I'll Take Mine Black

I always wanted to say this after being asked how I'd like my coffee served. It sounded so smooth, like something a 1940s kitten-of-a-movie-star would purr just before taking an exagerated drag from her unfiltered cigarette. Black. No cream, no sugar.

So, in college I tried to get into coffee. Every morning all my roomates drank mug after mug of coffee, and I gave it my best shot, but was unable to keep up and develop a habit.

Later, as a newlywed, I commited myslef to drinking one cup of coffee every day at 4pm for a month (thinking that taking a cup of caffeine every day at the same time would advance its addictive quality), but it didn't work.

Finally, after having twins, living through close to a year of less than two hours of solid sleep each night, I thought for certain now is the time that I can finally become one of those slim ladies who look so cool as they take tiny, anxious sips of steaming hot coffee in bookstores, at Starbucks, on coffee dates with girl friends (forgetting the fact that I was neither slim nor did I have time for trips to book stores or morning coffee dates, or friends...) I could finally be that woman who holds up the entire luncheon group because 'I just have to have my coffee after a meal'...Nope, I still detested the flavor of coffee.

I love the smell of ground coffee. I even like the waft of coffee that flows through an airplane on morning flights. But the flavor? It tastes sour and acidic to me, not rich and deep as the commercials promise.

So when my mother told me about a dry rub for beef that was 'out of this world', and its main ingredient was coffee, I was reluctant to give it a go. Finally this summer, I bought a gorgeous skirt steak to grill. I remembered that my mom told me it was equal parts ground coffee and black pepper. I changed the mix ever so slightly and came up with the recipe below.

It is divine, and tastes nothing like a cup of coffee, black or otherwise. The coffee just makes the steak taste slightly smoky and very rich-- somehow more 'beefy'.

It is everything the Folger's commercials promised; deep and rich making you want to come back for seconds.