Use It Up, Wear It Out: Coffee Beans (Day 6)

I had a seven-month-old bag of coffee in the pantry. Baby D. thought that it'd be fun to wait to slam me with morning sickness until the day after I bought this bag. I didn't touch coffee for two months, and by that time, the coffee was too old for this picky Washingtonian to drink.

There were some significant obstacles to finding a good recipe to use this stuff up. First, the majority of coffee recipes are for drinks, but the last thing this pregger needs is more coffee to drink. Second, most recipes called for chocolate chips or squares. Spare chocolate just lying around? In THIS house? I had baking cocoa, and that was it. Third, a lot of coffee recipes call for instant coffee-- you know, the kind that will dissolve and not leave scary chunks in your food.

Well, if you can't eat it... why not wear it?

Enter Coffee Body Scrub!

I found the recipe here, but to save you some time, I'll just list the ingredients on this page:

• 3/4 cup ground Coffee Beans
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Ground Cloves

Let me tell you right off the bat, that is not enough liquid for this recipe. When all was said and done, I used 1 T. olive oil, 2 T. vanilla, and 2 T. canola oil-- and I'm still not satisfied, but I need the rest of my oil to actually cook with.


The verdict: this stuff smells soooo good! It was a pleasant wake-up call! Everything was great in the shower, except for one unforeseen problem: the finer coffee grains stuck to my skin with the oils, giving me a lovely just-stepped-out-of-the-coal-mine look. I had to wash it all off with my regular soap, which I hated to do-- why did I have to wash myself twice?

But, according to several sites, this coffee scrub is supposed to help with cellulite. Great! Now, if I could just find a scrub that helps with stretch marks...

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Okay, if you insist on an edible recipe, I did make one of those, too. You know that cooking is a real love when you cook just because!

The recipe is Espresso Biscotti from the cookbook Extraordinary Meals from Ordinary Ingredients by Reader's Digest.

First, you mix all the ingredients (including three tablespoons of ground coffee), and shape it into a log.

Ummm... I hope it tastes better than it looks...



You bake it once,

...And then slice it up. Here's where I had trouble, because this bread was CRUMBLY! I tried four different knives before I finally gave up and just blew through it. You can see one of the slices that got destroyed on the near end of the cookie sheet.

It still tasted good, though! ;-) After a second baking, it seemed to hold together better.

The girls at the office obligingly tasted it for me today, and declared it to be delicious! My advice: don't make this stuff right before bed, unless you want to be awake half the night. This is the voice of experience speaking.


And that is Day 6 of the Use It Up, Wear It Out Challenge! One more day to go-- I wonder what I'll make?