sweet and refreshing caffeinated beverage.

"First stop is the Koreans. After that, we'll come back home and drop off the food before going on to the next sale."

"Mm-hmm," Josh muttered. It usually takes him one yard sale to wake up. As I pulled into the church parking lot, he exclaimed, "Oh, it's our Koreans!" Yes, because we have Koreans. What he meant was that it was the Korean church that shared an entrance with our own Episcopal church.

The first time I ever heard about a Korean church having a yard sale, I was really excited about all the things I might buy. But I was disappointed to discover that Koreans mostly had the same sort of stuff that other church-goers have. We ended up buying a few items of clothing (old and faded Stanford sweatshirt, button-down shirt, long black velvet skirt) for $1 apiece, then we headed inside for the food.

We always get sushi. The first year, we picked up some egg rolls, but the problem with that is it's too early for fried food and it goes soggy in the fridge. So I had to settle for sampling instead. I had a fried donut, and while I was in that line, a lady shoved a sample of the fried pork cutlet into my hand. Well, okay. If you insist.

Josh wanted to branch out from our usual. I'm in favor of this, but I think I would have gone a different direction than the tiny barbecue fried shrimp. They still had their shells and legs on. Shrimp legs creep me out. They're so small and jointed and there are too many of them and just ew. Me, I guess I'm not that brave or maybe I have a lot more sense. I decided to sample the iced coffee.

It took me a long time to like iced coffee. I had to stop thinking about it as coffee, and think about it instead as a sweet and refreshing caffeinated beverage. And who doesn't like sweet, refreshing caffeinated beverages? Not me or the Koreans, that's for sure.

Man alive, the iced coffee was gooooood. Sweet and cold with an intense and rich coffee flavor, like coffee ice cream almost. Why isn't everyone in the world drinking this? Why do we even have hot coffee anymore?

I remembered that the Pioneer Woman posted an iced coffee recipe many moons ago. I had bookmarked it and then forgotten about it, like most recipes with big beautiful pictures that I drool over but never make. The Pioneer Woman is not at all Korean, but maybe that wasn't an authentic recipe. Maybe someone at the church just tried it and decided that it was the best thing since hot coffee. I went back to the PW recipe and figured that was a good place to start my quest for delicious iced coffee at home. She makes 8 quarts of the coffee at a time, then keeps it in the fridge to pour herself a nice cold cup every morning. I started with 1 quart.

The Pioneer Woman's Iced Coffee

The process is a bit weird, but mind-numbingly simple. Combine coffee grounds and cold water, let it sit at room temperature overnight. Strain, then you're done. To make your morning cup, add some sweetened condensed milk and a splash of half and half.

I steeped the coffee last night, strained this morning, and then recruited a work friend to try it out. Oh, wow, this stuff is dangerous. Without trying them side by side, I can't be sure how this compares to the Korean stuff, but I don't even care, because it is so amazing. PW recommends using a bold roast, but all I had in the house was Kona, which is pretty light. I upped the beans just a tad to make up for that (maybe an extra half ounce). She also says you can use any combination of milk or cream and sugar or syrup, but I went with her recommendation of the sweetened condensed milk and just a little half and half. The result is delicious decadence.

I'm all out of over-the-top positive adjectives, so I'll stop. But please. The Koreans, the Pioneer Woman, and I beg you: make this stuff. Come over to my house and I will make you some. It is a thing that will make you go mmmmmmmmmmm.