Redecorating With Coffee

Last Monday, I decided ended up decorating my kitchen with coffee. (Think Hilda from Trading Spaces) Now, the décor for my kitchen is already coffee - even though I have not hung any of the wall art yet - so this was not a big stretch for me. However, I am talking about actual coffee! As in espresso ground coffee all over my ceiling, floor, walls, stove, behind the stove-just in case someone wanted to peak down the back of the stove-the counter tops, the table that is about 10 feet away, the refrigerator-sides front and top, the microwave, the toaster oven and well every surface there is. How, you might be asking, did I accomplish this wonderful new décor? I have to tell you.

My wall. Isn't it beautiful with the coffee ground speckled look? "WASH ME" was Daddy Reg's contribution to the redecorating.

Picture it - my kitchen last Monday morning after an almost sleepless night. I pull out my moka pot (in short, an Italian stove top coffee maker) add the necessary water and finely ground coffee. I then put it on the stove to do its thing. Everything is going like clockwork. I start to fill the cups with ice so I can make iced lattes (the coffee it makes is almost identical to espresso) when suddenly out of nowhere --

KABOOM…HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! The pot exploded coffee grounds, coffee, and steam throughout the kitchen. Daddy Reg comes running only to start laughing as he sees steam billowing from the moka pot still sitting on the stove burner. (Thanks honey.) After it was finished billowing, I took it off the burner and turned off the stove. It was still hissing!

Doesn't it look innocent just sitting there?

I turned around to survey the damage. I started laughing and crying at the same time. Mind you, I was also covered in coffee and I was unable to comprehend what had happened. I make coffee in my moka pot all the time. In fact I make it so often that I own owned two moka pots. Yeah I know I probably need to go to a coffee rehab. I do have a serious love for coffee.

I spent several hours on Monday, mopping the floor, cleaning up the dining area, washing the cabinets, cleaning the ceiling, deep cleaning the stove, moving the stove out - okay so Daddy Reg did the moving (Thanks Honey.) - cleaning the wall behind the stove. Then I could not help but clean the floor under the stove and the sides of the stove as well. (I have a strange compulsion to clean them every 6 months anyway and they were due.) I still have the other side of the kitchen to do; I plan to do that this weekend. The up side, my kitchen will be so clean. The down side-I only have one moka pot now. *sigh*

Every surface was covered. So depressing.

After the moka pot cooled off, we took it apart to see what happened. What we figured out was that the steam vent hole must have been clogged some how and the steam had no way to escaped except out the top. The filter plate that separates the top from the bottom had a large hole in it. How crazy is that?

This is the underside of the top part. There is a filter disk that filters the water to the top. The black parts that are larger than the tiny filter holes, are actual holes!

The moral of this story: Make sure the steam vent is clear so the pot doesn't explode.
As I wrote this I could not help but think about the times I "explode" because I don't keep my steam vent clear. How do you keep your steam vent clear? Staying in constant prayer and continually being washed in the word. Without proper washing, your vent can get clogged. (Now the vent in the moka pot is the size of a sewing needle, I have no idea how to clean it other than the normal hand washing I always do. And this pot was really old.)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31