Oh, in my last post, I forgot to mention one other cause we supported - The New York Botanical Gardens. I don’t really think of it as charity, since we definitely get our money’s worth of enjoyment out of the park. In addition, the gardens gave their members a gift this year - the Phillips Senseo Coffee Maker. This is one of those Pod coffee makers. You stick in a coffee-pod and the machine shoots boiling water through the pod and into your coffee mug. It makes 1 cup at a time, but it takes only 30 seconds, so making coffee for a group is just a matter of lining up a bunch of cups and changing the pod each time. Cleanup is easy and the coffee is suprisingly good.

But, the pods are a little expensive - it comes to about 30-40 cents per cup. And, while the coffee is good, I sure miss my MUD. Well, good news. You can make your own coffee pods!. Once I find the right tools (vitamin jars?), I’m going to try this, despite this ominous warning:

Be careful not to use too big of filter or to make sloppy folds. If you plug up your machine the pressure build up will either spray hot water all over the place or will engage the safety locks which prevent the lid from being re-opened.