hit brew and posted a “Have some tea’ note on it. It was a big hit at the office, especially in the hot weather.

As it moved into fall, the ice tea maker fell inert and sat in the corner of the office kitchen. It remains there to this day, now passing it’s 2 year mark. Recently someone ran off with the pitcher for the maker , leaving us no vessel into which we can dispense the tea, should some ever decide to actually make a pot, which I suspect, no one ever will

For love? Money? Babies?

Nope.

Appliances!!!!!

Marriage was never a goal of mine. I did not have my wedding planned out since I was 6. It seemed useless to me for most of my life. That is, until a found myself coveting my friends’ new kitchen appliances. Everytime I asked her where she got whatever it was I was drooling over, the answer was always the same: Wedding Gift.

“Damn,” I thought, “I need to get married!” So married I got, dragged my beloved into my crazy ideas, but took on the task of creating our registry alone.

One of the first things on my list: Bialetti Cappuccino Maker, an Italian stovetop cappucino maker.

I love coffee, and I love even more lattes. However, twice daily runs to ‘bucks is not great on the finances. On top of that, most *affordable* home cappucino machines really make a lousy drink. When I saw this baby, I had an idea that maybe it was the answer to all my coffee-related issues.

Boy, was I right.

When it arrived, I dutifully read the directions cover to cover while my husband decided to just make a cup. Turns out, reading the directions were important. By the time I had a chance to correct him, coffee and milk covered half of the kitchen walls, and some of the floor and ceiling. Turns out, there are right and wrong ways to use this little doohickey.

However, when you put the correct amount of water in the bottom, place the basket of non-overflowing ground espresso in the basket over it, screw the top on nice and tight, press and twist the pressure value on correctly and fill the top portion with milk, and place over a burner on medium heat, you will end up with a perfectly delicious cappuccino with froth!

Now, I admit that while I do love this thing, the results sometimes vary. I have, at times, gotten a very watered down capp or a sour capp, but I do believe that this is all due to several factors - most pointing at me. User error be damned! It still does not deter me from enjoying a nice lovely coffee every single morning without ever having to stop on the way to work and drop $5.

Status: It’s a keeper! In use daily since it arrived.