Nothing says "Love" like a great cup of Coffee!

... especially after a great big argument over Tango!

As much as Man Yung would want to accomplish all the moves in Cosmotango AND all the poses in our Tango Posing extravaganza - with Irene's stubby limbs and poor head/neck/torso/hip/leg/arm/foot/hand/hairdo/footwear coordination, it is unfortunately just not possible.

What Man Yung needs is a really, really good, superrrriffficously delicious perfect heavenly tango partner - but since she's already taken, or perhaps busy getting more plastic surgery, he'll just have to settle with arguing with Irene every time he wants to practice.

Arguments in Tango are really horrible, horrible things. He says she's going too fast - she says he's not really leading. She says that he's pulling her off balance - he says she is interpreting the music by herself! It's the classic "He said/She said" dilemma - and both of them are out to prove the other wrong. And since dancing Tango amplifies all existing communication and interaction problems of the partners - the arguments usually escalate into humongous blowouts about every single thing that's wrong with the relationship itself.

That is, until Irene is willing to offer the first conciliatory gesture - a freshly made, perfectly brewed cup of coffee. A cup of coffee so strong, so rich, so fragrant, so delightful, so labour-intensive, so self-sacrificing and time consuming - that all grudges are immediately forgotten and all hatchets buried.

Irene's Recipe for ONE CUP OF PERFECT,
HAND-MADE, POST-TANGO ARGUMENT COFFEE:

Time Required:

Approximately 12 - 15 minutes (Just think about it - you could be flossing, rearranging your closet, watching youtube tango videos, or taking a nap! What incredible sacrifice of your time! He'd better be grateful.)

Equipment:

Stove, preferably the electric coil type - so the heating elements stays hot even after you turn off the heat.
Electric Coffee Grinder (we use a blade grinder instead of a mill grinder because speed is very important in this recipe. And our grinder is ONLY for coffee and nothing else - we don't want our coffee to taste like paprika or meat or whatever else we used the grinder for last week!)
Fine Mesh Skimmer
Fine Filter (we use an old permanent filter from a coffee machine we threw away)

Ingredients:

4 1/2 Heaping Tablespoons of freshly roasted whole coffee beans (if you don't roast them yourself, get them at specialty stores that roast small and therefore fresh batches every few days - we get ours at Moonbeam Coffee Company at Kensington Market here in Toronto. We've also tried Supermarket and Starbucks coffee beans - but these beans have been lying around for too long and just can't compare.)
1 1/2 cup of cold, filtered water
Half and half cream and sugar to taste

Instructions:

1. Heat water in a small covered saucepan until it just reaches a "rolling boil". Turn the heat right off, but leave the saucepan (still covered) on the heating element. You don't want any more of the water to evaporate because that will leave you with noticeably less coffee!

2. Immediately spoon 4 1/2 heaping tablespoons of the roasted coffee beans from their airtight container into the coffee grinder. Grind the beans coarsely - but make sure that there are no more "whole" beans. Don't grind the beans too finely, because the particles will go through the filter and end up in your cup.

3. Pour some of the ground coffee into the hot water - just a little first, because if your coffee is fresh enough, it will react with the water and the water and coffee mixture can bubble up so furiously it can spill over! When the reaction (if any) dies down, pour the rest of the ground coffee in, and stir once. Cover the saucepan and wait for 4 minutes.

4. Remove cover of the saucepan. Using the skimmer, quickly skim all the coffee grounds that you can out of the mixture and discard the grounds.

5. Pour the mixture through the filter into a standard size coffee mug so that the filter can remove the remaining fine grains of coffee.

6. Add cream and sugar to taste.

Serve with a smile and a piece of Godiva chocolate. Heaven!