To the commenter who turned me on to the idea of cold-brewing iced coffee: OH MY GOD. You have just changed my life. For those of you who loved iced coffee but struggle with making it at home, let me tell you about the unbelievably simple process I now favor.

Take a plastic pitcher, like a Rubbermaid or something — something with a lid. Dump two cups of ground coffee in the bottom. You can use cheap Maxwell House; it will turn out fine. Add about eight cups of water. This doesn’t have to be exact, but you’re shooting for about a four-to-one ratio of water to coffee. Now put the top on the pitcher and leave it on the counter for about twelve hours. (Overnight is good. It doesn’t have to be twelve hours. This recipe is incredibly forgiving.)

In the morning, strain it through a fine metal sieve. I just have a big metal strainer with a handle; that works fine.

(Note: I’ve heard people talk about straining it through a coffee filter; when I tried that, it seemed like it was going to take an extremely long time, and it just isn’t necessary for me. Using this method, you’ll get a little bit of sludge in the bottom, but if you’ve ever used a French press, it’s nothing you’re not used to. Anyway, I strain it twice — into a bowl, and then back into the pitcher, and with those two strainings, it works fine for me. If it bugs you, line the strainer with a coffee filter and strain it slowly through that.)

So on the first strain, I try to dump everything out, put the grounds into the strainer and press on them to try to get the water out. Then dump all the grounds out into the trash, wash out the pitcher, and strain the stuff back into the pitcher.

What you now have is basically concentrated coffee. You don’t really want to drink this straight. You want to cut it at least 50-50 with water or (as I like it) milk — I like 1% milk. You can definitely dilute it more than that, depending on the taste you like. Cut with about half 1% milk and about four ice cubes in a glass and a modest amount of sugar, it is a completely delightful, entirely satisfying iced coffee better than anything I achieved at home by chilling hot coffee. Using 1% is good, I think, because it helps it not turn watery, even with all the ice cubes. Anyway, this is absolutely awesome stuff, and if you are an iced-coffee drinker, I strongly recommend it. Yes, you spend money on ground coffee, but even with the milk, you’re paying much, much less than you will for iced coffee out, and I personally think this is actually better and richer. The cold brewing (I am told) makes the coffee more…rich and mellow, because it doesn’t bring out as much bitterness as hot brewing, which I suspect is why using cheap coffee matters much less.

In other news of triumphs, I HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN WHOLE WHEAT BREAD TO WORK.

My mom is a really, really good bread baker. She makes real, delicious, homemade bread that’s so good I could sit with a loaf of it and a stick of butter and not eat anything else for a day and a half. I’ve always really wanted to get better at doing that, but I’ve struggled mightily. My whole wheat bread tends to come out heavy and brick-like, no matter how hard I try. It seems to rise pretty well, but then when I bake it, it comes out in small, heavy slices that are okay, but they’re not like regular bread.

Today, I tried the recipe for Whole-Wheat Bread With Wheat Germ And Rye from The New Best Recipe, from the wonderful folks at America’s Test Kitchen. (Sup holla, as the orange people say on Project Runway, to TWT in-law Adam Ried.) And FOR ONCE, I actually successfully made wheat bread that rose brilliantly, baked perfectly, and tastes…a lot like something my mother might make. I put a little tiny bit of butter on a slice while it was still warm, and it was pretty pleasing to know I made it myself. There’s nothing magic about the recipe — the only thing I noticed that I don’t think I remember from previous efforts was that the hand-mixing instructions had you combine the wet ingredients and the salt and stuff with most, but not all, of the flour until it was like a very, very sticky dough, and then mix it with a wooden spoon for five minutes. That was surprisingly hard work. Five minutes is a long time to stir something that really doesn’t want to be stirred.

Something about christening a new house really feels complete when you bake bread. It’s maybe the most homey smell there is, and when the loaf just pops right out, and you get that nice hollow tapping noise on the bottom so you know it really is cooked just the way it’s supposed to be? That’s a nice feeling.

Iced coffee; The New Best Recipe bread. A good time is being had by all.