My Grown-Up Kitchen

I like coffee. In fact, I love it.

Alright, I'm an addict, I'll admit it. I need a heavy dose of caffeine to get me going every morning, and I'm not ashamed to say it.

My fiance, however, is not a coffee drinker, and except for the weekends, I never drink my coffee at home; I always make it and take it to work with me. So I have a coffee maker that brews right into thermal travel mugs. I love it; it's so convenient, and there is less to clean at the end of the day.

It does present a problem, however, in the rare instances that I have company. My coffee maker only brews two travel mugs' worth at a time, and one travel mug doesn't even hold two standard mugs' worth. When my parents -- who, like me, want more than just one small mug of coffee in the morning -- came to visit in November, we had to run the thing two or three times every morning.

It was then that I decided I needed a regular coffee pot for those times when two travel mugs just won't do it. I am an adult now, and I want to pour my guests a cup of coffee from a pot, like an adult. Gone are the days when I'd just toss them a Pop Tart and one of those nasty bags that are like tea bags but with coffee in them. I want to be able to offer them homemade waffles and pour them a nice, hot cup of freshly brewed java from a real, grown up coffee pot.

I didn't want to spend a lot -- this is an appliance I'll use maybe once or twice a year, and there are so many other things that I need for everyday use. So when my friend Marla called me yesterday to tell me there was a certain brand of kitchen appliance on sale at Target for five dollars each, I knew I had to stop there on my way home to pick up a coffee pot, and possibly a waffle maker, because I don't actually have one of those either.

Well, they were out of the waffle maker, but I did get my coffee pot. As you can see from the photo below, my kitchen has finally grown up.