Alex

How near is "near?" I know the Hyatt has a shuttle service but I don't know where it goes. Otherwise, you'll pretty much have to take a cab (well, two cabs) to anywhere, or you can take a very short ride on the Metra Electric Line to the Loop or the South Loop. I know that Gioco, which is walking distance from the Metra Roosevelt stop, has a private banquet room for 20+ persons, but if it's not being used for a banquet I don't know if they'll do regular dinner service in there.

I've been very happy with the quality of coffee I get from my Melitta. I haven't used this particular unit, but for you I'd probably recommend the MEMB1B Mill & Brew over the Cuisinart. It's ~$57-67 from Amazon, including shipping, and the all-in-one unit would be convenient for you.

In the U.S., for all practical purposes, 1 table salt = 1.5 Morton's = 2 Diamond Crystal. I would assume the products are the same in the U.K., but I don't know for sure. As RobertCollins mentions, though, if you measure once by weight, you'll then have your conversion rule for that product.

It's possible (I know from experience!) to break the glass with a metal spoon. ← Yes, definitely. I use a chopstick.

Here's a comprehensive blog entry about French press coffee by a coffee connoisseur. (Scroll down to the entry for November 26.) I've gotten excellent results using her recommended coffee:water proportion and brewing technique.

I can't speak specifically to the quality of KitchenAid electric stovetops, but this eBay seller, who also has a brick-and-mortar store, is offering some super deals on KA's discontinued Pro Line appliances. I recently bought an island canopy hood from him; he certainly appears to be a reliable seller. He currently has two 36" Pro Line electric cooktops listed (one of them ends in about 6 hours, but he has four of them so I'm sure he'll relist it) plus one regular KA cooktop.

Complete article here.However, a study from a few years ago found that Complete article here.Mmm, bacon and eggs and Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Full story here

I'm with you, Rebecca. Side towels are good for many things, but, for me, they'll never take the place of these Kool-Tek oven mitts.

Do you ever do cooking/baking classes? If you do, how about one entitled, "What Are We Ever Going to Do with All That Extra Matzo?" Include a box or two (or three) with each paid admission.

900 POUNDS?!! There's gotta be a Guinness world record in there somewhere. I can't imagine how you can use even a small fraction of it and remain sane. How about making and freezing a bunch of David Lebovitz's Caramelized Matzoh Crunch with Chocolate, then donating the rest of the matzo to a food bank?

OK, OK, I know I said I wasn't going to buy any more cookbooks, but Ms. Alex took this one out of the library and really liked it (and, I must confess, I did, too): Arabesque, by Claudia Roden.

The very first time Ms. Alex and I met face-to-face was an arranged date at a Chinese restaurant. To the best of her recollection (I'm horrible with this sort of thing, while she, 16½ years later, still remembers where we sat and what we wore), I ordered Orange Beef and she had General's Chicken. I think the first dish she made for me was stuffed (ricotta + spinach) pasta shells. The first meal I made for her was "a salad of some sort," Chicken Cordon Bleu, and vanilla ice cream (probably Breyer's) with fresh strawberries and homemade chocolate sauce. The dessert was what sold her.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen Freschetta in any of the stores by us. Wolfgang Puck's gets a resounding "eh" from me. I'm a big fan, though, of Amy's Pizza, especially the 3 cheese with cornmeal crust. Like other posters, sometimes I'll add my own toppings, or sometimes just a sprinkling of oregano and hot pepper flakes.

According to this report, Alinea's Grant Achatz "...asked inventor and collaborator Philip Preston, president of the manufacturing company PolyScience, to create a simple, portable method for making smoke to trap under glasses and serve to diners. The result was The Smoking Gun." I'd be more interested in its touted use for blowing smoke into a ziploc-type bag to infuse food with smoky goodness. Has anyone tried this yet?

Aria is just around the corner from the Aon Center, in the Fairmont Hotel (200 N Columbus). I've had two very good dinners there, the last one just a few weeks ago. According to Metromix, lunch starts at 11:30 but the bar area opens at 10:30. I'd call them, though. There's now a Hannah's Bretzel in the Illinois Center (233 N Michigan), also just around the corner from you. I've not been there, but if it's the size of their other location, it wouldn't be the best place for a planning meeting. Maybe a sandwich for the trip home, though...

Funny you should mention this. I was just reading an excellent article (scroll down the page a bit) in the current issue of Reform Judaism magazine by Daniel Rogov, who has been known to post on eG from time to time. He explains that only some kosher wines, which are termed mevushal, are heated (pasteurized, actually). This is done because, for some observant Jews, if a non-Jew handles the wine, it then becomes non-kosher. Quoting from the article:

This was the first Michigan restaurant I ate at, back in 1969 while on a jaunt around the East and Midwest. It impressed the heck out of us college boys, I'll tell ya. Here's their web site.

I'm a big fan of Food Dance Cafe in downtown Kalamazoo (about 4 miles north from Exit 76A). They use local ingredients whenever possible; otherwise, they strive for natural/organic, e.g., Niman Ranch beef. Lunch is served from 11-4, Tues-Sat.

Kosher-for-Passover Coke arrives at my local supermarket this week!! That, and the first day of spring (and my softball team's first practice) -- what more could one ask?

The 2005 Heartland Gathering, in Ann Arbor, featured tours of Zingerman's Bakehouse and Zingerman's Creamery. It's worth your time, should you find yourself in Southeast Michigan. Here are a couple of pictures of the Bakehouse. Two friends and I did a mini-tour of the northeast quadrant of the US after our junior year in college. Our stops included historic Williamsburg in Virginia, a dude ranch in West Virginia, a planetarium in Cleveland -- and the Kellogg factory in Battle Creek, MI. The highlight of the tour was, of course, meeting Tony the Tiger.

As a child, and into adolescence, I could easily put away a quart of whole milk a day (preferably straight from the carton and accompanied by a substantial amount of chocolate chip cookies). And, like Maggie, when I became a (chronological) adult I started weaning myself off the stuff. I got back into milk again when I joined a raw milk co-op several years ago. What delicious stuff, even after skimming the cream for coffee! I usually wound up drinking half of it and making yogurt out of the other half. About a year ago, though, due to a combination of circumstances, I needed to drop out. Now I occasionally buy organic 2% (a compromise, since I like whole milk and Ms. Alex likes skim), which, unfortunately, is ultra-pasteurized but is the only form of organic milk I've seen here. (I'm on the lookout for another co-op.) I seldom drink it straight, though -- I usually combine it with Silk chocolate soy milk and toddy-made decaf coffee concentrate and bring it to work. I remember reading somewhere that the fat in whole milk facilitates the body's absorption of calcium and therefore skim milk is not nutritionally optional. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Thanks for replying, Neal. What didn't you like about them?

I just spotted this item at my local Costco today -- 3 in a box for $10.99. I'm a fan of Frontera Grill, of course, and I like some of Bayless's other products, but this is completely new to me. Are there any opinions out there about the quality? (As a reference point, Amy's is my favorite frozen pizza to date, at $5.99 each here in GR.)

As someone who just ordered a new island hood, I was thinking the same thing. There are some attractive and relatively unobtrusive ones -- Zephyr, for example -- but they do indeed affect the space. However, if you could live with a cooktop with a downdraft system...